Auto Union Type C: Complete (#26 for 2020)

Another one for 2020. Started in 2016 and shelved in 2018, this is a challenging resin kit requiring lots of testing, filing, fabrication, and interpretation. But it was worth it given the historical importance of the car. 

 

A brutal shape meant to cover the 6 litre supercharged V16. Being parked up front like this must have been a very different driving experience.

Exhaust manifolds need to be reviewed as I cut one side down a little too much. A lot of this was trial and error.

Small, medium, large: The smallest (Miller 91) features the highest power per litre rating, the largest (Renault 40 NM Record) the worst. All three were challenging resin builds. 

 

 

 What's next? Hard to say! The Shelf of Doom only has a few more kits on it. Stay tuned.

Auto Union Type C: Rescue from the Shelf of Doom

Last described here in May 2018, I figured it was time to revisit this challenging kit by the Portuguese builder Fernando Pinto. The Auto Union Type C was designed by Ferdinand Porsche, and a number of design features, such as swing axles and transverse torsion bars, subsequently turned up in the Volkswagen Beetle and early Porsches.

The 6-litre V16, with a centrifugal blower, made over 500 horsepower in 1939. At the time the kit got shelved, the engine had paint, fuel lines and plug wires; today I struggled with the exhaust manifolds that need to line up with the opening in the engine cover, with only moderate success. 

Elsewhere there are a number of rather sketchy chassis bits, along with beautiful wire wheels and a resin grille with embedded wires. 

The body and some peripheral parts had paint at the time of shelving. The next photo shows where it all sits as of today. Next will be fabricating a substitute for the kit-provided water distribution manifold. A lot of fiddling and fettling is required; this kit is not for the faint of heart.

An obscure kit of an iconic car. Stay tuned!

Subaru Brat STi: complete (#25 for 2020)

"Have a seat and enjoy the ride, folks!" Not sure I'd be sitting loose in the back of a Brat with the 400 hp STi engine. I suspect Fred and Doris will be regretting this once Giles gets behind the wheel.

A last minute screwup damaged the paint, but a bit of sanding with 2000 grit plus a coat of clear seems to have fixed it, at least to a cursory review level. Colours are Tamiya Camel Yellow (TS-34) and Brilliant Blue (TS-44).

The lack of room under the hood relegated the radiator to the pickup bed, similar to some of the Group B rally cars such as the Audi S1. 

The wing is stolen from a Nissan Skyline kit. I like the blue on the sail leading into the wing. I also like the exhaust pipe peeking through the rocker panel on the right side.

Moving the grille and valance forward by 3 mm turned out to be easier than I might have expected. But the order of assembly meant the valance had to go on last, after the interior and chassis were attached to the body; so there was no opportunity to putty and file the seam. 

What's next? No idea. Stay tuned!

Subaru STi: First pass at final fit

The rear suspension having been modified to lower it properly, time to fit the chassis, engine, interior and body. (As a mechanic, vice-grips always were my best friends.)

Ride height is limited by inner fenders now that the outer fender lips have been Dremeled off. It's a nice clean shape and I may not bother with the brash graphics as provided on the decal sheet.

I am happy with the state of it all at this point. Some fine tuning to go, then the interior and final assembly. Still to be decided: paint for the grille, and maybe a spoiler across the back of the bed. And there is a nice opportunity to poke the exhaust through the side of the rear quarter panel, between the door and rear fender well on the right side.

Progress is being made. Stay tuned!

Subaru Brat STi: Chassis modifications

Getting the engine to fit required cutting out the forward half of the underhood detail in the Brat. Lining the final drive output with the wheel wells positions the engine well forward, and the next step will be figuring out how to get the grille and lower valance (or some replacement part) to fit. One approach would be to slice off the pulleys for the auxiliary drives, but that would be cheating...

 

The engine leaves a lot of room between it and the firewall. There will be lots of room for batteries, ECUs and various bits and bobs, but the radiator will get relocated into the pickup bed under a wing of some sort.

The suspension also had to be lowered substantially from the jacked up 4X4 stance. 4 mm (about 4" at scale) were taken out of the front springs, and the lower A-arms were cut off and moved up a similar amount. In the rear it will be simply a matter of rotating trailing arms about their mounting points as if the suspension were in full rebound. I think it looks good with the Minilites; the fenders may need to be radiused and possibly flared to get them to fit properly, though.

This would be the basis for a nice mid-engine car as well; food for thought. Maybe I need another kit... Stay tuned!

Subaru Brat STi: engine

Too bad these Hobby Design resin engines are so rare; the detail is lovely.

 

Maybe a little too detailed; the photo-etched belts are not exactly an essential detail in my opinion. 

It's gonna be a tight fit in the Brat. 

Stay tuned! Ha ha that's a joke, see, it's a tuner? OK never mind. 

Subaru Brat STi: planning

Today's Japanese hot rod planning: Will the Hobby Design resin kit of the Impreza STi engine fit in the engine bay of the Subaru Brat? It's gonna be tight... even more difficult than in real life, as the engine is 1/24, and the Brat about 4% smaller at 1/25.

I'm looking at grafting on an extended nose and airdam from the parts bin to clear all the radiators and intercoolers. I'm also going to try to avoid stealing anything from the Tamiya WRC kit in order to retain the capability to build it up OOB, which I will get around to eventually in spite of the lack of any decent engine detail. 

Stay tuned! Could be fun.