GeeBee Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 I've had a few of these in the stash since they were released back in late 2009, but as I like to paint my models in authentic colours I've only just managed to get my hands on some Trabant paint, although I found out after I ordered the paint that a 100% colour match to Trabant Champagne beige is RAL 1024 Ochre Yellow. So back to the bench after being down with a virus for a few weeks, as with all of my builds I started work and prepped the body, the roof panel is a separate part and fits onto the body without any gaps, the bootlid and bonnet are also separate parts and once the model is finished can be opened,they are only in place in the photo's for test fitting purposes, again they fit very well and probably better than the real Trabant. The paint was decanted into glass bottles so it can be airbrushed on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W-409 Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 This will definitely be interesting. I have the same kit but yours will be a good reference and inspiration for mine. You do always very good work so I will keep watching this one closely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Along the top of the front wings, doors and rear wings are small trim moulding, I thought about putting them on after the body had been painted, but after doing a few dry runs, I decided that it would be easier and make a cleaner job if they were fixed in place first and masked off after the body had been painted, the trickiest part is getting them all to line up ... The roof was glued and clamped in place The inner wings and bulkhead are supposed to go in after the engine has been installed, there really isn't any other way of doing it, as the front transverse leaf spring has to go in before the inner wings go in, but I really wanted to paint the bulkhead and inner wings as one unit, so at this stage I'm using the floorpan as a jig, once the glue on these two parts have dried up, then the other inner wing can be fixed, they will then be painted as one unit and installed after the spring and engine has been fittted ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 19, 2014 Author Share Posted November 19, 2014 Front inner wing and bulkhead fixed together, and can now be painted as one unit Rear lamp housing fixed into place, these are painted body colour, so might as well go on now Bodyshell ready for paint There's a bracket under the front transverse leaf that need fixing to the chassis, the chassis will be airbrushed satin black, to hold the bracket in place, the spring was held with a few clamps and the bracket was fixed into place, the spring can be removed and airbrushed before going back into place Engine finished and ready for paint, (Yes it really is an engine !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pim Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Cool I may have to look into getting of these hobut the cost in australia is too high Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyrichard Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 nice ! nice ! , i still want to get one of these and lower it , roof rack with some stuff .. maybe even do like a trabant moon version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Woops, nearly forgot to fix the headlamp surrounds to the body as they also need to be painted body colour, I'm really not used to building a model with so many body coloured parts and no chrome, there isn't any locating pins to fix them on, but looking at the reflectors which need to go in after the body has been painted, there are little lugs that locate to the top of the surrounds, these need to be done using bmf, although the instruction say to paint them silver, Now that the body is ready for a coat of primer, I came to fix it to my trusty Tamiya paint stand, but no matter how much tension I put on the spring arms, the body just wanted to pop off, came up with this idea, fixing some coffee stirring wooden stick to the inside of the body, held in place with 3M blue tape, which can easily be removed once the shell has been painted .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertw Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Revell AG have also released this kit as the Universal 601 which was Trabant's idea of a station wagon, both are cool kits and are in my stash for future builds. I built a couple of Revell's curbside version of this car back in the early 90's after a trip to East Germany a few months after the wall came down. As a recall most of the 601's were a mustard color, off white or light blue and it was not uncommon to see bodies sitting in back yards stripped for parts. I look forward to watching your build of this kit. rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 20, 2014 Author Share Posted November 20, 2014 Revell AG have also released this kit as the Universal 601 which was Trabant's idea of a station wagon, both are cool kits and are in my stash for future builds. I built a couple of Revell's curbside version of this car back in the early 90's after a trip to East Germany a few months after the wall came down. As a recall most of the 601's were a mustard color, off white or light blue and it was not uncommon to see bodies sitting in back yards stripped for parts. I look forward to watching your build of this kit. rob I have a couple of the Universal kits in the stash, I still have another saloons to build as well, you'd be surprised just how many shades the little Trabby was available in http://www.trabant-original.de/otdbx/ColorDB_view.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintagercr Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I have these in my stash, it's nice to see the steps that you are taking. I'm following with interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afx Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 We are now getting, in the States a cool British car restoration show called "Car SOS". I love watching them restore the small saloon cars. Geoff, I have followed several of your builds and you always do a fantastic job. I'm sure this build will be no exception. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 We are now getting, in the States a cool British car restoration show called "Car SOS". I love watching them restore the small saloon cars. I love that programming, we've had a few car restoration programs over here, but Car S.O.S has to be the best, plus Fuzz is a great bloke, he used to work on the Corporation Buses ... Series 2 is on over at the moment,http://www.channel4.com/programmes/car-sos/episode-guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afx Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I record episodes. I was watching the Cosworth Sierra episode and they said something about Fuzz being in a band. Is that right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZTony8 Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I've got one of these in my stash and I'm still debating on what form the build will take.It's down to being slammed low,or raised up like a Dub,or a short track stocker,or maybe a Pro Streeter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 they said something about Fuzz being in a band. Is that right? He certainly is, he's a drummer, read about him here, http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/music/rockin-robbin-wonderstuff-star-steals-1287784 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I love this kit! I have two of each the little sedan and Universal. My first Universal is nearly finished as a East German postal van, using reference photos found on the Internet. The kit is very well done and nearly snaps together. As you found, the fender top trim is finicky and The Creative Emperor on this board suggested using Evergreen strip instead of the kit pieces. I cannot imagine that the instructions call for these to be installed onto a painted body, I detailed out my engine compartment, adding the two spark wires and some wiring that runs the length of the inner fenders on either side. Look up my build thread for photos of my work, as well as some of my reference photos. I will be watching! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Glad to see you back at the bench Geoff, looking forward to your build.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Started to do a little on this today, just getting the rear suspension parts ready for paint, as always I do a dry fit, but part # A22 wasn't quite molded correctly, just sent a replacement parts request to Revell AG, luckily it's not going to stop the build ... The part should look like the one on the right .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Tough break Geoff! I just looked at those parts on my finished chassis and again on the sprue on one of my other kits. The position that part is in on the sprue looks like it would be apt to be broken off. Look through anything in the box, that piece may be in there somewhere. I'm hoping ROG comes through, I understand they are good with customer service. Otherwise, maybe someone here who is building their Trabbie as a drag car and isn't using the stock chassis could help. Interesting note- I was at a show two weeks ago and was speaking with one of the dealers. He had one Trabbie sedan and one Universal kit in his booth. I was checking the price on them, and he told me they were his last ones. He had sold two cases of each variety. And this is on the East Coast of the USA. So these kits must be selling well in Europe as well. As far as test fitting, nearly everything in this kit pretty much pops into place. The fit is very good overall. One thing to watch is that the exhaust tends to sit too low and far away from the body. I trimmed mine up and actually added a bit of straight pin (or rigid wire) and pinned it to the chassis at about mid point to get it to stay in proper position. I am currently working on my interior and one thought is that if you are using the decal for the radio, I sanded the radio flat on the dashboard so it would sit right. The radio has molded in detail that sticks out. And the decals are probably the smallest little bits I've ever encountered! The emblems in the wheel centers are the worst so far, I lost two of them. I'm fortunate that a club mate built the car without them so he gave me his so I can have them on all four wheels. The decal for the steering wheel center is another one, I cannot even see it against the black wheel. There is a lot you can work on while you wait for the ROG chassis part. So keep on building! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Tough break Geoff! I just looked at those parts on my finished chassis and again on the sprue on one of my other kits. The position that part is in on the sprue looks like it would be apt to be broken off. Look through anything in the box, that piece may be in there somewhere. I'm hoping ROG comes through, I understand they are good with customer service. Otherwise, maybe someone here who is building their Trabbie as a drag car and isn't using the stock chassis could help. No sign of any broken part, they way the part is, it doesn't look like that part has been snapped off, just looks like it was never there to start with, I've only had to order spare parts off Revell on the rare occasion, there pretty good with there service. At least the part doesn't stop me building, I'll just have to prime and paint it when it comes, I've spent most of the day fixing smaller parts to wooden cocktail sticks ready for primer and paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Wow! Looks like you have a system going there! Colorwise, I found a lot of reference pictures on the Internet, and there were some conflicts between Revell's listed colors and stuff I saw on photos of actual cars. In fact I found things different on pictures of different actual cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 Wow! Looks like you have a system going there! Colorwise, I found a lot of reference pictures on the Internet, and there were some conflicts between Revell's listed colors and stuff I saw on photos of actual cars. In fact I found things different on pictures of different actual cars. Yeh, like a gloss blue fuel tank ? all the photo's I've seen there done in gloss black, here's a good site for info' I found on the Trabby http://www.trabant-original.de/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Got the body and body parts primed and painted in body colour (champagne beige), not sure exactly what the paint is, although it does say acrylic on the an, took a while to go from the tacky stage to dry it will need a good wet sand and polish, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
microwheel Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Hi Geoff nice progress, hope you get your part from Revell in a timely manner. They are pretty good about that kind of thing for sure. Anyway I think your paint is going to finish out nicely. Never had a acrylic yet that gave me any problems smoothing out with a good wet sand and polish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted November 25, 2014 Author Share Posted November 25, 2014 Hi Geoff nice progress, hope you get your part from Revell in a timely manner. They are pretty good about that kind of thing for sure. Anyway I think your paint is going to finish out nicely. Never had a acrylic yet that gave me any problems smoothing out with a good wet sand and polish. Really not sure what kind of paint it is, if you leave it in a small container on the side without covering it, it will start to skin over in no time at all, has a slight funny smell, rather like an enamel, after decanting the paint, I did have to filter it, as I left it on the side to gas out, and it started to skin up in the glass jar, and because it started to thicken up a little, I had to thin it out slightly with lacquer thinners, which it did without any problems. At least when I come to build the other Trabant's I have, I will know how to handle to paint better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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