MD528

Hey Modelers, I managed to successfully post pics again and thought I'd share my WIP. Some of you may have seen this about 6 months ago before I accidentally deleted everything, so I won't into a lengthy history again. Basically, I've been at this Civic for about 9 years, off and on, building it one way, taking a break, building it another way, break, etc. About 2 years ago I decided to try and dedicate more time to the hobby and get it done as I have a number of other kits waiting for some attention. The car started out mild, then unfortunately took a "Fast N Furious" style turn, which led to an import 1/4 mile drag build, when then led to it sitting in the box for about 4 years. Now I've challenged myself to resurrect the mess I've made into a JDM style clean build with a few custom touches. A challenge it is as I've made the front/rear suspension, and front sub-frame un-useable. But that's okay as it leaves room for aftermarket go-fast goodies!  The first four pics are from the beginning to about 2 years ago.









The past 4 or 5 months I've been able to begin the restoration back to stock, starting with the trunk area. I'm getting rid of the Altezza lights and putting the OEM's back in. Over the years I broke the part of the body below the rear window, so I had to replace that and began the trunk detailing.

Hello everyone,

As promised in my new member intro, I'm posting a few pics of what I've been able to barely work on over the last few years.

First up an 06 Mustang GT that I purchased about 4 years ago. So far I've opened the doors, started on a Cervini-style body kit, fabbed up a hood scoop, and got the engine main assembly done with a scratchbuilt supercharger. I haven't worked on this car in quite a while so it may sit on hold until I get my Civic and R8 completed.



The next car that's been a complete mess since 05 is this Civic Si. It's gone through 4 or 5 iterations from a crazy custom to a pro import drag car back to a milder custom. It would be easier for me to purchase a new kit and use this one for parts but I guess I don't have enough challenges in my life! The plans now are to return this Si a little closer to stock with my own take on the JDM theme. I thought about swapping in the K-series engine from my Acura RSX kit but I'll keep the B16 in there with a turbo. The bay will be shaved and tucked, doors and trunk hinged, working suspension (minus steering), and fully plumbed/wired. The body will be worked a little, need further planning with that.

Here are some pics of the mess over the years!!!


I shaved the wheel arches in preparation of the body kit but now I wish I didn't. I plan to add them back, and they may be slightly bigger depending on the wheel/tire combo I go with, but nothing too crazy and no wild camber, not on this one!



Lambo doors, ha ha !!!!!!



The beginning of the rebuild, I found the front clip and added it back to the chassis. Also, began shaving and smoothing things out.



The B16 years ago, it will be much better some time soon!!!


And lastly the R8... the doors are opened, there will be working suspension, a twin-turbo setup similar to the Heffner Performance R8's, and I built the rear structure as close as possible against some cad drawings I found. I would like to build the front framing as well but the drawings I currently have don't show everything I need to see, so I'll keep digging for reference material. Haven't decided on exterior colors yet.






Still needs some work....



The undercarriage pan had some pretty bad warpage going on that I couldn't straighten out so I went ahead and cut out the middle left and right sections, leaving just the center section connecting the front and rear. I fabbed up replacement panels but drilling all those holes for the rivets got old real quick!



Sorry for the blurry pic but this was a fitment check of the frame structure making sure all the beam locations in relation to the body matched the cad drawings. So far so good.



All primered up. Needs some fine tuning, next I will locate the suspension pick-up points.

Well, that's about all that is worth showing just to give an idea of what I'm up to. I will break the Civic and R8 into their own WIPs in a few days when I can officially return to the workbench. I hope I can live up to the talent that's showcased in this forum!!!!  Thanks for looking!

Hello All,

I finally decided to join the forums as I've been looking around at the amazing work here for about a year now. I'm totally impressed with the models, the forum conduct, and wealth of knowledge and talent that's here. Not only do I wish to become a better builder but I hope that by becoming a member, it will force me to dedicate more time to the hobby. I've been building since the age of 7 or so, and yes most were glue bombs back then because I imagined I owned a custom garage and my models would "come in" for an engine swap, raised rear end complete with traction bars and the whole nine or fender flares and rear window louvers! Being a kid, I was too impatient to properly remove all glue before laying down another glob!

Over the years, modeling became an on-again off-again type of affair, working 2 jobs, college, life, a son, the hobby would just have to take a back seat all too often. Although still busy with 2 jobs, college, I feel there's time somewhere during the week that I can get some cars built. I need to manage my time a little better I suppose! Also, the hobby serves as a slight distraction to the fact that I want a few 1:1 project cars to build but don't have the time, space or $$ to do so, especially when engagement, marriage, house, more kids are on the priority list. So, at 43 I will live my dreams through plastic for a little while!

I hope to get some pics organized and posted soon so you guys can see what I have been working on over the last couple of years (very slowly I might add). On the bench currently is a Civic Si coupe that has seen too many iterations since I bought it in '04. It was originally going to be a mid-range custom, then I wanted it to be a pro-import drag car, and now it will just be a clean,performance coupe. Might be easier to buy a new one and start over, but I enjoy the challenge of undoing all the custom stuff. The other car on the bench is an Audi R8, this one has been in the works slowly for the last 2 years. I have the engine main assembly done and painted, the doors cut and door jambs at 50%. Also because I don't know when to quit, I fabbed the rear aluminum structure. I found some decent reference pics and decided I could do it but I'm not sure if I'll cut the hood of the car and build the aluminum structure up front. I plan to model the R8 after one of the Heffner twin-turbo R8's. Needless to say I have a ton of work in front of me, but I'll take it step by step and do my best!

I look forward to meeting new friends!