The Creative Explorer

The first Renault 5 was exported to the States as the 'Le Car', but the successor never did make the crossing. Except for a few after the 25-years regulations. You don't hear many french car fanatics in the States, it is usually Domestic, JDM or German stuff. There are a couple Italian and GB enthusiasts, but French car nuts are quite seldom. I just love those qurky little things and the French did make a couple of beautiful machines. Too bad they often forgot reliability :-). The 205 is just such as an icon, I wish it got kitted too (part from the rally version from Tamiya). Unfortunately, other than the name, it is completely different. This is the old R5, the 'super-cinque' or Super R5 was it's successor. which didn't share any body panels and even the engine lay out was different. The old R5 had a engine longitudinally, with the gearbox in front of it! The Super 5 had the engine at the now common transverse manner.

I think you can still order them new. Tamiya releases them often. Whilst we are at the Renault 5, I would love to see a stock 'super' 5 or a GT Turbo

They reissue the 356 regularly, quite often actually. every few years they run a serie.

Looking good!

Thanks Bruce!

The Caterham was also a bit dormant, except from fiddling around with the front shocks and the design of the wheels, I didn't do a whole lot to it. Most had to do with clearcoating the body-parts. As the sidepanels where needed in order to continue the build. Yesterday was a very nice, sunshining day and I got inspired to clearcoated this project. Even though I am somewhat confident in my painting skills, I was a bit nervous, as this is a very costly kit. And don't want to screw up the paintjob. But I went, I did and I think I succeeded. But I'll let you be the judge of it:

It's been a couple of years, but the Routemaster is back on the workbench. I really had to dig into the project-post and the pictures to get into this complicated built again. I think I am on the same track as where I left. Work halted last time on detailling the workplace; making a diorama is not my forté. But it had to be done before I could go further and that is why it was stopped. But since I finished a couple of projects, I wanted to start working on this monster of a project again I also noticed the pictures got moved on my server, this is where you can find all the pictures from this project: http://www.firerods.nl/wipgallery/routemaster-cartransporter/ [ The workshop is almost finished, just needs a little bit of weathering and detailling. I also started on working on the hydraulic cylinders for the lower ramp, these will be the first to do, when I figured this out and have them done, I can do the other cylinders as well.

Can I say that I loooooooooooooooooooooooooove this van?

Thank you guys! @Anglia105E; I think it also has a lot to do with how the 2 cars came together. I was suprised by how easy and basically effortless the build went.

Even though it is too late for my own 2 356's (or I might retrofit them later), since they are both finished, I started drawing the wheels anyway today. I am going for a 2-piece set-up, first the drum and then the wheel itself.

@niteowl7710, that seems logical too. Hmm, I guess we'll have to see what is coming, let's say that I hope to be wrong :-) A new tooled defender would be very welcoming!

My guess is that it will be the Esci/Italeri version. On the IPMS website, it states 'New form' rather than 'new tool' which would indicate small details changed, but not a new tool.

the third and final update; things went quite fast, two big scale models, build within a matter of days. It does say something about the quality, most went together without much drama. I continued with the dashboards, they are basically the same, except for the radio, which the B doesn't have. Nice detail from Revell; they made chrome plates for the dials, which gives it a nice look to it. Unfortunately, they got the decals wrong for the dials, the rev counter is always in the middle, the speedo on the right and the check-lights on the left. Everything comes together pretty decent, but it turns out later, that exact fitment is essential! The two different engine-covers, I cut the tabs from the grill off. They didn't fit very good and I couldn't get the grilles to lay flush with the cover. This is the frunk put together, it has some detail, but I don't think it is (out of the box) worth it for the extra price. Most parts are also in the Coupe box, so even with the easy-click, you can make a frunk. The bumpers come together nicely as well, although I had some issues with the rearbumper chrome rail on the coupé, I got the most left and right tabs off and glued the tips to the bumper. Revell never states to cut off these tabs: but it is necessary to cut them, otherwise the cover will not fit flush. As illustrated here. Cutting the tabs off, gives a nice fit and it is starting to get somewhere. The Coupé is now on the home-straight, most parts on the front are now assembled and the car is starting to come alive. The windows needs some bare-metal foil treatment, which is very easy to do on this car. There are clear lines to keep the knive to for cutting the foil. The cabriolet is now on the home-straight as well. Some goofing around last night: In order to get the interior inside the body, it is best to cut out the inside part of the cilindric tab to a conical shape, the tab inside the body catches quite easy on that edge and refuses to go inside. A bit of help, cutting the edge off works very well. There is a slight panel gap between chassis and body, but nothing to be worried about And the Coupé is done! Up to finishing the Cabriolet. I installed all the parts in the rear. And in the front. In order to keep the frunk-cover flush with the body, it is necessary to cut off a piece of the tyre inside the frunk. And they are done! I think it was about 3-4 evenings and 3 business days to get them done. Thank you for watching, I hope it was helpful and all the best wishes for 2019!

Depends a bit where you live I guess, over here, the Beetles go between 20 and 30 euro. And I agree, you could kitbash them, but I can't think of a good reason. The only reason might be the engine, and that is not a very detailled engine, the one in the Beetle kit is better detailled.

Thanks guys @Bennyg; even though the body was poorly moulded, it does can turn out to be nice, I think the proportions are pretty good. Both models start basically the same, weirdly the paint-call out is different, it could be due to the B and C version, but I have the idea it is more random. So, I am starting with the same parts and try to build them alongside, even though the Easy-Click and the full-detail have a different build-sequence (for no reason, really). For the entire build, on the left is the easy-click and on the right is the full-detail. The fit is ok, but due to the snap-basics, it does leave panelgaps. The difference between both models is quite visible on the partscount in the enginebay. Even though, one can detail the easy-click with some detailpainting, it doesn't look as good as the full-detail. Weirdly, the easy-click comes with stickers to cover the holes that are used in the full-detail kit, best is to fill the holes with putty before painting, as this looks horrible. And the both engines practically finished, the air-filters will come later. On to the interior, they are to begin with the same. But they only differ in the front seats, where the easy-click has a fixed back, the full-detail has moveable backs. Even though they don't really work due to the construction. For some reason, the fitment of the side interior panels fit a lot better with the easy-click than the full detail, with the full detail, a lot of force was applied in order to get it in the correct place. And also caused damages to the seats, since the full-detail has opening doors, this has to be adressed.