Matt Bacon Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Last one (probably) built for a 1/32 automobiles Classic British Kits Group Build elsewhere... The kit I picked up for £5 on eBay was a bit tired, but its actually not a bad starting point, with plenty of detail parts for the engine and running gear. With the parts cleaned up, the fit is pretty impressive: the lengthy exhaust pipe was a snap fit between the end of the header pipes and the silencer, for example. The engine is detailed a bit and wired for plugs etc, where my multicoloured drum of "wrapping wire" came in very useful. The rest is just detail painting of the parts they give you. As it comes, the kit has rectangular headlights, but all the Mexicos I found online had the round variety, so they were replaced with slot racing detail parts from Pendle Slot Racing, which also came up with the decals and and windscreen wipers as Scalextric spares. The wheels had their pie-dish centres replaced with something a bit more sporty in resin from RS Slot Racing supplies. The figure, now known as "Young Shaun" for reasons we need not go into, began life as a rather buttoned up dude with side parting, sports jacket and tie. He's acquired a more appropriate "boy racer" look, and also undergone major surgery to his lower parts to fit properly. The steering wheel was glued into his hands, and if you look REALLY closely, doesn't quite meet the dash in the right place. But he's holding it, which was never going to happen if done the way the instructions suggest, fixing him to his seat waving his arms in the air, and the dash and wheel to the body shell, and then putting the one inside the other... All in all, a kit that scrubs up surprisingly well with a bit of TLC... best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 COOL!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espo Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Great detail especially in this scale. In the last couple of years different US TV programs have had this vehicle getting rebuilt mainly for Rallying which I understand they were very popular in. There are several things on YouTube showing these competing in Vintage Rallying and they look like they are very competitive. Your build looks like what a stock one must have looked like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Thanks, guys.... yes, they were highly competitive rally cars... the "Mexico" edition was brought out to mark Hannu Mikkola winning a 25,000km London to Mexico Rally in 1970. Those rally cars (which also took four more of the top 10 places in the rally) had a bored out and tuned version of the same "Kent" 1.6 litre engine that's in the standard Escort. That makes a Mexico more or less paint and decals conversion. The Mk1 was also re-engined with a 2 litre Pinto engine to create the RS2000 and some even more serious rally versions, or with a Lotus Twin-Cam engine. These days, a real Mk1 RS2000 or Twin Cam will set you back the best part of $50,000, and more if it has in-period major rally victories under its belt, whereas a Mexico is probably still sub £10K, so it's the more affordable route to classic fast Ford ownership... best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scalper Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Neat little kit.. nice work . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastheniker Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Clean work in such a small scale (who ever built a 1/32 or even 1/43 kit knows what I am talking about). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Very nice build! I love the old Airfix 1/32 line, many of you know I lived in Germany when I was growing up in the late sixties / early seventies, so they figure rather prominently in my model building memories. I still have a few that I saved all these years, and when I got involved in modeling 30 years ago I found some at shows for $5-10 each and I grabbed them up! As eBay makes everything global, those old 1960s bag kits go for $100 now a days! I saw two that popped up in my feed the other day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatW Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Brilliant job Matt. I've part started one where not much goes together, so when I've got more time I shall try and finish it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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