Fujimi Honda Civic SIR II

[VanSpence]

I bought this kit about 10 years ago because I wanted the seats for a CRX project that I was doing. I took the seats and then just left the kit sitting around gathering dust. 

Since I am getting back into building and building takes some practice, I thought this would be a great kit to see if I can still do some airbrushing skills. I plan on doing this one in yellow just to see what I can do with a difficult color to work with. 

The interior is pretty basic and the tub has very little detail. The back seats are a joke and the door panels have zilch for details to them. Going to give the interior a yellow and black as well to go with the exterior. 

Going to go with a pretty low stance on this one I think. Not going to fully redo the suspension and maybe just do this one scalemoddeler style and glue the wheels in place at the more approperiate stance. Mock up just to get an idea of what it will look like. 

Going for a pretty OOTB build on this one, just to get the model building skills back up to where they should be. Testing out some new tools as I go along before I get into some more serious builds......well serious for me anyway. 

If anyone has a set of seats they would consider passing my way or know where I can buy seats, please feel free to let me know. 

[Funkychiken]

All good hobby stores, like hiroboy have seats available! Looks like it's going to be a killer

[VanSpence]

5 hours ago, Funkychiken said:

All good hobby stores, like hiroboy have seats available! Looks like it's going to be a killer

Hiroboy is an online shop? Guess I could just google it myself and check......lol

Thanks for the input and the kind words! 

 

After looking online at some photos I found that I actually liked the bumpers without the corner bump pads so figured I would get rid of them on this one.

Did some sanding and some filling and then redid the primer on it. 

it is very very very clear to me now that prep is everything. EVERYTHING!!  I am not quite 100% on this and I think I will need to do a little more sanding and clean up to get it so I am content with it. I have never done a lot of body modifications before so this is kind of new territory for me. Will have to see how this plays out. 

[89AKurt]

Civic fan here.... built a few, this one is the same generation:

You are wise to start off easy.  I just started using the Tamiya primer, will see how it works out, but I've done several coats of primer and sanding to get it right.  Those door panels are pathetic!  For one project I covered with carbon fiber decal, and made wire door pulls, to give a racer look.

Think I have some seats I could give you.

[VanSpence]

4 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

Civic fan here.... built a few, this one is the same generation:

You are wise to start off easy.  I just started using the Tamiya primer, will see how it works out, but I've done several coats of primer and sanding to get it right.  Those door panels are pathetic!  For one project I covered with carbon fiber decal, and made wire door pulls, to give a racer look.

Think I have some seats I could give you.

That civic is great. I love the missing molding on the fender and that antenna is perfect. Looks like this was a very interesting build. 

That Miata is unbelievable. What an outrageous amount of detail. Turned out as one impressive looking kit. 

[VanSpence]

So I thought I would try something different and something I have never done before. I wanted a cloth look to the seats and so I thought it might work if I used bathroom tissue as I have heard of military guys using it as canvas covers and other things like that. Turns out TP is pretty hard to work with. First off, I learned that I need very good scissors to cut to desired shapes. TP does not cut very easily at all. I also learned that TP, since it is made to dissolve in water, it will also break down when using paint as well. Anyway, learned a lot and I think if done right, it could actually work and since this project was about learning new things, it was a step in the right direction. Not going to strip and try again but just tidy things up a bit and keep it as it is. I am pretty disappointed in my taping skills as well. Could be partly because I used a rattle can and it was just too heavy in the paint but either way, the paint turned out to be quite a mess. As I say, I will tidy it up a bit and call it a day. 

For the body I used Tamiya canned primer which does go on thick but was not too bad. Did three coats in flat yellow which did cover it quite well and then proceeded to do some clear. I have been watching a lot of the Scalemodeling Channel on youtube and it has been a great learning experience. Just to see things in action can make all the difference. From watching these videos I have learned a few things about my own painting. 1 - my needle is quite small and so it can be a little more difficult to get good coats and 2 - I have not been thinning my paints enough at all. I wanted to try something again with this one and so when I went to do the clear, I used clear yellow instead of just clear, to see what kind of finish it gave the car and because my paint was not thin enough, it gave me very distinctive lines on the roof and hood of the car. Once I thinned the paint and gave it a second and a third coat, it did some evening out of the color but it is still not quite where I want it to be. I was going to try maybe one more coat of yellow clear to see if it will even it out completely and if it does not then maybe I will just spray the roof and hood in black and call it a day. 

Otherwise, looking pretty good. I do like the color choices so far and I would consider doing something maybe different with the interior if I were to do it again. Even in yellow a lot of the pics on line show the interior with red seats and trim and carpeting which looks pretty sharp. 

[stitchdup]

Nice project, these were fun cars in their day. If you try the tp thing again you could do worse than using kitchen towel, its a bit thicker than tp but you have to be careful of the textures of it. Some of it can look like perforated leather when painted

[Cool Hand]

Its good to try new and different things it is how we learn.

Of to a good start.

 

[kelson]

Some nice work so far,and I've been watching the Scalemodeling channel as well for about 6 months and I have really learned a lot to.

[89AKurt]

Sorry you learned the hard way, only use Kleenex!  Even other brands are not quite as good.

[VanSpence]

 

On 12/31/2019 at 11:35 PM, stitchdup said:

Nice project, these were fun cars in their day. If you try the tp thing again you could do worse than using kitchen towel, its a bit thicker than tp but you have to be careful of the textures of it. Some of it can look like perforated leather when painted

As I was doing the TP, paper towel came to mind and I said I would try that next time to see if it worked out better. As it is meant to absorb and not break down I figure it would work better but also thought it was a little thick. Patterns are also may end up strange looking. 

20 hours ago, Cool Hand said:

Its good to try new and different things it is how we learn.

Of to a good start.

 

Thank you. I have made it a big point that 2020 will be the year I will try a bunch of new things. I think I may do my first resin kit this year as well. 

15 hours ago, kelson said:

Some nice work so far,and I've been watching the Scalemodeling channel as well for about 6 months and I have really learned a lot to.

Something about how he puts his videos together make for some really great watching. Doing each section as a complete video means not too much info in one go and still leaves you wanting more and can't wait for the next one. I find myself always hoping for certain kits with the next series. 

14 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

Sorry you learned the hard way, only use Kleenex!  Even other brands are not quite as good.

Kleenex actually sounds about right. lol, I can't believe I did not think of it. Thin and meant not to rip and tear and break down when wet. I will have to get some with my next groceries.....

Thanks for the tip! 

[VanSpence]

So today I pretty much completed the interior. 

I found this thing called embossing powder at a craft store when I was looking for flocking. I was told they don't carry flocking any longer and so I was looking for alternatives and found this stuff. I had no idea what embossing powder was or what you used it for but it looked pretty fine so I figured I would give it a try. 

Turns out it actually looks pretty good. I also did a little research on embossing powders and apparently you use heat on it to 'melt' it and create lettering or images on paper and other things. Kind of neat. Comes in tons of different colors and textures so it may be helpful, may not. I found that when using the clear paint as my base, it held OK but maybe not as good as I hopped. Apparently there is also embossing inks that are supposed to be supper sticky for this purpose. Maybe I will try some white glue next time and see how that turns out. 

This is the finished interior. No front seats for now but I won't glue it all together so when I do get some, I can just put them in. 

So you know the old saying 'Leave it well enough alone.' Yeah, I am not so good at that. I did try for another coat of the yellow clear on the body and really, I just shouldn't have. I think the yellow streaks are there for good unless I were to strip the entire thing and start from scratch, which I am not going to do on this tester piece. This last coat was terrible and seems that it got a lot of dust in it and even a hair, which none of the other coats had so I should have just stopped with the last coat and lived with it. Now I am just going to wait a bit, let this harden, take some 2000 and wet sand and then polish and see what happens. It is all a learning experience right? 

[89AKurt]

Rats, thought I still had the seats from the '87 Honda, *poof*.  I do have these Ferrari 360 Modena seats, which I used part of a headrest for scratch-building the Mongrel.  It would take some work to remove both, and make separate headrests, and add backs.

[VanSpence]

20 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

Rats, thought I still had the seats from the '87 Honda, *poof*.  I do have these Ferrari 360 Modena seats, which I used part of a headrest for scratch-building the Mongrel.  It would take some work to remove both, and make separate headrests, and add backs.

Those seats look pretty awesome actually. I like the style of them quite a bit. So I tried the sanding and polish and it actually worked pretty good, for the most part. Went ahead and masked and sprayed black and this happened

Needless to say, I am pretty unimpressed. Again, since I only care so much about this one, not going to strip it but see what I can do with it for now. Total learning experience. Seems the sanding and polish was too good. I will have to make sure next time I sand out the parts that are getting the new paint. 

Getting close to that finish line. I can actually see those seats in this without head rests, like total low back seats. 

[89AKurt]

I will PM you.  

[VanSpence]

And I think that about does it for the Fujimi Civic. I am just waiting for some clear orange to finish off the marker lights and some seats from Kurt to fully finish it off but otherwise I will leave it at that. 

I am at about 80% on my thoughts with this one. Some pretty big mess ups but it did help me a lot in learning some different ways of doing things than I have done in the past. Going to apply those ideas and thoughts to my next build for certain. 

Any comments and critique are more than welcome. It is good to be able to 'see' things through someone else's eyes and honest, I am hear to learn and to improve. Only way to do that is by hearing from others. 

Once I have the seats and it is done done, I will post it in the under glass. Thanks for stopping by. 

[Funkychiken]

I like it, Civics are a soft spot for me, as I used to have one (slightly newer 2005 plate car) but your build is great.

I have the same issue of paint nt adhering t a glossy finish, but if you use the same type of paints as the gloss, it shouldn't happen - or, as you suggest - roughen it up with some sand paper...