Pete75 Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) Got the chassis underside & wheels finished 😃. Added a some carbon fibre decal to (what I assume is) the trunking, plus the prop shaft. The exhaust tips were nice & easy to cut with the multitool then tidy with a file. Started experimenting with the Tamiya weathering kit on the exhaust system & will finish later: After gluing the suspension I discovered something wasn't right when I came to fit the body 😬. A front corner was sitting too high, and it took me a while to solve. After studying the problem, I discounted the actual suspension & alighted upon the body itself: more specifically, the locator tabs and their slots. I found the body slot on the problem corner was misaligned and needed to allow the chassis tab to sit higher up. I solved it by shaving the top side of the slot with a #11 blade (not really visble in the photo, but I did remove a fair bit of material) and gluing in a 0.25mm styrene shim. I also found that the corresponding tab on the chassis was too tall, so I pared it down: This did the trick, although I now noticed that the rear end was sitting fractionally lower than the dry fitting 😒. Thankfully this was quickly sorted by adding another shim in the rear slot (on the top edge this time) and now shes finally on her feet 😀: I wanted to show how much better the tail pipes looked against the stock ones but I must've chucked them so you'll have to take my word for it! Edited February 15, 2021 by Pete75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete75 Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 Bit of progress made, plus a whole lot of ground re-traced. The short story is that I had to buy a second kit and redo the body from scratch...🤬 If anyone reading ever does this kit, my advice is to treat the side vents with maximum care!! Anyway, shell #2 is now ready for a clear coat: The colour is Tamiya light gunmetal, which I am a new fan of, and while #2 is an improvement over the first one, MANY hours have disappeared in the process! Still, second kits always bring small luxuries so I can now show a side by side comparison of the upgraded exhaust tips (badass) next to the kit ones (lame): I think all the interior components are complete now so I've started assembling: The co-driver footplate was in the PE kit. I made a junction box to terminate the wiring harness so I don't have to think about where it all goes afterwards! The last interior element has been the door cards: (Before & after courtesy of the new kit again!) Because the plan is to have open front windows, I thought I'd add some extra rally detail & have carbon fibre door cards. I didn't fancy laying decals over the existing door furniture so I stripped & filled them to leave a flat surface. I scratch built oversized "brushed aluminium" levers, plus some "nylon" racing door pulls using the seatbelt material supplied in separate Hasegawa rally car kit. Thanks for looking 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattilacken Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Looks very good and convincing! Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete75 Posted March 12, 2021 Author Share Posted March 12, 2021 On 3/11/2021 at 5:40 PM, Mattilacken said: Looks very good and convincing! Good job! Thanks Anton! 😀 Ok, the interior is officially done. It all went together nicely with the exception of the ribbon belts which turned out to be slightly too thick (depth, not width) to go through the PE buckles twice. I resorted to melting the ribbon ends with a candle and stretching the fabric to make firmer & thinner ends. Turns out the fabric had a fair amount of plastic content because it stretched like melted sprue does! Anyway, it worked out in the end. Just waiting for the clear coat to harden up on the shell #2 now and the end is coming into view - finally! Cheers for looking 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dann Tier Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I'm glad i checked in here...i usually dont. I love Quattros!, and yours is looking Fantastis, Bud!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete75 Posted March 14, 2021 Author Share Posted March 14, 2021 On 3/13/2021 at 4:06 AM, Dann Tier said: I'm glad i checked in here...i usually dont. I love Quattros!, and yours is looking Fantastis, Bud!!! Thanks Dann. Good to see you back! 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete75 Posted March 28, 2021 Author Share Posted March 28, 2021 (edited) Everything seemed to get slower & slower, but she’s finally done! 😵 Like before, I ended up having to insert a shim in a front corner of the body in order to lower it, but it was quick & easy. Had a bit of drama with the glasswork, though, which forced me to adapt my approach. Plans to remove the front windows and tint the rear got abandoned midway, but I’m just relieved to have any glass at all - and grateful to have had a second kit! A big issue with this kit is that the one-piece glass insert is barely tall enough to cover the height of the windows: we are talking 1mm-or-less overlap on all sides. Additionally, it is attached to the sprue tree at single point (along the bottom of one side) by an inch-long joint built to withstand an earthquake! It’s almost impossible to separate the thing without damaging the windows, and even at the second attempt there was a bit of a crack left.🤬 Anyway, the short story is that I was able to make one ok piece out of two by cutting them and hiding the join behind the B pillar. The CB antenna was made from a 0.018” guitar string, a micro compression spring (0.8 x 4.6mm found on eBay) and a bit of sprue. I drilled through the roof & glass insert in order to locate & glue it safely. The front end took a lot of effort get right, but I’m pleased with the result. The resizing of the light units & filling of the body were obviously the biggest things, but there was still a bit of intricate masking & brushwork to be done, plus the lenses had to be glued at the correct angles - none of which was aided by the “instructions”, so a bit of research was required. The indicators were painted clear orange over silver & actually came out ok in the end. The PE badge went on fine with a tiny bit of Gorilla glue and the double-sided tape really came into its own in attaching the spot lamps. Interesting fact: I’ve long used Vallejo acrylic gloss varnish to hold light lenses in because it dries 100% clear, gives ages of working time and any surplus just wipes away with water. I wasn’t sure of the strength of the bond though, so the other day I did a side-by-side comparison with Elmers white glue using an old CD and bits of sprue, then left them to set overnight. Result: the Elmers sprue fell away instantly & the varnish one is still in place because I couldn’t budge it! Many surviving Quattros have smoked rear lights. I was quickly sold on the idea as it looks cool, plus it’s more straightforward: just three or four coats of Tamiya smoke and done. The rear fogs are supposed to be red and not orange as the instructions would have it; here I used clear red over silver. So, there we go. I’m happy with the result, but it was a lot of work! I’ll put an Under Glass link below when I take a few pics. Questions & comments welcome - thanks for looking. Finished photos here Edited March 31, 2021 by Pete75 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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