1980s Tamiya Honda Today

[Spottedlaurel]

Straightforward build of a simple but nicely detailed little snap-fix kit. It was purchased like this off eBay a few years ago, complete with the electric motor installed:

1:24 Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

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It'd been sitting in a pot of brake fluid for a few weeks until I got around to stripping off the thick brush-painted enamel. Rather than put it back in the box I kept going with it as a project. WIP thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/160257-1980s-tamiya-honda-today/

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Built pretty much OOB, painted Tamiya TS-41 Coral Blue which was a pretty good match for one of the colours they offered when it was new. The tin was very old and borderline useable, the finished paintjob doesn't bear close inspection but it looks OK on the shelf. 'Black' trim all brush-painted Revell #9 enamel. Watanabe/Minilite style wheels from the Hasegawa Nissan Sunny Truck kit, suspension easily lowered by redrilling the holes for the metal axles.

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Built purely for fun, the only element that really took any time was the black trm around the glass. Makes for a good companion to these previous builds:

1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Thanks for looking.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Spottedlaurel

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

[asfastasu]

Nice save and good choice on the color. I always enjoy watching your wips and the end result.

[Dann Tier]

WOW!!! -VERY nice save!!!! -Brilliant group of builds as well!!!

[Classicgas]

Cool. 

[ChrisR]

Cool!

[slusher]

Cute Honda and nicely done..

[89AKurt]

I like the subject, they were never exported to the US.  Worth the trouble to save, looks great!

I owned an '87 Civic Si.

[Pete75]

? That's a cool little trio:  love how wide-ranging your taste in cars is! Very interesting to see how effective the enamel is. You'd never know it was brushed & it really captures that black plastic bumper finish perfectly ?

[Spottedlaurel]

Thanks everyone! Just a fun little build not to be taken too seriously, but it turned out nicely. I don't recall seeing any other versions of the Tamiya kit come up for sale since I got mine, when I did a quick image search the other day Worthpoint showed me the eBay listing that I bought it from.

I didn't realise that there's a also a Fujii version.

On 4/14/2021 at 10:01 PM, 89AKurt said:

I like the subject, they were never exported to the US.  Worth the trouble to save, looks great!

I owned an '87 Civic Si.

We didn't get them either, Civic was the smallest we got in the '80s (apart from a one year when we got the City/Jazz).

On 4/14/2021 at 11:48 PM, Pete75 said:

? That's a cool little trio:  love how wide-ranging your taste in cars is! Very interesting to see how effective the enamel is. You'd never know it was brushed & it really captures that black plastic bumper finish perfectly ?

I do try and mix it up a bit. The Revell #9 enamel is really useful, it's my go-to colour for anything plastic or rubber. It doesn't leave any brush marks and it can easily be touched-up. And it avoids masking!

[ATHU]

Super nice!!