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Derelict trabant


happy grumpy

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Just fresh out of the workbench, this a little diorama picturing an abandoned Trabant . Although the Trabant was made of duraplast a composite material, the chassis was uni-body type and made of steel therefore it was prone to rust. I tried to reproduce the rust effects on the chassis. engine bay and trunk, leaving the doors and fenders and roof since they would not rust but they would still deteriorate when exposed to UV light and elements.

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Very nicely done diorama.  These cars had plastic bodies (well, it was actually made of resin-impregnated cotton),so there would be no rust.  But the IIRC,  color of bare plastic was sort of reddish brown, so you might be lucky that your rust on the body parts represents  bare resin.  🙂

Back when I lived in Poland my uncle had one of those Trabants.  It was white. He and my aunt used to take me on vacations in it (along with my cousin).  I also remember that at some point the trunk lid cracked (from the lock tumbler down to the bottom edge.  I remember my uncle took couple of flat pieces from my cousin's wooden erector set to use under clamps for repairing the crack. He used epoxy glue.

Thanks for bringing up those memories!

Edited by peteski
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That's really nicely done, you've given it so much character. Some of my kits would benefit from being shown like that, but I simply don't have the skills to make it look convincing like you've done here.

I went to East Berlin in 1988, just a year before the wall came down. I'd never seen these funny little cars before, certainly saw plenty of them that day!

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