Lets see some mini's

[sports850]

I've only been here a couple of days and I'm really impressed with the quality of builds that have been done . I have been searching through the various post's but was wondering if people could put some photo's in here of the mini builds they have done . I am a mini fanatic and am interested in new ideas for future builds and to just see what people have done . I'll start it off with some of mine (most are still boxed up from a recent move I'm afraid ...) .

Italeri Volvo semi with car carrier loaded with mini's which is my current long term build , I wanted some way of displaying some of the older mini builds I've done and came up with this idea . The top row from left is the first Tamiya mini I ever did , all brush painted , then a Tamiya mini with alfoil covered seats , formula one style bonnet scoop and home made rear wing (I was 16 at the time ...) , Fujimi mini 25 , Fujimi Rover mini . Bottom row from left Tamiya mini painted with "sugarcane" acrylic I had left over from one of my previous full size mini's , Tamiya racing mini , Tamiya Monte Carlo rally mini and then Tamiya body on scratch built chassis as a poor attempt at a funny car which is why it's hiding right up the front of the truck . Still got a bit of work to do to the front trailer yet , it started off as being the Fruehauf trailer (comes with steel rolls on the back) as I got it without a deck and then cut it down to be a B-double .

It's now on it's way to becoming a B-double with a flatbed trailer to hold a mini monster truck and mini on Suzuki (jimny ??) Chassis , need to finish front trailer and then build a case for it as it's nearly 1.4 meters long ...

Another current build is replicating my fathers cooper s we restored 15 or so years ago ,

Custom mini based on a Tamiya mini with unknown '56 chev tailfins , this is based on a 1:1 mini known as minisota , I was building it for a comp on another forum and ran out of time to get it right so it became a custom inspired by minisota ...

Edited January 25, 2012 by sports850

[martinfan5]

Here is the only mini I have, I do want to do a morris mini

[sports850]

Peter Manton's (Australian mini racer in the 60's) first 997 cooper , the car was originally red and had a high speed race car paint job , hence all the engine bay and interior are still red and not the Neptune colour like the exterior ,

Manton moved the battery to the engine bay in an attempt to reduce wheel spin coming out of corners ,

1:35 Heller mini built as the 1967 Bathurst winning cooper s for a mate who loves the car , another mate printed the decals for me . the Heller kit (old airfix kit) is a real pain in the proverbial with the body being in three parts , nose from front edge of bonnet down , main body and then rear from bottom of rear windscreen down .

I am also building a 1971 Nota fang which is an Australian road/race car based on a mini (mini front subframe with motor/gearbox/diff is mounted behind the driver , hilman imp front end and minimal bodywork) , I'm having trouble getting the bodywork right for this one so far . I have a 1:1 version of this which is what I'm basing the measuremnets on , unfortunately it's in similar condition to the model and awaiting time to restore .

A Nota Fang , not mine sadly

Edited January 24, 2012 by sports850

[sports850]

Nice Mini Martinfan , I've got a couple of new Mini kits in the stash to do so far but haven't got to them yet .

Replica of a mates cooper s (same mate as the bathurst mini , this was done for his birthday by myself and another mate who made the decals and certificate for it , we're collectors , only the best models have certificates ...) , right down to the various stickers on the windows

Another current build is a mini monster truck , front half of the mini body came in a bulk lot of bits I got in a swap , rear half is from an unknown toy ford pickup a friend on another forum gave me . Chassis etc is the USA 1 Monster truck kit , lot of work to go on this one so far , mainly in the bodywork dept ....

So what other mini builds (or mini based variants) have people done ?

[VW Dave]

Here's my wife's Mini; her first model, which we did in the winter of 2002-2003:

[martinfan5]

Dave, I did the Revell kit, which is the same , and I agree, not very nice at all

[Kit Basher]

Here's one that was just for fun.

[sports850]

VW Dave , your wife did a nice clean job there

DoubleD , looks great , I think just about everyone has done a mini at some stage .

I have a Fujimi and a Revell version of the New Mini , Revell kit I must have bought about 10 years ago but never gotten around to building it , will have to drag it out soon . It has the A , B and C pillars moulded in clear plastic and you have to paint them black from memory doesn't it ? I opened the box , looked at that and shut the box up again vowing to look at it later and it's sat ever since ...

[sports850]

Basher , that is cool , what body shell did you start with and how did you extend it ? Do you have a build thread on it here ?

[Kit Basher]

It's the Fujimi kit. Sorry, I didn't document the build. I extended it the hard way, careful cutting and sheet styrene. I'll give you more details if you're interested. I'm glad you like it, it really was fun. Thanks

[62rebel]

the Revell New Mini is a B#$%ard to get right... which,btw, is why i gave the unfinished one i had to the local club. now; the tamiya Mini... those are little jewels of precision.

i'm going to do the three from the (REAL) Italian Job one of these days... with drivers AND gold bars.

[Eric Stone]

Revell MINI, built in about 3 days. It didn't fall together, but I didn't have too much trouble with it.

Hot Wheels Morris Mini, stripped and repainted. I bought a couple more to do, and have the new Hot Wheels MINI Challenge stripped and almost ready for paint as well.

In the to-do pile, I have the Tamiya Monte Carlo Rally Mini and the Morris Mini, and a 1/43 Heller Mini. I'd like to get a couple of the Fujimis, the other Tamiya racing Mini I don't have, and the Hasegawa MINI Countryman.

Here's my girlfriend's 1:1 '11 Clubman.

[Joe Handley]

Haven't built a plastic model of one yet, but I do have one of Tamiya's rc Mini's

I detuned it after that last video was shot, it was a little too high strung!

[Erik Smith]

Tamiya kit

I love minis and this kit - I have about 10 more in different configurations.

[62rebel]

i'd need one in Mr Bean livery as well.

[GeeBee]

Here's my lot of Mini's, the Almond Green and the Island Blue one's were built way back in 1995, and were built out of the box, they were the first few models I built when I got back into the hobby, the black Mini was a Tamiya kit converted into a basic Mini 850, there's a lot of detail you can't see, but the remote gearchange was removed and a gearstick was made out a pin with a blob of solder for the gearknob, and the wheels,hubcaps and front grill were done in white metal, but I am now re-doing them in resin, the red and white Coopers were built last year, apart from using factory matched paint and drilling out the 9 hole Cooper wheels, they were built pretty much out of the box, the Surf blue model was the Austin kit, but I used the Morris parts, a matching Fiesta yellow will be built soon to go in the same showcase.

[GeeBee]

[sports850]

Basher , That'd be great if you could give more details , my attempts at extending bodies so far have been woeful ... If you ever copy and cast that body I'd be keen for a couple .

62Rebel , yes , an Italian Job dio is definitely on the cards here too , but I want to build the bus to go with it .... No idea if or when that will happen as my scratch building skills aren't up to it yet but I can still plan for now .

Eric , that's a sweet looking build , you guy's have definitely motivated me to drag the Revell kit out now and have another look at it . The hotwheels looks great too , I haven't tried to repaint one of them yet but was seriously thinking of the flamed yellow one for a full sized colour scheme for a while .

Joe , I have a really early version of the Tamiya front wheel drive car , the front suspension is a horizontal spring right across the top of the front so instead of one front wheel rising independently one wheel goes up and the other is pushed down . It works well in some situations but others causes massive wheelspin . They are a hell of a lot of fun though and handle abuse well . I also have the Kyosho .049 rwd mini (1992 or thereabouts) , very fussy thing to keep running , the much later Kyosho .12 fwd mini (2000 or thereabouts , built bubt never fired) and a mardave ministock which is elecctric rwd , slower than the Tamiya and with solid suspension and foam tyres but is brilliant fun . Yes , I am obsessed ..... I also have 5 full sized mini's and variants in various states ...

Erik , that's a tough looking build , bumperless mini's always look the business

Hi Geoff , I thought I saw your username here in another thread , I don't think you've shown enough of your Tamiya builds over on the IMMCC site , brilliant detailing there , well done .

[MOPAR_KID96]

nice

[Kit Basher]

Ian, I will send you a PM about extending the body.

[jbwelda]

heres one i did a long time ago; sorry for the poor quality, its in a diorama with plastic glass around it

and here is my next project, was gonna post on the workbench soon with a closer look.

broadspeed mini by scalekraft:

[sports850]

That'd be great thank's Hugh .

The previous build's excellent jbwelda , I found photo's of that in my first search , but that resin body is brilliant , have you got the contact details for the maker please ? First up I thought it was the usuall 1:35 resin slot car body from the UK till I remembered they have the bonnet moulded shut . This is to fit the parts from the Tamiya mini isn't it ?

[Bastardo]

A few years ago I turned this Bburago 1:24 Mini:

Into this:

[Dr. Cranky]

Nice collection of Minis. For some reason yellow really compliments this model. I like the original minis best.

[jbwelda]

_{>The previous build's excellent jbwelda , I found photo's of that in my first search , but that resin body is brilliant ,}

_{>have you got the contact details for the maker please ? First up I thought it was the usuall 1:35 resin slot car body}

_{>from the UK till I remembered they have the bonnet moulded shut . This is to fit the parts from the Tamiya mini isn't it ?}

_{well the story on the body is it was made by a fellow in south africa and his company Scalekraft i believe it was. unfortunately he}

_{met with an accident and is out of commission, perhaps forever. very sad situation but he was livin life to the fullest when the}

_{misfortune hit him. anyway he had this incredible list of bodies he cast up and at one point i wrote him a letter (yes indeed) and}

_{ordered a few bodies. that speedway mini is a real jewel, i would suppose he made the mold himself and it comes with window}

_{glass, minilite mag wheel inserts, weber carbs and a bunch of interior parts i believe (i would have to dig them out to be sure whats}

_{in there exactly. and yeah it is made to fit the tamiya mini, and near as i can tell will be a super easy conversion. keep an eye on it}

_{coming up in a month or so, i will post in the workbench section when i get into it.}

_{i also got a couple of other bodies, a porsche carrera early style and a mini traveller, but i kick myself for not ordering quite a few more.}

_{they were fairly expensive but most came with conversion parts and interiors etc and the castings are very very nice.}

_{you might establish a search on ebay and one might come up...i do know Scalekraft products do come up time to time.}

_{now there was or is a 1/32 broadspeed mini body for slotcars? please tell me where i can find one! i got a 1/32 brass tubing chassis}

_{just waiting for something to put on top of it!}