scalemodelworld

Thanks Raoul. I was going to lower it, but it actually sits quite low already. I don't have a lot of spare parts at the moment - only what I've salvaged from other kits. Buying spares in Australia is stupidly expensive, and shipping small parts from most overseas countries costs far too much in shipping. Next time i visit the US I think I'll have to fill a suitcase with parts!

Looking awesome. Love the colour, the etched parts and the carpet

wow, looks awesome

Wow Rich, what a great looking build. Like you, I'm getting to spend a solid 5+ hours a day building these days (thanks to Long Service Leave), so I've already churned out 3 builds this year!

Buick's for old people? LOL. We don't get a lot of American cars here in Australia, so I wasn't aware of the stereotype. Maybe the owner of this car was an old pimp!

Looks awesome. I feel your pain with the sink holes and fitting issues. Nothing kills my motivation more than discovering that my paint job stops parts fitting properly.

Bought this kit as a donor for a corvette (headlights) but decided to build it instead. My wife came up with the idea of making it look like a pimp car, so apart from what you can see in these photos, the interior will be flocked (hopefully shagged) throughout. I've also opened the trunk and doors on this kit using Detail Master metal hinges.

Finally got this little baby finished. The most decals I've ever put on a model - 65 in total! Lots of detail in this kit and I LOVED putting it together. Nowhere near the quality of Gary's Ken Block build though.

You've done a great job rebuilding this. The colour looks amazing

Gorgeous. I've almost finished my Tommy Makkinen Evo 6. Can't wait to show it off

What a gorgeous build. I love everything about it. How did you do the hinges? Are they home made or bought? I just bought some off Detail Master and I'm itching to try them out!

Great looking build. What scale is it? Love the diorama

Looks good so far. What is it?

Looks awesome. I've just started the 1/24 version

Thanx Christian, I did them myself. Wanted to add some character to this kit. It was a Snap-Tite kit that cost me $10

Finally got this finished today. Took some MAJOR work to get the doors working, and the final product chipped the paint a little which I just can't polish out . The initial plan was to do the gullwing doors, wire the engine, make pop-up headlights, add the pinstripe, lower it and add wire mesh to the front grilles. I didn't lower it, but I did add wheels from a Firebird, and I couldn't manage the pop-up headlights. I tried a thousand ways to get them hinged, then decided to make them static in the "up" position, only to discover I'd lost the headlight lenses. Maybe next time. Hope you like it.

Such an awesome way to show a build in progress. As Scuderia said - both the dio and the build are looking great

Might be too late Jonathan, but have you considered polishing the paint instead of using clear? Or do you clear-coat first and then polish?

I spent AGES working on the headlights and I've conceded that they aren't going to pop-up unless the door hinges I ordered can do the job. So instead, I focused on the doors and wheels and this is where I'm at. Mags are from a '70 Firebird.

Amazing work! I agree the wheels should be a bit smaller though. That would also bring the body closer to the ground.

This build is nothing short of awesome. I love the way you're making small changes to really bring this car to life.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Sadly, I can't make these hinges the same as a trunk, since the lights do not sit square with the body. I tried doing it that way and the lights go on a funny angle when they lift up. I already tried Dogfish's idea (I think that's the most obvious way), but it can't be done as a T piece - imagine the cross piece running back at about 60 degrees to the lift handle. So if you run a lift handle like that, the hinges don't move properly. I'm now toying with making the individual hinges and then trying to work out a lift handle afterwards - although that might not work. I've also ordered some door hinges from Detail Master, so thinking of waiting until they arrive and see if I can incorporate them somehow. Sadly, I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that they might not be able lift up together (just like a real corvette, lol).

Managed to get some colour on the body today and polished it up. Still needs a clean up, but I think it's looking good. You can see the outline of the gullwing doors, and also the pin striping I did. I'm not 100% happy with the pinstripe design, but this was more about learning the technique than anything else. Hope you like it.

Thanks Dogfish. I might be going with that plan, but I wanted the lights to be able to pop up together by making a lever under the body. The lights attach at an angle, so making the hinges is the easy part - getting them to work together is more difficult. The build is still on track: wire mesh front grille; gullwing doors; pin striping; pop-up lights (maybe). While I struggle with exactly how to do the lights, I've done a "tuxedo" colour scheme for the interior (to go with a black paint job). How does it look?

Thanks to our huge storms in Queensland again, I've managed to get some serious work done on this project. Over the last week, I've finished removing the doors from the body and the interior tub, painted and wired the engine, and started building the body of the doors. So far, the only major issue I've had is that the door pillars snapped when I cut the doors from the body, so I've had to remake my own from styrene. Still stuck on a way to make the headlights raise and lower though. Happy to hear any comments