LacrosseBoss

This looks pretty sweet. Nothing like raiding the wife's nailpolish drawer for model car paint.

Gorgeous Kenn.

I kept wanting to see what the wheels looked like but they were never in the right position. So the next step was suspensions. Here's the completed rear suspension installed. There's some paint screw ups that I didn't bother fixing. Once the body goes on these will be hidden. An overhead view of the rear end with suspension and gas tank/battery combo installed. The instructions were a little odd when the fuel tank/battery was to be installed so I misread them not once, but twice. This is the 2nd positioning of the battery to the fuel tank and actually the THIRD positioning on the frame of the fuel tank itself. I'm still not 100% certain it's right (I think it's upside down ...) but I'm not changing it again. This is actually what the picture says, so that's where we're keeping it. Ah, the front springs. AKA the small pieces from hell. The rear springs weren't overly easy to install either (I think the instructions for these were actually backwards, but everything is in so w/e). The front springs will hang outside of the hood and will be VERY visible so I wanted to make sure they looked decent. In order to fill some gaps I had to cut off the pin that didn't match the hole in the front axle. This caused the round edge of the shock to hit the axle so that got a trim too. They need a paint touch-up but, hey, they're in. Frame is gloss black, axle is aluminum, the details are flat black. The shocks themselves are flat black with red springs. A look at the entire front suspension assembly. Radiator is unpainted but being mocked up in behind. Now I can FINALLY mock the wheels in. This gives you a good look at the stance too. I popped the engine in because it looked dull without it, but it will be seated better when the interior is in. Wheels aren't quite finished as they need a touch-up on the yellow lettering plus a bit more sandpaper. They'll have disc inserts in behind and there's some chromed hubcaps that look kind of cool. The instructions claim they will keep the wheels on the axle but still allow them to spin. I'll believe it when I see it. Mock-up with the body in. It's sitting a little low and was leaning too far to the back since the interior isn't in this picture. To Do Checklist: - glue in exhaust pipes (already painted) - nerf bars all the way around (already painted) - get some paint on the body -- decals - paint/install interior - paint touch-ups on frame/suspension details - display! Over 500 views. This is my first ever post of one of my builds to this forum. I've shared a few on Facebook but no one there seemed to care so to share with so many fellow builders is incredible. Thank you all for looking. I've got a lot of inspiration from this forum and I hope you all like my work and are inspired by it as well.

Nice work. This is going to be cool. Not sure if I was new to the hobby I'd be biting this off the block, but I like what you've done with the engine. The toothpick idea is pretty cool. I usually just paint on the sprues like you said but then I have to touch everything up when I cut them off.

yet, as the box says "this car could seat comfortably four large British gentlemen or stout women". My dad was well over 6', 250lbs and my uncle is quite a bit bigger than him and it was true, they both fit comfortably in the front seat. I can't comment on the other two gentlemen (or stout women) though.

As I said, my dad used to own an Austin Mini and will gladly tell anyone who will listen his thoughts on this. He'll also include the VW Beetle.

I always felt the same, that's why I started painting the rear ends. Like I said, I find the symmetry aesthetically pleasing when it's the same colour as the engine. I'm planning on it. Picked up a pin vice from "Wheels and Wings" (Danforth/west of Woodbine - Toronto). I just need to see if I have a drill bit small enough, or go get some precision ones when I hit the hardware store. Also going after some wire that's the right gauge. I'm still not overly happy with the valve covers so what I'm planning on is drilling holes through them to do the plug wires. There will be 4 per valve cover, 2 on each side of the M/T logo. That will take care of 2 issues with this build (1. what to do with the plug wires 2. how to fix the mess I made with the paint on the valve covers) I'll be horrendously busy with work over March break so I'm not sure if I'll get another chance to update until after that. Probably won't get the stuff for the wiring anyway. I'm going to try to get some suspension components glued in if nothing else. Almost 500 views. Thanks everyone.

D'oh. This is why I shouldn't post past 1am. Well, there you go. Even more astonishing how tiny this car was in real life and how small the model will be (or how large the 59 Chevy was, take your pick).

I picked up some tiny brushes at John's (Danforth/east of Woodbine - Toronto) yesterday and started playing with them detailing the bolts on the hubcaps and I see the difference. I've always done as much detailing as I can with paint and a brush but I saw the mechanical pencil idea and decided to try it. I still like the paint/brush combo better though Thanks for the tips and thanks to everyone who's looked in. There are definitely way cooler builds on this forum but I wanted to share my work with others.

My first Tamiya kit - Morris Mini Cooper. My dad had a Mini back a looooooong time ago. He used to work for a garage and this was a car with no engine that was there the entire time he worked there. He says he asked his boss who it belonged to and apparently it was just towed and left there one night. So my dad bought it for $50. He researched and found an Austin Atlantic engine for it, JAMMED it in the engine bay, and screamed around town. Everyone who knew him some 35/40 years ago still mention (first) the car. This is a 1/24 scale kit and looking at it with the cover up, I can't wait to get into it. I knew 1/24 was smaller than I normally build (1/25) but I didn't think by that much. I also knew the Mini was a tiny car, but I didn't think it would be this small. Here, by comparison, is a picture of the body for the Mini side-by-side with a 1/25 59 Chevy I built this summer. The door panels are lined up with each other in this shot. I can't wait to start this one, but I have WAY too many un-started kits before I get here. When it's finished however, rest assured these two will sit next to each other in the display case.

After the frame and wheels came something to put the wheels on - axles. The rear was a quick change rear end, which I thought was cool, so I started there. The middle portion is one piece with two halves for each side making a total of five pieces altogether. The two halves were interesting when I looked at them because the half on the right shows pins for placement/gluing, but there are no holes on the opposite side. I originally thought this was flash so I tried to poke around with a pin and the left half is hard plastic. Oh well, I shaved off the pins and glued them together, no big. Here's the assembled rear end. The cap and middle seam portion of the quick change rear end were originally chrome but they were part of the bleach bath above. I'm not entirely sure if it's actually painted this way, but I like putting at least a bit of the engine colour on my rear axles. It gives a bit of symmetry when you look at the chassis. The orange will get touched up tonight along with some flat black ends. As shown, the driveshaft is also part of this piece. I decided I'd test fit it into the back end of the car, but turns out there's a few pieces that need to be put in first before the axle .....

Got some more work done earlier this week. The forum was down when I went to post progress pics though so I now have even more done. Since this is just a fun build to waste time between projects I decided to see what I could do with the kit supplied wheels/tires. Each tire was two halves which required gluing together and was hard plastic. As seen in the front wheels, this creates a massive seam. I trimmed most of that with the knife but it still looked bad. So out came the rough sandpaper. And the rear tires ..... This was the floor after the trimming. The sanding pretty much went everywhere else. The lettering on the tires is raised on both sides. I'm in the process of painting the letters yellow. I need a bit more practice on the smaller front tires but the letters are big enough on the rears to do a decent job. Good thing these are double sided so when I mess up one of the sides, I can hide it. Shown as well is a (now antique) Canadian penny for scale. I also got some colour on the frame. As per reference photos I found online, the frame is gloss black. Turns out the spray can I had of gloss black was only full enough for a partial coat on one side. As a result the remainder of the frame, as well as the seat (parts I usually spray) were done by brush since I'm not sure when I'll get to "Wheels & Wings" or "John's Hobbys" again (turns out I went today, but this was done). Here's a look at the frame with a body, engine, rear axle and rear tire mock-up. (sorry for the blur in the middle of all my pictures. My 30 month old son likes to look at pictures of himself and was nice enough to scratch the lens. I try where I can to position the scratches out of the way of the main focus of the picture. There's no money at the moment for a replacement camera so for now I apologize)

Wheels are INCREDIBLE! I've been following almost since the beginning and the process has been long but it's paying off. Keep it up.

Incredible. The paint is bringing this masterpiece to life. You are a true artist.

great start. The photo-etching really brings this to the next level. Also, I love the carpeting. Nicely done.

I almost cheered when I loaded the next pages of this topic and saw (1) the engines and (2) the rear wings, especially after you teased us beforehand. What an incredible project and it is turning out incredible. I'm following along so I don't miss a single step.

^ This is amazing! Build looks like a cool one. Can't wait to see it.

funny I came across this after just finding my set. I am missing the Batwing somehow but the Batboat is almost assembled. I use these kits to get me in between stuff since they're so simple. Nice work on the paint since, as was already mentioned, the flat black likes to show imperfections.

Thanks Chris. I have some BMF that I tried using and ended up scratching up a perfectly good paint job. I guess that just takes practice too. I was going to invest in a pin vice and some precision bits. I guess now would be the time.

the dude adds to this a lot. Can't wait to see the 2nd part of the seatbelts at the first looks awesome. Also liking the clear blue headlights. Lots of little things adding to this build. Great work.

Here's some shots of the engine. Still without the carb, air cleaner, front assembly and exhausts. There are actually two pieces (one per side) which glue to the engine block to fit the exhaust pipes in. Pretty cool, but it will get in the way of any wiring I may want to do (the other reason I'm not sure). Here's the fixed valve covers. I'm not entirely sure if I'm 100% happy with them still, but I'm afraid to wreck them further. I went back and added a light touch of aluminum paint to the M/T logo. I think the passenger side is actually the better of the two. I may try to fix it. Probably not though. Matched up against the others skills on this site this isn't great but I'm ok with it. Well, I will be once I deal with the Q-Tip residue. Wanted to actually let the paint DRY first though lol. Tucked away in its new home. When the hood is on, it looks pretty cool through the side. Going to work on the carb and air cleaner tonight because I'm excited to see how it pokes through the hole in the top. That's all the updates for now. Going to do some more work tonight. Just waiting for my wife to go to bed so I can make a mess HAHAHA! If anyone has any tips on washes for the valve covers for the future, or how to clean them up, I'd love to hear it. Or if there are any tips on plug wires. I've never done it and I'm kind of afraid to, but if I'm going to do it, this will be the model since the engine (as you can see) is quite visible - hood on or off. Thanks everyone for looking.

hahaha, she was already mad when she saw I used this tupperware container. I'll have to look into Purple Powder, sounds cheap and good from other stuff I've heard here. The issue with Easy Off is that we live in a basement apartment with one tiny window in our bedroom. I usually build in the living room on an end table I grabbed from someone's curb on garbage day. With my two year old, this also means whatever I do in one night after he's in bed needs to get packed away for the night. Anything with fumes probably won't work. Thanks for the comment and the suggestions though. A few more pics to come tonight. I've got others on my Facebook page (which I believe is public) for anyone interested.

Wasn't sure where to go from the frame so I went to "old faithful" in my books, the engine. I don't know what it is but I love building and painting engines. Still a few minor detailing things to do and I'm debating whether or not I want to add sparkplug wires. This engine is quite visible so I really want to but I've never done it and I always chicken out. Plus, the alternator (labelled "magneto?" in the kit) is really small so I'm not sure how to do it. The entire engine I'm doing is based on pictures I've seen online. I still want to detail the starter a bit with some silver or aluminum (maybe BMF but that stuff scares me too) for support straps etc. Worth noting here that the starter on this side and oil filter on the other were part of the engine block, not separate pieces, so the painting was tricky. Transmission has since been painted but here it's left so I can hold onto the model (obviously). Built up the sides while I waited to correct my valve cover mistake. Somewhere else on the forum I saw a tip where they used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil dipped in paint to do engine bolts. That's what I've done here. The first few made a bit of a mess I had to clean up but I eventually got the hang of it. Normally I make my oil filters white or orange, maybe yellow. But on this orange engine block I was torn. I thought I'd do something different and paint it blue. I'm not sure if there are companies out there that make blue filters but it's my model and I do what I want hahaha. Made a bit of a mistake I didn't notice until I took this picture. It was murder to fix (sand out the paint, repaint the spot, sand it down ... ... ..) but I did and it looks clean now. Front engine cover. Most of this will be covered by belts and fans and various paraphernalia. Having said that, not sure why I took the time to paint the engine bolts but I did and it looks cool.

Off work since Saturday so I spent some time with my family Sunday, was sick Monday so I got to spend time with my models last night. Researching this model I came across minimal pictures of the Frankie Schneider Gremlin but all the ones I did showed practically everything chromed in the kit painted. I tried bleaching the chrome parts for the first time. Either I did it wrong, or we buy cheap bleach because I read this process is supposed to take 10 minutes, maybe a few hours. But after 24 there was still chrome on some parts. I gave up and decided I'd sand/scrape off the remaining as I go. Here they are in the bath with the few parts I will keep chrome (wheel caps to add a different look and exhaust dumps because they'll be cool peaking out). They came out of the bath on Sunday night but I forgot to take a picture and got excited and started painting. Valve covers are orange with a black wash (that had to be redone). Wheels will be blue as seen in a number of pictures online. The rest I have yet to sort out. The first wash of black on the valve covers was done before the orange was dry (oops .....) so I had to brush some thinner on to wipe it out and start again. Also, there was some extra chrome in the wheels, plus my paint is a bit watery. I've since added a 2nd coat of blue which makes this wheel look WAY better than here.

I agree. The yellow wheels with the Star Card decals. Looking good.