Christopher J

I picked up a few Aoshima kits from Scaledreams a few months back as I love the Japenese kits and how they're molded, and thier fit, etc. The only gripe I have with them is that they are cubsides and I prefer "full" kits, anyway......The first I chose to build was the Toyota Celsior, it's the East version lf the Lexus 400. I looked at a few of these online and noticed that other than being a luxury car they are used as Tuners too so thatsh the route I went. Since I wanted a nice looking finishedd product I decided to try my hand at polishing as well. The last attempt on another build didn't go so hot, this one though I think did. I'll you all be the judge... Driver is a Locsters Rider. They come in sets of 5 but are hard to find as they are discontinued. Normally they go well with lowrider models but I decided to try one in here. Who says a Homie can drive a Japanese luxury tuner??? His right arm had to be modified. There are build pics in my thread in the Workbench section. I love the wheels that came with this kit. I chose to strip them but leave the lip chrome. I think they came out nice.... And the chassis......

Thanks for the compliments. I don't have the front seatbelts done yet, but other than that it's done. Here the last of the work in progress pics. I decided to give polishing another shot. When i tried it on my 64 Impala I rubbed through the clear into the paint. This time I started with a higher grit and less pressure. Before After View of the driver from the right Rest of the pics will be in the completed section. Thanks for looking.

I thought this build looked familiar!!! I like the work so far. It's looking good. How the paint clean up go on the lines I haven't been on the other forum in a while to check it out. How's the quality of P&P's stuff? I'm working on another build with my kid. He chose an old school KW cabover for his next conquest, I think some of thier stuff would look good on his build and some of mine as well. Keep up the work, it's coming along nicely.

I piccked up two of these when I ordered my Lone and Pro Star tractors.....still waiting on my tractors....;-( not hapoy, but like the kits.

This looks like an awesome build! I've had ine of these on order since December, cant wait for it to show up. I also ordered a Prostar as thats what I used to drive. I'm thinking about making my Prostar a daycab and and doing something like a Double Eagle sleeper on the Lonrstar. I'll be folliwing this build for sure.

That's hell hot!!! Nice work!

Your build looks nice so far. That is my second favorite bodystyle of the Mustang. I owned an 08 GT for a while. For the body maybe the warm/mildly hot water treatment will help the body some. Figure out where the twist is and run hot water over that area just enough to soften the body and try to get the twist out. Be careful of your pillars....

Great looking build so far. I like the two tone interior. Looki.g forward to seeing more of the build.

Thank you for that An old school being lowered= fine. Muscled up=fine. Customized=fine. Raised up and put on rediculous sized wheels=NOOOOOOOOOOO Like that paint color! Will that be over a white or silver base?

Had a chance to get some more work done to the rear suspension last night. I looked around the parts boxes of RC Helicopter odd n ends and model boxes before I found a good way to make spring retainers. I found that the brass inserts for the servo grommets to keeps screws from smashing them were a perfect fit for the brass tube I was using. For springs I took a spring from an ink pin, cut it in half than cut it down to desired size. I used JB Weld Quick to set the brass retainers. Next I worked on the inner tube. I first slid in the square arms and marked on the arm were I wanted to drill my holes. because the tube fit perfectly in the arm I was able to use the arm to hold the tube so I could drill through it without the drill bit wandering. Next the inner tubes were cut to length and fit. I had to remove some more material from arms to allow for a little bit of swing of the inner rod depending on the suspensions position. So far here is what I have.... I believe this is pretty much final minus some sanding and cutting the pins to size before painting. Next I'll be wrapping my mind around the front shocks.

Who's standard?? Looks good from where I am. You're doing a heck of a job resurecting an old kit. Keep at it and do YOUR thing.

Outstanding work. Gonna suscribe to this one.

Thanks guys. Its awesome to have recently returned to building and get nice reviews on my work.

For your altenator wires look at either Detail Master or Parts by Parks, this will keep you from trying to figure out how to use the small kit one. The Detail Master one is nicer but the other is pre-wired and a little cheaper, still looks good and adds a touch detail for sure. You'll need a small drill bit, like a #67 to drill the hole in the heads. You can use a Pin Vise or if you're patient just twist it in your fingers and take your time. I used Ca to set my wires. Don't let the BMF scare you off from using it, if you mess up you can simply peel it off. You will need a small supply of new X-acto blades though depending on how much you are wanting to do. The tips will dull after a bit and tear the foil rather than cut it. I also have a couple of Q Tips and cheap toothpics handy when doing foil. I use the ones that have the rounded edges as they don't tear the foil when trying to set in contours. Regarding the Easy Off using the stuff in the blue can shouldn't be a problem in your apt. I use in a section down in my basement with not problems. I get it to do it's job and go rinse off my parts in warm running water. Once your valve covers dry use some tweezers to pull off the fibers the Q tip left. Don't worry about comparing your skills to others. Nobody got where they are overnight......a lot of kits had to be sacrificed

Looks like you're off to a good start so far. For stripping paint I use purple power, you can buy it at Wal Mart for about $5 bucks a gallon, that grap a plastic bowl from the kitchen.........shhhhhh, don't tell the wife. For stripping chrome I use Easy Off oven cleaner. The stuff in the yellow can I hear works better, but due to odor you need to be in a well ventilated area. I've been getting the stuff in the blue can which has less odor/fumes and so far it's been working just fine for me, no issues. I try to avoid using thinner or anything that will attack the plastic.

I agree. Looks a ton better than my first time flocking, that's for sure. The Cordova brown is a great color on that body, it looks killer. What did you use for your flocking to get it to stick? I was using mildly diluted white glue but switched to 3M adhesive. Only draw back and having to do quite a bit of taping sometimes to keep it off unwanted areas.

Beautiful work you have going so far. I love the preshading and the body line work you did, that looks fantastic.

Dragfreak, I use brass wire. I bought a few different guages. I was looking for somewhat easy to bend, yet strong enough to retain shape and strength. I'll have to take a look at the pakage and get back to you on the guage I ended up using. For the retainers to be able to slide the panels off and on until the final stages I use small diameter Plastruct tube. When I get ready to glue them in place I'll use E6000 glue as I found it sticks to metals rather well.

While tinkering with trying things since I'm thinking of making this a mix of a custom street/lowrider I decided the suspention needed to be funcional so I can display and different attitudes..... The front suspention was carefully cut apart, modified, and sanded then included was some styrene tube cut to needed length and brass rod cut to put things together to check for fit and operation. Down the road I'll cut the rods down to a millimeter or so under length and glue them in. Next came the rear. This took me a couple days to wrap my mind around and figure out, but so far so good... The one thing I learned on the front was to drill smaller holes so I could use smaller pins Next I'll work on cleaning it up some and making the hydraulic cylinders

Not too long ago a buddy of mine had a 66 SS that he had a bad paint job on and gave up on the model. He knew I wanted to try some things on a model and rather than risk messing up a new one he gave me this one. The paint had reacted with the body and it looked like finely wrinkled fabric.. I can't remember the type of paint but the plastic DID NOT like it!! It was dipped in easy off for 24 hrs which only softened the paint. Next it was put in the purple potion for a little over a week. Once down to the bare plastic I started doing body work and some sanding to try and get it back to looking somewhat decent. Since I had it to practice on I decided to open it up as well, I watched a few vids of Dr Cranky's a few times and dove in. My first attempt at hinges and opening doors and trunk. Here's what the body looks like so far....

Some more recent work on the Celsior. I hit the interior with a dull coat, it looks much better now I also did some more triming to the area where I cut the arm off on the Homie that's driving. The arm was repostioned, gaps filled, and painted. I also started working on the front seat belts, the part that's done is glued to the front seats. I will work on the other section that comes from the B pillar next. For the headlight bezel I wanted to add something to help it out besides paint so I put some clear blue beads in to simulate bulbs Gonna start clearcoating and sanding while working on the front seat belts. More to come......

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

Very realistic and beautiful looking build. Fantastic work!!

It's looking good so far. I really like the idea of medical tape for the headliner!! Novel Idea. I may have to "borrow" that one....... That black on the chassis is pretty smooth looking. Are you going to add any more color or weathering?

Working on the suspension The tires and wheels after decals and a black wash to help to give them a lttle depth After some BMF and suspension adjusting to get the ride heigt I wanted. I need to still set part of the rear bumper, you can just barely see it sticking out. Anyone have pointers on how I can make my BMF a little more smooth? The biggest area I'm having issues is in 90 deg. areas and on the very slim pillars, I just can't seem to get it smooth but on my caddy and impala builds it came out great. I've got some touch up here to do so excuse the roughness. The paint bled under the tape some. Next times I think I'll liquid mask again as I have better luck with it in tight areas. The interior. It's since been hit with a dull coat to knock down the shine. I managed to find a set of Locsters Riders, which have been discontinued . The go great in the lowrider build I've been doing, but who says a "homie" can't roll in a RHD foreign ride? His arm is a bit high so I'm repositioning it.... more to come...........