Justin Porter

Built Hasegawa's kit of my current daily driver - a 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman S All4

All wrapped up and starting the new year! This was the "California Wheels" edition of the Revell '67 Chevelle SS396 kit. I added the supercharger and EFI from the AMT '68 El Camino street machine, the electric fan and disc brakes from a Revell '32 Ford Speedwagon, the seats and billet steering wheel from a Revell '41 Willys Street Rod, and a prewired distributor from Gofer. This was a fun build and I'm pretty pleased with the results even if I'm not really much of a muscle car builder.

Latest update on the build. Window trim is all done and pretty happy with those results. I'm cautiously optimistic about the emblem decals. The chassis turned out pretty well too. I found a set of Revell '32 Ford rotors and calipers to replace the kit units that had been lost to time. I replaced the kit alternator with one from AMT that had the proper bracket, trimmed away the plastic belts, and made new belts from Tamiya tape painted Rubber Black. UNFORTUNATELY arriving at this point revealed a minor fit hiccup - the K&N style air filter for the EFI setup hits the underside of the hood as-is so I'm going to be scratchbuilding an intake pipe to move the filter down and forward. Ah well, onward we go!

Going to need one of those Gordini sets for myself without a doubt.

Really hoping that DModelKits finds a a wholesale distributor for here in the states so I can get some of these onto my shelf. That Escort and the Citroen C4 in particular would be big eye-catches in my shop.

Continuing progress on the '67 Chevelle has led to some fun developments. The interior was finished off in AK Interactive RC210 Silbergrau and to freshen it up a bit I added the seats and billet steering wheel from the Revell '41 Willys Street Rod. Getting to this point meant time for a mock-up to determine if we're on the right track and I'm quite pleased with the out-of-box stance. Now onto masking and spraying the trim with AK Interactive Xtreme Metal Chrome as is my standard.

A few fresh updates as I get through this build. The engine is coming along nicely though I will be sourcing aftermarket pulleys (likely Parts by Parks) to build up a serpentine setup. I discovered I had some Model Car Garage Edelbrock valve covers so after a shot of Vallejo Metal Color Chrome on those went. I used some Detail Master looms for the wires and will have to source some acceptable headers. Very happy with how the base color coats turned out on this one so should be able to just keep going.

Not often you get to see the old MPC 1/20th kit actually built. Great job!

Wonderful! Tamiya supercars are always a great release and it'll be interesting to see the detail they pack into this one.

Somewhere along the lines I had picked up one of the Revell "California Wheels" releases of their '67 Chevelle. Maybe I had planned to swipe the wheels. Maybe I was in a Chevy mood. The reasoning is lost to time, as are the instructions (thank the stars for Scalemates). So, after finishing the Mini it came to me that it has been some time since I last built a muscle car so why not toss the Chevelle together? I like the styling, I like the kit stance, so with a bit of added detail, a planned two tone red over silver paint scheme, and a few extra goodies to make up for where Revell cut corners I think this ought to be a little bit of a fun diversion. Already I have repainted the wheels in AK Xtreme Metal Polishe Aluminum to give them a bit more of a "billet" look than the kit chrome. Further, some parts bin diving turned up the EFI supercharger setup from an AMT '68 El Camino Street Machine. The heads are drilled for plug wires using a Gofer prewired distributor, and the first base coat of Mr Color C8 Silver is down on the body which thankfully didn't need too much addressing to get ready.

Really pleased this was finished and finished to a nice high standard.

Happily finished! This was a fun box-stock build of a genuinely nice kit by Hasegawa. The paint is Gunze Mr Metallic GX201 Metallic Black and Tamiya TS-14 Black, meant to replicate my daily driver.

Count me in as well among those who would love to see the Aston Martin minus machine guns and ejector seat. Granted, what I want most is a DB4 or even a DB4GT Zagato but a nice stock DB5 would be a joy.

Still more progress. Body cladding and the color separation chrome trim has been painted. I used AK Real Colors Rubber Black for the cladding and AK Xtreme Metal chrome for the trim. The grille is also in now and I couldn't resist doing a mock-up to check how it's coming together.

Really cool to see one of these Profil kits done and done nicely.

More progress on my Mini as it got into paint. Laid down Mr Surfacer 1500 Black and then painted Gunze Mr Metallic GX201 Metallic Black as the main color, then masked off and sprayed Tamiya TS-14 Black for the roof followed by two coats of Tamiya TS-13 Clear. Once all of that gasses out, it'll be on to masking off the lower body cladding and the chrome trim that separates the roof and body colors.

Definitely looking forward to an homage to a truly historical roadster.

Have I mentioned before that I love the way Hasegawa kits really just drop together? A full night of assembly plus some careful masking got the chassis together. The main color seen here is Radome Tan from AK Interactive which is actually a close match for the odd cream color underside of the Minis. The other colors are a variety from AK, Gunze Mr Color, Tamiya, and Vallejo.

Really impressive to see all the work going into correcting the small faults between both kits.

In terms of buildability, this represents a bit of a vacation after the intensity of the Gunze Ferrari. What's more, it's a bit of a personal project because my current daily driver IS a 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman S All4 in Black Metallic. The Hasegawa kit is a very nice curbside so I'm looking forward to a friendly box stock build with some very handy reference material. Already, I've tackled the interior, first shooting it with Mr Surfacer Black then following that up with Mr Color Flat Black. Hasegawa's recommendation of their C28 Steel for the faux carbon fiber trim in the interior actually works out quite nicely.

Genuinely a nice looking VW with just enough tricks to make it stand out.

The red is Royal Maroon lacquer from MCW Automotive Finishes. Closest I could get to Rosso Bordeaux. Thank you!

At last! My Gunze Sangyo 1/24th Ferrari 250GT SWB is now finished! There were some true panic moments towards the end involving windshield buffing, and I have elected to go bumper-less due to the kit bumpers both looking and fitting exceptionally poorly, but otherwise I am super pleased to have this build done!

Oh I'm fully aware that the Tamiya represents a different breed of "problems of is age" to the MPC kit. However, it's more a matter of public perception versus facts of contents. Of course, personally speaking I most want a MkI Celica Supra in a nice 1/24th curbside kit so that's my side of things. lol

Plus the Tamiya MkII kit has been routinely available in the intervening years and while it's a curbside it's also in the "right" scale for tuner builders and from a brand they know and trust.