Spottedlaurel

Looks very sharp, nicely done! Never realised this was available in kit form - really good to see one built.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I do have another version of it to build someday, which will be modified but I'm not yet sure how - it looks mad enough as stock. Pro-Street?! Man, that was some tricky masking (one of my least favourite jobs). Much of the dividing line was on the outside of a curve/bend. Luckily it worked-out, with the help of getting a bit of clear onto the tape edge first. Getting those decals on took an unduly long time! Despite their age they didn't crack, but once placed they just wouldn't slide so I had to get them lined-up very accurately before letting them touch the seat.

Just looked up what that would give, 400+ BHP?! Wow,that would go nicely. I imagine a de-smogged 302with a bit of tuning would give 200-odd BHP? A useful improvement on the injected V6 without the complexity of adding a turbo (which was a readily available conversion on it back in the '80s, from the likes of Janspeed). Thanks Sonny, seems to be very plausible as a 1:1. I think a few got the ubiquitous Rover V8 conversion too, but I have a thing about keeping engine swaps within the same make if at all possible (and there aren't many 1/24 Rover V8s out there!). From memory I paid £50-60, a bit of an indulgence but it's a nice kit and it'll sit well alongside others from the same era in my cabinet. Also a little bit of personal significance, as my uncle worked for Ford and I remember the one he had for a while, getting a lift in it once or twice. Plus it'll be the closest I can get in 1/24 to the XR4x4 my mum and stepdad had for a few years, which I managed have the odd drive in. Haven't yet decided on colour, the choice was fairly limited on the XR. I might be brave and go for straight black. A bit of 1:1 reference/inspiration: Not sure if I'll go as extreme as this classic bit of 1980s German craziness....

Haven't done a WIP here for a while as I've been running through a few quick-ish, simple, curbside builds. Decided it was about time I actually built something with an engine, and to make life more interesting I thought I'd do a transplant that came to mind when I was pondering another project. We got this one in Europe with an injected 2.8-litre V6, which gave it solid but not super-quick performance. That came with the later Cosworth and RS500 versions, and the XR4i was eventually replaced by the 5-door XR4x4 with the same engine and 4wd. In South Africa they had the XR8, which logically enough came with a V8. I had the Mustang Pace Car on the shelf, and as I have something else in mind for that engine-wise it seemed natural to look at putting its 302 into the Sierra. I bought the kit partly started, the only way of getting one at sensible cost. The suspension is going to have to be carefully dismantled and of course I'm not worried about the V6 (on this build at least). Luckily the body hadn't been touched and the glass was still in its original plastic bag so had survived unscathed. A quick mock-up with the original wheels and engine. Certainly looks like an XR4i, with the distinctive additional rear pillar (and the double height rear spoiler will really finish it off). Rear pan on the original engine's sump. Which nicely matches the arrangement on the 302. The 302 seems to fit in there nicely, it even has a raised portion in the bellhousing which clears the anti-toll bar. A bit of shaving and trimming is going to be needed to get it level, but so far it's promising. I want to keep the bodywork standard but sit on some alternative wheels. The five-spokes (ex-Monogram/revell ferra 308 GTB!) aren't quite big enough. The cross-spoke wheels from a Fujimi Skyline are good, but the ones that really appeal to me are the Hartge alloys from a Fujimi accessory set. At 15" diameter they're not too big, but the rears are wider which seems like a good thing with the V8 swap. I think they're primarily intended for BMWs, but they suit the Euro look of this nicely. I'm hoping to find another intake/filter set-up for the 302, and look at fitting some different seats, otherwise I hope this should be a fairly straightforward project......

Pretty much completely OOB build of this simple but effective curbside kit: RiKo imported Tamiya kits to the UK in the 1980s, so this version must date back to when the car was current. Tamiya TS-30 Silver Leaf base coat and lower portion, then TS-54 Light Metallic Blue with Mr Hobby Gloss Clear, all from cans. Trim detailing with XF-85 Rubber Black. Quite basic underneath with metal rod axles but most of the exhaust system was a separate moulding at least. Interior also fairly simple, with the sides part of the main tub. The seat decals were a little challenging, but I'm glad I persevered with them. Overall a straightforward and simple thing to build, perhaps the biggest challenge being the masking for the two-tone paintwork and also the amount of black trim detailing that had to be done. Looks good in the cabinet and it's great to have a representation of such an unusual subject alongside the more common Skylines etc of the time.

Looks just right Jim, nice one!

@The Creative Explorer try searching for Noppo kits. I have one, and the box art suggests there were others in the range: Those I've since seen for sale were not cheap! I was lucky to get mine quite a while ago before there was much interest in this sort of thing. It's one of the few, maybe only, kits in my stash where I'm unsure if it'll get built due to its potential value.

They may already have done so. If they're the same as the ones I got in a Nissan Cedric Y30 kit and used on a Monogram Corvette build then they're pretty wide and they've done well to vaguely get them under a Celica - I can see why it's got that rake! Aha, here they are on June re-release: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10956550

Didn't know about the 1:1 or the kit! Definitely a kit to look out for.

Great to see another short oval build from you! I look forward to seeing how it progresses. I've been to see the 1:1s race at a local 1/4-mile track a couple of times this year, alongside the full-contact bangers they had Historic Stock Cars (a limited contact class) and Classic Hot Rods (non-contact). Great to see older cars out on the track, and certainly giving me ideas for future builds.

Nice one! Looks like you're doing a much more thorough job than I did with my recent Daihatsu Move kit - the suspension and interior detail (or lack of it with the latter) looks rather familiar.....

The Tamiya Lotus Europa Special kit has two sets of wheels which are really nice plus some period-looking tyres. The wheels are Minilites or Dunlop D1 alloys. I have quite a few sets of Japanese accessory wheels and only one of them is 13". For me I just swap around between kits I already, some issues of the Hasegawa Nissan Sunny Truck have steels and Minilites too.

Japanese Kei car that we got here in the UK (although not with a turbo). Finished result: Moulded in black, painted with Halfords white automotive primer, Tamiya TS-12 orange basecoat, TS-92 metallic orange topcoat and Mr Hobby Gloss clear. Lowered, fitted with TOM's Rally wheels and the original kit's Pirelli P7F tyres, and the rear windows and tailgate glass tinted with TS-17 smoke. Unnecessarily large exhaust tailpipe sourced from a Fujimi accessory set. I printed the UK plates as a homage to this 1:1 I saw a few years ago: Imagining that instead of being scrapped it got shown sympathy by an enthusiastic young owner and given the sort of mod's that I would expect to see on something at one of the local 1:1 Japanese car meets. Quite a smple curbside kit and the interior door panels had no detail on them whatsoever, yet it did have what looked to be moderately accurate suspension and overall I thought it captured the look of the original car nicely. Thank for looking.

Can't remember if I showed this Toyota kit by Nitto that I got back in March: Happily I got a Nissan companion for it last week:

Looks like a concept car sketch come to life!