Spottedlaurel

Great to see you back on this one Sonny, it doesn't deserve to sit unfinished in a box and I'm sure you'll do it justice. Certainly looks to be coming together nicely after your recent efforts.

Aoshima do a range of different food wagons based on the Suzuki, I've had this one for years: @CabDriver is/was building a 3D printed Kei truck.

As I recall from the example I built some 30 years ago, it went together nicely: Wouldn't have dreamt of this when I built the kit back in the '90s, but I now own a 1:1 '92 LS400 so I can see what it should look like (excuse the dust and grime): The basics are there, but there's a lot less plumbing. You might be looking to replace the intake setup in any case? Sounds like an amusing project anyway. I have a spare 1:24 engine and I'm looking to drop it into something else one day.

Nice haul! I have a soft spot for the Corvette America (have an unbuilt one here plus the remnants of the poor thing that I threw together in the '80s). Are those Aoshima wheels the really wide ones? I used some on a Monogram Corvette C2, they looked really good, but I did trim them down slightly and maybe fit some different tyres.

Very kind of your benefactor! The only other US Airfix kit I know is the racing version of the 280ZX. Scalemates suggests it's ex-Gunze Sangyo. I had one a few years ago but sold it on - it wasn't particularly inspiring.... There's a little bit about one of them here: How much of a link is there with the British Airfix company? Here they offered rebranded MPC kits under their own name as well those they'd developed themselves.

Good luck with everything else Anton. Life is like that sometimes, the kits and other hobbies will still be there when you have the time/motivation.

Didn't realise it was over two years ago since I last did anything on this one! Not sure that I've actually done a lot more now, but I've been spurred onto making some progress with it. The paint went on in 2021, from memory Sandalwood Beige (Halfords automotive paint intended for a 1980s Austin-Rover). Now got to summon up courage to paint the trims along the bodywork and around all those windows. Sliding door seems to fit OK-ish. Ride height is about as low as it will go without surgery - I think it'll suit it OK as above, some lower profile tyres would help. Big thing now is the interior, and maybe some accessories - it might end up with the inflatable boat from the AMT Hilux kit as well as what came with it.

Good to see someone else is making progress! Did more on mine: Cut notches in the front of the floorpan that take the tabs on the Accord. At the back end I'll need to fix something inside the rear bumper. For now I'm using a block of foam to get a consistent height for mock-up purposes. I've also shaved some material off the hub faces so the wheels sit further in. I'm about there at the front, depending on which wheels I eventually choose. At the back I will also have to take a bit off the inside of the wheel - the NSX's body gets wider at the rear, but the Accord doesn't and I don't want to add arch extensions. Keeping it subtle is the key here.... Back on the favoured 19s. Then I found these BRS M10 18s by Fujimi, which I'd intended to use on last year's CBR entry that never really got started: With the centres painted bronze or gunmetal I think they'll suit it well, and they seem to fit better than the 19s. Also I don't think the NSX had particularly large diameter rims as standard, it probably needs a bit of compliance from the sidewall. And this is going to be something that's meant to travel fast on possibly less-than-perfect roads, not the track. Hopefully now I'm nearly there on the suspension I can start thinking about the body and interior.

From the same seller: Already have the street/strip Nova, but having read on here that it's a useful upgrade for the later MPC Nova I was happy to get this version so I can still build one standard-ish. Always good to have more wheels.

Interesting, what make is that? Intended to be motorized?

Nicely done. The black trim is very much part of the look these have and you did a good job of capturing it.

Nice work so far Matt, the distinctive colour scheme looks spot-on. By chance I was unpacking some books at the weekend and I found the Spike Anderson biography. He describes the paintwork as a "nice dark bronzy colour" over the standard Datsun 110 orange/red. The white pinstriping was added to make the bronze stand out, otherwise they merged into each other.

Arrivals in the last couple of days: These new Hasegawa kits are very nice. This one allows me to put my old Tamiya version up for sale. These were bundled together as one lot at a decent BIN price. I thought the FD100 would be a useful engine donor, but seeing a recent mention by @Tom Geiger makes me think the chassis will be useful too. Skyline has more bits than the other version I have (blue car on box), so I can move that one on. Escort may end up as a Saloon Stock Car short oval racer. These came from a seller who lists a lot of interesting built and boxed kits. Toyota Soarer is by Fujimi, thinking that will be restored and given a sharknose conversion, but for now it looks quite funky as it is. Paint on the Monto Carlo isn't quite as good as it looks, I thought it was Tamiya Candy Lime Green but it seems to have a heavier flake to it. For now I'm planning to do a basic temporary build on it, attaching things dry/with PVA so it can eventually be dismantled and stripped/rebuilt. Slammed on a set of wire wheels it should look the part.

By the end of Sunday I'd managed to get this far with the stretched NSX floorpan: It turned out OK. Front and rear suspension, subframes etc put together OOB, just dry-fitted at this stage. Good level of detail and very satisfying how well it fits together. I think I'm settled on how to mount the wheels, I'll keep them female fitment and fit pins to the struts/uprights, after a bit of trimming. The 19" wheels should allow for suitaby large brakes, I can rob them off another kit.

Thanks for the info John. Just had a look at mine, it has a pair of exterior mirrors plus the interior mirror, all on the chrome sprue. I also do the mirrors last, but it's only on my latest build that I pinned them and I will certainly do that in the future. I was actually meant to build it last year as an entrant in the Cannonball group build on here, but for whatever reason I never got onto it. Plan then was to fit a Viper V10 engine, still is....

Thanks Michael. Kind of embarrassing when that sort of thing happens, should know better by now! I have the early and facelift versions of the Tamiya kit, one of their older, motorzed efforts. As well as the new Hasegawa kit there are also road and "Cafe Racer" versions by Monogram. I'd like t get the standard one, I've built several others in that range and although they're very basic they do go together nicely and have decent-looking bodies. It's now finished and Under Glass.

Good progress so far, with the clean paintwork and tidy interior you've got the bits with most impact out of the way. Is it similar to this later issue I have in my stash? if so you've given me some useful tips for when I do mine. Has to be said I prefer the box art on yours, almost worth $5 alone!

Got a simple build off the bench last weekend and that's given me the motivation I needed to get back on with my CBR entry. Possible alternative wheels. They came painted the gunmetal colour, may leave them like that dependent on my final colour choice. They seem to fit inside the arches OK, just need to see how they work with the NSX suspension. On the subject of which: Engine, subframes, suspension and exhaust all painted and ready for assembly. Everything I've tried so far fits together very nicely and playing around with my old, standard NSX build shows that the new wheels should fit OK. Some adaptation will be required as they're female fitment, and the originals were male, and lower profile, skinnier tyres along with reducing the rim width will be required at the front end. The standard wheels and tyres are staggered front-rear and I'll have to match that. The floorpan stretch has been filled and I've added an extra bit of length at the back end. Should get that painted today, along with the enjoyable part of putting together the engine, suspension etc. Then I can really see how well it fits under the Accord bodyshell.

Nice bit of lateral thinking Tom. You got my interest with it being a Datsun, and by coincidence I have a Foose FD100 on its way to me. I was just thinking of using the engine for another project, but the chassis looks rather handy for other projects....

All from the same eBay seller: They offered me an attractive deal on the wheels and threw in the green-painted TE37s as a bonus. The CE28s may find a home on the Accord/NSX mash-up I'm currently building, handy that they're already gunmetal. The Nissan RB20 engine is a bit of a fraud, but I knew that. It's just the top half on a plate, but should still look deent on a 'curbside-plus' build.

Nicely done! Lots of of alternative parts left over as well?

Thanks everyone! Certainly not the sharpest build in my cabinet, let alone amongst the others on here, but it's quite effective and has given me the motivation to continue with others. I had to change something! Not many projects where I could use such wide wheels and they fit the era of the RX-7 nicely. I've never had a bad result yet with Halfords cans, colour or clear. They seem to work OK with Tamiya TS too. Always pleasing to find interesting colours in the clearance section at £3 a go... Managed to get some photos in the sun:

Finished yesterday, modest WIP thread for a simple kit here: Was intended to be a quick and more-or-less OOB build - apart from the timescale I pretty much achieved that. Paint is a 1990s Ford mica colour called Java Blue from a Halfords spray can, along with their clearcoat. Another coat of clear and a bit more polishing wouldn't have gone amiss, but that wasn't the point of this build - it was just something to give me a bit of motivation. The decals were brittle, I was lucky that those for the plates didn't split (which happened to the others). As mentioned in the WIP thread, I sliced off the bottom of the front spoiler as it really was too deep. That meant I could use the kit-supplied spaces to lower the front end. Mesh wheels came from another Fujimi kit, they were of the same size as those in the kit. A quick squirt of Tire Foam brought the rubber up nicely. The vulnerable mirrors were drilled and pinned for fitting, my first time doing that. Not much to say about the interior or chassis. Suspension detailing is basic, limited by it having the ability to fit batteries for lights and a motor, and its a generic floorpan I think they use for other cars. I used the sports seat option but left off the roll cage. Would be good to get some photos in the sun, the paint picks up the light nicely. I decided to forego giving the panel lines a wash. 'Black' trim is my usual favoued option of Revell #9 enamel. It's a simple kit, quite crude in some areas, but it still builds up to a good representation of the 1:1. The same being true of these mid-late '70s sports car kits from Monogram that sit well with it. Thanks for looking.

Looks like a fun concept, and as we've seen from the Long Beach show photos pretty close to the sort of thing being done at 1:1.

Thanks Sonny. Hope you like my alternative wheel choice! Made a bit more progress, but also a step backwards..... Gah! Was fixing the interior side panels in place, then realised the bodyshell was hanging off my thumb thanks to some glue sneaking in there. Fortunately it was mainly on this arch, not the middle of a large panel. If the worst happened then I could do a bit of local repainting, but luckily it came off with a bit of 600 grit then micromesh and repolishing. Phew. In the end I've gone for these mesh wheels from another Fujimi kit, as I can't quite build anything completely OOB. Centres have been painted with a pale gold. Enough of it is assembled that I can do a proper mock-up: Just a bit more detail painting to do then final assembly, so I'll hopefully get this one finished over the weekend.