Spottedlaurel

For today read the last month or so.... These came as one single Buy It Now listing. The Nissan GT-R in the middle is started but complete (the remainder of it not pictured here). Bought individually at retail this would all have cost considerably in excess of what I paid, part of which I have already recouped by selling the Subaru kit. I'm reaching the conclusion that I have plenty of complete car kits, apart from a few gaps that I 'need' to fill, so I'm concentrating more on buying wheels and accessories. Buying this one meant I could add my standard version to the 'for sale' pile. Just the way it's packed is so carefully considered, with the separate holder for the photo-etch parts and metal intake trumpets, let alone the great detailing on this kit. Neither of these are quite complete, and one is started, but there's enough to build one decent track day car out of the two plus spare parts for other builds. Again it meant I could sell a road car version. This is the sort of thing I am enjoying adding to the stash. Bodywork has been neatly brush-painted, hopefully that will strip back OK although it might just need some gentle polishing. I'm thinking some sympathetically chosen wheels fitted in the right place with a bit of lowering and fitment of one or two of the accessories (not the sidepipes!) will make it look pretty sharp. Will go well with the Ford EXP I got recently (also an Airfix rebox of an MPC kit) and the '80s Chargers. Despite all of the above I have ended up with less kits than I started the month as I sold a few at a 1:1 car show. Now trying to refine the collection....

Making progress on this one. Clear coat polished, could have gone a bit further with it but that's not the point of this build: Now painting up the interior, suspension and modest number of other parts. Not yet decided on wheels, will have a play around tomorrow.

That's very nicely done Luke.

Just asking price. Pretty sure I saw others for sale in Japan for even more. This is it compared to a normal 1/24 Skyline: Width approximately similar, but shorter and obviously a lot taller! Haven't discounted the fact I might build it someday, but there are plenty of others ahead of it in the queue.....

The Mazda looks similar to but better-detailed than the Fujimi version I'm putting together right now. Had the Firebird back in the '80s, still haven't finished it due to a warped shell. Not sure that whoever did the artwork got those rear tyres quite right.....

For me, probably this one: Random purchase some years ago off eBay here in the UK. Never seen one here before or since. Whenever I've looked more recently any others I can find for sale are a 3-figure sum. Only one I could see right now is in the USA at $200, and others in Japan in the past were more than that. It's now one of the few unbuilt kits that lives in the house, not the garage.

Nice! And not black?....

Thanks Atin. It went down well - I was slightly nervous, as there was a bit of leaking goo from the seal on the can. Just need to get on and use it up. The base coat looked almost good enough to polish in its own right, but I'm not sure how that would have gone so it got the clearcoat today. It's now in the boiler cupboard and it looks like it will polish up nicely. Now to find a bit of time to work on the rest of the minimal detail....

Nice start there, very clean. We didn't get this 2-door model with the open headlights in the UK, I think it's more attractive than its 3-door 200SX sister car with pop-up lights that was sold here instead. I've built this one a couple of times, it goes together nicely and I can't think of any problem areas.

Good to see an update, and well done for persevering with the grille opening - looks to be well worth the effort! It's not something I've done yet - maybe one day.....

I 'needed' to start a quick, simple build and this one fitted the bill nicely. The wheels at top left are what it came with, the others are some random sets I've had for a few years and I am contemplating using here. Or I might pick something else entirely. Modest parts count and simple detailing, just what I need. I seem to spend too long with the wrong sort of tools and brushes in my hand, doing work on the house, so something I can get in and out over Easter would be good. One of Fujimi's rather basic floorpans. As with many kits of this era it's intended to be motorized so any suspension detail is massively simplified. That's fine, it makes lowering very easy and I just want something that looks good on the shelf. The body is OK though, with decent proportions apart from the overly deep front spoiler. I like the first wheels, but even on this late '70s car the tyres look too chunky. I think they'll be better on an older subject. Might keep it straightforward and go for the kit-supplied set, complete with the very wide rears - something like 17 scale inches.... I decided to tone down the front spoiler, as it looked too deep without any sort of sideskirts to balance it out. A few minutes with the razor saw and a bit of cleaning-up has given it a more sensible look. Got everything in primer the other day and between other jobs I managed to get some colour onto it yesterday: Decided to go for a medium/dark metallic blue, in this case Ford Java Blue from the Halfords automotive range that I picked up cheap when it was on clearance. At 1:1 it seems to be used on mid-1990s Escorts and Fiestas and it's coming out a little lighter than I'd imagined but that's fine. I think it might be a mica paint, so the 'metallic' fleck scales well to 1/24. It hasn't had any clearcoat yet, that'll be done later today/tomorrow. For simplicity I will probably use the Halfords clear, I've had good results with it before. Hopefully this one won't stay here for too long as a WIP, I'd like to get it finished quickly to give me a bit of motivation for other builds.

Very nicely done, I much prefer the older truck's body on there.

Great work on the slicing and dicing, would never know from looking at the completed photos. And well done for persevering after the speaker incident!

Nice one, great to see it built 100% stock.

Very nice, you've really done it justice. It certainly puts the cartoonish Fujimi RX-7 I'm currently building into perspective! That does have a LHD dash however, so it might be another option for a USDM build.

That's a kind offer, thanks Les. Yes it did, although I wasn't 100% sure at first as they were hidden in one of the bags.

Been after one of these for a while: Didn't realise it's a reboxof the Aoshima kit - thought it was odd AMT offering a kit at 1/24. Did they do any/many others? It's not as detailed as the Tamiya version, but their LS400 is fairly rare. I'm planning to use the RHD dashboard etc from the Tamiya Toyota Celsior to recreate a fairly close replica of the 1992 LS400 I have at 1:1. The Aoshima kit having a sunroof will make it a little more accurate.

Very nicely done, and it looks great alongside the others.

Great period look to it, and the two-tone paintwork is very sharp.

I love what you've done to this one, looks just right.

Very nice, the detailing is excellent and it's good to see one other than red or BRG. I enjoyed building one a few years ago in Mineral Blue, as a replica of a 1:1 my stepdad had at the time. Foolishly I didn't lower the suspension....

Very nicely done, and I really like the black/copper combination. Definitely one to remember.

Nice one. Is this the Tamiya kit?

Monogram LT5 in their '65 Corvette: Needed a fair bit of work as I recall. Managed to use the later radiator but mounted vertically. And one from an AMT Corvette dropped into a '67 Impala: An easy fit this time around.

Very sad to read this news, I offer my deepest condolences. Roger's builds were very clean and full of interesting ideas and details, and he came across as so patient and friendly in how he explained what he was doing.