Spottedlaurel

You certainly do like the C210/211 Skyline! I have one or two, recently got a 4-door and a late C110 for the nice OE alloy wheels they came with - I want a set to create a close replica of my 1:1 Laurel C230.

I built a very loose replica from the Monogram '55, started in the '90s and finally finished at the very beginning of this year. Some good tips here on what not to do! I used to watch it every so often on a VHS recorded off the TV, somewhere I've got a DVD.

Interesting, I'd have thought it was more complicated to get a racing car licensed as there'd be the sponsors and the original manufacturer? Also, I suppose racing cars sell better and they can spin-off numerous versions to collectors with just a different decal set.

A nice survivor, it's lasted the years very well.

Great to see this one, and like Les I'm also interested to see what road car options might become available. The Sierra and Sapphire were hugely significant cars here, I think they topped the sales charts for much of the 1980s and almost everyone will have a memory of them. My mum and stepdad had a 5-door XR4x4 which I drove a few times, a different beast to the Cosworth but I liked it. A couple of tidy Cosworths I've seen: If it could be converted to non-Cosworth spec then even more options become available: I could even recreate my grandad's Sapphire: Would be great if a 5-door bodyshell was offered, or even an estate!

Great to see, I look forward to this one becoming available here in the UK. I've never seen the Monogram kit. Tamiya also offered this version, which I bought started but unpainted: Green must have been a bit of a signature colour on the early model.

That's fantastic. A very sharp build and the dark edging around the chrome trim really adds to the look.

Very nice Claude, super-clean looks and detailing!

Thanks all! Had a bit of a gap in making progress,but as it's such a simple kit it doesn't take long to move things on when I do manage to grab a bit of bench time. As is sometimes the case with Japanese accessory wheel sets. the back of the rim needs trimming to suit the tyre. For some silly reason I rarely do this in a vice, but at least the wide rims made these wheels easy to hold while I cut through with the saw. That's better. Centres brush-painted with a couple of coats of Humbrol gold #16, caps and nuts to be detailed. So, what do they look like?....... That'll do. This is with the floorpan in place, the rears just about fit without needing to relocate the inner arches. It'll be interesting to see how much of the original suspension I can use, and to what extent it needs to be lowered. The accessory wheel/tyre set has a similar rolling radius to the originals, so I won't gain anything there. There's a 1:1 MX-5 in the next village that sits about as low as this. Paintwork has been given my usual Micromesh and resin polish treatment. It's OK, but not my best. I couldn't get a decent final coat on the green so I had to give it a bit of clear (I usually try to avoid this on non-metallic colours). Chosen seat/interior colour can be seen in the background, Revell #17 enamel from memory. It has a bit of a butterscotch/ginger quality rather than a plain cream or tan. As it now sits, waiting for final detailing and assembly. I'll add a large exhaust outlet, did toy with a rear wing but decided against it. If all goes well with our move to the new house then I'll celebrate by getting a new board........

A well-executed 'what if?' concept you've built there, very nice. Perhaps what Opel could have offered as a replacement for the Manta in the 1980s? In the 1980s Street Machine magazine here had a "Motorvation" page with sketches of things like this, they may even have done one for the FWD Ascona/Cavalier.

Nice work there Anton, I like the clean, understated look and also the wheels and tyres you've chosen. I've got the same kit to build someday, good to see what can be done with it.

Thanks Curtis. Ironically I probably won't be using the hardtop! Thank you Jim. I remember your nice builds. I think the black interior will be a bit gloomy against the dark green, I'll do it something like this one my friend had: I've a feeling it was some sort of special edition, it was certainly a JDM car.

This is hopefully a quick in-and-out-in-two-weeks holiday build - let's see if that happens....... I did something similar last year (on a Monogram Datsun 280Z), it didn't quite work out but I made life difficult then by painting the panels in different colours so there was a lot masking and drying time to consider. This time I've chosen something simple which will be a single colour and that has minimal trim and detailing to deal with. No engine, the suspension will get minimal detailing and being a convertible there's not much to do on the windows or surrounds. The plan is to get it sitting low on a set of wheels with stretched tyres, but otherwise straight paintwork. I tried these SSR Mk1s as they were assembled, but I wasn't sure. So I'm going for these Racing Harts instead. I've swapped the tyres from another accessory set, which had a touch more sidewall depth and looked better to me. I'll be happy if I can get it sitting like that. The suspension may need surgery, but with the excess rim depth cut-off I think they should fit in the arches OK. For colour I'm going to go for Tamiya TS-9 British Green, quite common on JDM imports and I remember one like it that was owned by a friend. It had a tan leather interior, which should look good aginst the green. Wheels will have gold/bronze-painted centres. Since the above shot it's had couple of coats of the green and following a wet-sanding session I'm just about to give it another coat or two.

Nice work on that one Gareth, just as I'd imagine it should look from seeing all those '70s American films and TV shows! If this is the same kit as the Joker Goon Car then I built one some years ago, went together nicely as I recall and it still looks good on the shelf. Mine was done as a matt black hi-po rat/stealth car. Still got another one to do someday, and the Force 440 coupe version. Thinking of doing one of them as a stock passenger car.

Alan, that's remarkable! Really nice job you've done there, I remember those WIP shots......

I've been through the last couple of months without doing anything to my various builds. We decided to move house, so getting our place ready to market and look at new places took up a lot of time. Fingers crossed we now have somewhere to go to, and buyers lined-up for ours, so the move should happen late summer/early autumn. The new place has an indoor study/studio room, and the garage is joined to the house, so I can build and get access access the stash without having to go for a walk down to the end of the garden and sit in a cold shed. As we haven't exhanged contracts we're not yet at the point of being able to pack, so I have a bit of time and with good weather I've been able to make some progress again. 2021 Cannonball Ruse build has been painted and polished, Toyota Hiace van has seen a little bit of attention, and I've got back into this Tamiya BMW M635CSi: I started it last year as a reshell of one I'd built back in the '90s. Now I look at the photo it doesn't seem like my old build (the top one) was that bad at all, but the paint was flat and I had the bodyshell etc spare so I thought it would be one less box on the shelf. I'd bought the duplicate kit for a cheap price as the original hood was warped, at some point I sold its engine to someone on another forum and the wheels have been used on another project, so it couldn't be built as a complete, second model. The floorpan and running gear, engine and interior on my original were all absolutely fine, so I'll just pop the new bodyshell on. Rather than the original, generic white I went for Tamiya Pearl White this time, not easy to use and I don't enjoy painting and detailing white cars anyway. I painted the wheel centres gold to give it a bit of colour. Since the above shot I've started the BMF work, there's a surprising amount of it for an '80s car. Still got more black detailing to do too. As I'm on leave for the next couple of weeks I'd like to try and get it finished. I can see once we start packing, going through the move and sorting ourselves out at the other end then I won't have much building time! Like I did last year, I'm also looking to start and finish something completely during my holiday period, a quick and dirty build just for fun. Looked on the shelf and a Tamiya Eunos (MX5/Miata) Roadster looks to be the ideal candidate........

Great to see the Laurel C31 kit is still available. I 'need' to get one or two of those someday. Great selection of wheels too. I've been avoiding buying anything more, due to a forthcoming house move, but I couldn't resist when a firend on a 1:1 car forum put a nice selection up for sale. I ended up with these: The Heller kit is missing the figures, but I was only interested in the tools. The two small kits are odd, the Dyane 6 is just the box with the remnants of a Citroen CX inside. The Renault is complete, and very toy-like. The bodyshell is in two halves with a join front-to-back right through the middle! It also has opening doors. I've seen one built, the guy found it to be a bit of a challenge and it's best to accept it's just a toy.

Great to see others making progress or completing their builds. I've taken a bit of break from the models because of 1:1 life, but great weather last weekend and some spare time saw me get the colour and clear onto my Nissan Leopard on Skyline GT-R floorpan: The engine is fitted in these shots, I have no issues with clearance (the front of an R32 is lower, if anything I need to add material to the inner wings to fill the gap). I've since polished it up, with good results. Rather than the stealth black/beater look I'm trying to hide the performance of this one in plain sight. It'll look like a smart example of a chintzy early '80s personal luxury car, but not something anyone would expect to go very fast. I need to tone down the wheels a bit, and get the fronts sitting inside the arches not protruding as they do at present. I may even try a different style, I was detailing a set of BBS mesh wheels for another project and tried them on this, they suited it very well. The interior is going to be my biggest challenge, with its combination of the basic GT-R tub, LHD Silvia/180SX dashboard and side panels from the Leopard. I'm now on leave from work and for another year can't go anywhere too far, so I'll have a bit of time at home to try and move this one along. Good luck to the rest of you still working on your builds!

Nice one Luke, great to see it finished.

Great job on this one Gareth! Looks spot-on. I vaguely started my DoH version with flush rear window some years ago, but didn't progress beyond mocking-up with larger wheels as I was thinking of a pro-touring look.

Has your move happened yet Pierre, and if so how did it go? When I first read this thread I found it interesting and I related it back to my own experiences. Since then it's become very relevant, as all being well we've sold our house and we'll be moving, so I'm going to have to pack everything up. In our case it's a bit odd, as the new place is less than half a mile/just over 0.5km down the road! Unfortunately we won't have access to it until our house has sold, so I'm planning to rent some local storage space, taking the kits there myself (along with a few thousand car magazines and brochures) then bringing them back when I've started to get the new place set-up. That way it will only be me handling them. I'm planning to wrap each built one in a sheet of kitchen roll and bag it up, and layer them in boxes with bubble wrap, packing beads etc retained from all the eBay/online purchases I've made over the years.

How about the wheels from this Monogram 280Z? Might be worth trying to find some slightly taller tyres for a period look. I used them as they were on this Roadster: Edit: I think there was a Lotus Esprit kit that also had 4-stud slotmags.

That's truly wonderful Chang, you must be very proud of it. I could never contemplate owning one, but it's always a treat to see a 1:1 DS in the metal. They're one of the few older cars that my wife likes.

Thanks for the continued interest and comments! Regrettably I've had to put this and my other WIPs to one side for the moment as we're concentrating on a potential house move. Thanks, and I have the same Matchbox car! Not from back in the day, I was a touch too old by the time it came out, but as a more recent purchase. The mug dates back to the '80s, my grandparents had a set at their house for all four grandchildren. I think the 2-door Sport may only have been available here in orange? That's the only colour I remember them in as well. Thank you, and good to know the engine lived-on. They were a popular upgrade here for other cars back in the mid-late '80s. There may even have been a kit available for the Morris Minor. I'll do my best, but for the reason quoted above don't hold your breath!

Really nice job on that one Roger.