Spottedlaurel

Thanks Dan, me too! I don't recall seeing many others for sale here. Seems like this was one was sold at a UK shop when new, it has a price tag for £7.99 from Park Toys who were up north - that price is about right for a kit sold in the '80s.

I've had this one for a good 10 years now, wanting to do something a little different this time I thought I'd give it a go. It's fairly simplistic, with a generic chassis that's shared with another van in range. Funky accessories including a couple of skateboards, surfboard and R/C helicopter! The other van I have includes scuba diving gear. I don't plan to build it with the decals. I'm going for a more standard look, either in this beige or perhaps a pale yellow which I recall they did offer on this generation. Quick mock-up on the Fujimi Aoshima accessory wheel set. I don't have too many 5-stud alloys to choose from, but these should suit it well. The Hiace shares the same 5x114.3mm/4.5" stud pattern as the larger Toyota and Nissan cars, and also Mopar/Jeep?, so they can be seen with all sorts of wheels. I found this old press photo, which convinced me the front spoiler had to go. I also opened-up the vent below the bumper. Overall it looks like a reasonably faithful recreation. The sliding side door and top-hinged tailgate fit nicely. My plan for its look is a plain and simple exterior with a day van interior, lowered and sitting on the period alloys. Maybe the owner got hold of a really clean minibus from a church or community group, and has fitted some of the interior from a rotten camper? I can recall seeing photos of similar things at Japanese shows, sometimes with a selection of old car parts, brochures, magazines etc for sale on the ground outside. I'd happily have such a thing at 1:1 and do the same myself! Just about to get some primer on it and will trial some colours today.

I was expecting to see the Hasegawa kit! This looks excellent, careful detailing and good colour choice set it off very nicely.

Very pleasing to see an obscure kit like that built, the finished result looks great. It might be a basic model with a pancake interior, but it appears to have the right overall look and proportions.

Thanks Bill. Good to know that's the only issue you had. Chances are I'll be swapping the wheels on mine, as it comes with funky little alloys that will be handy for another project, and I'm used to messing around with spacers etc. I'll try one or two 'sacrificial' decals to see if they work OK before I commit to proceeding with it as the full-on food van - my version is quite a few years old.

Nice work on both of them Craig. Good get these things out of their boxes and onto the shelf!

Looks really good, nice to see it built as a simple box van. I have one of the food vendor versions, not looking forward to all the decal work.....

Really nice build of something that I imagine is a bit of a rarity (both as a kit and at 1:1). I'd be very happy to have that on my shelf.

I missed this at the weekend, very pleased to see it completed Roger - it looks fantastic. So sharp, the finished result gives no hint as to the bodywork mod's you had to undertake.

Looks great Tom, the 2-tone colour treatment suits it very well. I see no issue with it being curbside, you did enough work as it is!

That looks fantastic, nicely done! The colour looks great and it sits perfectly.

I finished one of the Street Machine issues last year and got mementarily confused by the lack of wipers, now I know why they're missing. Never got around to finding any for it. No complaints from me about how it went together. Can't comment about the engine as I put an LT5 in mine. The only issue I had was through my own ineptitude, when I polished through the paint in several places and had to give it several more coats - as I now appreciate, a C2 Corvette has quite a complex bodyshape with lots of high points.....

Looks really good Gareth, great detailing work on the front grille and interior.

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Halfords grey primer, Halfords matt black as base, Tamiya TS-94, Halfords clearcoat. All from cans, I don't have an airbrush. The Halfords paint is intended for automotive repairs and I believe it's an acrylic, it seems to be compatible with the Tamiya. All sprayed as multiple thin coats. I wet-sanded after the primer and matt black coats, but I left the TS-94 as it came out of the can. The clearcoat was polished with Micromesh sheets from 3600 down to 12000 grade, and then I gave it a resin polish. I never get a super-smooth finish out of the can, but I've learnt what can be polished out to give an acceptable finish.

Nice one, finished result looks good. Do these have as much detail as the Porsche 356 Enthusiast kits? It's certainly more detailed than Tamiya's snap-fix version of the 911 Speedster.

Nicely done. I saw the wheels on your WIP thread and thought they were an interesting choice, making a change from the usual wires or Rostyles.

Nicely done, that colour looks great in the sunshine.

Thanks Alex, Tom and David. Finished it today, now Under Glass: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/161960-fujimi-1970-nissan-skyline-gt-r/

Finished this one today, a fairly simple but nicely detailed and well-proportioned curbside kit that I bought for £11.99 back in 1992/93. WIP thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/161532-1970-nissan-skyline-gt-r-by-fujimi/ Built pretty much OOB but with some shaving of badges and rear wing deleted, side windows sawn out, lowered about scale 75m/3", Star Formula wheels and Pirelli tyres accessory set by Fujimi, larger exhaust tailpipe from another Fujimi accesory pack (all the better to hear that 24-valve, triple-carb straight-six howl!), front brake discs and finned rear drums which were leftover from a Fujimi Nissan Fairlady Roadster, painted Tamiya TS-94 Metallic Grey and Halfords automotive clearcoat. Managed to find a break in the showers today to get some outside shots: Nothing too excting inside, I beieve they were a mix of black vinyl, plastic and nylon with a smattering of 'wood' trim. Goes nicely with my recently-completed Celica. I was going to build it with arch flares and much wider wheels with stretched tyres, but I'm glad I kept it fairly restrained. The detailing isn't quite as crisp as a Hasegawa or Tamiya kit, but it's a lot better than some of Fujimi's offerings from the early-mid '80s. I had no real issues with fitment once I'd trimmed the front of the floorpan to slot in and out of the bodyshell without excessive force or bending. Thanks for looking.

Thanks Adam. Thank you Chris. BMF is currently underway and here's the interior - nothing fancy! Sadly I messed-up the gauge decals, but they'd hardly have been visible so I left them gloss black. Request to other kit makers - this is how plated bumpers should be attached to the sprues! Just a shame they've got a tiny bit of flash, but I'm going to live with it. I successfully carried out the job that makes me most nervous - cutting the glass to get rid of the side windows. Can't have a pillarless car with them wound-up...... Starting to get a few bits onto the car to give it some identity. Stocktake: The plated sprue is from a Fujimi accessory set, to give me a larger silencer and tailpipe set-up. The wheel centres have been painted bronze to give it at least a tiny bit of colour. Where it's at now. Panel lines given a matt black wash, fitting of lights etc underway, BMF done on the front screen surround with the remainder still to do. After an extended weekend with a public holiday today I've also got a day off tomorrow, would be good to make use of the time and get it across the line.

Really nicely done, that colour looks great on it.

I've slowed down a lot this year on kit purchases, but these two arrived in the last week or so: Been after one of these for a while. Not sure that I'll build it as a lowrider so the wheels etc will be handy for another project. Perhaps an early '80s street machine, or a resto mod? Happy to get this one at a decent price. Nice kit of an unexpected subject.

Great to see one of these built on here, I'd be very happy to get hold of one. You've done a great job.

Roger, whatever you did there worked and it looks great! I use the embed code on Flickr if I'm dropping one of my images into a comment another photo, never found a reason to use it anywhere else.

Use the first Flickr option to "Share" instead of BBCode, which will give you a short link to drop into your post. I got foxed by that on another forum.