Spottedlaurel

Nice start on it Gareth. Colour looks good, from memory I think it's one that was used on the late '90s Focus? Suits the Belvedere well. As a lighter shade I also think it's a good start for the foil under paint technique (one I haven't yet tried). You'll have a bit more margin for error than a dark colour or black?

Straightforward build of a simple but nicely detailed little snap-fix kit. It was purchased like this off eBay a few years ago, complete with the electric motor installed: 1:24 Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr [ It'd been sitting in a pot of brake fluid for a few weeks until I got around to stripping off the thick brush-painted enamel. Rather than put it back in the box I kept going with it as a project. WIP thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/160257-1980s-tamiya-honda-today/ 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Built pretty much OOB, painted Tamiya TS-41 Coral Blue which was a pretty good match for one of the colours they offered when it was new. The tin was very old and borderline useable, the finished paintjob doesn't bear close inspection but it looks OK on the shelf. 'Black' trim all brush-painted Revell #9 enamel. Watanabe/Minilite style wheels from the Hasegawa Nissan Sunny Truck kit, suspension easily lowered by redrilling the holes for the metal axles. 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Built purely for fun, the only element that really took any time was the black trm around the glass. Makes for a good companion to these previous builds: 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Thanks for looking.

Great to see one built as a low/medium-spec car, looks good. I recently completed a '67 Impala Coupe in a similar beige shade - it's good to use some colours which aren't seen so much now.

That looks wonderful, very nice work on such a delicate kit.

I'm adding a very modest update to this thread for the sake of completeness, as it's now finished and I'll post new photos Under Glass later today. 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I needed some centrecaps on the new wheels. I realised that the head of some plastic pins from an old toy would do the job perfectly. There are hundreds of them, a lifetime's supply! I drilled out the wheel centres and painted the heads silver. 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Basic interior brush-painted in varying shades of grey and black. 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Modest parts count before final assembly. The exhaust section pictured here is wrong and turned out to be from another kit, what I actually needed was a piece I hadn't previously been able to identify (but luckily hadn't mislaid or thrown away). Yesterday was mercifully the final day of black trim around the windows, with just some final touching-up today.

You deserve a medal for what you've had to go through on this one! Your hard work looks to be paying off, good luck with the last few stages. I have an Airfix Renault Alpine to do someday, I suspect that started life with another maker - Scalemates suggests Japanese manufactuer Grip. It certainly looks like it will need some TLC and surgery, not sure if I'm feeling brave enough yet.

That looks fantastic, nice work! The little bit of black around the chrome trim is very effective.

Thanks everyone! In terms of the tyre size they'd probably have been better on something bigger like a '70s Skyline, Fairlady Z/ZX or Toyota Mark IIm but they do suit it well. I have a couple of the non-narrow sets, they're massively wide! A bit cartoonish almost! 2JZ would be nice, or an LS400's V8...... I'd have liked one of the next-gen models back in the late '80s, but even then they were hard to find here. Closest I got was a 2-door parts car in the '90s, also in a similar colour: 1980 Toyota Celica 1600ST c.1994/95 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr It's just what turned-up on eBay a few years ago. All the road car parts I needed were present, and it's given me some useful bits to use on other cars including a couple of good sets of wheels which will be ideal for small/medium size cars. Thanks Trevor. Getting them to sit 'right' is what I usually spend a bit of time on. Most basic body designs look good, they're just not shown off to their best advantage due to skinny wheels, narrow track, high suspension to suit varying markets and road conditions, etc. I'd love to do that at 1:1 with one or two of my old cars, but I lack the skills and funds. At least I can have a go at smaller scale and realise my daydreams in 3D.

Really nice, it looks just like a well-preserved, unrestored survivor.

May be a simple kit but you've done a very nice job with it.

Nice one, I really like the period street machine look you've given it.

Very nicely done, excellent paintwork and detailing.

You guys are putting me shame, some great progress and ideas to be seen and another fantastic completion. Haven't touched mine for a few weeks now, but with a couple of simpler builds finished off I have no excuse........

Thanks all! I reckon there must have been one in every town back in the day! I remember a similar example in Ipswich in the '90s, by that time out of use and looking like it had been painted-up like that for a good few years. Looks like the days of picking up a nice example for £1,500 have long gone.......

Nice job there, and interesting to see one of these Arii kits built. Never knew about this Z28-E version. I got a brochure on the 1:1 from a UK dealer about 1982-83, I wonder if that was what we got here?

Stunning! The paintwork is amazing, you must be very pleased with how this turned out.

Thanks everyone! I agree, such a great look to them. It was good that Toyota gave their midsize coupe unique styling rather than just being a version of their family saloon/estate.

1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Latest completion, a nicely detailed curbside kit of a 1970s Japanese classic built in my favoured style with clean, straight bodywork, lowered and sitting on period wheels. WIP thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/159560-1970-72-toyota-celica-1600-gt-by-hasegawa/ 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Painted with Halfords Citroen Mediterranean Blue from a can along with their grey primer and clearcoat. Seemed fairly close to a light metallic blue offered by Toyota at the time. It polished up well and had a good scale to the flake. Has a bit of a flip to the colour, going from silver to gold to a brighter blue depending on the light. Technoracing TV-R narrow* accessory wheel set by Fujimi, with gunmetal painted centres. (*Not actually that narrow, more on that in a moment.) Fujimi accessory tailpipe and the kit's road parts fitted, with the arches and race components kept back for another project. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr The rear wheels are quite wide, I could really have done with them matching the fronts. I had to cut out the rear inner arches and some of the floorpan. Maybe the standard 1600 twin-cam has been replaced by something a bit more potent?...... 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr The Hasegawa kit is probably better than the Aoshima offering for building as a road car as it has delicately moulded, plated bonnet vents, rear cabin vents, door handles etc. I cut out the side glass to accentuate the pillarless look. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I lowered it by around 2-3 scale inches. At the front I moved the stub axle up the strut, the rear was done by chopping the coils. As usual I spent quite a bit of time on this stage. As reported in the WIP thread, I managed to snap the front bodywork then the bumper on two separate occasions. I couldn't face stripping and repainting the bodywork and I don't have Alclad or anything for the chromework so they were simply glued together at the mercifully clean breaks. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Interior painted-up to replicate the sea of black vinyl and nylon with a bit of 'wood' trim that it would have had when new. Unfortunately some of the dashboard decals broke-up, but I managed to salvage the main ones. As ever, there are a few things that didn't quite work out and I would do differently if building one again, but on balance I'm pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for looking.

Nicely done! How does the V10 fit? I've got a Viper waiting to donate its engine to something else at some point - is it much bigger than a typical V8?

Thanks everyone! I can't take any credit for the the flat/semi-gloss clear on plated parts, that was a tip I picked up on here last year - perhaps from Dennis Lacy? Try it on a bit of sprue first, but it's remarkable how it changes the appearance from the OTT chromed look to something more realistic without the hassle of stripping and repainting. The Tamiya spray cans I use seem to go on nice and even in thin coats without building up in corners (something I struggle with when using their Smoke spray). I deliberately kept some of the parts shiny, as I thought a proud owner might like to have a bit of bling under the bonnet, even if it wasn't like that from the factory.

Not a saying I've heard before! As someone who doesn't see 1:1 Camaros or Firebirds on a regular basis I think what you've done so far looks really good. You've put some time and effort into it, going curbside sounds like an entirely sensible suggestion so you don't beat yourself up on authenticity and take the fun out of it.

I like the concept and the start you've made on it. Looks like just the sort of car and colour that would be seen in the background of any 1970s US detective show.

Looks like the original builder has given you a great starting point, look forward to seeing it progress.

Thanks for the interest and kind words everyone! I haven't seen that particular one, cool! I do have 'hot rod' versions of a couple of other Japanese kits along similar lines. Thank you Steve. Shame you're finding the wheels difficult to find, I was lucky in that I bought a few accessory sets 10-15 years ago and I've been able to keep 'topping-up' my stock of them since then. Also I can swap wheels around between kits, especially when they come with an optional set. Sometimes I'll buy a particular issue of a kit because of what wheels it comes with (the Japanese sites that show the box contents are great for checking that). I finished it last night, subject to some possible tweaks when I see it in the cold light of day. Better photos to come when the sun shines and I can get some outside shots, then I'll add it to the Under Glass section, but for now...... 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I found a large bore exhaust tailpipe in a Fujimi accessory set that looked more purposeful than the original. I need to see if I can find larger registration plate decals, those I wanted to use broke-up and it was getting late. There are some details I'd do slightly differently if I built it again, but the automotive paint I used worked out well and overall I'm pleased with how it came out.

That's fantastic! If I think of what a T rod should look like you've captured it perfectly. Love the green paint and how you've carried it through onto the engine and running gear detailing.