Spottedlaurel

Nice work, looks really good and pleasing to see something a little bit different. I've got the Heller version to do someday, would look good alongside their Renault 4 as a reminder of previous French holidays.

That is truly fantastic Steve, you should be very proud of it. It looks so 'right', very plausible.

Well done for your patience on that task! The finished result will look good in there. I can see why the other person sought your help, it's not something I'd have wanted to do........ Car as a whole is coming on very nicely.

Wow, that's coming together nicely with your work on the roof and all the donor parts from various sources.

Thanks Chaz. Good to hear from a former owner and that you have fond memories of it. I don't know about in the USA but 1:1 examples are worth quite a bit here now.

Looks good so far. I'd love to get hold of one of these, but they always fetch more than I can justify.

I thought I was making good progress on this one until a little incident this morning...... 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Started getting the interior together. Old brochures I have show it to have been a sea of black vinyl and some 'wood' trim, with perhaps a bit of nylon cloth within the seats. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Got the basecoat of Citroen Mediterranean Blue down. Earlier this week I managed to get some automotive acrylic clearcoat onto it (same Halfords range as the base and primer), that flattened out nicely and I polished it this morning with Micromesh and resin polish. At this point I was very happy, it's probably one of the best paintjobs I've done. What do they say about "Pride before a fall"?........ 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I was attaching the floorpan to the bodyshell, usually quite a straightforward procedure on Japanese kits, when somehow half of the front valance (rocker?) broke off and the slender panel above it snapped. Kind of frustrating..... The panel below the grille and headlights has since been glued together, and is hidden by the bumper anyway. I'm going to leave the broken section of valance off until final assembly - if I try and put it together now I suspect I might snap it off again. I can only be thankful that the break didn't go through to anywhere more visible. It's a clean break so a discreet bit of glue and reinforcement behind it should do the job. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr First job was to cut out the rear inner arches, as the wider accessory set rear tyres wouldn't fit in there. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Next was to narrow the track, achieved by shortening the axle and taking material off the back of the wheels. 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr This is where I'd got to by the end of the afternoon, with the interior progressing and most of the suspension/floorpan mod's done to get it sitting how I'd like it to. I had to notch the the end of the tunnel, and since then I've had to cut a hole in the floor for the top of the diff. This was the finished result: 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Hasegawa Toyota Celica 1600 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Leaving aside the little issue with the front end I'm happy with how this is progressing. The colour works well on the Celica's attractive shape and the ride height is just where I want it, not crazy low and with the wheels sitting nicely in the arches. Other than fabricating some basic new rear inner arches and making good the holes it's just a straightforward curbside assembly job from now. There are some sharply moulded trim pieces to detail and BMF to apply around the windows. Edit: Looks like I could do with an anti-static brush........

Foolhardy, or even stupid, might be a better description than brave..... Very simple but looks decent. It'll sit nicely alongside the Honda City and Suzuki Alto I've already got on the shelf. After a wet sanding I gave it a few more spattery coats of the Coral Green. After a couple of days of drying out in a warm cupboard it flattened out remarkably well and I gave it the Micromesh treatment this morning: 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Tamiya Honda Today kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Still debating whether to give it some clear, might just live with it - it's just meant to be a fun build to look good on the shelf. Tried it on the 13" Watanabe-style wheels that came with the Hasegawa Sunny Truck I built last year, they should suit it well painted dark bronze/gunmetal.

Looks very sharp Luke. It's a great kit that one, I enjoyed building one last year in the same colour as my 1:1 1200 2-door. Bought another one recently to do a different way, it's the early model like yours.

This is my preference. For several reasons: 1. It makes the different texture and finish of the BMF be more apparent. 2. Possible risk of damage to the foil when sanding/polishing if it was applied before clear. 3. Until I get the clearcoat down and it's been polished I'm never confident in the quality of my paintwork. I'd have to apply a load of foil, then clear it and find there was a issue that meant it needed to all be redone. For clear I use either Tamiya TS-13 (if it's over one of their aerosol paints) or an automotive acrylic, everything can-applied. A few light coats (I don't count, maybe 3-4?) then a heavier coat to finish off, but obviously not so thick as to get runs. I rarely have a good shine by that stage, I rely on letting it dry out for a few days somewhere warm, then Micromesh sheets 3600 down to 12000 finished with an automotive resin polish. I used to apply a cutting compound between the Micomesh and final polish stages, but on several occasions I found I'd gone through the topcoat and I get decent results without it now. Take it slowly, build up with thin coats and experiment on scrap pieces or plastic spoons to find a technique that works for you.

A simple clean-up was definitely the right way to go on that one.

This is what I did with mine: Monogram 1:24 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 'High Roller' by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Monogram 1:24 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 'High Roller' by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Monogram 1:24 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 'High Roller' by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

What a charming little thing, I look forward to seeing it progress with your clean, considered build approach.

They both look great. Do you have a favourite? What was the biggest issue with doing both at once, perhaps the repetitiveness of the tasks? I can imagine doing two lots of brightwork, wheel detailing etc might make it feel a bit of a slog. Like most of us I imagine, I usually have several kits on the go at the same time, but generally at different stages so if I get fed up or challenged by one aspect of a build I can jump onto something simpler on another one.

That looks great Gareth, nice work. The two-tone colour combinations inside and and out look spot-on.

Camaro, as I built in about 1985: I don't know about the LUV, but I'd imagine the Chevelle would be similar - basically a pretty much standard kit on this high-lift 4wd running gear. I had no great issue swapping mine onto a '57 Chevy.

That looks great Tom, nice one. That chrome strip running into the window trim does look tricky, well done for getting it to look so sharp.

Very nice, a great memory of your family car. Regrettably none of ours were as cool as that.

Your photos of what needs to be trimmed look horribly familiar from the '67 coupe I'm building at present!

Hi Larry, I have instructions for the Camaro (2201). Unfortunately I haven't got time to scan them in right now but remind me again later today if you haven't been able to find them anywhere else.

Good to see another Skyline. Is the C10 from Aoshima or Fujimi?

Thanks Tom. It's a funny one with the glass, at least there's plenty of hidden surface to glue it in but I wonder if the bottom portion needed to be quite so large, or even there at all? If I was braver I think slicing that whole bottom piece off would do the job, but I don't enjoy cutting clear parts.

I think I've got there with my fitment issue...... 1:25 AMT 1967 Chevrolet Impala kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Lots of cutting and shaving around the front end of the interior. Dashboard is going to need another squirt of paint. 1:25 AMT 1967 Chevrolet Impala kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr All glass holes drilled-out, moulding marks on underside of roof sanded down, bottom corner below the quarterlights trimmed, firewall depth reduced. 1:25 AMT 1967 Chevrolet Impala kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 AMT 1967 Chevrolet Impala kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr That's better, not quite perfect but it doesn't feel like it's going to need excessive clamping to fit together. 1:25 AMT 1967 Chevrolet Impala kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr As I was in the mood for shaving things I got rid of the hoses or whatever they're meant to be on the inner wing. Only got one tiny nick on the beige paintwork, which should touch in OK. Obviously would have been better to do this at an earlier stage in proceedings......

Got more paint on these two: 1:24 Honda Today and Toyota Celica kits by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Automotive clearcoat on the Celica and more ancient Tamiya Coral Green on the little Honda. The latter might need some clear but the Celica should be good for polishing at the weekend. Also managed to get the AMT '67 Impala to fit together much better, after lots of shaving and trimming, and made a modest start on the restoration of this kit that I first built approaching 40 years ago: 1:24 Humbrol Fiat 131 Abarth kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Your issue also has the bonus of the bodyshell being moulded in white, mine was red. This was the one I did: Fujimi 1:24 Nissan Fairlady Roadster by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr