Spottedlaurel

A very sharp build there, nicely done.

Fantastic! Your buid really brings out the interesting styling details.

I built one of these Skylines approaching 30 years ago, still got it. I have a couple of other versions, this one is probably going to be a parts donor - the RB engine will go nicely into another Nissan. Might use the body to reshell my original build. The wing and muffler set is actually almost two full kits, the seller had a couple but only used the seats from one set. After the listing he found the carbon fibre decal and very kindly chucked that in as a bonus item. The items were listed as Buy It Now at a very reasonable price, so it was really good of him to do that.

I think being too hard on yourself Chang, looks great to me.

That's excellent Tom, and what an interior! Quite inventive and strangely effective. The nose treatment reminds me of the 'bathtub' Ford Taunus, which I imagine you're familiar with from your time in Germany.

Yes please, with my Cadillac hearse.

Micromesh and resin polish treatment given to AMT Corvette and Impala that I currently have underway: Suspension and interior work now the main focus of attention. Weather looks rubbish tomorrow, might bring a limited workbench set-up into the house so I can do things in the warm, rather than take cold, wet journeys out to the shed.

Very nicely done, colour looks great on it. I think I've seen the odd 1:1 in something similar.

Wow Chang, what a great start to the new year! It looks fantastic. Look at the reflections in the outdoor shots.....

Definitely one to be right clicked and saved into the build folder....... The kit looks like it contains the right parts to build something very close to that, main things being the front windows needing to be converted to one-piece glass and losing the rivets on the rear arches.

Only just seen this one, it's been a pleasure to read from start to where you're at now. Look forward to seeing the contnuing progress!

Exactly as Gregory has posted below. I have a version of each kit that has them, just gone and had a look. They're narrow and plated in the Hasegawa kit (probably more accurate) and the Fujimi set are wider and unpainted. Do you want some detail photos/sizes?

That looks fantastic, you mod's have really enhanced its looks. Are they your chosen wheels? I think they suit it well.

What a great save, the finished result looks excellent. Smart colour combination too.

Nice pair of builds, I particularly like the early one.

Looks good, I'd certainly notice one of those! Wouldn't necessarily think it capable of doing 150mph+ however, I'm hoping it'd be the same for my Leopard. Fingers crossed my build will do it justice. I've deliberately chosen something that won't require too much scratchbuilding or complicated merging between the two kits. Might try another one or two things later in the year, it's a theme I've had in mind for several kits as pure competition cars aren't really my thing.

They do another version of it as well: Only real difference is the twin rectangular headlamps and alternative grille, but I thought I'd go for the sloping units which might be a touch more aerodynamic. I've got a third one bought assembled but unpainted, and another one from another maker. Look forward to seeing your Escort progress.

OK, had fun this afternoon rummaging through a load of boxes, seeing what competition cars I had and which would be suitable for this. After many, many options and combinations were considered, including older Skylines, Laurels and even a 720 truck, this is what I'm looking at, hope it meets the rules..... Definitely a racecar, but even painted a suitably discreet colour and with no logos a Skyline is still going to be rather obvious. So, I'll drop this Nissan Leopard bodyshell onto it. It fits remarkably well, as I found when I put it onto the chassis of a previously built Skyline GT-R road car. The Leopard's long nose was intended to take a straight-six from the outset and the wheelbase was just 10mm different, and it's wide enough that I should be able to get some decent wheels and tyres under it without arch flares. Needs a bit of trimming at the front end to get it sitting properly, but with the generous front overhang I'll have ample room for the intercooler in front of the radiator. The Skyline's competition spec RB26 engine already includes some engine mod's over the road car's unit and a purposeful side exit exhaust, and I've found some other upgrade parts in another Skyline kit. I could even invest in some aftermarket monster turbos. A Group N spec Skyline apparently gives around 400hp compared to the road car's 280 to 320-ish, but these things can be tuned up to 1000-odd with the right combination of parts. 4wd and big brakes should keep it on the road. Ideally I hope to use the Skyline's interior which will allow me to use some of the cage (hopefully hidden by those chunky pillars), but with side panels from the Leopard I'll paint it a suitably discreet colour, and with its generic early '80s personal luxury car looks I'm hoping it won't draw attention to itself. I have several of these Leopard kits and it's good to have an excuse to do something silly with one of them.

Will be interesting to see your take on this, looks like you're mkaing good progress so far. I only have experience with the Tamiya version, I merged a lightly started rally version with remnants from the road car I built back in the '80s to come up with this: 1:24 Tamiya Audi Quattro kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Spent a good while reading through this and seeing what everyone else is up to. I have a few race/rally car kits that will never get built that way (as much as anything I don't enjoy decal work) so this CBP is right up my street. I'll wander out to the shed later and ponder what options I have.

Great to see so much thought and attention going into this build, looking good so far. I have a built one in pieces to rebuild as a fast road car one day, I rather doubt it will be anywhere near as thorough as this......

A really nice set of builds you did there Craig. GSX and Monte Carlo are my favourites.

I really like Opel Mantas, especially the original A (I had a rough one in 1991-92) and the early B with chrome bumpers.

That's what I thought about those lighter colours. They seem OK. I'm building two AMT kits at the moment and by coincidence both are being painted with Halfords paint. I put a decent amount of grey primer down first, and one of them got a bit of white Tamiya TS as a base to the light topcoat. One of them is also being sprayed with Halford clearcoat. It's doesn't seem to make the metallic base 'run' like Tamiya TS-13 does sometimes.

I started this one a long time ago and it's my appropriate entry for this round of Snake's "Bring Out Your Dead" thread (assuming there is one this time). Started off as the Ecto 1A ambulance, with lots of shaving and filling. It's likely I haven't done anything on it since 1995. Was progressing well until I snapped the glass, I think I was trying to get rid of the side panes with the lines moulded through them. I lost heart in it, but I was recently thinking about shaping a bit of clear styrene when a complete kit in a damaged box came up for sale. That's given me what I need to get on with it again. It was interesting to look back at what I started with all those years ago. The boat fittings and brass wire are intended as the basis for a rack on the roof and/or on the wooden deck inside. I'm planning to varnish a bit of thin plywood for the deck. Painted it straight black (not as shiny as I'd aim for nowadays) and did all that BMF work. I'll try and get away with giving it a bit of a resin polish to freshen it up and burnishing any loose/wrinkled foil. Wheels are the stock items from a Monogram '57 Chevy, the best I had at the time. Not sure if I have anything more appropriate now, they look suitably formal. A bit nerve-wracking cutting off those big lumps of excess plastic, didn't want to break another one of these..... More complete than it's looked at any time in the last 25-30 years. I'm well aware that's it's not a very faithful replica of anything, but if I hadn't done something about the replacement glass it would have got built as a banger racer (demo derby car). I may end up doing that with the incomplete second kit I now have, but at least I won't be wasting all that foil work......