Spottedlaurel

WIP thread here: Started half of my lifetime ago, since then I've moved house four times, got married, had a couple of children and yet still never quite found the time or motivation to get this thing finished off. Until this year! Worth seeing the box art from my 1991 issue of the kit to see what it should look like: 1:24 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr And now: 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I'm showing these last two shots for the sake of completeness, not to show off any level of detail...... 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Thoughts about it after 25-odd years? The majority of the kit went together remarkably well for what I believe was originally a 1960s Aurora tooling. The separate panels fit the bodyshell very well, but the hinging mechanism could be improved. The suspension and chassis are fairly well-detailed, I can't comment about the original engine as it's still in pieces (might get used on a future project). Fitting the V8 was straightforward, I think Maserati did it themselves later in the model's life so there's plenty of room. A standard carb and intake set-up would easily have fitted under the bonnet, I just wanted to do something a bit silly. The glass was the worst-fitting aspect, neither the front or screens are quite tall enough and they don't have much overlap at the sides, so attaching them was a tricky exercise - PVA and patience did the trick. In terms of what I've done to it, the colour is Ford Hawaiian/Gemini Blue with some smoothing of the bodywork, the V8 is still of unknown origin and various ancilliaries on it are from the parts box. Wheels are from the Monogram Corvette America. They're a bit larger diameter than the originals and somewhat wider, hence the arches being radiused. Now I'd work on getting it to sit a bit lower, but I just built the standard suspension and stuck the wheels on. Remember I started it in pre-internet days, I just had my imagination and inspiration from magazines and books to go on. Even if I'd wanted o use the original wheels and tyres I couldn't have done - the wheels were nice enough, but the tyres (intended to have whitewall inserts) had started to go sticky and I had to chuck them away. Although my backstory for the car sets it in 1970s America, I've used the British registration plates. I realised they would have been issued in the nighbouring county of Suffolk, which is where I lived until the late '90s and first started building this kit, so it seemed appropriate to use them. Let's say the American owner got posted to one of the USAF bases here in East Anglia and brought it across with them. It's odd seeing it complete after so long, I think it matches up to what I was originally planning - most of the mod's were done when I started it and when I started it again this year I could only work with what I'd got.

Thanks Mark. They've been part of the look for it since day one. Thanks, I like that description! Cheers Dann! Thank you Sonny - quite an old-fashioned stance now, but I think it works OK. Last WIP photos, I finished it today and I'll shortly be adding it to the Under Glass section. 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Rear inner arches fabricated. I tried to do something curved, but at this late stage it was difficult and it wouldn't really be seen anyway, I just needed something to close off the boot (trunk!) from the wheels. 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Painted-up and ready for final assembly. 1:25 Monogram Maserati 3500 GT kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Last shot of the two main elements before being joined together. I thought that would be it, but there was a fair bit of final, fiddly work to do. That's this one done, thanks for looking!

Good to see it's still moving on. Corvette has taken a back seat for the last couple of days, as I managed to polish through the paintwork repair again. This time I've repainted the entire front end, and it's now drying out in the airing cupboard and I think I'll TS13 clearcoat the whole lot.

Just finished a WIP that's been on the go for 25+ years (so at least half my life, and considerably older than my children). Very pleasing, but kind of odd not to have it hanging around half-finished. Photos to come later.

Nice one, that's brought a smile to my face. Well-executed, looks good and definitely fun, which as you say is exactly the point of what we're doing.

I enjoyed watching it come together on your WIP thread and it's great to see the finished article here. It looks really good, I think your perseverance has paid off and your talents are rather better than meagre to get it here and looking as good as this.

Those panels are a work of art. Great to see that this one is still progressing.

Coming together nicely. Must admit I had never heard of TROG.

Rsourceful use of the '39 headlights. I remember when people used to put Ford/Willys style front ends onto these, but sometimes compromised the look by retaining the standard Beetle lights. Good luck with getting it as low as you can. Are you going to add the camber they get on the back end when dropped a lot?

Well done for rescuing it and achieving such an effective transformation with the roof graft - there's no way I'd have ever known it didn't start off like this.

Very impressive work. I suspect it's not quite as easy as just scanning and hiting enlarge?......

Looks very good, nice colour choice.

Like most of us on here, I already have more than enough projects on the go so why start another one? I've got some time off work when we should have been having a family holiday, so I thought I'd see if I could get something quick, simple and effective built during that time alongside finishing up various others. This 280Z which had already lost some parts to another couple of kits (not that it had many pieces to start with!) seemed to be the ideal candidate. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z Road Racer kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Picked it up off eBay a few years ago, I also have the standard red road car version. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z Road Racer kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Basic bodyshell isn't too bad, just a couple of issues one of which I'll get to in a moment. The other is the roof at the top of the windscreen, which from some angles appears to droop down slightly. No easy way of fixing that one, I'll just have to live with it. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z Road Racer kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Like I say, not many parts here and even less when the seats have ended up in the '65 Corvette and the wheels and tyres went onto the Sunny Truck seen below. Inspiration for this build came from this WIP started by @Gumball Sad as they were, I loved the photos of his dad's old Z and I wondered what if someone (a brave soul!) bought that car and got it repaired, but I caught it when that process wasn't quite finished? So main bodyshell in primer where the new owner has got the rust and damage repaired, then fitted a load of secondhand panels and got it back into running condition, just before they take it to the paintshop to be finished-off? Gives me a chance to mess around with masking, applying some different colours and not have to worry about polishing it. Also, one or two others here and I liked the look of my Corvette build when it was in primer so I thought I'd develop that idea. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I recently picked up this primer which was a bit darker than I usually use, I thought it would be a good start. Red primer might still make an appearance though..... 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Comparison with a Hasegawa Fairlady to show the other problem area, that squared-off lower rear quarter and vertical valance (pan?) below the rear lights. I looked inside the bodyshell and figured I could make an attempt to fix that....... 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Luckily there was a line inside the bodyshell I could work to, so I scribed a deep line below the rear lights, cut the joint between the valance and side panel then bent it inwards. Trimmed the corners off the sides to match, ran a healthy line of cement along the inside scribe line and job done. Not perfect, but better than it was. As I'll be deleting the massive US-spec bumpers this area will be more visible and it'll look slightly more realistic. The back of the boot floor had to be shortened to match, while I had the saw out I also notched the front corners as there appeared to be slight bit of fouling when I trial-fitted the nosecone. The chassis and bodyshell have a very positive, robust way of fitting to each other and that still works well despite me losing the tabs at the back end. Before this took place I wanted to work out my wheel choice, I got a delivery from the Sunny Truck: 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr These Watanabe/Minilite style are probably going to be my choice. They fit nicely under the arch flares (taken from the Hasegawa kit) and their dark colour looks good against the primer. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr These had been my original preference, haven't got a clue what they are are other than old, Japanese and very wide. Too wide, and I don't want to narrow them. 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Slotmags are a classic look on a Z, and I had these which I think came with the '37 Ford? Not sure they're right here though (and they're 5-stud, although maybe the owner has upgraded to modern SX/ZX/Skyline running gear?!). 1:24 Monogram Datsun 280Z kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr I have lots of Japanese accessory wheel sets and these Work Equips also suit it well. To be honest, the way the wheels attach on simple metal axles through the chassis means I can change as I want to. The arch flares and rear spoiler will be painted Tamiya Racing White, which I felt would be a good colour for self-finished accessory GRP components fitted before going into the paintshop. Shell has now been prepped for more filler and primer. A lot of words and photos for such a simple kit! Hopefully it won't remain a WIP for very long.......

Took my Datsun to the garage yesterday, it was in good company. As well as day-to-day servicing and repairs athey also build and run racings cars and look after quite a few old vehicles in the area, so it's always worth making sure I have the camera with me when I take one of mine there.

I've seen one of the online UK retailers has these on special offer, but I don't know much about the real thing - I presume they're intended as a replacement for the Toyota Crowns and Nissan Cedrics? That looks good, certainly more detailed than the Monogram 280Z I'm doing at present! You've got the engine with triple carb's, what looks to be reasonably detailed suspension and those great wheels. I was looking at my Hasegawa and Fujimi Farlady/Z kits in the week and they don't have that level of detail. The bodyshell looks decent too, it doesn't appear to suffer the 'hooded' effect the Monogram kit has, where the front edge of the roof above the windscreen appears to dip down.

Very nice. Interesting to see with the maroon interior. Just about to start my WIP on it. It will be a simple build, so some imagination required as to what will be under the bonnet......

Excellent brush painting! I would never have known. Very nicely built, looks excellent.

That's gone from being a WIP to Under Glass very quickly - looks great! The colours and weathering have all worked out really well.

I like that. Very inventive and imaginative, and really nicely executed.

Well done for persevering with it! The finished result looks good, I'm sure it makes for a fine display piece in the cabinet. Several years ago I was lucky enough to visit the museum at Le Mans, you'd love it there. As well as a fantastic collection of cars that took part there's a large display of models (mostly 1:43).

Looks like an interesting and thorough project, good luck with it! Some Japanese makers did this when alternative versions of the car were fitted with straight-four or six-cyl engines. Was that the case here? Estates (wagons!) trouble me whenever the maker uses the saloon (sedan!) rear doors.

Sounds similar to the Avenger Sunseeker? Well, maybe not too similar, but the vinyl roof at least....

Interesting to see one built, looks good. Any issues with it? I have one to do at some point, was thinking about some minor tweaks.

Nice work on down-speccing it. Tinted glass has worked well too, very subtle but effective. It always pleases me to see a standard, lower-spec car of something usually seen in sports trim. I went to a show last year and there was an immaculate '77 Camaro Type LT, appeared to be completely unmodified to me and looking fantastic in a coppery orange colour with a beige and caramel interior.

Very nice, the gold suits it really well. I built one in the early '90s, I think it had an issue with the bodyshell (maybe the section between the grille and bonnet).