Spottedlaurel

Thanks Larry. Thank you Brad. I think the badges were done with brush-painted silver enamel, but I did use BMF on the brigtwork strips around the windows and across the roof. Nowadays I'd fit soe alternative wheels to make the most of those flared arches. The styling has similarity to a few seventies sports cars and coupes. Probably a bit oppressive for any rear seat passengers!

Welcome! Nice work there, I particularly like the Torino and taxi.

So it would appear, the box notes suggest as much ?

No disappointment here! ?

It would be great to see Tamiya add a few more newly-tooled old/classic cars to their range, as Hasegawa are doing, and not just reissues (welcome as they are).

I'd be very happy to see either a Starlet or B110 Sunny, as I have 1:1 experience of both of them. B110 would be relatively easy, as they've already got the front half of it in their truck kit. Would be good to build a replica of my 2-door saloon, although would they be more likely to offer the coupe? I had a KP62 Starlet for a year or so, really enjoyed it and I could see why they formed the basis of so many short oval track racing cars here, even before they became popular more recently. R30 is well-covered already, but maybe there is room for a really good version? I've enjoyed building the Tamiya kit a couple of times, accepting its fairly basic suspension. Fujimi's is awful, the roofline is so bad I will make one of mine into a convertible.

I built a 7 in 1985, still exists but not quite complete any more. I'd like to give it a go again. Never picked up the Europa but it's certainly one that appeals to me. Strange but satisfying for me to see the local 'NG' Norfolk registration on the black one.

It's moving forwards nicely.

Great progress Geoff. The standard wheels and tyres are very much part of the look of a Land Rover, and you're right - what Revell have done (and how you've finished them) captures the look of them really well.

That's really nice, very smooth and great colour choice. I'd be very happy to see that as a 1:1.

It's going to be incredible to see it function when completed, but still look like a car when everything's closed. Is there anything like this at 1:1?

Actual progress made on three different projects yesterday, and during the week managed to move ahead with background work on others: Aoshima Toyota Ipsum sanded and given more primer, hoping to get a basecoat down and maybe even some colour this weekend. Monogram Maserati 3500 GT started BMF and detail painting of the bodywork etc. 'Monogram 65 Corvette "Bring Out Your Dead" entry had a tedious but satisfying session of scraping and scribing old Humbrol brush paint from panel lines and other areas that the brake fluid didn't work on. More than one half done, other side to go. I now know Corvette coupe doors are a less than straightforward shape! Would like to get some primer on it this weekend, then see what I need to modify to fit the chosen wheels - it'll probably be a combination of shaving the chassis and suspension arm, finding slightly skinnier tyres and modest narrowing of the wheels. Keep finding parts for the Monogram '37 Ford. I think I have pretty much everything in place to simply glue it back together (with something a bit more permanent this time!). Funny how once I was tuned-in to how I built it and what paints I used, the random parts made themselves more apparent. Still got the instructions, so that will make life easier! Bought some automotive paint from the local car parts shop that looks to be an excellent match for the Fujimi Nissan Fairlady Roadster - essentially restoration of a kit I never finished, which suffered paintwork damage after my daughter knocked it onto the floor. I recently gave it a soak in the brake fluid tub and I'd like to finally see this thing finished.

Brilliant to see those kits on here Fred, I have them too! Toyota is the same, but my Nissan has different box art. They have some amusing accessories like scuba diving gear, R/C helicopter, surfboard etc. I recently tried to get a different Toyota van in the same series, but it went higher than my my initial bid and I didn't want to get into a bidding war over it.

Looks fantastic Alex! The decals and black relly set off that yellow paint. Is the handbrake the right way round?

Great to see it come together, tyres look a bit better!

Wow, what a restoration! Very impressive, must be great to have it complete and on display again.

For the Japanese car enthusiast, Doyusha offer an interesting range of subjects in their Nostalgic Hero series. I think some of them may have been produced by other makers originally and Doyusha somehow took them on, and they offer subjects that often aren't covered by the bigger Japanese kit producers. BUT, and it's a big but, the detailing and scaling leaves a little to be desired! I got this one in a UK model shop back in the early '90s and eventually built it around 1995. This is what it should look like, we knew it as the Datsun 120A in the UK, and it's the predecessor to the F10 which reached North America: 1974 Datsun 120A Coupe (E10), c.1995/96 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1974 Datsun 120A Coupe (E10) c.2002 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr And this is how mine ended-up, painted Ford Signal Orange which I think was left over from another project and was as close as I could get to the distinctive mustard/orange colour I now know they called Ochre: 1:24-ish Nissan Cherry X1-R kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24-ish Nissan Cherry X1-R kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24-ish Nissan Cherry X1-R kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr 1:24-ish Nissan Cherry X1-R kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr Scale-wise it's more like 1:22, maybe even 1:20 - it'd be interesting to compare it to the 1:20 Skyline I recently finished. The tyres are comically oversize, glass is tinted and the interior is shallow to allow for batteries and a motor underneath. That being said, I think it does nicely capture the 'interesting' and characterful looks of the original. I have never seen many of these Doyusha kits actually built, but they command reasonable money when they come up for sale. I have a few others, one day their turn will come when I'm feeling adventurous enough.....

Ah, I didn't realise it was like that - I'd never really looked at mine.

Interesting to see. Will it offer much that Tamiya don't with their version however?

Doesn't look like it'll need too much polishing, does it? Giving what had been the final coat of clear a polish must have helped this next coat go down nicely?

Excellent progress. Getting the trim, arches etc, in black will really bring it to life. Out of curiosity, what colour/shade 'black' do you use for this sort of work?

Thanks, and yes! It was pretty horrid though, the previous owner was obviously a heavy smoker so it stunk inside, the driver's seat was back was broken and it had all sorts of bodges. Reliably got me around for a year after I spent some money on it at the garage, before eventually breaking it for spares (some of which I still have, like the engine under a tarp in the corner of the driveway). Older used cars (but not classics) are pitifully cheap here. At one point I had four cars on the driveway that had cost me a total of £125.

Looks good to me! Great contrast between the black paintwork and red interior. I'm just about to start work on a '65 - I hope I can get the paint to go down nicely without too much need for polishing as that shapely bodywork looks like it could be a challenge. Did yours need much polishing?

Very nice. The foil brightwork looks really sharp against the black paintwork. I hope this kit ends up readily available over here.

Yes please, I'd like to have a go at round 8. Hopefully this will qualify? I bought it around 30 years ago, remembering it getting a good review when launched. My housemate started it around 1991 but it never got finished. Bodyshell was brush-painted with red Humbrol enamel, but I stripped that some years ago (more than a year, that's for sure!). Is this enough to see me qualify? Along the way the engine appears to have gone elsewhere (I think that's what I used in the Maserati 3500 GT long-term WIP, which I recently restarted), likewise the wheels and tyres - I think they ended up on a 1970 Buick. Current plans are a donor engine from either a Monogram 1992 Corvette ZR-1 or 1970 Chevelle, or maybe something from the parts box if I can work which ones are Chevrolet. I found some rather nice Cragar SS wheels in a Japanese Aoshima kit - they're wide, but with a little work should fit. The gearbox crossmember had disappeared as well, but miraculously I found most of it in my odds and ends cabinet and the missing portion looks easy enough to make from scratch.