doomcrew

this will be a rebuild of a baja beast kit that i did in 95, and was done as a slammer. now it deserves to be rebuilt with losts of detail. it will have candy red or cherry over metalflake blue with possibly some airbrushed graphics. but before that, it has to be stripped, so here goes............... steve

thanks for the kind comments guys. here's a couple more pics.

its finished!! yay. steve

the bandage is just fabric sticking plaster and the pewter was obtained from when i worked on Batman Begins. i'm sure you will find it in sheets on the internet. well its now complete. wheel nuts were added and the magnets were put in the boot lid, front end and doors along with steel pins. a Scale Repros Plus mirror was added and a British number plate (taken from a photo in Custom Car magazine) was fixed to the rear pan. there are more pics in the completed section, take a look. hope you all enjoyed this wip, thanks for looking in. steve

i'm pretty sure that e-magnets ship internationaly, failing that, google up micro magnets, thats how i found them. i fashioned a fuel cell from chemiwood with a small rod for the pipe which was drilled out. i will add a petrol cap later which will turned. i ran out of Alclad so used Baremetal to chrome the cell and added two strips of pewter. the paint is now polished and i'm more than happy with the results. steve

while waiting for the clear to cure, i did some work on the interior. the nitros bottle brackets were made from pewter and detailed with etched bolts. also made from pewter were the brake and accelerator pedals. the therest of the pedal assembly was made from the kits door hinge. the seat belt material is bandage with various etched hardware. the material will have to be tidied up as there are a number of stray fibres that i need to be rid of. i got a set of micro magnets today, and used with steel pins, these will be used to keep the doors and boot lid closed. steve

i managed to turn five dash clocks on my lathe, i say managed as it has a problem that i have to look at. i went for more functional design, simple but effective. although i did design the aux clocks to be three differant lengths. the facias have been cut from the decal sheet, pushed in to the housing and coated in clear. the starter switch was also turned and the second pic shows how the dash looks with the roll cage. these are the finished headlights and indicators, with the bulbs (non-working), housing and wires. all the rims are turned and because of the flip front, the back of the lights would be seen, so it makes sense to have the workings there. the body and floor has had its final clear put on. i chose not to put any flames or decals on, but to let the paint shine on its own. next is to polish it. steve

just to see how the paint looks under artificial light. i turned out a pair of headlights today, i will do the other lights (indicators and rear) tomorrow. just to see how they will look. i will put bulbs and holders in the bowls and wire them up. and i almost forgot about the fire exstinquisher, here it is turned with scratchbuilt trigger and nozzle housing and scratchbuilt holder. please excuse the quility of the pics, the batteries in my camera died, so used my phone instead. steve

the red flake is now on and i have applied a coat of clear to seal it. i haven't made my mind up whether to put some flames on it yet, decisions, decisions. the tubs and gearbox tunnel will be left in paint and the rest will be carpeted. steve

just to see how things are looking, oh, the paint hasn't changed to orange, the artificial light has made it look orange. :D the nitros bottle is now polished and ready to fit. i still have to make a handbrake and fit it to the centre consol. steve

the sun was out today, so it was a good time to start painting the body in its base coat of rover flame red. once this has cured, i will flatten it and then cover with the metalflake flame red. steve

i found a steering wheel in my parts box, but had to strip the paint off and take out the spokes so i could use ones from Detail Master. the steering column and the piston shaped gear lever was turned on my lathe............ ........this also included a nitros bottle and what will end up as a fire exstinguisher. i began making a centre consol out of chemiwood and a pewter insert. also finished the rollcage, the pics just show how things are looking. might move the steering column forwards a little.

i did open the rear fenders slightly, at the rear of the body. in reality, i cut an elongated triangular wedge to insert in between the fender and the body. i now have the roll cage done, i'm holding myself back before i go mad with it. i started with the kit roll bar and just added to it. the body will be ready for the first colour coats in a few days, just hope the sun is out so it can dry quicker. steve

thanks raul. i throughly recommend getting a lathe. i have begun painting the body, and in between curing time, i can do other things such as the roll cage and interior parts. the door panels are made from sheet pewter, the surface has been lightly sanded for a brushed look. steve

the boot lid was also hinged in roughly the same way as the doors, and a small alteration had to be made to the floor to solve a clearance issue with the hinge. steve

i love Bank Holidays here in the UK, two long weekends in a row meant lots of building time. with a few adjustments, the front now opens and closes very easily, and as you can see, stays open. moving on to the door hinges, i decided to make the doors open suicide style. there was a practicle reason for this as well as visual. part of the roll cage will emerge from under the dash and will be in the way of the hinge. i used liquid poly cement to fix the blocks in place, this gives a certain amount of time to position the doors. after the cement has set, gentle pressure on the hinges will help allign the doors more, just make sure that your fingers are holding the hinges at the anchor points.

thanks randy. i did change the steering to being static but the suspension still works. i managed to find a set of headers that will fit in the small space between the motor and chassis. they were slightly modified with small lengths of rod so that they could meet the engine. the seams were then sanded smooth and painted in Alclad. i intended to make a front and rear bumper for this, but decided on just doing the front bumper. this was formed out of a Plastruct strip and will be body colour. along with the new bumper, new hinges were made for the front end. i used plastic strips which were formed, cut and drilled so that the front would hinge on steel pins. i designed it so that the front would lift up and tilt forward. steve

work on the dash has now begun, which will have turned ally clocks, this will be body colour to. the grill has now been redone and i will start making the bumper and hinges for the front end along with the boot lid. the radiator has been fitted, with a couple of mods. this was to make sure that the front didn't foul. a mock-up shot to see how things are progressing. steve

this is part of my workspace, my lathe. i turned an oil filter to replace the resin one, which i will use elsewhere. most of the engine is now done with just the radiator and headers to do. i changed the throttle linkage slightly as i wasn"t happy with it. i also changed the grill opening as i wasn't happy with that either. i chose to use the belt from the Ross Gibson engine kit, as the Scale Repros belt was too tight and pulled on the pulleys. steve

along with doing the body, i also have do the engine as the induction set-up will effect the opening in the flip front.. as it was, it proved to be a good choice as i had to make slight adjustments to the front end. i have started to do the brake calipers to, and modified a set of resin ones to fit the discs. i was going to put some more pics up, but my internet is mucking about.

i'm now turning my attention to the body and how the whole thing will sit. i also have make sure that there is enough clearance between the blower and flip front. haven't decided yet whether to go with dual carb or fuel block, but the vintage bug catcher will stay. i have widened the rear wings slightly so that the tyres will clear them and started making a grill out of plastic strip. i have also turned the rear brake discs and modyfied a set of resin calipers to fit the discs. lots more to come. steve

randy my friend, this is simply excellent. i'm looking forward to seeing this done, so i will keep watching. steve

the chassis and suspension are now painted and is on the way to being a rolling chassis, once i have the rear brake discs turned. the fronts are done although i still have to make the calipers. i also need the wheels backs and detail the wheels with valves and wheel nuts. the rear suspension works very well althought the front does work, it was annoying as some of the parts either wouldn't stick, even with CA glue or just got eaten up by the carpet monster. steve :D