Scale-Master

When I built the Gremlin kit a few years ago I wasn't impressed with the soft and uneven molding of the body detail behind the quarter windows. I sharpened it up on this one with a couple strips of styrene. And a simple B pillar.

1/43rd resin kit by Starter. Not the best (accuracy) version in this series of 966s. But a pretty car for sure and a fun side project.

I started with a sealed kit of the Miami Vice roadster; the deck lid and right side door were scarred from one of the tires. 90% of the deck damage was fixed by cutting off the deck. I guess it was destined for this idea… The rest was filled and sanded out. About ½ inch of the leading edge of the soft top was used to mate to the windshield frame. The Gremlin roof was cut down height-wise and lengthened. The sides of the roof were reshaped and refined with strip styrene and filler. I changed the shape of the rear window and added trim. Instead of using the glass as the hatch I removed the hinges and scribed in new panel lines Like a Vega Kammback. Many wagon conversions suffer from poor tailgate/hatch design. To try and negate that issue, and to keep the theme of the original car, I integrated the Daytona trunk line on the back panel. Getting close to adding the B pillar…

I designed the spokes for the steering wheel in SolidWorks from a real one I liked and printed a master. This is a resin copy I cast from it with the aluminum rim I turned. I milled out three areas in the rim for the spokes to fit into. Dry fitted together.

The rear section seemed like it needed something more, so I freehand drilled a dozen holes in the rear panel. For a part that is based on a kit piece, I'm somewhat surprised how much scratch-work it has on it now. It didn't start out in my plans that way, but such is the nature of this project.

That was fun. Now back to work on the bigger project. Kind of like potato chips though, I'm in the mood to build another... Here's the WIP: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/162469-66-sunoco-corvette/

The glass fits OK for what it is, but certainly not good. I cut out the driver's window since it seems to be down in all the photos I found. The PE hangars for the side pipes are poorly rendered and fit even worse, but on par for the era/manufacturer. The pipes themselves are huge!

Shot the clear last night…

I really can't fault the Gunze paint for other than the bottle I had was very old. Last time I used it was probably 12-15 years ago. The fact that it was still liquid is a testimonial of sorts. But I did break the cap unscrewing it... I'd still use a fresher bottle with no worries.

They sure do Greg. That's also the best way to mix the TS colors... And thanks! The interior is done. I made a shifter from a pin and added the white ball.

I have agree Ray. They do look OK under the car. As long as you don't look directly at them... The decals are on. I used the newer Tamiya LP silver for the trim. It brushes very well.

I made the tailpipes. I bent steel armatures to form the tubing from the insides. The ends are brass.

The wheels are two piece affairs and not only clunky, but very inconsistent and wonky. The tires aren't that great either…

So I stripped it down to the AS-8 and I mixed TS-55 and TS-44 to make this color.

Thanks guys! Old Gunze Aqueous acrylic for the color coat. It went on pretty well like the last time I used it, but there were a few small fisheyes on the back (not over the repair). I figured I'd just sand them out. Unfortunately it looked this nasty after drying for 18 hours. I stripped it and used Navy Blue as the undercoat then reshot it with the Gunze only to have the same thing happen. It was the end of the bottle, maybe it actually went bad?

The bad spot in the body was repaired. I also had to do some significant shaving of the inner fender wells to keep the wheels from sticking way too far out. Final undercoat/prime for paint, Intermediate Blue.

Something "easy" to work on while waiting for burn and dry times on another larger project. A 30+ year old Starter resin kit. There was a nice defect in the body casting… After cleaning up the flash the rest of the body isn't too bad, even if not all that accurate looking. The chassis was really warped and even with plenty of heat it broke when I was trying to bend it to fit. No problem, I just sanded the two parts to fit and then cemented them back together so the chassis would fit without being under stress.

I made new hinges for the engine cover; the original ones I made took up space the spare tire needed to fit into and still be removable.

I finished the spare tire. The wheel is made from scratch; the tire is from the kit.

Yes, it is a 12" wheel. I started with stock that was a little over an inch. No need for a spacer, I cut the wheels for this that have an O.D. of at least 1.75" around the fixturing tabs with plenty of clearance.

Just creative cutting with standard tools. This was done with a regular angled tool. And a little patience...

The start of the steering wheel, aluminum rod stock turned into a ring.

I wouldn't return it, you can't buy 'em now. And I wouldn't expect much of a warranty now either. You should try it out and see if it even works.