PatW

Hi, I've just finished this (see on the workbench) I'm soon to start the other WRC car in the series the Ford Fiesta WRC also in 1/32.......

Thanks guys, I must be some sort of loon, because I enjoy laying up decals and getting them right! This is why most, nearly all of my kits are race cars or bikes. I've even built rally and Nascar racers in 1/43rd scale and decalled them!

Thanks guys, yes I didn't know whether to buy them until I read a build up of the Fiesta WRC in Airfix magazine. I was surprised to see the level of detail in a 1/32 scale kit, as I have been buying Airfix plane kits since the mid 1950's when I was eight years old. All they need to add to these kits are interior decals. That would be for the dashboard, the seat belts were good but no decals which is disappointing. Well as you can see from above I've already srayed the Fiesta shell so I need to get on with that one. I've a '49 Chopped Mercury to finish, my take on TJ Lavins Army/AirForce Ford!

Very nice build particularly the turbo installation. I build these turbo's into aircooled VW engines in Meyers Manx Beach Buggies. Superb, thanks for sharing.

The Mini is done.............................. How this then guys! Now I'm onto the Fiesta WRC. Of course if anyone watches the X Games Rallycross you will have seen these cars in a slightly different guise with 600 bhp engines instead of WRC 300 bhp motors!

Over the years we've had kit car companies in the UK, make various fibreglass shells copied from sportscars and mounted on Beetle chassis. This was easy as the aircooled engine needed little ventilation for it to run efficiently and subsequently no radiators and all the piping. We had open jeep, ferrari, gull wing sports, and even a scaled down mercedes 1930's replica. Keep up the good work, I shall keep an eye on your progress and the finished article!

Thanks Chris. We were out in Australia in 2003 on the Gold Coast north of Surfers Paradise and they had a buggy club meeting on the beach! Wow, about 20 turned up in all colours, now that's cool!

Yes Dale and Tony I'd seen these for a while and thought I'd take the plunge and try something smaller. Yes that's Humbrol paint, it's made here by Airfix so it's plentiful (But only for small things), especially as they now have a range of spray colours. Well I started the decals today. The first problem was the small thin one over the door that split in two whilst still on the paper as it soaked in the warm water, so I laid that in two pieces. Although the big chequered one went on a treat! The roof decals also went on well, The large ones that is................... I should finish these tomorrow and then let them dry over the weekend. On Monday if all dry I shall give the decaled area two coats of clear.

Thanks Bennyg and there's the fiesta yet to come, but before we do that I need to get some wheels on and some decals on the body!

The comment on the above post is that the instruction no. 9 should have the steering wheel brace added to the drivers side of the cage on its fixing points before building the cage and putting it in afterwards as in instruction 12 as there is no space to get inside the cage to do it. I have experience of building rollcages down as small as 1/43 in photoEtch and white metal.

Thanks Brizio, I can source them but they are rare, nowadays the decal makers concentrate on 1/43 and 1/24/25 scales. Anyway some more pics today of the RollCage in place but beware................

I've been at it again! this time finishing the shell paint, some on the pillars and some around the edge of the shell............. Next I've laid up some seatbelt decals, but as I have two in this scale from my decal collection they can only have one each instead one on each belt! Airfix do not supply any interior decals with this kit which is a great shame, as they would look very good on the dash as it has a very large circular speedometer, which I've just put an aircraft red roudel on as all other decals I have are in 1/24,1/25 or 1/43 so would either be too big or too small ....... I also put the belts on outside the car not when the seats are attached to the floor as instructions tell me. I have also put together the steering column and the gearchange and atteched both to the bulkhead and underneath the dash. On WRC cars they have sequential gearboxes like a motorcycle gearbox. So the lever that you see at the top of the steering column, is pulled towards the driver to up the box 1>6 and pushed towards the dash to go down the box 6>1..................... I shall have to a drop of matt black on the handle prior to fitting the Steering wheel on, when the glue has set up. The instructions tell you to fit this after youv'e put the floor section in with the seats attached. On this scale that would be particularly tight/fidly/difficult to postion with the seats in the way! On the fitting front I obviously haven't got to the 'glass' parts yet but as I spray paint on the sprue or separately, all paint must be taken off of the joining areas as parts do fit prety tight! I have some vey small/narrow files so I can get into small areas to remove the paint and/or slighty open up the areas due to be joined together. I shall report back during the build on any other snags I might come across.

Yes Danno, It's a vehicle that I'va always wanted! I was recently on vacation from the UK to Hawaii when I came across the May edition of 'Hot Rod' magazine at an airport book stall in San Francisco (It has a Mustang Mach 40 on the cover. In the centre of the magaazine it has 6 pages of the evolution of the Meyers Manx including the lataest Manx DualSport. Very interesting!

That's very nice, I'm trying to win one on ebay at the moment!

Here we are with two pics of the shell before spraying the pillars matt black...........

Hi Alan, the wheels and tyres came in a pack from Hobby Link Japan, they are made by Aoshima and the product code on the box is 1800 000106.............. This is the picture of the box and you get a 1/24 scale motor scooter as well! I've just looked on the hlj site and they are back order on the first page of car detailing parts-1/24-Aoshima.

Well here we are with the first few pics of each car....Firstly the painted shell of the Fiesta.............. And then the Mini, the roof has been painted matt White and masked off for the first two coats of red on the rest of the body............ I will now give that a few days to dry, in the mean time i'm hand painting some of the smaller items, eg. the shocks, steering wheel . Then I will start to build up the chassis on the Mini first.

Thanks all! Yes I've always wanted a real one., so I'm trying different looks, paints, parts and engine just incase the lotto comes up! We have a firm in East Anglia called Flatlands Engineering who both sell the kits and build turnkey cars in both short and standard length chassis, with various aircooled and Subaru watercooled engines. But mine would have to be aircooled. I bought the resin bomber seats from Jim at Crazy Scale Auto Parts.

I've just finished this to add to my green pearl painted version............. I partly scratchbuilt the standard flat four and added a turbocharger. I moved the headlights onto the top of the wings, added resin bomber seats with foam saet pads, used wooden coffee stirers in the rear seat/cargo area and used Humbrol rattle can Crimson topped off with Plasti-Kote metalflake and clear gloss. Also after market big and little wheels and tyres with rear brake discs.

After finishing my turbocharged Meyers Manx I thought I'd have a go a couple of new Airfix kits. Smaller in scale but with plenty of detail.. I've painted the shell of the Fiesta, and started the Mini shell with paint today. Pics to come!

Well done Tamas, super looking Toyota, thanks for sharing.

http://www.rodauthority.com/videos/on-the-dyno/video-a-six-cubic-inch-supercharged-v-8-engine-in-action/ There we are guys. It's just right to put into a child's pedal car!

Super build ShawnS. We had two, my brothers 1963 850 van and my mums 1968 850 countryman (woody) Such fantastic fun, tearing around, fantastic handling but with crossply tyres not much grip in the wet. Out in the sticks flying round country lanes in the wet the tyres wouldn't grip much, so hard over with the steering on the tight corners and off into a hedge or field and as long as the ditch wasn't too deep having front wheel drive would drag you back out onto the road!.

Hi CadillacPat, There's no fixings to put the hood on the back in the vertical and it would be difficult to vent as it would be too close to the outer wall. It's working just fine from the point of view of fan power, so there's no need to change anything just yet. As I said before the pipe is fed out through the cabin door to vent the extractor and would be virtually straight, so seeing the pipe in the pictures is just stored between jobs

After about three years in my model cabin I was getting a bit fed up with the paint fumes during and after spraying. I looked at buying a spray booth with extractor, but aren't they small and expensive. So of I went to my local DIT- Kitchen store and bought a kitchen cooker extractor unit and fitting kit. After about an hour of cutting a hole in the top of my spray booth, wiring up a plug and finding an extension lead I ended up with this........................... As my wife doesn't want me to cut a hole in the side of the cabin, I just open the door and put the end of the pipe outside. Switch the light on and switch the fan to it's top speed (no3) and hey presto. All of the fumes disappear very quickly! And all for a fraction of the cost of a shop bought spray booth.