Revell Trabant 601S

[GeeBee]

I know what people are thinking, Another Trabant ??

Well after painting the Van version, I had plenty of the Glacier blue left, and working on the premiss that this paint doesn't keep well, both the Champagne beige and the Capri green both started to cure when decanted into a sealed glass jar, this time while painting the van I wasn't going to decant the complete can of Glacier blue, but sadly the valve was faulty on the can and the only way to remove the contents was the empty the propellant and cut off the top of the can, I still had 120 mls of paint left after painting the van, and the fact that I still had three Trabant 601 saloon models in the stash, the plan was just to paint the bodyshell and body parts and put them away for another day, and get on with other models, but all the models I plan to build this year I need to put in a decent order for more paint, so I just carried on with this one, I've heard it said the Blue Trabant were the most popular in East Germany because they considered blue to be a lucky colour, if that's true or not, I don't know, but a little blue Trabant in the display cabinet would certainly look good, while I carry on building the rest of the model, the bodyshell and other body coloured parts have been put away in sealed plastic containers for the paint to go rock hard, this paint doesn't cure in five minutes

 

 

[GeeBee]

[GeeBee]

[GeeBee]

[GeeBee]

[GeeBee]

[GeeBee]

Sadly after trying to wet sand the body, I had put on a very light coat and i went through to the primer, and after trying to touch it up, i decided the only option was to repaint it, actually, to save time, I used another bodyshell I had prepared tio build a deluxe version of the Trabant, this body is in the stripper, as the "Deluxe" version has been put on the back burner for a while, the Trabant paint I had decanted into two small jars had so much debris in them, they had to be filtered, this paint really doesn't like to be decanted from the aerosol, which I on;y did because the valve had gone faulty on the can.

[vintagercr]

Beautiful work!

[CFMgarage]

I love this project. I grew up in Hungary until I turned 16-ish, almost 17, so the first car I ever got to drive was a Trabant 601S "Limousine" (not kidding) and the 4-speed shifter that was up next to the steering wheel was a pain in my bum to learn. The 2-cylinder engine wasn't exactly a stallion either

[GeeBee]

I'd love to drive one, went to a Trabant meeting many years ago, when I was asked to go and photograph it, you can pick them up over here for around £1,200 for a very good condition one, not sure my partner would see it as a good buy though.

[GeeBee]

Flocking finished ...

[gearhedjon]

Geoff, I am building a replacement Trabant for my friend as I ran into a problem. The problem is when the roof was installed it does not sit square on the body. Did you run into this? What color are the door panels and seat inserts you used? Trabant looks great its inspiring me to crack open the new kit and build it for him.

[mrm]

Very nice and super clean. I see one major problem tho. No Trabant came out of the factory with such nice of a paint job. LOL. 

I grew up with these things around me. When we were kids we used to play by taking small diameter pipes and making guns out of them. We used to cut thin strips of glossy paper and make thin and long funnels out of them (bullets), which we then blew through the pipes. Those things flew fast and really far away. Anyway….. One day in the summer we were sitting at the edge of the park in front of one of the kids building and there was this Trabant parked in front of it in the $hittiest of ochre colors. Being kids, doing kids stuff, we were picking whatever little fruit it was from the bushes behind us, which looked like tiny little balls and were shooting them through our pipes. One hit the Trabant and left I nice red splatter on it, pretty much like a paintball. We thought it was the coolest thing, so we shot up that Trabby 'till the whole side was mostly red. Oh boy, were we in trouble after that!  Apparently it had such bad finish, that the juice from the little fruit soaked into it and it could not be washed off. The owner had to repaint it and our parents paid for it. I was grounded for a month and so were most of the kids that participated. 

These cars were total POS. I think you are building the best made Trabant ever! 

Edited March 25, 2016 by mrm

[GeeBee]

s. One hit the Trabant and left I nice red splatter on it, pretty much like a paintball. We thought it was the coolest thing, so we shot up that Trabby 'till the whole side was mostly red. Oh boy, were we in trouble after that!  Apparently it had such bad finish, that the juice from the little fruit soaked into it and it could not be washed off. The owner had to repaint it and our parents paid for it. I was grounded for a month and so were most of the kids that participated. 

These cars were total POS. I think you are building the best made Trabant ever! 

I'm not surprised it never came out of the paint, the paint I'm using, which is the same paint that was supplied to the factory, and is basically the same kind of gloss paint you would use to paint your house with, which is why after a few years all Trabants looked a little faded, the paint supplied was labelled as being "Weather Proof", hardly the best type of paint to use on a car that's outside in all weather.

[GeeBee]

Geoff, I am building a replacement Trabant for my friend as I ran into a problem. The problem is when the roof was installed it does not sit square on the body. Did you run into this? What color are the door panels and seat inserts you used? Trabant looks great its inspiring me to crack open the new kit and build it for him.

I've heard a few stories of the early versions having a problem, I've also heard the re-tooled the roof section, of all the Trabant's I've built, and I'm on my fifth now, and I've not had any problems with any parts not fitting

[GeeBee]

A little more flocking and rear seat fixed in place

 

[GeeBee]

Front seats fitted

Towbar ball protector airbrushed in gloss red enamel

[GeeBee]

[mrm]

Great looking flocking job. Do you mind sharing your technique?

[peekay]

That interior looks fabulous. Looking forward to more progress.

[GTJUNIOR]

Very nice so far. 

[crazyrichard]

looks stunning !! great job !

[GeeBee]

Great looking flocking job. Do you mind sharing your technique?

I don't do anything special, the flocking I bought came from China, in pretty large amounts and works out much cheaper compared to some of the smaller amounts you buy specially for modelling.

Here's the tools I use for the flocking, and along with some regular PVA white glue with a few drops of water added, if I'm doing a floorpan I will do it in around 4 sections, the boot liner was done in sections, floor, sides etc, I always airbrush the floor or the part I'm flocking in a colour that's very near the shade of the flocking I'm using, once dry the PVA glue is applied then the flocking is places into the sieve, and simply sprinkled over the glue, pressing down gently with my finger, the wooden stick is used to press the flocking down in the corners, and then left to dry for a few hours before moving onto the next sections to be flocked.

 

Edited March 28, 2016 by GeeBee

[Dann Tier]

Aother great model on the way!! -you also do a great job masking!!

[mrm]

Thank you. Looks very good.