Altered States Austin - My first resin build

[MeatMan]

Hey everyone. I'm posting this because I want to share the experience of building my first resin kit. I invite comments and constructive criticism from any and everyone.

I think I'm an intermediate skill builder, however I lack patience (which is why I came back to the hobby), but a stickler for detail.

The Altered States kit is pretty nice. It actually rivals styrene kits for body finish, but there is some flash and irregularities to deal with as expected.

The kit comes with the body with separated front clip, interior tub, and separate dash. I also bought the chassis but I personally don't recommend it because it doesn't allow the car to sit low enough. (A.S. folks feel free to chime in.)

 

One thing I noticed is that the roof looked a bit flat to me (maybe it's supposed to look like that), so I rounded it a bit, and I mean a bit. I used automotive body filler for that (Bondo brand).

As you can see, the door gaps need cleaning up. I didn't have a good tool for this. I used the thinnest needle file I have, which did a decent job in the end. As a note, I agonized over cutting the doors out as it looked like it would be easy, but since this was my first resin build I opted to be conservative.

After getting everything cleaned up (again, a real nice finish on the body so it was easy peasy). There is much work to do on the underside. As expected the inside is fairly unfinished and would require a lot of work if you plan to open the doors. I did clean up the parts that would show but didn't do a full cleanup.

For the paint I used Model Master rattle can Deep Pearlescent Purple over Dupli-color automotive white primer. I think it came out very well, albeit not perfect.

I don't have any good chassis pics but I used some coil springs I bought with a bunch of other chassis parts years ago on eBay, and attached them directly to the floor pan. That caused a problem because I mismarked their location, and although everything aligned during test fitting, you can see on the final product that the wheels are a bit too far forward.

I originally wanted to use quarter elliptical springs like the original Maz Austin but was never satisfied with the results, so I went with the simpler setup. In hindsight I might have been better served kit bashing one of the styrene kit Austins for the chassis. I found this post below after I got started. Steve did a nice job on the chassis, and it highlights how the kit chassis could have been altered to allow the ride height to be lowered. I think the interior tub would need massaging as well.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/42724-pro-street-austin-devon/#comment-448181

I also had to cut the transmission tunnel out and put in one from an interior tub in my parts box because I went with an automatic transmission. I had pics of the work, but I somehow deleted them from my phone.

I originally wanted to go with a Ford SOHC but that wound up in my unfinished rat rod F-100 so I opted instead for the Hemi out of a Charger kit. I wish I'd ordered the fuel injection pump from Altered States, but I didn't see it on their site until after I got my order, and they have a minimum order size, so as you can see I fabricated one. The magneto is from Morgan's that I wrapped with BMF. Because there's no radiator, I added a fabricated trans cooler and used wire to simulate the hoses (see chassis pic). 

After all that I wound up with this. I really like it but I can see myself building this kit again, but lower to the ground, and perhaps with opening doors and trunk, and hinging the front end.

Oh yes, the glass was a bit of an issue, only in that you need to create a seat for them prior to doing your exterior paint work, which is what I didn't do. But they are all fairly flat and can be easily made from clear styrene.

Thanks for your time and comments.

 

[cobraman]

Nice, I like it !

[vintagedragcrazy]

Looks really coll nice job on your first resin!

vince

[vintagercr]

Love it!

[MeatMan]

Thanks guys.