Russell C Posted August 29, 2019 Posted August 29, 2019 Running a bit behind on posting this to Under Glass. It goes with my "When Hybrid Engines go Rogue" WIP since that's where the flat 5 Porsche / VW hybrid engine ended up. It managed to place second at the GSL contest's "Common Kit" category, where all of us needed to build a Tamiya '66 Beetle, but could build it any way we wanted, with the exception of substituting resin body variations. Here, I rotated the greenhouse 180° around the vertical door line, and swapped fenders front-to-back. The slice out of the former front lid grafted onto the new front windshield area easier than I expected. Customized 1966 Utah license plate from this site to create a paper printout — if this was a regular Beetle, it would be a VW 1300, but if my calculations are correct, the displacement for a 5-cylinder works out to 1659, based on a '64-'69 Porsche 6 being a 2 liter. Overall, it looks like a Soviet-era East German nightmare ripoff design, if you ask me.
Russell C Posted August 29, 2019 Author Posted August 29, 2019 The main operator of the GSL contest, Mark Gustavson, is a ripe target for this sort of weirdness, and remember - we can always blame our model's apparent weak points as being accurate depictions of what is seen on the 1:1 car we are replicating.
Russell C Posted August 29, 2019 Author Posted August 29, 2019 (edited) Now, here's a few construction photos for the interior. Should have used a medium gray for the gauge panel lines, the black is too intense. Detailed as the Tamiya kit is, it's really devoid of the underseat framework. So, I created some framework out of heat-stretched white sprue and bits of flat sheet stock. The big central pedestals aren't correct of course, but they also can't be easily seen, and are good otherwise for glueing the seats down solid. Couldn't resist cutting out and hollowing out the map pocket, so that I could stuff a commuter-reduced paper printout of a 1966 Model Car Science magazine in it. Prior to building the model, I did two photo alterations to see if it was possible to pull off the mental image I had in my mind. The top alteration was of some guy's box stock Tamiya build-up, and apart from changing the interior from tan to white, and from getting the new front deck lid to look right, the finished model looks just like the altered photo. I had forgotten to put in parts of the front fender inner liners when I took it to the GSL contest, but I fixed that afterward. Fun thing for me is how it messes with the mind. Car guys in general and Bug guys in particular will readily ID it as a VW Beetle, it's what the senses tell you at a gut level identification, but there's something not right at all about it. When I emailed a photo to my VW mechanic, his reply captured this best: "So cool, and so disturbing at the same time." Edited August 29, 2019 by Russell C typos
DumpyDan Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Very cool, just the amount of work is amazing. Great build Russell.
Bucky Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Cool project! Great modification work! Reminds me of a '56 BelAir that ran around here a long time ago that had two front halves joined together. You didn't know if that car was coming, or going!!!!
Misha Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Interesting look... cab forward design on a Bug! Overall a neat concept. Cheers Misha
Wm David Green Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 I feel dizzy just looking at this car. Great modelling though.
Peter Lombardo Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Now I am really confused. That is one strange, but very well done, confused beetle..... I guess it doesn't know if it is coming or going. Beyond different. Very, very cool and unique.
Jantrix Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 I saw this one at GSL, a really cool little model. Really well done. I spent a good bit of time looking at it and trying to figure out why it didn't look "wrong", when it quite obviously should. In the end I never did figure it out. Terrific work.
Claude Thibodeau Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 Hi! Very clever, and nice execution to boot... CT
webestang Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 On 8/29/2019 at 9:57 PM, Russell C said: "So cool, and so disturbing at the same time." Expand As a former Bug owner I have to agree with that statement......LOL Well executed build. ?
Snake45 Posted August 30, 2019 Posted August 30, 2019 On 8/30/2019 at 6:44 PM, webestang said: As a former Bug owner I have to agree with that statement......LOL Well executed build. ? Expand +1 on all that.
Tom Geiger Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 That is friggin cool! When you take a common subject like a VW, and manage to do something nobody has done before, it's brilliant! I read every word of this thread. Well deserved second place!
Merc-57 Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 I love this build. Looks kind of photoshopped, but still for real. Great work
Koellefornia Kid Posted August 31, 2019 Posted August 31, 2019 As a german, I used to see hundreds of beetles every day when I was a kid, so this one looks a bit disturbing to me. Nevertheless it´s an awesome build! Very creative and nicely executed! After having a few more looks at it I wish VW would have actually built something like that!
58 Impala Posted September 1, 2019 Posted September 1, 2019 (edited) Weird but cool, nice work. Don't think I've ever seen a flat 5 engine.(5 velocity stacks) Edited September 1, 2019 by 58 Impala
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