Nissan Leopard / Skyline GT-R CBR 2021 Entry

[Spottedlaurel]

This was my entry for the 2021 Cannonball Ruse community build. No WIP thread, I added some in-progress shots and info on the CBR thread.

Basically it's a combination of these two kits:

I shouldn't imagine the Skyline needs much of an explanation, it was my chosen race car to be disguised. I thought a flat painted GT-R would still raise eyebrows, so after trial-fitting an assembled chassis from a previous build under lots of bodyshells I found that this curbside Leopard was ideal. Some reasearch revealed that they have a very similar wheelbase and the Leopard having a long nose for its straight-six meant it was just right for the GT-R running gear.

The Leopard is a bit of curiosity. As Nissan already had the Laurel and Skyline in the range quite why they needed something else of similar size I don't know. I'm not sure if this first generation was exported to many other markets, we certainly didn't get them in the UK or Europe, but subsequent models did reach the States. The owner of the UK importer had one or two brought over for his own use.

Basically I dropped the Leopard's bodyshell onto the GT-R floorpan and interior tub. I also had to cut open the bonnet and vent within the front bumper, but otherwise they merged together remarkably well. Well, I think so, judge for yourself......

Paint is automotive Motip metallic beige,which had a rich , almost coppery, tone which was typical on cars of that era. I finished it with Halfords automotive clearcoat.

Wheels are Volk GTP with Bridgestone tyres from a later Aoshima Nissan Leopard kit. I had to go through the usual thing of working out how to mount femaile fitment wheels on the male fitment hubs. I gave them a bit of dark grey wash to tone down the chrome.

Minimal work was required here on the conversion. I had to add a bit of a lip where I'd scribed-out the bonnet, and perhaps ideally I should add a bit of infill at the back of the engine bay, but it doesn't immediately look like there's two different cars here. The Skyline's radiator worked perfectly, I just had to trim down the intercooler (not seen here).

I added the larger brakes, strut brace, turbo set-up and intercooler from a Nismo Skyline. The racecar apparently was around 400bhp, so with some mod's let's say mine has 500-600bhp.

The interior was based on the racecar's tub, with the LHD dashboard from a Nissan 180SX (for ease of overtaking), Skyline's seats swapped over, rollcage trimmed down for road use, then the rear seat and side panels from the Leopard. Even the cage fitted inside OK, the only issue I had at the last minute was the rear seat fouling on the glass (hence the sawn-off portion which embarrassingly I've forgotten to touch-up).

I had to trim the front end of the floorpan very slightly. I should have also added a bit at the rear to suit the Leopard's longer overhang, but that had to be sacrificed to get it finished in time. The Nismo Skyline also donated its exhaust system.

 

The black trim was a challenge, there was a lot of it! I used brush-painted Revell #9 enamel, with the worst of any overpainting scraped back with a knife (this reminds me of my working days on the drawing board, using a razor blade on tracing paper to make changes and correct mistakes). Might sound tedious, but for me still preferable to masking.....

The Leopard kit was quite neat in how it used plated backing pieces behind the front and rear lights, it was good not to have to add BMF or paint it silver.

This was another build that got laid-up for several months during my house move. I was rather tight for time getting it completed by the December 1st deadline, and I will be the first to admit one or two items suffered as a result of that, but I was pleased to get it finished and looking vaguely plausible. It ended up with parts from at least five different kits.

Thanks for looking!

Edited December 7, 2021 by Spottedlaurel

[galaxyg]

This is cool. I especially love those period wing mirrors and the fact that these two kits actually fit together so well - *and* with a third kit's dashboard. One of these days I'll get a hold of one of those Tamiya Leopard kits and give it a go. Since I know you're in the UK like me - where did you buy the Motip Metallic Beige?  Looks like a colour I could use somewhere at some point.

Thanks for the comments on the Piazza BTW.

Michael.

 

[asfastasu]

Nice execution of marrying these two together. Love the fact that it still looks like a factory car and I always look forward to seeing your builds, good call on the color choice. I find these older/obscure Tamiya kits to be interesting subject matter. I as well would like to acquire one of these kits.

[Steve H]

Hi Nigel, I checked in once in a while on the CBR thread. This turned out great. Awesome work marrying the two, err….. 5 kits together. The “old man tan” ish colour definitely fits the sleeper/ruse theme. It’s a nice colour, just doesn’t have that “arrest me red” look, well played!

Cheers, Steve

[Kah puts]

Very nice.

[Koellefornia Kid]

Very nice kit bash! Well done!

[grodudulle77]

Very nice work !! ??

[ATHU]

Very sharp and clean model. Well done!!

[Spottedlaurel]

Thanks everyone for the kind words!

On 12/7/2021 at 11:25 PM, galaxyg said:

This is cool. I especially love those period wing mirrors and the fact that these two kits actually fit together so well - *and* with a third kit's dashboard. One of these days I'll get a hold of one of those Tamiya Leopard kits and give it a go. Since I know you're in the UK like me - where did you buy the Motip Metallic Beige?  Looks like a colour I could use somewhere at some point.

Thanks for the comments on the Piazza BTW.

Michael.

 

Thank you Michael. I might be able to help you with getting hold of a Leopard kit.....

The wing mirrors actually have little wipers moulded-in!

As far as I recall, the Motip paint came from one of the local independent car parts shops. The code is 56000, but I can't find what make/model it would have been applied to. I had no luck looking on the UK website, most of the results I got were on Dutch sites.

On 12/8/2021 at 3:40 AM, asfastasu said:

Nice execution of marrying these two together. Love the fact that it still looks like a factory car and I always look forward to seeing your builds, good call on the color choice. I find these older/obscure Tamiya kits to be interesting subject matter. I as well would like to acquire one of these kits.

Thanks, I keep looking at it and thinking it's amost too subtle! Definitely worth looking out for one, there's the TRX Turbo version as well which contains the same parts as far as I can see, just a different decal sheet.

[Mattilacken]

Came out great! No one, I really mean no one! Would suspect that for packing anything, and a GTR turbo, just right! 

[Plowboy]

I really like this! If you hadn't mentioned all the different sources of parts, I would have never known. That's a well done kitbash IMO! Great work on this Nigel! 

[Spottedlaurel]

16 hours ago, Plowboy said:

I really like this! If you hadn't mentioned all the different sources of parts, I would have never known. That's a well done kitbash IMO! Great work on this Nigel! 

Thanks Roger. I'm not sure if I'll attempt something like this again - I think there was a fair degree of luck/chance in how this worked out and that might not happen next time!

P.S. Hope all is well with you in your area of Kentucky.

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

[slusher]

Super nice…

[Olskoolrodder]

Beautiful build  

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[happy grumpy]

Great work . great conversion and attention to details. I also like the color.

[disconovaman]

Excellent example of the Cannonball Ruse!

These builds are a constant reminder of what the theme was all about and (in my opinion) the most successful CBR to date... All the builds were carefully converted to Non Race Car appearance. They are all winners to me. 

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