'70 Volkswagen K70L

[W-409]

Volkswagen K70 was originally designed by NSU, it was planned to be available to the public together with the NSU RO 80 which was already in the lineup. But as VW bought NSU's production in 1969, the plans changed and K70 came available in 1970 on Volkswagen's brand, it being the first ever water-cooled, front engine, front wheel drive car with Volkswagen logos on it. Volkswagen K70 stayed in production until 1975.

Here in Finland K70 was sold through the Volkswagen dealers, but it was pretty expensive car compared to other family sedans of the same size. Probably that's why only under 1000 K70s were sold between 1970 and 1975 around here.

 

Well, some of you who know me might think why am I building a model of a front wheel drive Volkswagen. It's not quite my style. Well, in April we went to Essen, Germany with my dad to see the big classic car show "Techno Classica". At the same time we visited a hobby shop in Düsseldorf where we stayed the night and saw this one on the shelf. 1/43 scale kit by Heller and yet the box said that it has 37 parts. I thought that's pretty many parts considering how small scale the kit is, so I thought I'd give it a shot and see if I can build a decent scale model out of it...

 

The kit looks surprisingly good. Yes, the molds are old so all details are not that sharp and there is quite a bit of mold flash to clean up, but I consider that normal. Anyway I think it's possible to build a somewhat presentable scale model from this kit...

The body needs some work before primer, but the first problem that I noticed was that the trunk lid was bent:

Luckily that was an easy fix as it straightened out after I glued the tail light panel to the body.

 

Wheels required some cleanup before primer and paint...

Here they are primered and painted with silver... Next thing will be to figure out how to make the chrome hubcaps...

Tires are plastic and they are glued together from two halves. Some sanding was required to hide the seam on the tire tread but they came out OK. Here they are with a coat of primer sprayed on them.

 

Let's see how this thing ends up - My goal is to build it factory stock and I'm trying to have it finished before the end of the year. Wish me luck.

[Richard Bartrop]

I didn't even know anyone had ever released a kit of the K70.  Thanks for sharing!

[W-409]

Thanks for watching. It's not that common kit or at least I haven't seen too many of them built.

The hubcaps were covered with BMF. I had to be pretty careful when trimming the extra BMF away because the wheels on this 1/43 scale kit are so tiny.  Then I added some black wash to the holes on the wheels. Not perfect, but they are so tiny that in person they look surprisingly good.

[Matt Bacon]

Really interested to watch this. I’ve done a few of these little Hellers, and they are sweet kits. Good shapes, reasonable detail, and a pleasingly quirky set of subjects from around Europe…

best,

M.

[milo1303s]

I have this kit in my stash somewhere can't wait to see one built !!! 

[ea0863]

It's coming out great! And yes, keep in mind the photos are 5 times the size of the real thing and don't sweat the small stuff  BTW, this has a very similar look to the Audi 100LS of that period. I wonder if they shared any lineage, or if the Wankel engine was every considered for this car.

[peteski]

That is a very interesting project. I also never knew about this car or the model.

When I was a kid, we had a VW 1600TL (the fastback). I have a Matchbox diecast of it and some N scale (1:160) models, but I wish someone would come out with a 1:24 version in a kit form.

[beeRS]

Interesting project. I never knew of this car, let alone the kit!  Nice work so far. Those wheels look great. 

[Blueprint]

I think I have a Majorette diecast of this car somewhere...

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see one of the Heller kits being built, you're making very good progress so far.

I've done two, the Austin Princess and Alpine A310. Both simple but good-looking with a nice level of detail.

I was hoping to find one of the K70s when I visited France this summer, but sadly didn't see any kits anywhere. But I did see a 1:1 example in an old garage:

4 hours ago, Blueprint said:

I think I have a Majorette diecast of this car somewhere...

Me too, managed to find one earlier this with some other Majorettes:

[W-409]

Thanks for the interest everyone! This is a fun kit to build because you don't see too many of them done.  And it looks like it can be built into a pretty nice model.

The tires were painted flat black from spray can and then I shot a coat of flat clear on them. With the wheels glued on place I think the wheel & tire combo turned out pretty good.

[W-409]

Not much of an update, but after a vacation in SoCal, I'm back on the bench.

I removed all mold lines and mold flash from the chassis and then shot with primer and paint. The color is Tamiya's TS-102. Light coat of clear is still needed before I can go ahead and start detail painting.