Tamiya Honda Ballade Sports Mugen CR-X Pro

[galaxyg]

Background:

The Honda Ballade CR-X Mugen Pro is small, light and very 1980s, especially the wheels. It'll fit well with my Honda collection.

Pros:

Nearly all fits together well, looks great. Good rubber tyres and quick/easy to build. Doesn't take up much space on the shelf.

Cons:

This re-release kit shows it's age in a few ways: There's a fair few mould lines to clean up from the roof and bumpers; the seat backs are hollow, and there's a thin line right down the middle of the back window where the molten plastic has met from either side. In addtion, there's very little positive mounting for the dashboard and the wheels are a little wobbly once put on the car. The interior lacks some detail, especially the door cards. Some window masks would have been nice.

Verdict:

It's pretty good considering it's age. A nice quick, simple build of a classic.

Build notes:

Built over the course of 3 weeks in September/October 2023. Painted in Tamiya TS-76 Mica Silver, clearcoated with Mr Hobby Premium Gloss. The seats are Tamiya TS-49 Bright red. The only changes to the kit are the addition of some interior carpets, some mesh in the front grille and the front Honda emblem.

 

[Street Rod]

Good looking model. Nice paint work, very clean build.

[atomicholiday]

Great job on this one.?

I’m a big Honda fan too.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Very nice. Saw one of these in a dirt road race, it was fast as could be.

[kelson]

Nice build of a kit ,i've always wanted to buy,but no left hand dash kinda puts me off.?

[karbuildr]

Very nicely done Honda.

[Intmd8r]

Your vision does the car justice. The 1:1 were a tone of fun to drive and rivalled fuel economy of modern hybrid vehicles of today while doing it.Very nice!

 I haven’t seen too many of these built. Looking forward to building mine. Any tips?

 

[happy grumpy]

I remember seeing these back then , they were pretty nimble too. You did a great job on it despite it's shortcomings, it sure looks the part, awesome.

[galaxyg]

20 hours ago, Intmd8r said:

Your vision does the car justice. The 1:1 were a tone of fun to drive and rivalled fuel economy of modern hybrid vehicles of today while doing it.Very nice!

 I haven’t seen too many of these built. Looking forward to building mine. Any tips?

 

Thanks. It's such a good kit, despite it being around 40 years old,  the only tips I can offer are 1)  to make sure you carefully identify all of the mould lines on the body and remove them. There are quite a few and some are very subtle until you've got the body colour on.  2) Electrical tape is very useful for the red stripes down the sides.

 

 

[slusher]

Looks Fantastic!