Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type A, Tamiyujimi, 1/24

[Matt Bacon]

I saw this JDM exotic on a Pistonheads auction, and decided I'd really like one on my shelves:

Ah, great, thinks I, Fujimi do a kit of exactly what I want:

Except, despite the box art, not exactly. The Spirit R Type A kit has the wing, the special red Recaro seats, and the right wheels. What they haven't done, though, is change the nose of the standard kit. So instead of the separate aero splitter and subtle fairings in front of the wheel arches as depicted on the box art, there's just a blunt air dam that goes all the way around the lower nose. Bother.

What to do?

As it happens, I had a spare cheap-as-chips Tamiya RX-7R1, the 1992 top of the line sports model of this generation (FD3S). It has a more aggressive front splitter, as well as a much more accurate chassis and I'm hoping better dimensioned suspension than the Fujimi kit. So this "quick build" has become a FrankenSpirit, combining the Tamiya running gear and chassis (and full engine) with the later-model Fujimi body and Spirit R details. Fortunately, the Fujimi and Tamiya bodies and chassis are very close dimensionally, which is not always the case with Fujimi kits. First job, as you can see, was to remove most of the air dam from the Fujimi body.

Then many rounds of fettling, building up, filling and fine tuning have got me to this point:

It's not perfect, but I think it looks a lot more like the real thing now!

And finally, I think I can actually start building the rest of the model...

best,

M.

 

[Matt Bacon]

I looked at the pictures I'd posted of the real thing above, and you know what? I spotted that the splitter needed a bit more upfront airfoil. And I couldn't unsee it. So after gluing on a plastic card extension, some filler, a bit more of the superglue and glass microballoons, I got to somewhere I'm happier with...

The body is painted with a Zero Paints "Nissan Gunmetal KAD", intended for an R35 GT-R, but it's the closest I have in the paint locker to the Mazda RX-7 Titanium Grey Metallic special colour for the Spirit Type R. I mean, how many shades of grey can there be? 50? 😜

And yes, it does look rough... that's what Zero base colours are meant to look like before the clear coat goes on...

best,

M.

Edited April 6 by Matt Bacon

[Matt Bacon]

And the clear coat is on:

This is Zero Paints 2K Diamond straight out of the brush, without any sanding or polishing. There are a couple of dust specs to be dealt with, but overall I'm very happy with how it turned out. The wing was prepainted to the base coat stage before fixing in position, to make sure the coverage under it was complete and even.

best,

M.

 

[DJMar]

Nice! Quite a bit of work there for you, but it turned out great.

[slusher]

Great paint and clear coat!

[Matt Bacon]

If you're thinking "This is taking a while," so am I... On the plus side, I have now completed Stage Two of the instructions...

One of the standout features of the Spirit R is carbon/Kevlar-shelled Recaro race seats... a must-do highlight in an otherwise grey and black cabin. These are mostly Tamiya Flat red, and yellow oversprayed with black through a handy piece of gauze for the backs. In reality they are a bit more muted, but in the gloom of that dark cabin, I think they'll be fine.

I'm not sure why I'm spending time on the engine, other than "Because it's there." I'm not planning to open the hood in the Fujimi body shell, and I'm certainly not building hinges for it like I did for the Super Samuri. But Tamiya moulded it, so I guess I'd better color it in a bit...

Terrible picture, but the blacked out tail light bar is now in position. Hard to tell from this angle, but the outer lens is the orange indicator, and the inner pair are red tail and brake lights.

The glass is temporarily tacked in place, and needs a darn good clean before it's fixed. I mostly wanted to check that the tub would fit under it, and it would all close up with the engine in place. Which it mostly does, though I may need to glue the splitter under the nose to make it stay where it should. And though I might moan about them when they are provided, I really could have done with some masks or templates for the black areas around the window borders, even though they are frosted on the plastic molding...

Just the suspension, wheels and stance now, then...

best,

M.

 

Edited April 11 by Matt Bacon

[Matt Bacon]

...and the engine bay and the interior, of course...

You can see a faint "crocodile skin" texture on the one piece airbox/ducting part at the front of the bay. I have no idea what happened there -- my trusty can of Citadel Chaos Black primer/base went on too thick and "curdled" into clumps, and the lines where it didn't cover ended up etched by, I assume, neat solvent. I dumped it straight into IPA, but the damaged had already been done. The IPA removed all the paint overnight, but left the ghost texture behind. If it was ever going to be seen again, I'd have had to do more about it, but as things are in this basically curbside model, I'm just going to chalk it up to a "learning experience".

The interior is pretty simple, but the decals add some nice details and further splash of colour. Note to self... brush off that dusty fingermark on the dash top...

best,

M.

[Matt Bacon]

Suspension and chassis coming together:

Very much in the classic Tamiya mold of a small number of large and complex parts requiring detail painting rather than many separate, this rear suspension is made up of a top frame, one-piece differential with drive shafts, two wheel carriers, two brake disks and a one-piece lower frame with integrated suspension arms and underbody panels.

There are just 16 molded parts visible in the picture above (and four polycaps hidden in the wheel hubs). I think they do a pretty convincing job of representing the suspension and drivetrain (and certainly better than using the chassis from an R32 GT-R...)

I'm calling it a day in this thread... I have battled to the end, but was utterly useless at documenting the process. It was "just" fitting the body to the chassis, adding the wheels and few more details, and decalling. But it was kinda frustrating and way more difficult than it should have been (which is mostly my fault...). Anyway, see you over in Under Glass...

best,

M.