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

[Matt Bacon]

Now, you may be wondering "Why Tamiyujimi?" Well, I saw this ad on an auction site:

And not having the requisite £80,000 spare, I decided to build one. Shouldn't be too difficult, surely? Fujimi makes a kit of this very car, the FD3S RX-7 Spirit R Type A. But... the body in the box doesn't have the unique nosecone or aggressive splitter. And a fellow Britmodeller pointed out some time ago that the chassis in the kit is actually from an R-32 GTR, not an accurate RX-7 chassis, and the brakes are far too far inboard. So I resolved to use the chassis from a spare Tamiya RX-7R1 (an earlier vintage FD-3S) mated with the much-modified Fujimi body and essential Spirit R parts like the unique wheels and Kevlar-backed Recaro seats. And this is the result:

Paint is a Zero Paints Gunmetal intended for a R35 GT-R that I had to hand, with Zero 2K clear coat. The tires are Michelin Pilot Sports that I found in the spares box, because I wanted something a little less "rubber band" than the ones that came in the kit, and I wanted them to fit the wheels without stretching (I have a couple of nice models in the cabinet whose tires have started to crack as they've aged because they were stretched over a 1" bigger wheel than they were made for...). The track is just slightly too wide front and back, which is a consequence of the chassis swap and Tamiya's way of molding the suspension with a small number of large and complex parts including wishbones, links etc in one piece, which makes it much more difficult to take a couple of mm out of each side... There is an engine in there as well, but with the amount of work the body needed already, I wasn't going to open the hood and build hinges!

But I now have my very own Spirit R Type A...

best,

M.

Edited April 17 by Matt Bacon

[Jim B]

Beautiful RX-7. Very well done. You put in a lot of work on this one.

[karbuildr]

Outstanding build, really like it a lot.

[Badge73]

Turned out great, love the mash up. Color is a nice match and it all really pops.

[ChrisR]

Nice.

 

[slusher]

Fantastic Looking Rx7!

[Mike 1017]

Most Excellent

[Curt]

Beautiful and accurate replica of a Rotary Rocket!  Nice work, Matt.

[espo]

Beautiful paint finish and color. Great job recreating the body of the 1:1 RX7. 

[ea0863]

Fantastic build Matt! You nailed the stance perfectly

[PappyD340]

Very nice Mazda, well done!

[Dann Tier]

Looks brilliant!