Gunze Sangyo Austin Healey Sprite MK1

[GeeBee]

I was taking a look at the listings at Fantasy Junction and thought you'd be interested in this '59. 75 more shots at the link below.

http://www.fantasyju...Racing%20Engine

Thanks for the link, I wish Gunze Sangyo had included the optional hard top like they did with the Lotus Elan kit,

[GeeBee]

The trim on top of the doors and around the top of the dash and rear were polished aluminium of the real car, I wanted it to look as prototypical as possible, so I replicated the trim using aluminium BMF, I did this in 4 pieces, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

[sjordan2]

This is looking awesome. Did you score the panel lines more than the kit has?

[GeeBee]

This is looking awesome. Did you score the panel lines more than the kit has?

Yes I did, they looked a bit thin to me when I stripped the paint off, but I've recently bought the Lotus Elan kit from Gunze, and the panel lines look very shallow on that as well, not sure if all there kits are the same

[GeeBee]

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I've touch the little Sprite, so the last couple of days I've done a little bit more to it, the dash has now been fitted in place, along with the side trim panels, these needed a little bit of trimming as they cover the holes in the side of the bodyshell where the mounting pins on the chassis should protrude, but a little bit of trimming on the inside and they were o.k, they were all fitted using 4 minute epoxy, the front grille trim was fitted on before the body was painted, and was covered in chrome BMF, this was the first time I got to try out my new tool, a Testors burnishing tool, which worked very well,some thinned epoxy glue was dropped into the dash gauges to replicate the glass.

Edited August 23, 2011 by GeeBee

[Dr. Cranky]

Wow, this thing looks flawless. Excellent.

[GeeBee]

It now has it's grill and headlamp pods fitted, the headlamps were a tight push fit in the pods, so didn't even need glue, also got the grille fitted, both the grille and headlamps were already stripped of there chrome when I got the kit, so I airbrushed them gloss black, and then gave them a few coats a Alclad chrome

[aarondupont]

Really nice work Geoff! One of those is calling out to me. I can hear it say, "open up my tilt front end. Put in a large V-8 and a cut down 9" rear end..." Well you get the point. Great start for a Modified Sport Production car. Aaron Dupont

[GeeBee]

The rear lamps were first airbrushed in Tamiya acrylic clear red, the chrome surrounds were replicated using chrome BMF, they were attached using 4 minute epoxy glue.

[my80malibu]

Magnificent

[charlie8575]

Very, very nice little car, Geoff.

We have a few of those running around here, the one that sticks out in my mind being a bright emerald green.

Charlie Larkin

[Dr. Cranky]

Beautiful!

[GeeBee]

Been working on this for the last few days, coming on quite nicely ...

The the chrome parts were done using Alclad over gloss black enamel thinned with cellulose thinners

[Sixties Sam]

Looking good! Nice job on the paint, and the windshield pins are a great idea!

Sam

[GeeBee]

Front end finished, the front grille, headlamp pods and bumper were again done using Alclad chrome, the trim above the grille was done using chrome Bare Metal Foil (BMF) the chrome around the indicator lamps were done using the same chrome foil.

[Tony T]

That car looks happy!! Love these...I saw a 1:1 on the weekend with wheels like that...it was painted British Racing Green...cool car!