Asian MicroCars: Daihatsu Copen, Honda Beat & Suzuki Cappuccino FINISHED!

[jbwelda]

Had these kits on the "to build" pile for a while so I decided to finally tackle them. they are simple enough, but I think I am going to sculpt pilots for them and make a diorama base eventually, for now they will get fancy paint jobs, lowered down, some ground effects and clean interiors with some racing accessories.

a couple of ideas have come to mind as I studied these kool little pocket rocket kits, one that stuck was that this Daihatsu Copen sure looks like what a modern day "new Beetle" Porsche Speedster might look like, way more so than the Boxster does. so I immediately went to my stash of fujimi enthusiasts kits and pulled out some Targa style wheels, which I posed for these photos. I might even go back to the 356 wheels for even more of a styling cue. as you can see I have already painted it german silver (approximately) and I even considered (and may still on a v2.0) cutting in some Porsche grilles into the rear deck (even though this is evidently a front engine, front drive car), and some other like REALLY obvious styling cue in case someone doesn't get it otherwise.

the Honda beat kit I am using had a bunch of nice ground effects stuff and I used the front clip plus the rear whale tail wing. the Suzuki Cuppaccino (aka Cappy) has a front ground effects piece. I am looking around for wheels but these I have posed with the cars are likely suspects, ive had them in the "use me" pile for quite awhile and maybe I can get them in under the wheel wells...

any comments suggestions etc cheerfully fielded!

heres a picture of the source kits, be back shortly with some progress pics:

jb

Edited July 3, 2015 by jbwelda

[MyBradKeselowski]

Great pair of kit's ! !

I wished I had those, I love aoshima kits..

[Austin T]

Nice,looks like the start to a cool project. Now all you need is an Autozam AZ-1 and you've got the whole Asian micro car line up ready to go.

[jbwelda]

here are the three bodies posed with the wheels I may use, from left, the Honda Beat in Testors Lacquer Lime Ice, the Copen in Tamiya Silver Leaf, and the Suzuki Cappy in Tamiya Camel Yellow. The Cappy needs a polish followed by another coat of yellow but the other two are ready for clear coat and decals.

comments encouraged! I know these are kinda out there, but I been intrigued with little cars that go fast for a long time.

close up of Honda Beat:

close up of Daihatsu Copen:

close up of Suzuki Cappy:

thanks again for looking!

jb

[Austin T]

That Copen really pops with those rims,maybe even find some stretch walls for them and keep them tucked under for a super clean look. These are all definitely showing some potential.

[1hobby1]

Great paint jobs! Looking forward to seeing these finished.

[jbwelda]

and here are some shots of the chassis, painted and some detail painting done, not going to go overboard or anything, but do like a clean looking (underside) engine area. most of it will be covered by suspension and running gear detail. as you can see there is some significant difference in level of detail between the cars, even though all share some parts (brake rotors and calipers for one, or four). so I just did some highlights and will hit the whole thing with dullcoat after it is assembled.

trying to gang the work as you can see...next will be interiors with pilot figures, that's gonna be fun in open cars! there is some race car equipment included in the Beat but I am going to hunt around in my spares box for some sparco seats and whatever I can find.

ok here are the parts arrays for the chassis plates, not all that exciting but you can see the parts breakdown this way:

three in one, from left, copen, beat, cappy:

copen:

beat:

cappy:

thanks again!

jb

[mike 51]

Is there a up top in the Copen kit?

[Erik Smith]

The chassis on the Suzuki kit is really pretty awesome. Falls together and with a little detail, looks great. I finished the bottom end of mine but the rest is still in the box...

Cool to see these three together.

[jbwelda]

>Is there a up top in the Copen kit?

nope that's the only one of the three without a top. and they call it "active top" whatever that means...evidently it means "don't bother actively looking for a top because there ain't one!"

>Looking forward to seeing these finished.

now lets not get carried away with crazy talk.

jb

Edited February 7, 2015 by jbwelda

[mike 51]

Thanks re: the top question...I think the 1-1 has a metal (or fiberglass) retractable top set up....looks like a little 3 window coupe with the top up,kinda neat looking.

Edited February 7, 2015 by mike 51

[jbwelda]

well a little progress report, I have all three chassis assembled without major issues, just shot some dullcote over them and will take some pics and post them later.

meanwhile I started checking out what I thought would be a minor procedure: assemble the interiors to all three cars and replace the driver seats with sparkco or similar racing style seats (the Honda beat comes with two of them). whoever might assume that Japanese kits just fall together might be on notice that these interiors, the one to the Suzuki Cappy particularly, are VERY vague in both fit and attachment points. test fitting is showing me that the dashboard is gonna be a real wild card and the side panels only vaguely fit the sides of the body and top edge of the interior, and the back package tray doesn't even sort of fit. don't know what I am going to do but it may involve cutting all that off and fabbing some new pieces. really a drag about the dashboard particularly because I was going to fit pilot figures and hopefully be able to construct them inside a self contained interior with seats and dash position fixed, but that's not going to work at all here.

The Copen looks to be just as bad but I haven't actually tried fitting anything yet. The Honda Beat has a pre-assembled interior bucket and it looks like the dash might fit better there but again haven't tried fitting anything yet.

fitting pilot figures and making them look halfway realistically posed is pretty difficult and its going to be impossible if I have to wait till the whole car is together to see actual distances between the body and the steering wheel (and shift knob too as I usually like to have one hand on the wheel and the other on the shift knob if I can manage it).

getting back to the interior though, there are some tabs in the front of the interior floor that are not used and I think at one time might have held a battery pack to power an electric motor, so that might be where the compromises in fit come in.

anyway I will keep at it until something breaks I guess...pics at eleven!

jb

[crazyrichard]

cool !!

[fitforbattle]

Such cool cars. Can't wait to see more.

[jbwelda]

here are some pics of the mostly completed chassis, no brakes because I am going to mount those to the wheels before mounting to chassis, and there are a couple exhaust tips missing since I will maybe be using extractors or something.

all three side by side, from left: Suzuki cappy, Honda beat, Daihatsu copen:

heres a close up of the Suzuki, front engine, rear wheel drive:

the Honda Beat, rear engine, rear wheel drive:

the Daihatsu Copen, front engine, front wheel drive:

next up while the paint is drying down are the interiors. as I despaired above, the interior built up tub for the Suzuki was no way gonna fit so some surgery was necessary. heres a couple photos of the problems which have since been dealt with. both the other interiors fit into the bodies well and can have the dashboard mounted before mating to the bodies, though I am not sure I am going to assemble them like that, might fix the interior to the body and then grind down the base as much as possible to make room for the chassis up under the body, a problem I have found in several other tuner kits I have built.

anyway this little ledge on the inside of the body was keeping the tub from lining up

and no way was this back valance going to fit...it was supposed to go under the body but it kept the interior from even sort of fitting flush with the top body line, so it had to be trimmed away at the line, plus the two body tabs that the line shows there were removed (would have been nice to have realized that before I painted the body but...) and hence that curve was smoothed.

so with that out of the way am proceeding to do some minor detailing in the interiors but like the chassis, no real heroics just some detail painting. not sure if I really want to make pilot figures, the figures I have got way too big of butts to fit into the sparco seats so some extreme liposuction would be in order (Dr Dremel at your service!).

thanks again for looking and any questions comments whatevers gladly considered!

jb

Edited February 16, 2015 by jbwelda

[jbwelda]

I am occasionally reminded of the great Japanese model builder, Kitbasha Toytoahonda, and his transcendent insights from the mystical far east.

One such insight I was just reminded of is: if a Japanese kit just seems to not be fitting together correctly, consider, before reaching for the dremel tool, that an ancient culture with way more of a tradition of attention to detail than your "civilization" will ever master in this lifetime, designed the kit and undoubtedly BUILT the kit before it ever left the factory. In light of that, one might reflect on the possibility that the builder is incorrect, not the kit, and the problem needs to be approached from that angle for progress to continue.

its darn hard to tell which way is front and which way is back with some of these machines, I swear.

jb

[Belugawrx]

Getting the angle of the foofhall valve to line up with the glemis trokken can be a real pain sometimes

Good luck

Cheers

[robertw]

Very nice, I'll look forward to seeing them finished. I haven't built these three but do have an interest in building these small vehicles. I refer to them as my "Minis, Micros, Compacts and Vehicles only an Owner could love" collection.

[jbwelda]

well time for an update, got the interiors done for the Copen and the Beat, the Cappy is awaiting a new kit so I can redo the interior; just as well because the one I have I have painted and stripped three times now and it kinda shows. plus that unfortunate incident with the cutter, oh my. but back to the story: am getting some work in on the bodies themselves, they have kinda morphed in my mind as to what they will look like: I painted the hood area of the yellow Cappy in flat orange and put a graphic from an old bomber (aircraft) decal sheet I had around, the Beat has more or less stayed as was (lime green) with some accent decals added, and the Copen (faux new-Speedster) got some black tribal design scorpions to highlight, once again, the Abarth-ness of the whole thing. anyway the 911 wheels go a long way to making the viewer ID this as a Porsche Speedster update and the stance I have now (see dummied up photos) is looking pretty good. might really camber out all four wheels to mimic and exaggerate not only old days Porsche air cooled suspension setup, but also todays JDM look. am also considering 2 stinger sort of exhaust tips coming well out of the back end where the stock exhaust ends. another retro/modern styling cue.

I am really liking the Copen more and more. next is to complete the body, then do the same with the Beat, leave the Cappy on the back burner indefinitely or until a new kit lands in my lap, then some final assembly. more locally, I think tonite I will scuff up the tires and drill out the rims for valve stems.

comments or questions certainly considered! thanks for looking!

you can see the graphics a bit better on this one, I meant it to mimic a racing stripe but not sure how well that happened, I still like the look

interior shots next...

jb

[jbwelda]

Copen interior, remember I am planning on adding driver figures (though maybe not immediately) so I am keeping the detail level low on the seats (and pretty much everywhere). GPS screen on dashboard looks particularly neat:

edit to add: wow that digi camera is brutal in detail! I can see I need an overcoat of dullcote on the back cover and the seats! sheesh!

and the Honda Beat interior, this one came with roll bar and a choice of steering wheels and shift knobs. kinda nice. it was also the source of 2 Sparco seats one of which is here and one will be in the reborn Cappy (soon, very soon) so instead I harvested one of the stock seats that came with the kit.

ok thanks again for looking!

jb

Edited March 14, 2015 by jbwelda

[martinfan5]

Mighty fine work you are doing

I have all three the same subjects, I want the to get the version of the Cappuccino kit you have,

Edited March 14, 2015 by martinfan5

[blackandwhite]

I really like the Copen. I think the decals take away from the retro-ish look of it.

All of these look like great little cars with details well highlighted by you

[jbwelda]

yeah I have to agree on the decals but they are on there now. originally I was going to use a simple black racing stripe but then couldn't find a suitable one in my stash. oh well...maybe that part is on the modern side now.

thanks for looking and commenting!

jb

[jbwelda]

here you go martinfan:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120357502344?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

jb

[niteowl7710]

FWIW Aoshima is reissuing the Initial D Series version of the Cappuccino next month, that's a factory stock kit with the addition of a front bumper "cover" like the MOLA one (as the stock bumper is molded to the body) along with racing seats and roll hoops for behind the seats.

Pricing is about $15 if you import direct.