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But I had also known from the moment I took this project on, that one car, not even two cars, would be enough to constitute a "display". Not in my eyes anyway. As it turned out, there was some shocking stuff on display elsewhere, but also some incredibly high level stuff way beyond my messing around. Anyhow I thought that I should add some folks. I ordered several figures off ebay, all of which were hugely disappointing. All of them were the wrong scale when they arrived, and all the sellers were ignorant about it and thought I should just deal - even though these figures were all in the region of £10-£20 each - for about 3 grams of moulded plastic. So with only a few days left and a month waiting for these figures only to get this rubbish, I resigned myself to not having any. But, with the aid of my dad, we sliced one of them up and made her shorter. He opened up all his boxes of 1/24 figures and spare parts, of all sorts, and together we made figures. We cut, glued, cut again and added the most random bits of various mixed-scale and mixed-period historical figures and all sorts, until we got something that looked pretty good. Oh, and I nabbed a bit of static grass to do an awesome anime-inspired hairstyle! So they don't have names or anything, but if they did, this is Keisuke Keisuke is of course a bit of a loner, likes playing whatever console that cut down miniscule bit of sprue looks most like, and believes that most Manga is factual work. And this is Suki taking a selfie of herself and and Seiki, her much more reserved friend. Genuinely they didn't have names until just now when I was writing this I shouldn't just write out every single Easter-egg either but I can't express how long it took to get "sitting girl" (OK fine it's Seiki!) to do the typical Japanese V-sign with her fingers. They are like 0.1mm round by 1.5mm long each! One more shot of that interior. I love these seats. And on display: And that's it. Two worthless old kits that nobody wanted turned into a bit of fun and a colourful showpiece, all it took was a load of time I didn't have, money I didn't want to spend, and effort I had to summon up out of nowhere to get them done on time! Just like any cars going to a show, right?
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Not to bore you with too many details, but I took them over to my dad's flat to do all the finishing. I didn't take many pictures during the progress although I meant to. Also during this process, the glass for the Carina would never fit in straight. As well as that I found it quite visually boring, and being a totally stock model that I wasn't interested in, it just wasn't cutting it. Even some nice wheels weren't enough. So, I chopped the roof off. Totally in keeping with the specific niche I was heading towards... Wait...what? Umm, yeah. If you are going to do a couple of cars to stand out at a convention with 20,000 visitors, on a display table invited to be near the entrance, then you need to stand out. I figured nobody would even know about Bosozuko, never mind have anything similar on display. [There are some 1/24 kits out now in VIP and Shakotan styles though.] A few other details went in to cover up things. Painting the lights white to hide the 2-decade old superglue residue was a good move. Cutting the roof off had eliminated the cracks in the glazing other than the front screen, and I added a subway ring as well. Wheels were waiting for that 1/24 Hakosuka kit I'll get round to one day. And the other one got the same treatment except nicer. The rear lights were broken so these stick-on jewels seemed ostentatious enough! The spoiler came out of my dad's spares - as did the interior. The single racing bucket and touring car dash were replaced with various other spares, and the seats are absolutely lovely with little rubber harnesses that match the colour I'd painted the floor in 2002 or whatever. The rollcage was pulled out of it and left a few gaps and glue marks. A bit of mucking around trying things and finally I settled on real pigskin leather glued into it, so the interior was trimmed out in a pinkish hue - it's the little things... Licence plates made from some serial tabs on some sprue. Couldn't find any nicer wheels that suited it though. Left most of the front end mesh and grilles off, added some menace to the car.
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A while ago I volunteered to drive my dad over to Telford, where he was going to the International Plastic Model Exhibition 2022. Basically if he was going to go anyway then I had an excuse to take the van over and a weekend free in England to do work stuff. One thing led to another and I figured if he was going to be going there to put on a display on behalf of Northern Ireland then I might as well contribute as well. I'm not an avid model builder by any means, but I've done a few cars in previous years as I'm sure many of us have, and not all that well! But I thought I could knock something up pretty quick. Of course I underestimated how much time, money and effort it would take, so sort of like every project car, right? Late Sept/early Oct I started browsing ebay for something cool and cheap. Of course those two things never go together. But then I recalled I had a box of broken (due to house moves etc) 1/24 models and that I could revive one of those just as quickly. Even more quickly, being already built... First off I started into this. This is a Tamiya Toyota Cerumo EXiV JTCC car that I set into with the neon paints and metalflake about 15-20 years ago. Dreadful. The Cerumo name we don't recognise over here - the road car was the Corona EXiV. Apparently that moniker derived from "EXtra impressIVe"... That car itself was based on / platform&body shared the Carina ED, different again to the normal Carina. So Toyota are complicated. Anyway I stripped it down. Very racecar. And prepped it. And primed. Then sanded, and primed, and sanded, and primed, and so on, about 10 times. I was up to 2000 grit wet sanding and it still wasn't smooth enough, but on I pressed. A particular colour was always destined for this. In an exhibition that was sure to be full of militaria models in olive drab, a pink car was going to stand out big-time. But there was more plans afoot because, as I said, things spiral! This scrappy old model was also uncovered. I thought I had binned this! I also wasn't 100% sure what it was. I previously (in another post) related that I had found it in a barn once in a poor state, and semi-revived it then with some new (awful) paint and wheels. This was circa 2004. This one as it happens, turns out to be a Tamiya Toyota Carina ED Autopista. So wait - this is the same car almost! This 1985-1989 first gen Carina ED was a different body car sold alongside the normal Carina, then there was a 89-93 second edition Carina ED, then the third one was 93-98. Those 2nd and 3rd gen were the same Carinas that with a slightly different body were called the Corona EXiV... Wow, Toyota are complicated. Anyway these cars are very nearly the same one just a generation or two apart. Coming back to the plastic model, it was suffering with multiple breaks in the glazing, and I broke some of the lights taking them off. But once I had the body free, I looked for some paint, and the most garish thing I could find was some vinyl-spray blue. This is stuff that becomes a vinyl wrap layer and can be removed. So it got about a quarter of the prep as the pink car, and blue it became.
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Dec 18, 2022 23:49:38 GMT
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I eventually stumped up for the smaller tyres, and they look lovely when fitted. Taking the wheels from work (where the tyre machine is) to home (where the S110 is) resulted in a puncture on the Camaro and so I had to leave it there, and take the wheel off and back to work for a repair, sigh Then I got ready to head off to England in the van, but it was blowing black smoke out of the exhaust. A couple of days before going I had to borrow a trailer and pick up a car for work. Once I hitched up the tri-axle 18ft transporter the van was very slow, and very smoky. I didn't realise the trailer would be quite so heavy as to slow down my normally quite fast and torquey van. I was worried then as I was going for a 3.5 hour drive to get a car and a van full of parts, and back again the same night. I was relieved when there were less parts than expected and it was light enough for the return trip, which the van didn't seem to struggle with as much. However once back and unloaded, I was getting ready to jump on a ferry and thought I should stick my head under the bonnet. I found a big split in the boost pipe to the TB/EGR and, well: Thought that was pretty obviously the cause of the reek, but also the lack of speed. With minimal time, one of the guys and I patched it up with a bit of inner tube and superglue, wrapped in layers of duck tape. Once sorted, it was like a new van again! I didn't realise there had been such a performance drop-off as well - I hadn;t noticed with the van trundling around empty on local roads, but with that trailer on there was a noticeable impact on pulling power. Pipe fixed, and it was a rocket-ship once again. Off for it's trip... And, well, that was annoying! from leaving my yard, to the ferry, and all around England from Birkenhead to Manningtree and back again with lots of stop-offs, and back to the ferry and back to the yard - so, so close to an even 1k! I've done nothing with the cars except fit the wheels to the S110R, Put the Camaro away for winter, And get the MG very dirty indeed.
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Nov 25, 2022 12:00:26 GMT
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In another life I'd absolutely be listing to Evanescence while working on an R34. Unfortunately I too completely missed the boat on them and didn't have any memories to fall back on so this thread is extremely helpful, in a vicarious sense.
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Nov 25, 2022 11:47:22 GMT
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For postage, go to nearest alloy wheel place, ask for some 22" SUV wheel boxes. (Should be free, they have to pay to have them taken away and recycled). Then, book with Parcelforce online. Will cost around £9-12 to send within UK.
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Nov 24, 2022 10:47:43 GMT
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As title - looking for a set of black leather seats in good shape for a '98 406 Saloon. I'm also after any good white panels for the same.
I'd semi-seriously consider buying a complete car to acquire either.
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Nov 19, 2022 13:58:40 GMT
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I give you the Alfa 156 The design is loverly everywhere else, the interior is fantastic, the engine choices superb - but the chinless front end, bleugh, so so ugly. It's hard to even find a picture of one now, most pics that come up in searches have Zender or other aftermarket front lips/bumpers fitted to resolve it - even the facelift car had to address the issue so the car didn't look quite so gormless!
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Nov 19, 2022 13:43:41 GMT
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That does look a little odd, but you have to give kudos to anyone who actually finishes a project. An incredible amount of work has gone into widening that bonnet. . . . . Would it have looked better with the bonnet left at it's regular width, and then widened wheel arches fitted to cover the wheels? A "widearch" Spitfire rather than a "widened" Spitfire..?
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Nov 19, 2022 13:36:41 GMT
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I always liked the profile of the Mazda 323F, and that aqua colour was the best. I like the pop-up light version too, but the lines on it just weren't as nice. The little rear window was what made it. The Dodge Neon and the 90s Laguna were both similar but not quite as nice.
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Nov 18, 2022 16:02:23 GMT
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I have this set, pretty much immaculate, 5 x 4+3/4" (120.65) and 14 x 7j all round.
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Nov 15, 2022 17:17:33 GMT
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I'd likely have an Alpina type spoiler for one if you are still looking?
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Oct 25, 2022 12:13:53 GMT
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I should maybe have a French set, and I definitely have lots of Irish ones although not sure if any are for Cark. Half a possibility of Polish ones too.
[edit: Quick check, can't find the other countries. Ireland ones I have off right now: plastic Dublin plate ('96) pair metal Galway plates ('94) plastic Wicklow plate ('94)
You're welcome to any of them that you fancy.]
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Oct 15, 2022 14:22:55 GMT
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Did I ever put up a very excited post about new wheels? Can't remember. Well anyway I finally found time to trial fit them for clearance... Woohoo about 10mm clearance to the trailing arm. Then I went to order tyres. 175/50/13 are quite dear so I hunted around other sizes until I found 185/60/13s by Toyo at £45 each plus delivery. That'll do... Except that it wont do, not at all: So looks like I still need to blow over £400 on some 175s after all. and HOPE that they clear... I can use the 185s on one of the other cars anyway - I wasn't totally surprised that they were too big but also knew I could use them elsewhere if that was the case. Emmm, that's all the news I think, other than the Ducati got an MOT (flew through, no probs) and the Ducato Recovery truck snapped it's timing belt - what a colossal moneypit that thing is. Oh and the MG is back in service for the wet season. Winter wheels with Toyo tyres, on, and 18" gridspokes with budget tyres consigned to the spares pile.
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Oct 15, 2022 14:15:59 GMT
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No, but I have had it out for a few trips! I volunteered to marshal at a vintage navigation rally. It ended at a little village that has a seasonal ferry and I haven't been on that since the last time it featured in this very thread with an E28 - probably circa 2011! What a view! I love this ridiculous car. Here it is at the most easterly point in Ireland Staring off into the distance - no you can't see home from here, wrong coast buddy!
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Oct 15, 2022 13:18:06 GMT
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There was an Irish guy with a mk1 or mk2 transit that he’d made in to a rally support vehicle replica. He did it very quickly and a lot of people got their knickers in a twist about his resto methods with filler etc. Was it the Rothmans replica one from somewhere near Bangor, Northern Ireland? If it was, that was a guy Gavin that had that, might have ran a bit of a garage or scrapyard or something. He was active on facebook groups I'm in up until a couple of years ago, but his account seems to be deleted now.
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The Argento is definitely the pick of that lot for me, both in liking it and evoking the collection's raison d'etre
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Sept 29, 2022 11:33:23 GMT
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I think you have it sir!
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Sept 29, 2022 10:20:12 GMT
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Nice work guys, the indicator does indeed match. The grille shape itself isn't quite the same though.
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