Bengalensis

The -67 test car had the fuel filler cap through the bonnet. It's not included in the kit, so I scratched it from some sprue and Evergreen strip, then drilled and cut the recess in the resin. The frames for the door and side windows are another tricky issue that is meant to be polished and fitted after painting. The fit is less than perfect and it will be difficult to get a sharp finish this way. I decided to do the same as the rear end trim, fit them now and use BMF. After some adjustment of both the resin and white metal I glued the pieces little by little, checking the positions as I went on. With some sanding and small dots of filler to make everything come together I have some descent frames in place.

Indeed he was, he's got a rather impressive career behind him.

Yes, there's a lot of nice 60's lines here, Michelotti penned this one. The Hino cars are among the lesser known in this part of the world. Toyota took over Hino in the late 60's and since then Hino only makes trucks. The problem with some softer "rubber" plastic materials; the softening agent in the material sometimes separates, or reacts with other plastic materials in contact, like the bag they are packed in. Had this kit been built in the late 90's when it was released, the tyres by now might have been rock hard shrunken rings with a pool under each sitting one on the display shelf. Here is how the tyres in my Hino Samurai kit of the same vintage look today. Pretty crazy. Fortunately I have 3D-replacements here too. You're always welcome Roger! Thanks a lot Dan! I try my best to build some odd subjects now and then, and I like working with resin. Thank you very much Keith, I'll do my best. It's very much the efforts of Peter Brock that's coming up when doing web searches on the Contessa. Hino was an important factor in the early days of BRE. You're most welcome to make a lot of noice too . Resin kit can be a bit different to work with. The variation in quality and execution are huge. Some go together almost like a Tamiya kit, while some are best described as blobs to scratch from, and there's everything in between. Many thanks Jeroen! I'm glad we did the 3D-models while there was still something to look at.

Interesting. Have any of you compared with Molotow pens (which I have found a bit limited)?

This is one of those grail resin kits that I've had on the shelf for a number of years now, and one of those that I both want to keep and build. But I've never bought anything in my life as investment, so now the day has come for this one. Q Models of Japan, 1/24 scale resin. The Hino Contessa 1300, prepared by Peter Brock's BRE team (Brock Racing Enterprises) and raced in USA during the 1966 season. Despite being built in light weight versions for racing the Contessa was still a little heavy compared to the Minis it often raced against, but that didn't stop the BRE team from a couple of remarkable race wins. The Hino Contessa is stylish in itself, and it only gets better when prepared as a race car, at least to my eyes. https://bre2.net/the-racing/hino/ https://www.datsun.org/fairlady/BREHino.htm So what's that Q-model hype then? First a sturdy stapled cardboard box. I bought this second hand some 12-13 years ago. The main parts nicely cast in resin, bags of smaller white metal parts, some photo etch, vac formed front and rear windows, transparent sheet and templates for the side windows and two sheets of decals (I forgot to take out the second here). And in this case a bag with the melted remains of three tyres... There is a double sided instruction sheet. And we have some decal placement guides. There are five different versions on the decals sheet. I'm actually thinking of this 1967 test version, just because it looks so good with its lower suspension setting, even if the 1966 versions have their racing fame. This is not good, and not uncommon in older Q Models kits. The fourth tyre was already liquid in the original bag when I acquired the kit... This is the solution, 3D-printed tyres. These are actually about 12 years old now. We were using the print service from "PrintAPart" in those days, hence that blue material, which opened a new world back then. They must have been one of the first services like this. Sadly they closed down in 2011 and back then Shapeways could not match that quality and 3D-printers at home were not really even on the horizon. Me and my friend Johan Brusefält desperately drew and had printed all various parts we could see future need for in our projects in the last weeks of the PrintAPart service, and these tyres were in there. Cad work by Brusefält. They fit perfectly on the white metal rims and haven't changed or degenerated in all those years. That's what I have to work with. Here a quick mock up to get a view of the stance. I made a start a few days ago cleaning up the body and chassis and adding some filler. The few other resin parts were soon finished too. The main roll cage part was too wide. First I cut off 2 mm in width from the lower bar and reshaped it. Then I realized that the lower bar needed be moved up and shortened further. Here we are with all parts soldered together to a complete unit. There wasn't much of a cage in the cars back then... The smaller interior parts didn't require much work and were soon done. The kit comes with different exhaust parts for the -66 and -67 versions, this is for -67. The two moulded in "suspension arms" needs to be trimmed down so they aren't visible when viewed from the side. The chassis has been drilled for the metal axles and the -67 ride height tested for real. In -66 the cars were about 2 mm higher. The front parts were also easy work. If the headlights look crude and simple that is indeed the case, as they represent the lights fully covered by black protection sheets for racing. The rear end offers more work. First the recess for the photo etched part had to be cleaned out and improved in definition to get a good fit. Then the surrounding chrome strip is supplied as a separate very thin white metal casting. I think the idea is to polish it for a chrome look. Unfortunately it's far too large. I decided to glue it to the body at this stage, cutting it in pieces to adjust the size, and just use Bare Metal chrome foil after painting. More foil work will be needed anyway. This should work. Fitting the front and rear vac formed windows needed more work. The instructions is perhaps hinting at fitting them from the outside, which would look very awkward in this case, and the resin is quite thick on the inside with no provision to accept the windows. I used a rotating ball shaped file in the Dremel and worked the body from the inside to get thin edges for a good fit. A bit scary work, relatively slow speed and steady hands help.

Thanks a lot, you are most kind! Thank you very much for your kind praise! Many thanks! Yes there should be an episode where they drive the SM, but I haven't seen it. I will have to do that. Thanks a lot Andreas. My usual method is Alclad Chrome or Bare Metal Chrome foil, depending on the circumstances. I haven't seen those pens, I may get one to do some testing.

Another lovely finished model, and it's always very interesting to see test cars modelled, and well researched too! I often find test cars interesting, showing off sometimes wild ideas that didn't quite made it through, and there is often some mean and very purposeful aura around them. This one shows of a lot of those things. Excellent choice of subject and very well executed.

It's amazing how nice those old injection moulded parts, like even sails and flags, can be made to look with a bit of work and careful painting! Superb work!

The bottom of the nose section was a bit uneven with the left side a little shallow, so I applied some filler and sanded a better shape. It's really very little. The front and rear vac formed windows are nice and clear and were quite easily cut to a good fit. The side windows had some very fine surface marks from the vac form process, nothing that would prevent them from being used, but since they should be just as easy to make from flat sheets I cut new ones. Then there is that thing with the wheels. As I mentioned somewhere earlier my friend Johan Brusefält drew some parts in 3D a few years ago for the older Airtrax SM kit, like the wheels and tyres. These were correct in diameter and as always with his work very nice in detail. Today I took his files and adapted the mount of the wheel to fit the USCP kit and altered the width a little on both the tyre and the rim, and then I created a new tyre pattern to look more like Michelin XWX 205/70 15, which is the XWX-size that would be fitted to the SM today. The car will be on current Ukranian plates so a set of current tyres from Michelin Classic should be in order. The tyre detail is nothing exact, but should hopefully be enough. These parts now have to be printed, and then we will see what happens. While printing is to be done I also took Johan's steering wheel file, that's the steering wheel I have already prepared earlier, and increased the size 10% as I think that will fit the rest of the USCP interior even better. So I now have to wait for some 3D-printing again.

Thank you very much Steve! I have never seen a decal sheet with tax discs, but it might be a good idea to produce one, with different years to choose from? @mbdesignart perhaps?

I have just added some photos in the RFI-section over here.

This is one of those kits that never made it into my stash. I came across the new 1/24 scale resin (trans)kit from Airtrax at a show during the summer, it was impossible to resist buying it and I started playing with the parts as soon as I got back home. It's a very nice effort with well made parts, but they label it as a transkit as it needs tyres (Tamiya Mini suggested) and a number of smaller parts to be complete. I decided to draw up a set of most missing parts in my 3D cad and have them printed, and my friend Johan Brusefält drew the front and rear tyres. While we were at it he also drew new rear wheels as those supplied in the kit didn't quite match the Exacton or Dunlop D1 that were used. What is seen here are the Exacton wheels. The exhaust system, the small parts around the pedals and some hardly visible details on the engine have been scratch built. There was a sheet of decals supplied in the kit, but I decided to draw and print them all from scratch on my own using my OKI/Alps printer. I had a lot of thinking and some interesting discussions here on BM about a good choice of license plates. In the end the choice was done easily, when finally looking in the original Bond Bug sales brochure. Here are some photos of the finished model. It's a pain to photograph; or rather I am useless at handling the camera, as the orange paint comes out in all sorts of shades, mostly too dark, in all photos. The brighter are most like the rear model. The build thread can be found here. It was a joy to build it, and thanks for all support during the work, I hope you enjoy the photos.

I know only too well... It is unavoidable...

As further work on the front arches is needed a few other things will be harder to get around. One is the length of the lower sill sections, the angles at their ends and where the holes in them are placed. First I added material at the rear ends and gave them a new angle. Then I cut off the front halves behind the two holes, to move them forward including the holes. Here we are with sections glued back and everything filled and sanded smooth. I also added material from Evergreen strips around the whole front arches. Here we are at the moment. More work is needed, but I have to wait for different wheels to see what that will do. I have do see this with smaller diameter rims and tyres and thicker tyres. There is now way around that, I have to try it. I also realized that I can't see how the whole thing looks with those roof reinforcements left in place. So the saw came out, off they went and everything was cleaned up. Suddenly it looks so much better! And the roof needs even more care in handling. But now I see a real SM appearing.

Thanks a lot Keith! I'm very happy you have enjoyed it. And you'll see; if/when Airfix reissue their Bond Bug, I'm sure you can't resist

Merci beaucoup! Glad you think so, it means a lot. Thank you very much Mike! It's a little car so full of character and charm, which really helps building the model.

Thanks a lot Pete!

It's indeed not correct, but not difficult to improve. Other aspects of the front end may be more problematic, but I will probably not dig deeper into those.

Thanks a lot for your kind praise!

Yes, there is a good deal of testing and more careful levelling of the bottom to do before I'm done. In the end it will have to be a compromise as always.

I was hoping to get away, but maybe I'm too easy to read ... We'll see what happens. Thanks a lot Keith!

Thanks a lot Malc, glad you like the work! Thanks a lot Jeroen! Some good red wine in the evenings perhaps helps Thank you very much Roger! Perhaps the paint is a bit too glossy, but I'm happy with it and glad you like it. Many thanks Trevor! The Fuji Cabin was a Japanese attempt at a small fibreglass three wheeler built in 1957-58 in less than 100 units, most sources say 85. Problems producing good fibreglass shells are mentioned as a reason. It has an interesting slippery shape.

The front seats were quickly cleaned up and made ready for paint. It's easy to think that the headrests are two left or two right, but this is correct, the knob is on the same side on both seats. The clear parts for all front lights has been cut from the casting block and made ready. They are very clear and I think the empty reflectors need some lamp detail. I rounded off the top of a 1 mm rod and cut six pieces like that. The centre of each light was then drilled through and all lamps were glued at the same height. I think this will help the final look when the lamps are painted clear yellow. And now it's time to dig deeper into the wheels and the stance. I've scratched my head a bit about this while working on the model. The real car has 15" rims and 195/70 tyres. This scales to about 17,5 mm visible rim diameter, 8,1 mm tyre width and 27,3 outer diameter in 1/24. The kit rims measure 18,5-19 mm diameter (not perfectly round) and the tyres 7,5 mm wide and 28 mm diameter. This means that the kit wheels are more like +16" rims with 175-185 tyres. A bit tall and a bit skinny. I would't call this a major problem, but I admit that I'm a bit sensitive with these things, especially when other dimensions are very good. The diameter is perhaps more of a problem than the somewhat narrow tyres. I will probably find it easier to get away with this if I choose the composite fibreglass rims, as they are all silver coloured, compared to the steel wheels that are black with silver covers, meaning a black edge of the rim is visible. Another alternative is of course 3D-printed rims and tyres, and I'm fortunate to have access to 3D-files for quite correct SM steel wheels with covers and good base for tyres. Would it be worth the extra trouble? Perhaps. We'll see. Then we have the stance. I'm going to finish the model with a low suspension setting, as if the car is recently parked or run low, because it suits the car so well. I made this mock up to see what I have. I'm not happy with the front wheels, or rather the arch in the front wings, and the car could still sit a bit lower than this. I think I may have to alter the front wing arch. This is a very clumsy comparison, but I had to do it. It confirmed my thoughts that I need to raise the front wing arch, regardless of which wheels I will use. With the arch raised about 1 mm and reshaped it's getting better. Still I'm not at home.

Very nice work, your patience and methodic approach is admirable!

The last work was done in the afternoon. The wheels were glued and when the epoxy had cured a little "weight" was applied to them. The mud flaps were fitted next. And finally the rear view mirrors were glued and minor touch ups done. I think this will be it. It's been an enjoyable build and I think Airtrax has made a good set of resin parts to base a project on. Thank you all for your support during the work, I have really appreciated it. Some better photos will follow in a few days.