SLR520

Thanks for the compliments and support. Yes I agree, the lamps are an obvious part of the car, really should be on the model. I ordered these lamps from Spot Model company website. They appear tube close to size and I may need to take the thin rails grille which is seven separate pieces and rather than a single support brace center on the rear, add something to the rear sides so I can slowly work out holes without damaging the grille slats and keep them in place. I stomped through this whole kit fearless but this grille thing I have been a bit hung up on. It's a noticeable part of the car.

Thanks, I did end up thinning out the sunshades so they fit more flush into the headliner and added a mounting bit for the rear view mirror, will add pic. The addition of the lead headliner did not allow me much room to be true to form with where the shades rest but got as close as possible. This whole project has been a bit of fiddle around and see what works close enough. I really think 1/24 is a better scale to capture details so no demand for a hyper detail 1/43 kit. I do have some Felling43 kits that are maxed out in terms of detail. I will start one next and see if all the cool bits slide together or are a nightmare of photo etch meets white metal tacked onto resin. I also thought to build the 1/24 MK1 mini from South Eastern Finecast in the stash. A white metal kit might be a fun challenge. The doll was really a test , yes. Here is my finished product. Not quite as easy as I envisioned , more like a tiny old man, but a first attempt. Will try again to see if I can capture something like what is being produced now. Started the grille. Wallowed out the factory mold , which I have been been fearful to do but devised a makeshift knife scraper and worked well. Will fine tune this thing a bit before glueing down. But in the end I still think I will skip the inset runner lamps on this one.

made some shades . In order to be correct they probably should annoyingly hang just halfway down or be taped to the headliner .

Haha, no worries. It does have a nice ring to it though and still better than some of the things I hear her call me. 🤣

I am a bit sidetracked on the mini to make this tiny doll head for my wifi. She collects toys and this project has proven to be a test. The head is supposed to be huge compared to the body, that must be the way to make these small things look cute, but this one is a bit sterile and alien like, but humanoid none the less. The you tube videos make it look so easy and a 20 minute job. But it is not, been messing with it for a week. Using sculpey clay and every time you hold it and sort an area then another area is imprinted and needs to be redone. Ha.

Slow progress this week. Now sorting the headliner and shades with some lead sheet. The rear view mirror I may make as the tiny cast one I found is lousy. Also trying to find a way to correct my grille, but I think the lamp inserts may be too much for me. I don't even have the area for the bonnet release figured out yet.

Bwahaha 🤣, I need to watch this one. The New Zealand Job. Same year/model. Good reference material. RIP Pork Pie, you served us well. I didn't rough up the mini but I had a VW rabbit for my teen stunt driving car. Many sorties over steep hills trying to get airborne in it or test the limits of the bumpers.

Yes, it looked pretty clean when I got it. And not tricked out. It belonged to an elderly woman in UK who owned it since new . A US airman bought it and sent it over here for his father to putt around town in. He was aging as well and so I picked it up from him when after he had some fun driving it. It appeared to have some of the white resprayed at some point in the past but stock . I Just wanted to stay pretty simple with it. I did get rid of the dashboard ashtray and weld that thing over.

Some interior progress. And my wheel alignment so far ( I put a lot of grey on the blue kit parts as I cannot seem to see the details on that loud plastic blue color. My vents are a bit weak, so I may try to detail them, and no where can I find decals to suffice for the binnacle. Handmpainting is probably the option. So small I don't believe much will be needed to work these out. Also, after I made tiny choke and heat knobs , there really is no room to sneak in the switches. I didn't plan that very well. Handi work on the shocks and vent tubing is really in vain as they are not too visible when things are buttoned up.

grill is from earlier style, yes. I put the headlamp shades and runner grill lights on before selling the car for some bling. Resto mod, yes. Main change was from the 998 auto transmission to the 1362 w/ 4 speed. That autobox worked ok but was a doggy runner. Tried to be low key with it. But I do like all those retro colors in brown, green , orange, etc. The bracken is a nice fit but I do know the brown you speak of and it's another of my fav's. Changed the grill, add minilites, KM gauges in the biennale, changed the Leyland bonnet badge to an earlier one from a '74. Shift knob I replaced with an old style and was told it was for an Austin Seven. Not sure but it was bakelite and has nice retro look. I think the glass will be a fairly easy task to get a good curve, thanks for the advice. Yes, I have a "Senior Management " project for the holidays to make my wife a doll head. If it's not a total disaster, I will post a pic. I have been running along on the Heller kit trying to make progress , but will have to slow down for the doll project this month. Here are some pics of the car as it originally was.

The car has minilites and for the life of could not sort something that was a 10 inch mini lite for this kit. Finally found the wheels from an old Carlo Brianza resin kit and then used the rubber off one of those 1/43 Ebbro die cast cars. I don't like rubber tires and would rather have some cool resin job on here and I ultimately may end up sealing these rubber tires tto the wheels and painting the whole thing so I can get something I like. These are a decent minilite look and best I can find. No lug nuts molded on there 😪....too small, but I filled the center holes with milliput, redialed to fit my axles that are cut to length and tapered edge for center caps on the ends. Making the vented inner fender was real pain. but did a grid with 32 gauge wire and putty slurry and clean up with scribe dental tool.

I think it works but what I cannot work out is how to get that silver chrome center strip in there. Too small. May have to just be the black rubber at this scale. Or possibly can scrape the high edge with a knife once painted and get the wire to show through in a line. Need a surgeons hand for that , ha.

I should of thought more earlier on what to do about the incorrect grill, but its on the list. Not sure if I can easily sort how to make my in grill running lights though.

Sorting how to make a simplified likeness was trying and some of my ideas aren't to scale or don't make total sense, but I think it brings the underside to a passable state and certainly more interesting that the kit part.

Getting the wheels in correct position is total nightmare since I eyeballed everything and it was quite fiddly to center these up decent. I see now why Heller opted for the simple troughs but they leave too much clearance.

Bottom end. The kit bottom has these large axle troughs. I cut the front and rear off to salvage the center. Add 2 pieces of sheet styrene to same length set higher to connect to rails on interior body. I really wanted to envision some way to better see up into the engine bay rather than this approach , but that will save for revisit if I can think a way to do another kit with open bonnet. I apologize for missing some action phot shots here. I must of been in work mode and forgot some process. Kit does come with a little square block for engine so it made a good base to form around with milliput.

Yeah, the body shape on the kit I think is good. Not well versed on that vacuform thing and I don't have any high speed equipment, but last time I made airplane canopies with the thin styrene and heat with a lighter and pull over the original form. Eventually one will look good.

Not too far from you here in Kansas

There is a lot of fiddling and test fitting to make the parts I need to make or mod and so I am going through and constructing in bulk and will clean up the rough and in the end paint quite a bit of small bits with fine brush and try to get in al the cracks. Ideally easier to paint things nice on sprue or sticks and then glue all that together with a well designed kit but it really won't work for this over haul, plus my skills are lacking to technically measure these things out. Just eyeballing it seems to be going ok on these tiny bits.

steering column and the missing emblems. The wiring is cool but it's not going to fit or be visible so it will have to go. Had to add the signal sticks and put it on a piano wire to support the resin wheel I will use. The kit grill is that black plastic sort that was originally on my mini , but I used a chrome one on the refurb so I will need to think a way to make this larger finned one.

Great mini stories ! thanks for the replies. Working out the rubber glass trim that is absent on the kit with 32 gauge wire and sorting the roof guttering that is fairly non existent on front and rear. I think the windscreen seal seems to be slightly molded into the clear plastic as well as the wipers and rear view mirror so those thick things have to go. Plus it needs a headliner instead of that clear plate that goes across the entire area with kit glass. I am going to vacuform the glass and make the side glass partially down with clear styrene I think , and rear wings I want to be popped open to deal with that chrome trim strip somehow

This kit is so small it is a real test on my eyes. Modeling was easier over a decade ago 🧐 I found a couple out of the box build videos in online , hard to see and a page post from a modeler who did one mostly out of box in the 80's. Not much info out there. I'm going through the whole car and try to get some more realistic details. The interior too simple and the bottom is really awful. I would love to do an open bonnet on this kit but I picked up another kit and maybe will be daring enough too try that down the road and revisit this kit with more ideas later. link to one finished I found online https://erix7.home.xs4all.nl/models/blmini.html