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I have finally taken some completed photos of my Mazda MX-5 NB (Mk II) 787B tribute build. There is a wip thread here. I certainly do not claim to be the first to do this - even Mazda UK had a 1:1 tribute in the NA / Mk I MX-5s - but here is my take. The base kit is the Aoshima 'Garage Vary' version of their Mazda MX-5 NB (Mk II) range (kit #040904). This kit comes with the front and rear bumpers you see here, the rear wing, a Mazdaspeed-style roll-hoop, hard-top roof and some white six-spoke wheels. The wheels used on this build are actually from a different Aoshima MX-5 NB kit and are supposed to represent the period OEM Mazdaspeed wheels; which they kind of succeed. I have further added a parts bin "race interior" of driver's race seat, fire extinguisher and steering wheel. I created a full rollcage with a combination of 3-D printed rear cross brace and polystyrene tubing for the front half. There is a Parts Box (brand name) resin intercooler jammed in the front bumper and some parts bin tow hooks. I lowered the ride height to get the tyres just tucking into the arches. For the livery, this is strictly an homage trying to capture the main features of the Le Mans winning 787B. Paint is Tamiya's TS-31 Bright Orange and TS-35 Park Green, with my first use of Tamiya's 'masking tape for curves' to create the pattern. I used Hobby Design decals (HD04-0082) which came with the white dashes; some versions of aftermarket decals for the 787B livery do not. I tried to put the Renown and door number in approximately the correct spot, then after that it was purely placement by what looked 'right'. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome of this build. I threw all my (limited) expertise at the model and - for once - the end result is a perfect match for my original vision. I am not sure I will build another model I am happier with. I may have just reached my peak! Hope you enjoy it as well. Grant. And now for something a little more fancy.... Finally, with a more out-of-the-box build of the Garage Vary kit:

The first of several 'in progress' projects I'll post and the most recent one I started. It's the Tamiya Mazda Eunos Roadster, or MK1 MX5, or Miata... Anyway, I bought this because it was cheap and I thought I might lower it and chuck some little fat wheels on. But then I thought that's what happens to most MK1 MX5s, so maybe I'll make a dune buggy because the tyres should be fairly easy to model. So I need to model a lift kit and some wheels, maybe a roll cage and new exhaust. First thing I did was wheels and tyres - because it's fun! I decided to recreate the original 14in wheel centres but as though they'd been machined from the original wheel and converted to split rims. Then I went with a 17in front rim and 15in rear to keep the overall diameters similar. The wheel centres are the same front and rear (because they're modelled on the originals) and I made separate valves that push in from the outside. After printing a set of these and mucking about with them for a while, and making a start on the front suspension, I decided I'd quite like to do a set of off-road wheels, too. Then I could make a trophy truck or rock crawler type vehicle as an alternative. Because the off-road wheels would be a square set-up (same diameter, width, offset front and rear, not actually square!), I thought my rear offset on the sand wheels was a bit too aggressive for the suspension to work with both sets of wheels and keep a similar front and rear track. I re-modelled the rear rims and re-printed them. As you can see in the photo below, it's not a massive difference (1.4mm actually). The left is the original and the right is the new version. Below is the final set of sand wheels and tyres with an original wheel and tyre for comparison. In order to create the off-road wheel set I needed to up my tyre modelling game and picked the Yokohama Geolandar X-AT as my inspiration. This wasn't too bad to model as it turned out and I'm really happy with the result. For the wheel, I went with a Fuel Zephyr as my starting point but made them a 4x100 bolt pattern to match the original MX5. I went for a 17in wheel and I can't remember what size tyre I picked but it comes out at about a 32in. The wheel comprises a Tamiya style locator that is also the wheel nuts, the wheel, a centre cap, a valve and a lock ring. I did this mainly for ease of painting Although, the separate centre locator does mean I can create an Aoshima/Fujimi style one in the future. I'll probably model some 5 and 6 bolt versions of the wheel, too. Once I'd printed the wheels and tyres, I thought it'd be much better if I gave the tyres a bit of 'sag' so they look like they've been aired down for off-road use. I use Fusion 360 for my modelling but it isn't really made for deforming stuff. As it happens, I also have a copy of Blender installed, so I used the mesh deformer in that to squash the bottom of the tyre and I'm really happy with the results. Below is a photo of the full set of wheels and also a comparison between round and sagged tyres. Whilst I'd been messing with wheels and tyres, I'd also been working on the front suspension mods. These components basically replace the kit originals directly with the removal of the anti-roll bar and addition of a sump guard/skid plate. I didn't want to have to cut or modify any of the original kit parts, so the front and rear track are vastly wider that original for tyre clearance. In fact, the wheels are entirely outside of the original bodywork! Although this doesn't articulate, I did check that it was "useable" in terms of camber and steering. It has a crazy amount of lift and I wanted to give as much ground clearance as possible, so the track rod angles are ridiculous. Through the full "movement" of the suspension, though, the hub would remain the same distance from the steering rack, so it shouldn't be a nightmare to drive. The track would actually alter dramatically, though, and I guess that's not ideal. Here are some shots of the front suspension so far, with comparisons to the original kit parts. Everything is beefed up for off-road use. I'm now working on modelling the rear suspension and am pretty much there. I still need to work out the propshaft, differential and half shafts, as I'm keeping to independent suspension. I think I'm going to attempt to model a Mazda RX7 diff and use it upside down for extra ground clearance. Here's a render of where I'm upto so far Wow! I think it's taken me almost as long to create this post as it has to model everything! I was thinking I could actually create a full exo cage for this and make a military version so I'd fit in more Anyway, if you've managed to make it this far down, I hope you've enjoyed it! Cheers Martin

I am very bad at keeping work in progress threads up to date so I do not normally create them; and to be honest, this is not a good wip thread either. I actually started this model in 2018 and am only now getting close to completion. Given I started this before I joined Britmodeller I thought some here may be interested in more details. So here goes…. I am using the Aoshima ‘Garage Vary’ version of their Mazda MX-5 NB (Mk II) kit (kit #040904) as a starting point. This kit has a somewhat race-inspired body kit, big rear wing and comes with the Mazdaspeed roll hoop. This seemed like the ideal starting point for an homage to the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B; yes, that one. Of course, I am hardly original with this idea – Mazda UK even produced a limited run of NA MX-5s (Mk I) with the orange and green livery and BBR turbo fitted. Here is the box. Aoshima do a number of NB kits and they are not badly detailed. Unfortunately they do not have the later NB (Mk 2.5) with the spotlights, though the soon to be released Auto-Exe version is closest. The ride height out of the box is a touch too high, so I will attempt to rectify that in this build. Shell with all body kit added and in primer. Here you can see the included Mazdaspeed roll hoop dry fitted. The included roll hoop is good for a street car but I want to add more. I decided to 3-D print a rear cross brace and top section. The cross brace was just passable but I could not get top section to print nicely. The printing was done with an old style thermal polymer 3-D printer as I do not yet have a UV-curing resin based setup.

This is my model of Tamiya’s Mazda MX-5 ND / Mk IV (kit #24342). The model is an homage to a real car formerly owned by a former member of our local MX-5 club. Wheels are Aoshima 19” AVS Model T6 (#045527), exhaust tips are Hobby Design (actual car had two dual-tip outlets, though perhaps not this big!) and paint is Tamiya TS-95 Pure Metallic Red over grey primer. Grant. With “stock” sibling