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Honda S600


Spiny

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Looks like you nailed the bonnet Spiny! Would you mind sharing your DIY extractor system? I have that project on my todo as well so some ideas won't hurt.

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Nice work, glad to see your bonnet issue was resolved easily. I wouldn't worry about Tamiya tyres melting the wheels. The only problem I have seen with Tamiya tyres has been on the older issue 1/12 racing car kits. With those the tyres seemed to shrink and disintegrate but I've not seen any melt styrene on the way to their demise as yet.

 

Looking forward to seeing this come together. There are a lot of classic Japanese cars that I like and the little Honda's are amongst them.

 

Atb, Steve.

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14 hours ago, triumphfan said:

Nice work, glad to see your bonnet issue was resolved easily. I wouldn't worry about Tamiya tyres melting the wheels. The only problem I have seen with Tamiya tyres has been on the older issue 1/12 racing car kits. With those the tyres seemed to shrink and disintegrate but I've not seen any melt styrene on the way to their demise as yet.

 

Looking forward to seeing this come together. There are a lot of classic Japanese cars that I like and the little Honda's are amongst them.

 

Atb, Steve.

Thank you, I've never seen the tyre melt in the flesh so that has put my mind at rest to a very large degree. Having dug out some of my models from 25 years ago, I have found a Skyline with evidence of tyre cracking, so I think I may be able to relate to the tyres shrinking. Like you, I have a bit of a soft spot for the old Japanese cars, with a Hasuoka Skyline lurking in the stash. I have a feeling it might break out within the next year though :)

16 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Looks like you nailed the bonnet Spiny! Would you mind sharing your DIY extractor system? I have that project on my todo as well so some ideas won't hurt.

Happy to describe it - photos will need to wait until I get to it in daylight. I'm not sure that everything will be available in Holland, but you should be able to get hold of some very similar items. The original spray booth was just a large storage box which I turned on its side and lined with paper (so it wouldn't be ruined by the paint if I had a false start to my return to modelling), basically last year's version of this:

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6994110

 

You can fix the top once you've done spraying to minimise dust entering and falling onto your model, the downside is that the spray fumes don't really escape very well. With the cheapest spray booth and extractor at Hiroboy being around £90 and still requiring an extract hose, I decided to manufacture my own. So, a trawl of Amazon yielded these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00IJWWT0U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00N1XOY96/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Total cost including the original box was about £35. So I removed the paper, since I will be cutting a hole in the box for the extract duct. Then it was a case of using a load of duct tape to fit the duct to the box and the other end to the fan and getting an airtight seal at both ends. Because the duct is flexible, I only need to put the far end out of the garage door to extract to the outside world, and I can easily bring it back inside when not in use. It would be prefectly feasible to put the fan at the box end of the duct if you prefer, but I decided to put it at the other end so as to minimise the amount of paint collecting on it (so far the paint spots on the fan dust off easily so it looks as though the paint droplets are dry by the time they reach the fan). Another advantage of having the fan at the opposite end to the spray booth is that the airflow out of the booth is less turbulent which will hopefully reduce the risk of dust settlign in that nice fresh paintwork.

 

Not as neat as a bespoke installation, but it does the job of extracting the fumes at a third of the price of the real thing😄, a perfect way to satisfy the Yorkshire blood in me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Spiny
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Ah, right... yes I have been looking for one of those extractor fans as well. For some reason we have lots of grow shops here... so I think I should be able to get one there. Thanks for sharing. 

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No problem, always pleasing to be of assistance. I'd definitely recommend getting a plug-in fan rather than the bathroom extract fans as they tend to be wired up differently to what you would get from a plug - much easier to get a fan with the plug already on.

 

And I did say I would have some photos, so here it is in all its glory, along with my home-made body stand (off-cut of MDF, plus old electrical cable cores and blu-tack if you're wondering).

42004426625_d19e4217be_c.jpg

 

High quality🙄 method of attaching the duct to the storage box (I cut out a 100mm hole for the duct so it does poke slightly inside the box)

42004422365_b47d78abff_c.jpg

 

And finally, the fan attached to the duct, again with duct tape. Annoyingly, as the fan is built as an inlet fan, the duct was exactly the same size as the fan so there is no overlap there, I can see this being the weak point in the system:

42004432275_7477ce40ab_c.jpg

Edited by Spiny
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I like your idea of the plastic box... easily replaced. Do you have some kind of filter in place inside the box? (looks like it)

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14 hours ago, JeroenS said:

I like your idea of the plastic box... easily replaced. Do you have some kind of filter in place inside the box? (looks like it)

Very good observational skills, and I'd love to make out that I have some really good cheap alternative to a filter. But in truth it's an offcut of mosquito mesh and is more to keep the bugs out - with the thing living in the garage I wouldn't be surprised to see some spiders set up home in there over winter if I didn't stop them. Of course, it may catch a little bit of paint on it and reduce the fumes emitted by a (very) small amount😉 but I don't think it will be saving the planet.

Edited by Spiny
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A bit more progress with the S600 this weekend, in three separate branches which should all come together in the end.

 

First up was that bodyshell. Having had two weeks for the clear coat to harden and cure, I set about buffing it to a better finish. Amazingly, I managed to do this without burning through the clear coat (apart from one place which will be hidden by the bumper), let alone the colour coat. I'd say I have about 90% of the final shine on here now, having gone through the buffing down to 12,000 micromesh, only the polishing compound and was to go which will be added later. The dust is just loose dust, and not stuck to the model, easily removed with a camera cleaning brush or lens cloth.

 

29115638838_2ccb5e0449_c.jpg

 

The second branch was the bonnet I sprayed last week. The clear coat will go on next week, but this weekend I re-added a wash to that grille. Personally, I feel that has also gone better second time around:

 

41177871230_13733c121f_c.jpg

 

Finally, it was back to the instructions, and onto the interior. The outside of this had already been sprayed previously to provide the underbody, so most of the work on this was in painting the floor vinyl. The only parts added were the handbrake (which is kit chrome) and the gear lever (which required the Molotow pen).

 

28119611227_609ee19e2a_c.jpg

 

And after that, it was time to look at the seats and door cards. Nothing wrong with the door cards, they just need some detail painting. But the seats don't appear to have a back to them (I gather this is a weakness of Tamiya's) which to me is a bit of a problem in an open top sports car. So I've added a little bit of polystyrene sheet to fill the back, and have added filler to the gap around. After sanding back, it looks as though I will need a second go at filling before next weekend as there are still hollows in there. The one in the foreground is probably the worse of the two, but both still need work.

 

29115635048_103c88c5b3_c.jpg

 

The only other thing to happen with this model this week is that I noticed that I'd used the un-numbered radiator top which was next to the correct radiator top😳, hence that decal not fitting. Oh well, it still looks ok and I'm certainly not going back now.

Edited by Spiny
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Clear-coated the bonnet today - I'm pleased to say that it has worked this time and looks just the same as the pic above.

 

I also did the chrome strips, and it's got me wondering whether the colour is a mistake. For some reason (which isn't demonstrated very well in the photos), it just feels as though it dominates a bit too much. Hopefully that's because it's just a shell at the moment, and once the interior and other brightwork is in place it will look better. One things for sure, whether it suits the finished car or not, this one is staying metallic grey!

 

First job was to mask around the strips. Fortunately very easy as it's quite straight so the tape went down pretty well. As with seeming any photo, the flake in the metallic is a lot more pronounced than in real life.

 

42210590015_80118bcf38_c.jpg

 

And this was after I went over it with the pen. This time, the chrome is less noticeable in the photo than in reality.

 

42210586715_f093b3eaeb_c.jpg

 

I think I've also pretty much got the seats beaten into shape so hopefully the seats and door cards will be in place by tomorrow.

Edited by Spiny
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you, but I'm afraid it's been slow progress this weekend.

 

First up, and the only quick job, was to assemble the various parts from the last post to make up the interior tub. As has been the story for most of this model, it went together really well - all fitted together beautifully:

 

43382526392_fe4aa21402_c.jpg

 

Next step was the dashboard, which isn't particularly tricky but does have quite a few bits of different coloured paint. So most of my modelling time was spent waiting for the paint on this to dry (actually not quite true, most of my modelling time was spent trying to work out why the spray can which worked fine two weeks ago on my next project suddenly seems to have lost pressure this week🤬). But all the painting is on now - just a couple more decals to add and an attack of Microsol to finish it off, then I can stick it all together and move onto fitting it onto the body. So, here we are now, and yes those two empty dials will be filled next time I'm on the bench!

 

42525802545_82d5569f74_c.jpg

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Well, I was hoping that by now I would have the body, tub and chassis put together, but I just didn't get the time I wanted this weekend. However, I did at least get some progress done.

 

First up was assembling that dashboard and fitting it into the body - I'm delighted to say that everything went together perfectly, completely in line with Tamiya's reputation:

 

28687295357_5d1c36f664_k.jpg

 

The next bit was to fit the bonnet. It fits where it should ok, but doesn't line up quite perfectly. None of that is Tamiya's fault - it's all down to that incident earlier in the build where I broke off the hinge and it's just marginally awry. Nothing too major though, it's not really any worse than the Cuda's bonnet was. I also got the inner wings and other bits detailed and hopefully the pic below gives an indication, although the bonnet doesn't open past the angle in the photo, another limitation caused by that broken hinge. This was another thing which slowed me down - it took four coats to get that gloss white to fully cover the grey body paint.

 

42669374135_d0ad82cc6f_k.jpg

 

Next steps are fitting the tub to the body, then the chassis to those two, so next time I hit the table I should (visually at least) make rapid progress😀

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

On 06/08/2018 at 22:09, FunkyChiken said:

Slick work here! Coming along nicely..

Thank you, glad you like it.

 

Got back on the table earlier in the week and it was time to get the tub into the bodyshell. I have to say, this proved a right pain with both of the tub sides coming loose at some stage as well as the dashboard. So I had to reglue these and wait until this morning to have another go at getting the tub into the body. Fortunately, this time it worked without any bits falling off so now I have the interior into the bodyshell. Turns out I had to be a bit braver at pulling out the bottom of the body than I had been initially to ensure it cleared the various wheel arches - I'm glad it's over is all I'll say on that score.

 

43077405665_a3f424a9be_c.jpgIMG_7516

 

Unfortunately, the results of my travails with the bonnet are not going to fully disappear, as it has darker finish than the surrounding body in some lights, and also doesn't quite sit straight as a result of the refixed hinges. I can't have been too far out though as at least it opens fully.:smile: Unfortunately, between that and the slight orange peel I suspect this is another model I won't be 100% happy with it, but fingers crossed it will be close.

 

Tonight I had a go at fixing the chassis underneath the rest of the car... and I'm pleased to say this step was much easier:party:It looks like a car now, and the end is in sight. Just got all the 'glass' and brightwork to do, although I seem to remember from other models that always takes longer than predicted and there is quite a bit of chrome on this one. But this is how she stands at the moment:

 

43934694722_f61dd09780_c.jpgIMG_7517

 

The paint has had its rub over with Tamiya Fine polish, so is how it will end up apart from being waxed. This pic also shows how the bonned doesn't quite sit right - unfortunately not a lot I can do short of disassembling the body and trying to re-repair the bonnet hinge :( and I know if I tried that I would only make something else (or the same thing) worse.

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Nice going there Spiny. It looks great, I like the wheels too. The bonnet doesn't look too bad, taking everything apart at this stage is probably a gamble, but maybe you could glue something heavy on the inside of the bonnet to pull it down a bit?

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12 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Nice going there Spiny. It looks great, I like the wheels too. The bonnet doesn't look too bad, taking everything apart at this stage is probably a gamble, but maybe you could glue something heavy on the inside of the bonnet to pull it down a bit?

Or maybe a bit of fishing wire, so that you can tie the bonnet down from the inside, to the underside of the chassis or something. Then you could untie the wire when you want to open the bonnet for display. 

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Thanks for the tips. However, on closer examination and with a new day I've decided it maybe doesn't look quite as bad as I first thought. Not sure whether it's settled a bit or whether I'd just bigged up the issue in my mind, but it seems to be sitting much better now. Not perfect, but the bonnet only stands proud by about half the thickness of the plastic at most. Hopefully the picture below will show what I mean.

 

44000875841_ba76dabc8e_c.jpg

 

As the photo shows, I've got a few of the shiny bits onto it. Word of warning to anyone else building this though - the stem for the rear view mirror is VERY thin and fragile. I managed to break mine fitting the mirror, but fortunately managed to get a reasonably decent fix to it.

 

Steven - I'm glad you like the colour. There have been times through the build where I've wondered if moving away from the stock colours was the right move, but now it's coming together I'm happy with the end result. Jeroen - I'd love to take credit for the wheels, but these are straight out of the kit - all I did was pain the rims with aluminium paint. The end is in sight on this one now - it may be small but there's just as much involved in it as the other cars I've done.:smile:

Edited by Spiny
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  • 3 weeks later...

Calling this one done now. There's quite a bit of 'chrome' to attached towards the end of the build with this one, but it really brings the car to life. Even better, it also draws the eye away from that ill-fitting bonnet so you only notice it on closer examination or if looking for it now:smile: The only other bit which is nagging at me is that the rear left wheel just looks slightly out of aligmnent from some angles, but I've seen (and built!) worse.

 

It's had its photoshoot this afternoon (apart from the sunshine shot due to lack of sunshine) so has gained its thread in the RFI section:

 

 

But, as a taster, or if you don't want to look in the other thread, this is how it ended up:

 

29373397427_cc93a48a4e_c.jpg

 

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