Anteater previous builds part 3 – BMW 2002, 323i, VW Golf GTi

[Anteater]

Right then,

 

Here's part three of my previous builds and the final look at my back catalogue. I've collated all the German cars this time, all built in the past 18 months or so.

 

As this is a retrospective, I invite you to straighten your kipper tie and step back in time. It’s 40 years ago and we’re stepping into the premises of our local foreign car specialist, seeing the world in black and white because colour film is more expensive and we need to watch our spending what with the economy tanking and everything. However, someone is clearly doing well with a new BMW 323i, capable of warp speeds from its fuel I injected 2.3 litre six-cylinder. In another few years the owner will be called a yuppie but for now they’re just guilty of being a bit flash. Perhaps some city type, or perhaps best not to ask.

 

 

A couple of older cars are in the adjacent workshop. There’s a 1970 left hand drive 2002 ti (forerunner of the fuel injected tii) and a 1972 right hand drive common or garden version. The newer car is in for a replacement trailing arm on the nearside, and the body is showing signs of degradation at only 7 years old. When they say they don’t make cars like they used to, that’s a good thing. The ti is in good nick though, nice cars and rare around these parts.

 

 

 

 

You can get a better view if you climb up this tall ladder and lean precariously out, the advantages of being in a time before health and safety. That’s odd… they all look like they’ve moved around from this angle…

 

 

 

I could show you more but they’re keen to get off down the pub for a few Courage Best and a pack of Players No6. In fact I’ll probably join them. Did you see the match last night? We was robbed… etc… etc

 

But enough of that nonsense, its 2019 and you want to see them in full technicolour colour, right? The 323i is Fujimi Alpina kit. It’s a strange thing as from some angles it looks quite convincing but sometimes it appears as if Fujimi based their drawings on a description telephoned in from a drunk person on a bad line. The interior is fairly rudimentary so I had a go at adding some texture by cutting up some old clothes and gluing the fabric onto the seat insert. The paint is a Ford metallic black from a Halfords can, and is passable apart from the problem of the metallic flakes being out of scale. I don’t know what the trick is for scale metallic paint, does anyone know? The 323i wears Dutch plates for no other reason than it is left hand drive and the dashboard was too contoured to allow an easy conversion.

 

 

 

 

 

The pair of 2002s are from Hasegawa and they’re great kits, only hampered by being curbside. I’m too tight to buy one of the resin engine bay transkits as they’re more expensive than the already quite expensive car. Other than that failing, I know these cars well in 1:1 scale and Hasegawa got the shape bang on. The box includes early and late parts so I built the orange one as an early short bumper ti and the blue car as a long bumper variant, made for a few years before the change to the plastic radiator grille in 1974. The paints are VW Brilliant Orange and Vauxhall Atlantis Blue, both of which are a decent match for BMW period shades. I converted the blue car to right hand drive and weathered it to replicate a used example, which I find more enjoyable and less stressful than aiming for an immaculate museum piece. The main advantage of having 2002s in 1/24 scale plastic is that they don’t rot for fun, something the full size metal versions are quite adept at.

 

 

 

 

Finally, a Revell Golf GTi, resplendent in rattle can Volkswagen Mars Red with dark gunmetal alloys borrowed from a Tamiya MX-5 I salvaged from a build nearly 30 years ago. As it’s an early car with without the extra driving lights in the grille I added a pair of spotlamps from an Italeri Escort, an upgrade that anyone anyone who has driven an old Golf in the dark would approve of. It went together really nicely and it’s hard to believe it comes from the same company that produced the Mustang in my first instalment. I suppose it’s just a much newer moulding and technology has moved on. I’m not a VW anorak but I think it’s quite a good likeness, and the decals for the seat fabric are well groovy.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all previous builds dragged out into the light now and any future content will be all-new. I’ve got a super complicated looking Fujimi M635CSI waiting in line for a ham-fisted attempt, but when I’ll get round to it is anyone’s guess. Come the time, I’ll do a work in progress thread on it for what it’s worth. Until then, I’ll keep getting inspiration from the people on here who really know what they’re doing!

 

Anteater Out.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Anteater

[Vince1159]

Lovely job,a couple of things i'd love to see in your garage is an XJC and an XJ6 sometime mate....

[Alpha Delta 210]

Excellent models! The monochrome images are wonderful!

[HOUSTON]

STUNNING  models and photos are AWESOME too.

 

 

[gt6mkiii]

Nice work, that ti looks fantastic. I think I’ll be adding that and gti to my list. 

[JeroenS]

I like those old Beamers very much.

[Anteater]

20 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

Lovely job,a couple of things i'd love to see in your garage is an XJC and an XJ6 sometime mate....

So would I but I'm not aware of any such kits in 1/24. Any old rammel from the 70s is good with me.

[keefr22]

Great stuff again - love the black & white bit!

 

21 hours ago, Anteater said:

the body is showing signs of degradation at only 7 years old. When they say they don’t make cars like they used to, that’s a good thing.

 

I had a 5 year old Escort Mexico in the mid '70's that was as rotten as a pear! 

 

21 hours ago, Anteater said:

I don’t know what the trick is for scale metallic paint,

 

Always try and use paint labelled pearl or mica - they're still not exactly scale but are much better than metallic.

 

Cracking models again, I'm particularly taken by the orange Beemer and the cute little Golf!

 

4 minutes ago, Anteater said:

but I'm not aware of any such kits in 1/24

 

Me neither, but I wish there were some!

 

Keith

[Anteater]

5 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

Always try and use paint labelled pearl or mica - they're still not exactly scale but are much better than metallic.

 

 

Good tip, thanks. If I crank my memory into gear I think the metallic I used on the 323i was a pearlescent Ford Panther Black, so it's either not as bad as I think or it's operator error. Actually, it looks fine in the photos. Perhaps the best solution is simply only to post photos in monochrome!

 

Thanks for the feedback, all. 😎