Honda Prelude 2.0Si 4WS Fujimi 1:24

[johnlambert]

Moving forward with the Prelude as I've had a card from the post office notifying me that I have to pay some customs duty on the other two Prelude kits I've ordered from Japan.

 

A collection of interior parts, Some are still masked, the plastic trim is painted Tamiya Dark Sea Grey then sprayed with a light coat of Tamiya clear aerosol, which seems to give a suitably semi-gloss  finish.

 

Close-up on the door cards; as per the real car there is carpet on the lower part of the door trim (Tamiya Nato Black) and the speaker cover is Tamiya Matt Black (you can just tell the difference, I think).  Door latches are painted chrome and the air vents have a black wash to give them some depth.

 

Some more wash on the dashboard and door air vents.  Gloss black paint on the instrument panel ready to take a decal.

 

Some tidying up on the black trim, the danger of cutting masking tape on the vehicle.

 

Masking liquid on the front bumper.

 

The standard kit pedals are pretty poor and there should be a left foot rest.

 

I had some etched pedals that are a bit nicer, although I'll still reduce the spacing between the pedals and add the foot rest.

 

A quick mock-up of the interior, I need to paint the centre console.

[Alan R]

20 hours ago, johnlambert said:

I had some etched pedals that are a bit nicer, although I'll still reduce the spacing between the pedals and add the foot rest.

You couldn't Heel-n-Toe on those!

 

Cheers,

Alan.

Edited September 6, 2020 by Alan R
Typo

[johnlambert]

Nothing exciting to report but a little more painting done.

 

Clear orange for the indicators (also the tail lamp clusters for my TVR build), plus a bit of masking on the sunroof.

 

Some clear red applied to the tail lamps.

[johnlambert]

Managed to get a little more done.

 

Pretty much everything in one picture; the interior with the centre console painted correctly plus a left foot rest added (a spare accelerator pedal from the kit as you get pedals/levers for automatic or manual transmission).  The front bumper is fitted with lights now and dry fitted to the body/chassis, and the rear light cluster now has some orange paint.

[johnlambert]

More progress on the Prelude, mostly on the interior and a few ideas for future builds of this kit.

 

I'd previously said that these etched pedals (from an aftermarket detailing set for another Honda) were nice but too widely spaced.  They also had the problem of the pedals all being in the same plane which they aren't on most cars (and weren't on the Prelude).  A little creative bending reduced the spacing and improved the alignment; it's probably still not exactly right but it's certainly better.

 

I also picked out the buttons on the instrument binnacle, the red one is for the hazard flashers.  For future use I'll cut this completely from the sprue and glue it temporarily on the inside surface so it can be sprayed without needing touching up later.

 

First go at fixing the pedals, unfortunately not strong enough.

 

My etched parts, the smaller H badge was over painted with black paint which was then wiped away to leave the raised detail in metal.

 

Glued into the centre of the steering wheel where it fitted the recess perfectly.  The same recess was too deep to take the supplied decal neatly and I messed up the decal completely when I tried.  If planning on using decals I'd fill the recess in the steering wheel before painting.

 

I added a bit of styrene "L" section to support the pedal assembly.

 

Pedals fixed in place.

 

Interior tub assembled, just a few bits to touch up.  The next two will be slightly easier as the seats on those were grey leather, so no need to mask up the seats.

 

Another view of the interior.

 

There shouldn't be that much more to do.  Next up is adding lights and glazing to the body.

[johnlambert]

Glazing and lights are fitted now.

 

The rear light assembly had a warp that meant it wanted to lift away from the body at each end; I tried bending it in some warm water and then when it was glued I held it in place with an elastic band.

 

For future builds I'll probably glue the front bumper on before painting the body as I think it might be neater that way.  I'm not doing the pop-up lights on this one.  The glazing fits quite nicely, although there are only small pips on the inside of the roof to help locate it.

 

Who knows, maybe this will be done in a few days?

[johnlambert]

Just a quick update.

 

Sunroof is installed.

 

Seat belts will be attached to the B-pillars; I've used some white, 3mm ribbon from Hobbycraft, which is coloured black with a Sharpie.  The width is a bit much I think but won't be too noticeable and this is about the cheapest source of seat belt material I've found.

[johnlambert]

Well, it's pretty much come together, a few bits to do in terms of detail, touching up paint and decals.

 

 

 

 

 

I also need to source some black letters to make up the number plates.

[FunkyChiken]

Looks excellent, great little kit, it's a shame your purchase came crushed, as you spent 40 on it! 

Looks excellent, great little kit, it's a shame your purchase came crushed, as you spent 40 on it! 

[johnlambert]

Another quick update, 

 

Decals added to the rear end.

 

Black paint to touch up the door mirrors (next build I think I'll attach these before spraying the body).

 

Into the display cabinet next to my other Preludes for safe keeping.  RFI will have to wait until the plates are done.

[Pouln]

Nice looking model, John. Well done!

[Fnick]

Nice model(s) John!🙂

[johnlambert]

The last job on the Prelude (well, this Prelude) is giving it some number plates.

 

These arrived a few days ago.

 

I used the backgrounds as templates to cut 0.25mm styrene sheet for the plate itself.

 

Yesterday I got as far as getting the background on to the styrene.

 

Today I got as far as the first four characters, which is as far as I'm prepared to go today, it's quite tricky getting each letter and number into place.  For a future build I've got to do this in 1/43rd.  I'll probably need new glasses before I do and I might need new eyes afterwards.

 

[Spiny]

That looks a very fiddly job, don't envy you doing it. But if you haven't already got one, I'd suggest getting yourself a magnifying headset instead of adding another kit to the stash - you'll be amazed what a difference it makes (and you can get them which can be worn with glasses if you're worried about that).

[johnlambert]

I think this one is done!

 

Number plates are complete.

 

It's amazing the difference having a number plate makes to the look of a model car.

 

The kit exhaust is pretty horrible too, the tail pipes are solid but I drilled them out and painted the inside black.

 

I'll take some pretty pictures for RFI soon and I'll restart this thread when I start work on the next Prelude kit.

[Pouln]

Lovely model, John. And the license plate indeed makes quite a difference.

[Fnick]

Couldn't agree more. That number plate just makes it look like a real car. Nice touch!

Nick

[johnlambert]

59 minutes ago, Pouln said:

Lovely model, John. And the license plate indeed makes quite a difference.

 

15 minutes ago, Fnick said:

Couldn't agree more. That number plate just makes it look like a real car. Nice touch!

Nick

Thanks.  Now I've done it, I'm glad I took the time and I feel spreading the effort over 3 nights was worthwhile.

[chrispisme]

Nicely done!

looks like a lot of work went into these models

I have to say, I was wondering what kind of Honda’s you get in EU when they’re rear wheel drive, till I read the text about a generic chassis 
 

[HoolioPaulio]

Very nice build, and I think the colour worked out nice.  I love the number plate decals, I have some inkjet decal paper for printing my own number plates but they never look as good as proper decals so I might try and pick some up.  I'm interested in the quality of the kit, as I have my first Fujimi in the stash waiting.  I saw that the detail and accuracy was very meh, but what was the actual fit like?  Did everything go together fairly well?

 

Paul

[johnlambert]

2 hours ago, HoolioPaulio said:

Very nice build, and I think the colour worked out nice.  I love the number plate decals, I have some inkjet decal paper for printing my own number plates but they never look as good as proper decals so I might try and pick some up.  I'm interested in the quality of the kit, as I have my first Fujimi in the stash waiting.  I saw that the detail and accuracy was very meh, but what was the actual fit like?  Did everything go together fairly well?

 

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

Some bits were excellent;

 

The body and fittings were great; the front bumper, side mirrors and all the lights were a perfect fit with no (or very little) correction needed.  I don't think I've even glued some of the front lights as they fitted so securely with friction alone.

 

The interior was mostly good, I think there were a couple of little gaps in the dashboard but nothing you'd notice when it's assembled and it doesn't quite fall together like a Tamiya kit usually does.

 

The underside; well I managed to get it square but it felt like it wouldn't be too hard to make a tripod, especially with the rear suspension as the location points don't really give a solid sense of location.

 

I hope that helps,

 

John.