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Beemax Nissan 240 RS Safari Rally


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On 6/30/2021 at 10:49 PM, Orso said:

I never had any thoughts of building this but your build got me interested. Is there any advantages keeping the sprues in the window openings until paint is done?

I would be afraid to damage the paintwork removing them.

Looking forward to the next step of this build.

Thanks for your interest , Orso  . There currently seems to be a resurgence in rally car model kits and , like you , I wouldn’t have thought about building such a kit a few years ago . I love anything to do with the  Safari Rally  . It’s the special cars needed , the dust , the mud , the speeds involved and the terrain that gets me . The first World Championship Safari Rally in 20 years was run last weekend and was won by a Toyota  . The difference was the modern rally is run on closed roads and the distances are small compared to the marathons of old . 
   Regarding the sprues  , they are attached to the window frames so no chance of damage when I cut them off . I left them on to keep the strength of the body shell intact . 

   Gary .  

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Been detail painting the moulded in sump , gearbox and prop shaft today . Then I painted the exhaust and , when dry , it became the first part to be glued into place . I also got the brake discs prepared ; good detail on these , but unfortunately this will be hidden by the wheels …. All the suspension parts are sprayed satin black , so once I have detailed the coil springs the underside wil be assembled quite quickly . 

Here’s where I’m up too 

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Thanks for looking   

   Gary . 

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37 minutes ago, Steve Noble said:

Looks very nicely detailed. I have quite a few Beemax kits. Not built any yet, but I must admit they look excellent..

Having built a few Beemax kits now , I think they are on a par with Tamiya . Certainly better than Hasegawa . 

 Gary  . 

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The underside of the Nissan is complete , apart from the sump guard . It was all pretty straight forward , just the usual struggle placing tiny link arms on the rear axle that seems to be standard on most models I build . Next will be interior building . 
Rear axle detail . I haven’t spent a lot of time on coil spring detail on this one . 

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Finished underside 

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Thanks for looking   
Gary . 

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I think this is the first model car kit I have built with old style bucket seats , as opposed to modern wrap around seats .  Research shows the seats have a vinyl looking outer and a fabric inner . The inner also has small holes , ringed with sliver eyelets . I managed to dab the eyelets with a cocktail stick and aluminium paint , but the smaller hole in the middle was just too small to 

 

colour black  . The seat harnesses are blue and I have used my tried and tested method of electrical tape to make up the belts  . I think the only other kit I have built with blue harnesses was Tamiya’s Peugeot 206 WRC a long while ago  .  
Photo time ; the camera shows the holes in the seat up well , believe me , dabbing these with a cocktail stick was tense !

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The finished seats ready for fitting . The Nissan shoulder pads and fastener were cut from the decal seat harnesses . While I was decaling , I put the dials onto the dashboard . This will need a brush of Matt clear to take the shine away . 
 

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Thanks for looking  

  Gary . 

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21 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

I do not need one of these, I do not need one of these. You're making that sound very unconvincing. :( :D 

Steve.

Come on Steve , you know you do !

 Gary 

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1 hour ago, Steve Noble said:

Looking great!! The small silver holes on the seats remind me of the Ford GT40. I think there is a photo-etch set with all the rings separate. I would imagine it would be a real challenge to line them all up!! 

GT40 . That's where I have seen the holey seats before . Even wearing glasses , these are about as small as my eyes can now see , so dabbing with a cocktail stick is an achievement for me !

 Gary . 

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Most of the interior done today . I made a co drivers footrest from some plastic , then drilled holes into it , not particularly well , but it will be mostly hidden and it looks better than not having one in there .  Another kit where the seats have a poor fixing point ; this is a bugbear with me as most kits seem to forget the seats need to be fitted square and true and just put in a bad fixing point . 
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The rollcage fitted really well  , a bit of touching up to do . 

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Thanks for looking   

Gary . 

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18 minutes ago, Windy37 said:

Another kit where the seats have a poor fixing point ; this is a bugbear with me as most kits seem to forget the seats need to be fitted square and true and just put in a bad fixing point . 

 

100 agree. It's a common problem even across different kit manufacturers. What is it with this?

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14 minutes ago, galaxyg said:

 

100 agree. It's a common problem even across different kit manufacturers. What is it with this?

One of the best kit seat mountings I've encountered was on the Tamiya Fiat 500.  Not only did these replicate the look of the seat runners on the real car, they were designed so that each rail could only be assembled to one side of one seat and each seat would only fit on one side of the floor.  Although they looked flimsy they were easy to align and attached securely to both seat and car floor.  However, the fact that one example stands out as good, suggests that this is one aspect of kit design where the designers generally shrug and decide that anything will do.

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I like to replicate how an actual seat is mounted in a car ; rally cars especially have different positions for driver and co driver . But time and again poor seat fixing points mean the seat is not secure until the glue takes hold . Grrrrr !

 Gary .

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2 hours ago, Windy37 said:

rally cars especially have different positions for driver and co driver .

 

I think you should build one of the works Fiat 131's next Gary - where they stuck the poor co-driver in the middle of where the back seat was on the road car, in the interests of weight distribution!

 

I do agree about the problems of seat fixing though (& it's just as bad in a full size rally Mini....!! :) )

 

Keith

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15 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

I think you should build one of the works Fiat 131's next Gary - where they stuck the poor co-driver in the middle of where the back seat was on the road car, in the interests of weight distribution!

 

I do agree about the problems of seat fixing though (& it's just as bad in a full size rally Mini....!! :) )

 

Keith

Whereas today the co driver virtually sits on the floor ( in the interest of weight distribution  ) the Fiat co driver sat high up as if still on the back seat ! Must have felt weird ! Non rally friends of mine can't understand why  the co driver can't see above the dashboard  !

 Gary .

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