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Fujimi Police Car No. 27 - Blade Runner


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One of my all time favorite SF movies is the original Blade Runner. While I tend to build more Real Space models than SF models, I do like to model subjects from my favorite movies such as 2001 A Space Odyssey, Silent Running, ...and Blade Runner. When the Fujimi kit of the Police Car No. 27 came out years ago, I could not resist adding it to my stash.

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The car is seen in the background rather briefly during a few scenes but I thought it unusual enough to get the kit when it was available. I was looking to start on something new recently, so Police Car 27 ended up on my work bench. Unfortunately, I had not thought of documenting the build until I was about finished painting the basic interior. I'll make it a practice as the build continues to take regular photos at interesting stopping points! Here's how it looks at this early stage.

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

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I'll watch this thread with great interest.

 

If you go for a screen-accurate build, there is a set of aftermarket parts (mostly for the engine section) & decals from Magonote Products. Price is a bit ambitious IMO, but the parts pic will give you an idea what needs to be added.

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....nice!

 

One of my all-timr movie favourits as well!

 

Do you happen to know if there are any suitable Movie Caracter figures for the 1/24 scale "Blade Runner Inspired" cars from Fujimi? Like the Spinner Car or Deckards Sedan?

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Thanks everyone for the positive feedback! Electric Indigo, I REALLY appreciate the heads up on Magonote Products. I am not familiar with them but I'll search them out and see what they have. I plan on using the Paragrafix PE set for the interior (I am almost finished with the PE details and will post photos soon) but the Magonote engine detail set is tempting. I'll go with the kit engine set along with a few extra scratchbuilt details for this build, but the engine detail set could come in handy when I build Deckard's car.

 

TomTom, I don't know of any 1/24 figures from the original Blade Runner movie that would work with this or the other Fujimi Blade Runner cars. That would be very cool!

 

Have fun modeling!

Mike

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Strange nobody said it before... "27, Enhance!" 😂

I'll jump on board if I may. Just don't ask me about my mother. 

 

Maybe some of the Master box space port figures fit the topic? 🤷‍♂️

Edited by Johnny Tip
sieve for brain...
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On 08/07/2021 at 15:03, Electric Indigo said:

You should check out Macky2019's blog, he's the guy behind Magonote. Tons of stuff to discover:

 

....nice! But the pices are "ambitious"

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This has been a great discussion so far, thanks everyone for the links! My work on the interior is moving along. You may have noticed the white areas in the front cockpit in the phots I originally posted. These areas had somewhat soft molded in detail. As I wanted the Paragrafix PE set to be a bit more visible without having to add lights, I scraped off the details and painted those areas gloss white. I then assembled and painted the PE for the interior separately. As there were a lot of open button and light holes in the PE, I filled these holes with white glue (Testor's Clear Parts Cement) and then painted over the clear "windows" using a range of Tamiya clear colors. After that, I glued the PE parts to the interior and here's what I got:

 

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Continuing on with my build, I focused on the engine compartment. First step was to strip off the chrome coating on the engine parts that had them. I felt this did not look very realistic and wanted to replace the chrome coating with various Alclad shade. I went mostly with the details in the kit but did tweak it out a little with some additions such as the braided wire and connectors. I also added a few small decal details that are not in the kit or any of my reference photos but thought that y would add a touch of realism to the engine bay. Here's what it looks like:

 

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

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"Wake up, it's time to die!"

 

"Him say you Blaid-Lunner, Mizter Deckard!".

 

"It's not easy having an itch you cannot scratch",

 

"I want more life..... Father!" I always thought that the original, not-suitable-for-a-family-website-like-this-one, final word of this line was a great deal more appropriate for the situation. Surely, Roy had a great number of reasons to despise Tyrell and he would want his creator to be terrified before he meets his end. I guess that the change of dialogue makes it more suitable for telly. They changed it in the 1990's and it ain't as good. 

 

Thanks for sharing your build with us. I love the idea that not mentioning the name of the film anywhere on the box or instructions meant that Fujimi avoided paying heavy licencing-fees to the film-company.

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris.  

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The model is coming along very nicely. The metal engine bits look great, as does the rest of the interior.

I wasn't aware that the wording had been changed. I have a boxed set (3 discs) to watch, and I have the original on a hard drive. 

Must be about time I watched it again. And Blade Runner 2049. I suppose.

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2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

And Blade Runner 2049. I suppose.

I tried watching the sequel again on Netflix recently. I think I lasted about 20 minutes and found something else. Definitely one to see at the cinema, preferably first time around. Do "big" films have to be so blimming long?

 

Chris. 

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17 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

And Blade Runner 2049. I suppose.

Well worth it. The same kind of dark atmosphere, an ending worthy of the original.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Thanks everyone for the great comments! You have hit on some of the reasons why I have the original Blade Runner as one of my top 5 movies. 

While not very exciting, I finished up the underside and wheels for the police car. As this will not be usually seen while sitting on my shelf, I did not devote much time on this part of the build, just enough painting and weathering to look like a well used car on grimy, wet streets. The wheel hubs are the only parts of the kit that I did not strip off the chrome coating. I used a black wash and it actually looked the part.The rubber tires that came with the kit were lightly sanded and then had pigment rubbed onto them.

 

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

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On 31/07/2021 at 10:44, PhantomMJI said:

Thanks everyone for the great comments! You have hit on some of the reasons why I have the original Blade Runner as one of my top 5 movies. 

While not very exciting, I finished up the underside and wheels for the police car. As this will not be usually seen while sitting on my shelf, I did not devote much time on this part of the build, just enough painting and weathering to look like a well used car on grimy, wet streets. The wheel hubs are the only parts of the kit that I did not strip off the chrome coating. I used a black wash and it actually looked the part.The rubber tires that came with the kit were lightly sanded and then had pigment rubbed onto them.

 

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

Hmm, that looks like a VW floor pan.

I wonder what the built the prop on...

 

Looking good.

I'm STILL looking for a Spinner kit.

 

Crack on!

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Does anyone wonder about Deckard being a Replicant? The big problem is, he's not a very good one. He is continually out-fought and outwitted by the rogue Replicants. OK, you could use the argument that he is an older, less-sophisticated model, but wouldn't you want the absolute best model available to track down units made especially for combat? Surely, you would build an artificial-person which has all the combat skills, greater strength and superior intelligence to its opponents. I certainly would.

 

Also, we are given the impression he has been Blade Running for many years. Wouldn't they replace him very regularly? Why go through the pretence that he is human at all? At least in the sequel. Agent K is fully aware of his origins. 

 

In two scenes, Deckard is about to be "retired" by his adversaries, only to be saved by another Replicant (Rachel and Roy Batty). Zhora (probably spelt wrong) comes fairly close to killing him in a head-lock and only runs away when some performers walk in to the room (I can think of worse ways to go). 

 

Makes me think this whole Deckard / Replicant situation was a bit of an afterthought and added on after the script was finalised. In the book, Dekard (the correct novel spelling) was very nearly convinced by the Replicants that he is one of them. I think he's human in the original story. From the little I remember from reading it, the novel would have made a VERY dull movie. Has anyone else made a decent film based on a Philip K. Dick work (arguably, the original Total Recall?) 

 

Also, why is there so much confusion about where Replicants come from? They are living, genetically-engineered organisms, produced in a factory. They are given four year life-cycles so they don't develop emotions. I have seen them described as machines /androids numerous times... 

 

Chris.  

Edited by spruecutter96
Correcting a typo.
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Tzulscha, I believe that I did read that both Deckard's car and the Police Car 27 were both based on a VW chassis. You have a good eye for cars! BTW, for those who have this or Deckard's car in your stash, I found a little problem with the wheel assembly and body yesterday. As I built it, the rear wheel assembly is a little too wide and it rubbed against the inner body panel when I test fit the body over the chassis. I ended up disassembling the rear wheel group and substituting a slightly smaller (shorter) piece of aluminum tubing that I had in my supply box. It now fits well and does not touch the body when test fit.

 

While I am working on the exterior of the police car, I started to work on a suitable display base for the model. Several years ago I bought a Blade Runner resin base kit made by Randy Cooper. I got the box of heavy resin parts out of my stash and started to go to work. There are no instructions so it took me a little while to figure out how everything should go together. Several of the large resin pieces such as the roof over the columns was warped but I decided I can live with it especially after the use of putty and dark paint. To keep all the parts in the right location especially after I build the base, I drilled and inserted brass pins in multiple locations. Here you can see the various pieces as it is assembled with a photo of the car under construction so you can get an idea of the size of the base. I left most of the resin parts seperate to make the painting and weathering a bit easier, especially in back of the columns. Now to the fun part of painting and weathering!

 

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Have fun modeling!

Mike

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I've seen that building entrance on here before. Years ago. I think the Spinner was parked in front of it. It's an impressive thing.

@spruecutter96 I read a series of three Bladerunner books some years ago, written by someone other than P K Dick

I seem to remember that in one of them Deckard sees a train carrying Replicants, some of which were him.

@Tzulscha Good catch with the VW floorpan. I know the Spinner used one.

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Before I head out of town on holiday, I thought I would give a quick update on this build. As a break from painting and weathering the base and working on the exterior of the police car, I focused on building up some small sub-assemblies for the exterior. The car has a 3 light rack on top of the roof. The kit comes with the flashing light support in chrome and there is nothing under the clear, colored plastic for the lights.

I first stripped off the chrome and painted it a more realistic (to my eye) Alclad white aluminum. I also drilled holes in the base of each light housing.

 

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To make up for the empty lights, I cut off the head off of three stick pins that I keep a supply of on my bench.

 

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Theses are now glued into each light housing.

 

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To give a light system that looks a little more interesting.

 

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While working on the top lights, I also treated all of the bumpers and parking/turn signal lights as sub-assemblies so I'll just jump right to how they look finished.

 

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Have fun modeling and I'll be back later this month!

Mike

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