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Airfix 1/32 Vauxhall Viva HA


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Hello,

 

It's been a while since I have built any models, the last one being during the first lockdown which was a 1/32 Airfix Bentley...

 

 

so I thought I'd continue the trend and do a kit I've never seen built before, it's actually a very nicely detailed kit with very crisp moldings. 

 

Airfix 1/32 Vauxhall Viva HA

 

I have prepped and primed the body and associated parts and given everything 2 coats of humbrol 14 enamel, more to follow this evening!

 

Cheers,

 

Andy.

 

 

Edited by ElectricLightAndy
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8 minutes ago, colin said:

is it going to be car showroom look, or one that's been on the road a couple of years, They had them as fleet cars when I was an apprentice, they seemed to rust away 😄

It depends if I cock up the body or not, I'll probably do a mildly used one, but not a rotten body. My Dad had a blue HB as his first car, he said it was 6 years old and was so rotten it was already in a scrap yard... where he bought it from!  People conveniently forget how crap Vauxhall and Ford were back then and instantly dig at British Leyland, grrrr, never mind!

 

Andy.

 

 

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57 minutes ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

People conveniently forget how crap Vauxhall and Ford

 

I don't - my second car was a HB Viva, which actually wasn't that rusty. But a 1972 Escort Mexico I bought in 1976 was as rotten as a pear!

 

59 minutes ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

and instantly dig at British Leyland

 

With good reason tbh, my first car in 1974 was a 1968 Morris 1300 which had had the passenger floor replaced with a piece of fibreglassed in 6mm plywood and a pile of soggy Daily Mirrors.....!!! 🤣

 

Looking forward to watching this come together, it's another I've had sitting in the stash for, ummm, a while....!! :)

 

Keith

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1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

With good reason tbh, my first car in 1974 was a 1968 Morris 1300 which had had the passenger floor replaced with a piece of fibreglassed in 6mm plywood and a pile of soggy Daily Mirrors.....!!! 🤣

Blame the bodger, not the builder! I have the unfortunate pleasure of being a coachbuilder, mainly working on classic and vintage Italian stuff, they left the factory absolutely bodged! Zagato,  bizzarini and ferrari being the worst offenders.

 

I have also had this kit 20+ years, but for some reason I was recently drawn to it :)

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

 

 

Edited by ElectricLightAndy
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I built this kit some 55 years ago, I think.

From what I remember, and that's not much, it was an easy build for a kid of 11.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

Edited by Alan R
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Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

 

When I was in the RN stationed in Pompey, my mate had one of these and he swore that if he had to do an emergency stop, the chassis would stop but the bodywork would keep going, it being so full of rust.

 

Dave

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38 minutes ago, Alan R said:

I built this kit some 55 years ago, I think.

From what I remember, and that's not much, it was an easy build for a kid of 11.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

It's amazing how quickly and easily we used to build kits, bought in the morning finished by lunch! 

 

21 minutes ago, davecov said:

Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

 

When I was in the RN stationed in Pompey, my mate had one of these and he swore that if he had to do an emergency stop, the chassis would stop but the bodywork would keep going, it being so full of rust.

 

Dave

Thanks Dave, makes me think of the Living daylights 😁

 

Andy.

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7 hours ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

Blame the bodger, not the builder!

 

The bodger was only repairing what the builder sent out of the factory....!! 🤣

 

7 hours ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

I have the unfortunate pleasure of being a coachbuilder, mainly working on classic and vintage Italian stuff, they left the factory absolutely bodged! Zagato, 

 

It's not you rebuilding Harry Metcalf's Fulvia Zagato on his Harry's Garage youtube channel is it? Talk about bodging, IIRC they took 25 kilos of filler out of the body when they started the rebuild! Some excellent metalworking going on now though.

 

Keith

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3 hours ago, keefr22 said:

It's not you rebuilding Harry Metcalf's Fulvia Zagato on his Harry's Garage youtube channel is it? Talk about bodging, IIRC they took 25 kilos of filler out of the body when they started the rebuild! Some excellent metalworking going on now though.

Noo ti's not I, although I did do the initial assessment for the metalwork and they were FULLY aware of how bad it was because I told them, it's worse than they show in the vids, they are leaving a lot of things that should be replaced but Harry can't spare the time or money on doing it properly, which is why I didn't do it in the end, all very lovely chaps though.

 

Here is some of my work.

 

2021-10-26_08-27-29 2021-10-26_08-29-10 2021-10-26_08-29-55 Work 2021-10-26_08-26-25 2021-10-26_08-27-59

 

The Stratos is (was) a genuine 74 rally car, it had had so many crashes and bad repairs I had to make pretty much everything bar the roof and front bulkhead from scratch, aluminium bonnet of a siata 300bc, Aston DB4 which I made the body for at the London concour last year, it was the first car as you entered :)

 

Also myself and another coachbuilder from work have our own little unit we tinker in and have a youtube channel showing metalwork techniques on more down ro earth projects :)

 

https://youtube.com/channel/UCbTWzmSSd1tk7C9-F8LTa3g

 

Andy.

Edited by ElectricLightAndy
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5 hours ago, CliffB said:

A classic Airfix kit and Humbrol enamels.  What's not to like? :popcorn:

 

Cheers

It's nice to be authentic once in a while, I find myself heading back to enamels more and more now after chastising them for years, forgot how excellent they are and for some reason they just feel right on this type of build :)

Edited by ElectricLightAndy
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After diverting slightly off topic, I have de-nibbed the body with 2000/3000 and 6000 pads and painted the pinstripe, I am referencing a 'deluxe' I found on Google which I liked the colours of.

 

Plentiful masking, but was it worth it?

2021-10-26_11-39-30

 

Hell yeah it was! In beautifully contrasting Humbrol 48, noice! 

2021-10-26_11-40-40

 

Tomorrow evening will hopefully consist of some more body detail painting, I'm tempted to make some rudimentary door cards as the transparencies are rather clear 🤔

 

Cheers,

 

Andy.

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10 hours ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

Here is some of my work.

 

 

If I had a hat I'd tip it - that is some superb work there sir...!! If my son and I combined had half of your skills our Mini's bodyshell would look a whole lot better!! 

 

Off to have alook at your Yourube channel now!

 

And that Viva is looking rather nice too - colours are looking great!

 

Keith

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Thanks chaps! @Malc2 I finished the Stratos last year, I'm not really meant to share pictures from my day job, but it's my skills so I disagree with their policy unless it shares sensitive info! I've just finished a sympathetic metalwork conservation job on a 1910 Lancia Delta and now I'm on bloody project porsche 356! I'm not a fan of porsches but I'm the one that knows them very well at work so I'm stuck with em'

 

I think I shall add a couple of chrome sections to the Viva tonight, then clear coat the shell, I'm in two minds as what to use, I recently bought some Humbrol clear enamel varnish in a large tinlet as it's what I used to use many moons ago, but I've heard lots of stories of yellowing over time (I've never had this issue) so I might use my humbrol Gloss cote instead? Doesn't smell as nice though 😂

 

Cheers,

 

Andy.

Edited by ElectricLightAndy
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Understand, I thought you owned the restoration business!

Its not Dominic Chineas 356 is it?

 

For clear I use Mr Hobby Super Clear UV Cut, which blocks UV reducing paint/decal fade.

If spraying over decals do a test first on a spare decal.

 

Malc.

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On 10/26/2021 at 1:05 PM, ElectricLightAndy said:

It's amazing how quickly and easily we used to build kits, bought in the morning finished by lunch! 

 

Thanks Dave, makes me think of the Living daylights 😁

 

Andy.

Or Dastardly and Muttley!

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1 hour ago, Malc2 said:

Its not Dominic Chineas 356 is it?

Noooo, he's going about that all wrong to be honest, that's not a beginners project, but I hope he sticks with it. I do have a restoration place that me and a friend have in the evenings and weekends, but also work for someone in the day.

 

I can't really say much about the porsche project, but there will be 50+ special cars being produced and I'm currently doing the chassis and body R&D and prototypes. 

 

Here's a trio of past straight restoration job porches I did all the metalwork on, the coupe and speedster were basket cases but the cream one wasn't quite as bad.

 

Trio of Porsches

 

Andy.

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My grandfather drove Viva's in the '70's, I recall them being very wobbly to drive, you went all over on that backseat. Or maybe it was just my granddad's driving 🙂 

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3 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Or maybe it was just my granddad's driving 🙂 

A little of both I reckon! 

 

4 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Love the blue 356!

Yes, that was the first porsche I did, I'm quite fond of that one but the customer is an absolute meat flute.

 

5 hours ago, Malc2 said:

now find restoring old cars even more interesting!

What sort of vehicles do you work on?

 

I have now painted the alclad chrome bits (undercoated with humbrol 14 gloss black enamel) and attempted to pick out the writing in vallejo aluminium metal colour with medium success.

 

Airfix 1/32 Vauxhall Viva Chrome

 

Airfix 1/32 Vauxhall Viva Chrome

 

Airfix 1/32 Vauxhall Viva Chrome

 

When this has dried its Gloss Cote time!

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

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That's looking really good - looks to me like some very neat work on the badges!

 

4 hours ago, JeroenS said:

My grandfather drove Viva's in the '70's, I recall them being very wobbly to drive, you went all over on that backseat.

 

My late mum had an SL90 (the performance version!) that she was supposed to use to learn to drive, but spent most of it's time parked on the front lawn! On the rare occasions it did get an outing I used to find the black vinyl back seat was far too slippery to be able to sit in one place!

 

Keith

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