Airfix 1/32 VW Beetle

[Paul J]

Hi. I'm new to this part of the forum and this is my first WIP that is not an aeroplane.  I picked this kit up at a discount due to the box being a bit tatty and faded. The reason for the build is to make a model of a 1965 Beetle I used to have around 1979 -1980. It was a bit of a heap obtained from a girlfriend at the time but needed a lot of work but was driveable and MOT compliant.   The heating never worked as in the winter the windows would frost up inside leaving only a small corner of the windscreen clear!  The brakes would always bind as when I stopped there would be a cloud of smoke coming from the front wheels. No matter how many times I sorted out the cylinders and shoes and the brake lines, I would get this problem. Not really a good candidate for an MOT was it!  I could tell you tales of the adventures me and my lady friend had with this car but it would take up too much time and space. I got fed up with it in the end and sent to the breakers yard and that was the end of it.

 

Meanwhile her are a couple pics of progress with this kit. Couldn't wait to get started.

 

To start with a couple pics of the original. The colour pic has been cropped but shows the colour reasonably well. The monochrome image is a scan and gives away the number plate and parked outside where I used to live 40 yeras ago.

The L plates were there for my girlfriend who was learning to drive at the time. Not sure if I can replicate the windscreen visor strip though.

It comes in the current light grey plastic and lots of flash and seam lines. It definitely is showing its age.  The original issue kit I once had in my stash but sold it was in the poly bag and dark green plastic. Here you can see the body shell is painted. I mixed my own colour to get as close I could to the colour of the real one. It was a sort of very pale bluey grey. I mixed Humbrol gloss light aircraft grey no 149 or something like that and a pale blue no 47 I think it is. Airbrushed really well from being mixed in the paint cup of my airbrush. And it looks pretty spot on to a colour pic I found in my photo archives though the print it was scanned from wasn't too hot and the lighting for these pics I took earlier today does not show the colour too well.  On second thoughts I might have to do the mix again and make it a bit more blue.

The wheels I painted dark blue on the real one and done the same here. I'm not certain about the interior but I recall the seats were two tone and replicated it here too as close I can. I am scouring the internet for interior shots of the car to get an idea of the upholstery style and colours so that I can , maybe, replicate that too.  

As for the reggie plate, I will ask a colleague at my club to see if he will do the number plates for me.

 

Mean while over the coming days I'll see if I can come up with the interior as close  as I can.   

[klubman01]

Always nice to build a model with a personal connection.  I wish you well with this.

Trevor

[Coors54]

I note in the B & W photo you have the obligatory steamy windscreen, bet your heater channels/sills were a bit perforated with rust? 😄

 

Having seen this and the recent Top Gear where Freddy Flintoff drove a Beetle I'm reminded what a really awful car the Beetle was, charismatic, lovable and of it's time (the 1930's) but really not the thing to put your kids in these days.

 

Good luck with the build, I ought to find an Airfix 1100 kit so I can do my first car - Maggie the Morris, now she was a rust bucket!

 

Dave

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Dad got one new in 1970 and had it for ten years. I loved that car and learned to drive in it, even though the pedals came out of the floor and the heating system is best described as volcanic 

 

Trevor ATD 852J

[Prop Duster]

Well, I like what you've done so far.  Did yours have the glove box door?

[Paul J]

On 23/12/2021 at 01:30, Prop Duster said:

Well, I like what you've done so far.  Did yours have the glove box door?

Yes.

 

Here are a few more pics of work in progress. IT is almost done but for the back window falling in accidentally but luckily the body shell is not fixed to the chassis yet.

 i remixd the paint by adding a touch more blue and resprayed it. It doesn't look any different in the above pic compared to my earlier pic but it is bluer
es of the

Interior. I made a couple rubber mats for the footwell from pieces of wet and dry cut to shape and stuck down.  I really don't recall the floor colouring in my one but I am using a bit of imagination and rusty memories.  I know I painted the wheels dark blue though.

Hub caps and bumpers airbrushed with alclad type paint. The dash board with the vague detail of the plastic part highlighted and the speedo coloured in basing it on photod I googled.

Underside of the 'wings' / mudguards(?) done in black replicating the underseal.

Headlights in place and glued in with PVA so as not to spoil the paint work with liquid poly. Wheels popped on too.

Need to get the number plates sorted very soon.   The luggage bay at rear is nearest colour I recall to my original.

 

I might well get it completed by year end except the number plates.

[PatW]

Looking good, we, my wife and I had three and our youngest son had two. Great cars, I wish we had kept!

[Quiet Mike]

Ah, this brings back memories too @Paul J, my first car was a 1969 Beetle, bought a few weeks short of my 17th birthday, much to my fathers disdain, as he was a Ford man back then. (He now swears by Passats, my how he has changed!)
I sold it a dozen years later, with no MOT, when my wife was expecting our first baby. I think the chap buying it just wanted the number plate and scrapped the car.
I loved it, and went all over the place in it. Longest trip was all the way up to Scotland and back. Happy memories as a student hack when I was at Pompey School of Art.

My first VW by Mike, on Flickr

[klubman01]

That is coming along very nicely indeed.  

Trevor

[bigbadbadge]

This looks good Paul, loved my Beetles and have owned three of them.  The blue looks a good match too.

Great work so far.

Chris

[Paul J]

No new pics today but a note to say it is almost complete. I do need to make a pair of door mirrors somehow though and ... just waiting for the number plates.

[Paul J]

Final couple pics of the build.  it lacks the number plate ( HPG 613C)   decals I am still waiting for but you can see here I added thin silver decal stripes for the chrome trim along the bonnet lid and trim down the sides. A biy tricky to do but with patience decal solvent and a shaky hand they have come out reasonably well. More final pics now in RFI.

 

 

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looks very nice Paul, it's not a bad kit really, were the rear lights already moulded on the rear wings ?  They  appear set a tad too high  which affects the look or the rear end a bit, not a criticism at all, you've done a great job .

Chris

[Paul J]

Hi. The rear lights are separate parts and locate in squarish holes so they may be wrong or right  depending how one builds it

.

[Prop Duster]

Nice finish up, to a classic of the older modern age.

[Paul J]

The other week  I received the number plate decals s now I can complete

 It properly with updated pics

.