Anteater Posted August 11, 2023 Share Posted August 11, 2023 Suddenly looking very purposeful on those wheels. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 11, 2023 Author Share Posted August 11, 2023 Cheers @Spiny, I'll find and deal with them before priming. Appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted August 12, 2023 Share Posted August 12, 2023 Those wheels really transform the car into something completely different. It will look good together with the new paint job. Will you restore the flare on top of the rear wheel arches? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 12, 2023 Author Share Posted August 12, 2023 Thanks. I'm certainly planning to if my filling and shaping skills are good enough. I'll give it a go anyway! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted August 12, 2023 Share Posted August 12, 2023 1 hour ago, Neddy said: Thanks. I'm certainly planning to if my filling and shaping skills are good enough. I'll give it a go anyway! That's what I think the builder of the real thing would have done, it goes well with the extra care put into the rounded off roof conversion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 12, 2023 Share Posted August 12, 2023 Fantastic progress on this beastie, the mocked up body on chassis looked superb. I haven't built a car kit for quite a few years and have not seen the powder before that you used for your carpet, looks great. Great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted August 12, 2023 Share Posted August 12, 2023 That's all coming together really nicely - love the stance of the mock-up, and the carpet is very tidy! Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted August 12, 2023 Share Posted August 12, 2023 22 hours ago, Neddy said: Cheers @Spiny, I'll find and deal with them before priming. Appreciated. The main ones are at the front and rear of each side, sinking in line with the headlights and the tailgate on the estate (basically at the front of the tail fins). The rest of the kit was pretty much sink-free if memory serves, but those four were very noticeable when I was building mine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 12, 2023 Author Share Posted August 12, 2023 Yup, spotted them this afternoon and filled 'em while I was working on restoring the rear wheel-arches. They weren't immediately noticeable but If I'd missed them I'd have been kicking myself regularly. Thanks again for the tip-off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 13, 2023 Author Share Posted August 13, 2023 Nearing the end for the interior now, just the door cards to complete and the seat belts added... ...ready for fitting to the interior tub. Which is now complete (the dash fits onto the lower edge of the 'screen). Back to the bodyshell while I waited for paint and adhesives to dry. I first dealt with the sunken spots on the extremities before reshaping the rear wheelarches to try to recover the profile lost when enlarging them. Thanks to @Spiny and @Bengalensis for their advice on these points. ...not perfect but the best I can do and they look OK from a distance! Now almost ready to spray the bodyshell but currently waiting for a replacement airbrush compressor. Again... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted August 13, 2023 Share Posted August 13, 2023 This is looking great now that the body shop has done their magic 👍 When I see the wheels I can't help thinking how the little engine has to work. Surely the builder of this has fitted larger bore cylinders or something... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 13, 2023 Author Share Posted August 13, 2023 I'm sure he must have @Bengalensis - rebore, outsize pistons, nitrided crank, enlarged valves, gasflowed head and ports, the lot. It's still going to be gutless but not quite so embarrassing! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toftdale Posted August 13, 2023 Share Posted August 13, 2023 Great work on the interior and the build now has real character - Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted August 15, 2023 Share Posted August 15, 2023 to what Jörgen and Andy said - it looks really cool! Keith 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 Nice work , the interior looks cool and the arches look great too. Can't wait to see the colour go on. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 16, 2023 Author Share Posted August 16, 2023 I'm in a bit of a quandry and am looking for opinions please. There are impossibly thin and fragile plastic trim lines running along the tops of the wings and quarter panels. IMHO they have a very '60s look about them, rather like the Ford Corsair did until they did away with them when the 2000E was introduced. I have three options:- 1) Attempt an OOB build, chroming them first and running the risk of damaging the paintwork trying to fit them, 2) Fit them unpainted, spray the bodyshell and attempt to mask them afterwards and chrome them, or 3) Leave them off completely, fill in the tiny locating holes and go for a cleaner look. At present I'm leaning towards Option 3 but would really appreciate your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anteater Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 I think given the other body mods, you can legitimately divert from showroom standard and take option 3... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klubman01 Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 Agreed! Trevor BTW, IIRC the mighty Trabant was a two stroke so, referring to earlier posts regarding engine upgrades, I think some sort of bonkers MotoGP two stroke would be a suitable improvement in horse power. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted August 16, 2023 Share Posted August 16, 2023 If you do decide to go witht he original trim, they would be done with aluminium paint rather than chrome. Just make sure you get them the right way around unlike me. This is an extract from when I did these strips - they look daunting but they're not actually too fragile if handled carefully and it will probably be easier to fit them than to fill the hole and get a decent looking edge. "One bit of trim I haven't been looking forward to is the aluminium and rubber strips which run along the top of the wings on a Trabant - little more than 1mm wide and they need to be painted aluminium then a black line painted along the top. As I didn't trust muself to get a good line freehand, that meant masking - quite tricky when the masking tape is wider than the bit you're masking. In the end, I stuck the ends down onto some card from a new shirt with 6mm across the trim to keep it the right way up, then ran the 2mm masking tape along the edges of the black (which also stuck the trim to the card. Once that was done, I unstuck the 6mm tape and ran the 2mm tape to the end. A bit fiddly, but this was what I ended up with prior to painting: The end result wasn't perfect, but it did only need minor touching up where the black had bled under the tape, and after touching up this was the end result: Just a shame that when I came to fixing it I realised I'd misread the instructions and painted the side of the middle piece of trim rather than the top , so that has been stripped and I only have the front trim on at the moment." 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 17, 2023 Author Share Posted August 17, 2023 Having carefully considered all options I came to the conclusion that fitting them was better than leaving rather deep grooves all down the bodywork. I'll spray the 'shell first before deciding whether to colour them or leave them body-coloured. Thanks for your thoughts people. EDIT: fitting them was easier than I thought, entirely down to first use of Tamiya Extra Thin. Never tried it before but I can see now why so many of you recommend it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anteater Posted August 17, 2023 Share Posted August 17, 2023 It has to be said that I never noticed the brightwork element to the trims when viewing the real thing, and always just assumed they were all-black. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 19, 2023 Author Share Posted August 19, 2023 Still waiting for an airbrush compressor (long and boring story) so I started on creating a rollbar/lightbar setup for the truckbed, something I planned a while back but have never tried before. I acquired some 3.9mm dia. aluminium tubing from my local r/c model shop, a tube bender and a tube-cutter from another one oop north and set to. After a couple of trial runs to ascertain the curve radius of the tube bender, some careful measurement (useless) and a LOT of trial and error (much more useful!) I was able to produce a rollbar to stand just behind the cab and eventually carry a couple of spotlights... ...and feeling I was on a roll here (sorry!) I attempted a couple of sidebars. Offering the lot up as a loose trial-fit the end result was better than I expected... The end result is slightly over-scale but I think I can get away with it. The next size down would have been too thin by a long way. Still longing to spray the 'shell but that's in the hands of suppliers at the moment. 🙄 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted August 19, 2023 Share Posted August 19, 2023 It might be somewhat over scale, but it looks good and certainly it looks, dimension wise, like all the modern ugly things, and I prefer this so much more 👍 Good work, and hope you get your new compressor very soon. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toftdale Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 Looks good to me and very neatly done - Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neddy Posted August 21, 2023 Author Share Posted August 21, 2023 Thanks! Actually I'm pleased to report that earlier today I located a supplier of 3mm aluminium tubing (the size I used was 3.97mm) which I hope will be sufficiently slimmer to get over the slight over-scale look. OK, it'll mean making the rollcage again but the time spent making this first one wasn't wasted, I know how to do it now! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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