2 Fast 2 Furious Skyline R34

[Southern_northerner]

Hi guys, 

 

Getting bored of waiting on other projects being stalled so I've decided to make a start to my Paul Walker R34 Skyline from the start of 2 Fast 2 Furious. 

 

The kit is Tamiyas Nissan R34 Skyline matched with the new Hobby Design detail set for the movie car, I will also be adding lights to this with smd's for the headlights tail lights and under body glow aswell as the cabin "neon" affect too. 

 

I've seen on here that someone has already done this so hopefully if they are still active they can give some pointers. 

 

Ok so on with the photo dump.

 

All the stuff to be used minus a few smd's awaiting delivery 

 

 

So what's in the Hobby Design box I hear you ask. Well all of this, from the full body kit to wheels. It also includes the nitrous bottles, roll cage, rear wing and exhaust. I mat re make the wing with plastic sheet as the resin one seems a little flimsy and distorted out the box. 

 

 

 

The instructions are simple and look easy enough to follow 

 

 

A few little mockups for the added bumpers snap skirts have show a little bit of finessing is necessary with regards to the rear bumper offside whating to stick out like it's under tension and the side skirts both side at the rear sit out too far messing up the body lines. 

 

 

 

So after a bit of clean up of the resin parts and a bit of heat to try and pull some parts into better shape I ended up pretty happy with how the lines now are. 

 

 

So the body work side I'm happy with as now really it's just about paint and decals the next biggest part for me is going to be the lights as I've never worked with anything electric (genuinely I'd struggle to change a light switch) so I invested in a soldering iron worked out all the values I need for the correct resistors and stuff and got cracking. Had a little play to see how it all works and I made light. 

 

 

So as I was saying I have watched many many YouTube videos on how to make this possible and with the space I have to store battery's within the car if it's possible I figured I can fit watch battery's in the boot and make a switch under the car somewhere. The next tricky bit is where to mount them all under the car as not to give too much of a light that it over powers everything. Oh yeah and the lights are also insanely small they are 402s which I think are about 1mm tall so won't be taking up too much space in the car. 

 

 

Next plan if it's viable will be seeing if the engine from tamiya r32 kit will fit into this but I'm pretty sure they weren't the same so that probably won't work. 

 

Thanks for looking 

 

SN

[Spiny]

That's a good start, and it's always good to learn new skills into the bargain. If I can make one suggestion, try to find a place for the battery where you can get at it without having to disassemble the car - there will be nothing more annoying that doing all this work to get the LEDs installed only for it to be redundant because the battery has gone flat.

[Southern_northerner]

On 23/06/2024 at 21:57, Spiny said:

That's a good start, and it's always good to learn new skills into the bargain. If I can make one suggestion, try to find a place for the battery where you can get at it without having to disassemble the car - there will be nothing more annoying that doing all this work to get the LEDs installed only for it to be redundant because the battery has gone flat.

 

Cheers I think that will be a better idea in the long run wasn't thinking about changing the battery in my original plans may have to adjust some things to get it done. 

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

So a slight update to this as I'm still waiting for a few bits to turn up. 

 

Got on with the floor pan.

 

First off all the holes have been drilled for the led's and then painted with ammo polished metal and the wheel wells painted semi gloss black. 

 

 

After this the block, gearbox and fuel tank has been painted up and slightly weathered with some engine grime and panel wash 

 

 

Minus the front shocks the front end is now done. The first 2 led's are also installed in the front cover panel also now and work on the rear end has started but waiting for bits to dry 

 

 

Now for something slightly annoying. The rear wing was bent and distorted alot so tried a little heat and force to get it back in shape and in typical behaviour it's snapped 

 

 

Luckily I had a spare wing from another car sitting there which was the right width just too short so bit of smartness happened and it got lengthened with a cut off from the resin one. Just need to trim the supports off and glue them on. 

 

The main body is just drying from it first coat of primer so soon should have some proper progress. 

 

SN

[FunkyChiken]

Great little  project! I love the skyline in that film, and good luck with the lighting!

[Southern_northerner]

On 30/06/2024 at 07:46, FunkyChiken said:

Great little  project! I love the skyline in that film, and good luck with the lighting!

Me too loved this car since then and recently watched the story about how they chose the car on YouTube was great insight. 

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

Right so a small update on the build 

 

Last few days I should have been getting on with the body painting but I got fully engrossed in parts of the car that will never be seen. 

 

The floor pan is basically complete now minus the exhaust back box. 

 

 

After this got to mocking up the interior. Having looked at other pictures of this car there are some bits that are wrong like the roll cage which is completely the wrong make up from the film car. This will be corrected at some point. 

 

 

Finally I have got the body in the first coat of primer and flatter down. There were a couple of bits that I wasn't 100% happy with but these are now sorted. 

 

 

As I've said previously I love the look of this car so much so I may try and pick up the c-west version from aoshima to make the 2fast 2furious prelude version also, then there's also the r34 from the 4th film. 

 

Thanks for looking 

 

SN

[flyboy2610]

Nice job on that under-carriage! The primer on the body looks fantastico!

[NFR]

I love that the detail kit comes with the 3 Nitrous Express bottles for the front passenger seat! Keen to see the progress on this one

[Southern_northerner]

Thanks for the comments guys. 

 

The primer was good until I sprayed the silver and it came out super grainy so a little ipa bath was needed to fix this and repriming again. Hope to have more progress soon 

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

Right so a small but big update to this build. 

 

I got the body striped back to plastic and repainted. Having read around I found it was my fault, the pressure i was spraying at was far too high. So lowered the pressure and it all came out much better. 

 

This is after a light coat of gloss for the decals. 

 

 

So then made a start to the decals from impatients because of the delay in repainting. The main bonnet decals came in 1 piece and were far too wide compared to the real car so had to trim them down and fit separately 

 

 

And after about an hour, most of which was for the side stripe decals to get them conform to the many angles, all the decals are done externally.

 

 

Give it a few days and we'll have the body clear coated again and ready to shine. 

 

SN

[flyboy2610]

Nice job! I like that color! I wouldn't have the patience to do those decals! 😄

[Southern_northerner]

Jesus it's been a while but not much has changed due to other more pressing obligations. 

 

A small update after finally having a day in my room before it all gets packed up for a new bigger space. 

 

Most of the interior parts have been painted finally starting with the main section 

 

 

Door cards have also been done after some fiddly masking

 

 

The dash has been painted in a mix of German grey and semi gloss black, I like the tone of the colour compared to just flat black. 

 

 

so got to gluing a few things together while I work on the little bits that need to go in

 

 

Finally like with the rest of the build I have added a few little leds for the interior glow 

 

 

Hopefully won't be as long between updates next time but honestly I can't guarantee it. 

 

SN

[Spiny]

Progress, however slow, is still progress. And it looks as though you'll have a good model at the end of it.

 

Incidentally, I feel you pain with the relocation thing. There's also that point where you have to decide to pack up the modelling space for any relocation, and hope it's not at too critical a point in building a model up.

[Southern_northerner]

That's hopefully the plan Spiny. Thankfully the move has been postponed slightly so atleast a week or so before I have to start packing stuff up. The soon to be missus probably won't be happy when she sees how many boxes I actually bring out of here compared to how many she thinks I have 😅.

 

Also a small update now I've got a bit more time. 

 

I've been working on the under glow and interior lights today soldering bits up and checking all points of the way. The solder isn't pretty but it will all be hidden and I only managed to burn myself once so I'm counting that as a win. A few minor issues with routing caused a few shorts but all sorted now.

 

All the blue lights are now fully in just the head lights and tail lights to go once the body shell is ready.

 

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

Finally after a few days bits and bobs work I can give a proper update to this. 

 

Not too far away now once I get the body clear coated.

 

Got all the little NOS bottles painted and decals applied and glued to the base ready for final installation

 

 

And just like that I'm calling the interior done. Some parts could be better but once the body is on your probably not going to see much anyways.

 

 

Different angle of the interior 

 

 

The rims that are split into 2 pieces have been painted first the centers have gone a lights silver

 

 

And the outers have gone (what the bottle called) dark chrome. I think they will need clear coating before I put them together fully as I've heard the chrome is quite delicate.  The colours aren't as far away from each other as the lighting suggests. 

 

 

The main body has been sat waiting for something to happen for about 2 months now so finally I got on to the shading on the side and bonnet stripes as they have a gradient on the real car. Now I can finally clear coat it. 

 

 

A bit more of the lighting has been completed with the rear light backings drilled out for the leds to be glued in. 

 

 

And the front lights have also been drilled out for mirco leds to be installed. 

 

 

Lastly all the neon lighting has been fully soldered up and is now ready for all the other bits to be added. 

 

 

More soon 

 

SN

 

[Southern_northerner]

Not much of an update but here goes. 

 

Last few days have been all about getting the main body ready for final installation so it's been clear coats with about 5 layers of clear so there's enough for me to flat down and Polish up when it's hardened. Really love how this is turning out so far. 

 

 

Been working on the rear wing also but given how it's a home made one as the kit one was deformed beyond repair it's taking a while to get it looking right. 

 

SN

 

[Southern_northerner]

Major progress today. 

 

The windows have been painted up, the tamiya masks are actually really good compared to what I was expecting. 

 

 

once done it will sit in it's own little display case so felt the need to tart that up a bit 

 

 

The main body has now also been polished up and had the window surrounds painted. 

 

 

Those iconic rear lights have also been installed. One of the best rear ends going IMHO

 

 

after this the front lights were also installed and the main body glued on after I soldered up the wiring for the lights. 

 

 

Such a mean menacing front end on these cars also. 

 

 

Nearly done now so more shortly 

 

SN

[ceeb555]

Wow, that is looking really nice. Love the colouring inside and out. Agree on the front and rear looks

Really looking forward to seeing the finished model and the lighting

Chris

[Southern_northerner]

5 hours ago, ceeb555 said:

Wow, that is looking really nice. Love the colouring inside and out. Agree on the front and rear looks

Really looking forward to seeing the finished model and the lighting

Chris

Thanks for the vote of confidence chris it's now at that stage where things start to move slow while waiting for the last few bits to dry.

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

Almost there now with this. 

 

Update for today.

 

Front end is now done all the last little grills and bits have been added and it's finally attached to the base. 

 

 

Rear end is almost done just a few touches needed. 

 

 

The iconic number plate is is ready to be added 

 

 

Rear wing has also been painted up in the blue and unpictured the supports have been painted. The wing parts are actually from the cwest aoshima skyline as the one that came with the detail set was crap and my attempt at making one wasn't much better. 

 

 

Few days and I can call this done finally. 

 

SN

[Southern_northerner]

Last post on this before a "ready for inspection" post goes up. 

 

Finally after many months the car is complete, last few bits went on today as I'm now fully up and running in the new man cave. 

 

 

Thank you to all those who contributed to the thread.

 

SN

[SnøMotion]

Love it! Very true to the film car, really well done 

 

Martin

[Potsie]

Excellent final model. Good work with the transkit!