Nissan Skyline Group A race cars × 3

[Potsie]

Starting a work-in-progress thread for something of a group build; a DR30 RS and two HR31 GTS-R Nissan Skyline Group A racers. Only one will be box art and two will be based on cars that ran in the Australian Touring Car Championship in the mid- to late-1980's. 

 

1. Aoshima DR30 RS Leyton House (kit #042816). This will be built as the Gibson Motorsport car of ~1987, sponsored by Peter Jackson. Decals for this are from Pattos Place that have a vast array of decals, mostly for slot car application. Decals will need to be coated in MicroScale Liquid Decal Film or similar before use.
2. Fujimi HR31 GTS-R Calsonic (kit #TC-SP-06158). This will be built again as a Gibson Motorsport car from 1989-1990. Decals are form the long gone RooDecals that made sheets for various Australian touring cars in the early to mid 1990's. These decals do not look too bad but will likely benefit from a refresh with Liquid Decal Film. This livery is the "works" scheme of the era; mostly white with red bonnet and blue boot area. It will be a better look to mask and spray these areas, but colour matching could be interesting. I have read this kit essentially put the interior 'race' bucket and wheels from the Fujimi R32 Group A kit into an old motorised road car kit; and I think this is likely correct.
3. Hasegawa HR31 GTS-R Calsonic (kit #21127 / HC-27). This will be built out-of-the-box. Looking at this kit is appears to be very highly detailed (far more than the other two!), though missing some photo-etch details and seatbelt materials as one might find in a Hasegawa rally kit. Some online research suggests this was the first race car to sport the iconic "Calsonic blue" though the photo on the box - and others online - seems to suggest it might be slightly darker. I think I will run with the Tamiya equivalent of Calsonic blue anyway.

 

Not too much progress to show as yet. I have gone through each kit and cut and sorted pieces from sprues. The Hasegawa kit was very interesting in this regard, with lots of parts having little 'knobs' of plastic which I assume are mold details to aid the injection process. I have also assembled parts of the bodies prior to sanding and spraying. The Aoshima kit comes with a separate bonnet, with a choice of white or clear plastic, but no engine bay detail. Also, the real DR30 I am building had headlight covers painted as part if the livery, so these went in as well. The Haseagawa has a separate front bumper - no doubt due to the many road version of the HR31 they have released - that is suggested to be added after the front light assembly. Thankfully this can be added from the start and actually has a very positive 'tongue-and-groove' style locating method.

 

For reference, photos of the kit boxes. The Fujimi kit did not come with a box and was 'free' with another kit I purchased. Not sure I would have bought it otherwise.

 

Photos of the three bodies. Left-to-right is Aoshima - Fujimi - Hasegawa.

 

An image of the three chassis parts, in the same order. It is clearthe Fujimi is an old motorised kit and that the Aoshima also has little suspension detail. The interior tub of the Fujim HR31 is already glued in, which was via a terribly vague location onto the seat mounts of the road kit. Will not be surprised if this does not line up particularly nicely in the end.

 

And finally a photo of an R34 GT-R I build many years ago. This is a homage to the Nissan Motorsport 'works' HR31 GTS-R and early R32 GT-R cars run by Gibson Motorsport. If the RooDecals do not work I will do something similar on the HR31 here.

 

More progress to come.

Grant.

[othertales]

It will be a great fleet of racing cars! And always super interesting to see comparisons between kits as well. I'm here for the ride 🚥🏁

[Spiny]

Now do you think Racing Spirit made a mistake with their spelling of '"Layton House" on the box, or were just trying to avoid paying royalties?

 

Looking forward to seeing how these come together, there's something about the oh-so 80s shape of the Skyline 31 that just appeals to me.

[keefr22]

This'll be good, I look forward to the build(s)!

 

Your finished R34 looks really good!

 

7 hours ago, Potsie said:

The Aoshima kit comes with a separate bonnet, with a choice of white or clear plastic, but no engine bay detail.

 

That's an interesting concept, clear bonnet to look at the void where an engine should be!!

 

Keith 

[Vesa Jussila]

Really epic cars. These will be beautiful when completed.

[Potsie]

11 hours ago, Spiny said:

Now do you think Racing Spirit made a mistake with their spelling of '"Layton House" on the box, or were just trying to avoid paying royalties?

 

Looking forward to seeing how these come together, there's something about the oh-so 80s shape of the Skyline 31 that just appeals to me.

 

@Spiny Interestingly the decals are spelt correctly, so I assume the box art is a mistake?

 

@keefr22 The R34 has a scratch build roll-cage and rally interior, Peugeot 307 WRC wheels and a mostly home-printed livery as a fantasy Targa Tasmania entry. Unfortunately I do not have the talent or motivation to build a full engine bay for the Aoshima DR30, but yes the clear bonnet is an odd detail.

 

@othertales Yes, there is quite a range of complexity / accuracy across the three kits. The Fujimi is clearly an old motorised kit, and even if the race car interior bucket is from an R32 kit at least it has one. Unlike the Fujimi "rally look" Megane I have in the stash with a full road car interior and sticker sheet! The Aoshima kit has very little chassis and suspension detail, but the interior looks okay. The Hasegawa clearly shows it is a much newer tooling and has some very nice detail on both chassis and interior. Just a shame there is no photo-etch or seatbelts.

 

Aoshima body is now ready for primer, and the chassis and suspension parts have been primered ready for colour tonight. Photo updates soon.

[Potsie]

Another comparison photo, this time of the wheels and tyres. Again, L-to-R it is Aoshima-Fujimi-Hasegawa. The Aoshima and Fujimi are female type on the wheels and the Hasegawa male, as expected.

 

 

The Peter Jackson DR30 ran a few different style of wheels from the reference photos I have, including these ones from Aoshima but in white. I have a photo from the 1987 Bathurst (with infamous Eggenberger 'Texaco' Sierra in the background) where the car is running yellow wheels, though they look a different type. I am going to take some artistic licence and paint these yellow as they will look different 'on the shelf'. The Aoshima kit also came with some cool Impul turbo fans which I will not use here; even though the 1:1 car clearly ran them sometimes. I think I will save these for another project.

 

The Gibson Motorsport "Works" HR31 ran an eleven-spoke wheel in white based on the reference photos I could find. However I have a couple of photos of it running turbo fan style covers, in white, so maybe I can use the Aoshima ones here. Either way, I will paint the kits wheels white and see how that looks. I only intend to build an homage, not an exact replica!

 

The Hasegawa wheels are the most detailed. Hasegawa even supplies two pre-cut semi-circle masks to cover the outer chrome rim while the inner is sprayed gold. Cool idea that I may try, but I have a Mr Color gold metal paint that I think will give a better result and needs to be brushed on. I suspect the width of the wheels and tyres of the Hasegawa HR31 are also closer to the correct scale of the 1:1.

 

The DR30 has been primered tonight, the chassis and all suspension parts painted various 'metal' colours, and the interior tub and rollcage sprayed white.

 

Grant.

[SnøMotion]

Really looking forward to seeing these come together! I love a boxy Skyline! Great work on the R34 build, too 👌

Edited September 11 by SnøMotion
Lack of forward planning

[othertales]

5 hours ago, Potsie said:

Another comparison photo, this time of the wheels and tyres. Again, L-to-R it is Aoshima-Fujimi-Hasegawa. The Aoshima and Fujimi are female type on the wheels and the Hasegawa male, as expected.

 

 

The Peter Jackson DR30 ran a few different style of wheels from the reference photos I have, including these ones from Aoshima but in white. I have a photo from the 1987 Bathurst (with infamous Eggenberger 'Texaco' Sierra in the background) where the car is running yellow wheels, though they look a different type. I am going to take some artistic licence and paint these yellow as they will look different 'on the shelf'. The Aoshima kit also came with some cool Impul turbo fans which I will not use here; even though the 1:1 car clearly ran them sometimes. I think I will save these for another project.

 

The Gibson Motorsport "Works" HR31 ran an eleven-spoke wheel in white based on the reference photos I could find. However I have a couple of photos of it running turbo fan style covers, in white, so maybe I can use the Aoshima ones here. Either way, I will paint the kits wheels white and see how that looks. I only intend to build an homage, not an exact replica!

 

The Hasegawa wheels are the most detailed. Hasegawa even supplies two pre-cut semi-circle masks to cover the outer chrome rim while the inner is sprayed gold. Cool idea that I may try, but I have a Mr Color gold metal paint that I think will give a better result and needs to be brushed on. I suspect the width of the wheels and tyres of the Hasegawa HR31 are also closer to the correct scale of the 1:1.

 

The DR30 has been primered tonight, the chassis and all suspension parts painted various 'metal' colours, and the interior tub and rollcage sprayed white.

 

Grant.

Fascinating comparison! Thank you for the detailed impressions and sharing your build thoughts. I like you are leaning towards homage rather than exact replicas, giving you good range to choose the details you like best.

[Spiny]

12 hours ago, Potsie said:

Unfortunately I do not have the talent or motivation to build a full engine bay for the Aoshima DR30, but yes the clear bonnet is an odd detail.

 

 

I get the impression this may be an Aoshima thing back in the 80s/90s as the Silvia I've recently sprayed the body of also came with a choice of opaque or clear bonnet. And also came with no engine either, I can only guess that at the time Aoshima either offered, or were considering offering, alternative engines to put in there if you wanted.

[Potsie]

2 hours ago, Spiny said:

 

I get the impression this may be an Aoshima thing back in the 80s/90s as the Silvia I've recently sprayed the body of also came with a choice of opaque or clear bonnet. And also came with no engine either, I can only guess that at the time Aoshima either offered, or were considering offering, alternative engines to put in there if you wanted.

 

@Spiny I recently completed an Aoshima R32 sedan (pictures to come soon) that also had a choice of the clear bonnet (with the clear parts sprue) and white bonnet as per the rest of the mold (with the 'normal' sprues). This kit came with engine detail as a separate sprue, with a 'drop in' engine bay and top-half detail. The box art specifically noted the engine detail, and it certainly looked like this was an 'extra' in this kit. Certianly the kit could be packaged and sold without the engine detail sprue, but it would then still have both bonnets as their sprues are integral to the base kit. A slitghly odd way to build in product flexibility I guess. 

[Spottedlaurel]

They're going to look great on the shelf together when all completed, good luck!

[Potsie]

A small update. Progress painting on the DR30 'Peter Jackson' car had progressed. All parts painted except the clear parts. Body is in white, waiting a week for the paint to really cure before maksing and painting the blue. Plus need some time for the Liquid Decal Film to really dry as well. Wheels are Tamya's Camel Yellow and seat in red as these were a good match to reference photos.

 

 

It was only when taking this photo I realised I had painted the chassis in road car style colour palette with, for example, matt black inner wheel arches to mimic the inner lining of road vehicles. Probably should have done a stark white chassis. But the chances of anyone looking at my completed models, picking this up, turning it over and critiquing the metallic grey is vanishingly small! 😝

[Potsie]

The chassis and interior on the DR30 are complete.

 

Chassis pieces are shades of metallic colours. The rear of the chassis was clearly originally designed for a simple stell rod connecting the two wheels. Here, to enable to addition of the brake rotors and calipers, there is a half-cyliner piece on either side that glues to the chassis at the wheel inner and then just floats into the wheel arch. There is no vertical support so ensuring the two are at the same height is difficult, and there will be a real risk of this part ungluing when mounting the wheel.

 

The interior is sparce but well molded. The separate door cars allowed for the roll cage to be assembled, glued and painted in place, ensuring a good fit. Reference photos show a red seat. The Aoshima kit came with a single decal for the seat belts including a very long length to reach the back of the interior for the mounting points. I cut this out and used double-sided tape to locate it on the seat. Gives a slight three-dimensional quality. In hindsight, I might have been better running the belts back to the parcel shelf for mounitng rather down to the roll cage.

 

Have had something of an issue with the decals. Some have reacted poorly to the Liquid Decal Film, becoming quite wrinkled. They can still be applied, and become smoother when applied, but not completely flat. I am not intending to order more decals, so will have to accept whatever happens. I am sure it will look fine at the back of the shelf, in a dim room, from five metres away!

 

Grant.

[Potsie]

Progressing on the Fujimi HR31 kit, which will be done as the Gibson Motorsport car. As noted in the original post I have some RooDecals for this livery, which have reacted well to a coat of Liquid Decal Film. I have just realised DecalPool released this livery in the last few years, and these are printed with more modern methods and at much higher resolution. However the cost of the decals (~$55 AUD) and the poor quality of the Fujimi kit means this would be throwing good money after bad. The RooDecals will have to do for my homage.

 

I have completed the "chassis" of the Fujimi HR31. Total part count, including spacers for ride height and track width, comes to a grand total of ~20; and this is mostly because each hub is three parts. The hubs actually have five studs that locate into the back of the wheels. I have never seen this before and fear for how well the wheels will locate in the end. This would have to be one of the worst chassis I have built; see for example the solution for the side mount exhaust!

 

 

The interior, such as it is, has been painted up ready for assembly. Photo to come.

[SnøMotion]

Is that actually the final location of the side exit exhaust, @Potsie?

[Potsie]

@SnøMotion That is where the instructions have it located! It is not glued yet, just place for the photo, and I plan to find a more appropriate solution once the body is on the chassis.

[SnøMotion]

7 hours ago, Potsie said:

@SnøMotion That is where the instructions have it located!

Ah, the old 'bluetooth' exhaust 👌

[Potsie]

Have completed the interior of the Fujimi R31 GTS-R. I am quite certain the interior tub and roll-cage are not for an R31. The dash looks about correct, but does not fit the interior tub and the roll-cage needs to be trimmed to fit to the top of the dash. The seat also feels something of a Fujimi 'parts bin' item. Do not have the motivation for up-specc'ing the interior or adding seat belts to this kit.

 

 

 

[galaxyg]

Coming along nicely. I've also build the "Layton" House version. Looks good although the ride height is a bit high. I have another Aoshima Racing "spirit's" one to do, identical kit, Diesel Kiki P'chiba livery. I'll probably try lowering that one.

 

The Fujimi kit looks like one from their "lazy crap" era.

 

 

Edited September 27 by galaxyg

[Potsie]

1 hour ago, galaxyg said:

Coming along nicely. I've also build the "Layton" House version. Looks good although the ride height is a bit high. I have another Aoshima Racing "spirit's" one to do, identical kit, Diesel Kiki P'chiba livery. I'll probably try lowering that one.

 

The Fujimi kit looks like one from their "lazy crap" era.

 

 

 

I suspected the ride height might be too high, and my kit came with standard road tyres; did yours? I was not clear on how I would lower the ride height given the complicated method Aoshima used at the rear to add the disk brake detail to a kit that - I presume?? - started life as a road car and did not have this.

 

Interestingly, the Fujimi R31 had two options of ride height with the instructions calling the higher setting. I considered going for the lower setting but fear this was for the Fujimi "low down" 'tuner' look which would not work for a race car. Let's see what surprise is in store when I marry the body and chassis!

 

I have started painting and detailing the chassis of the Hasegawa R31 GTS-R kit, which has the level of detail one would expect of a modern kit. Hasegawa has used a strange plastic though, which is not as brittle as normal Hasegawa/Tamiya, but is susceptible to errant knicks and cuts with a hobby knife if one is not careful.

[galaxyg]

1 hour ago, Potsie said:

 

I suspected the ride height might be too high, and my kit came with standard road tyres; did yours?

 

It did. And the other unbuilt one has the same. Same wheels as yours too, which also seem not right although with race cars who knows. I can find photos of the Leyton House real life version with several types of wheels. And in several types of blue too.

[Potsie]

Moving on to the Hasegawa HR31 GTS-R kit and you can really see the increased detail of the newer model over the Fujimi (HR31) and Aoshima (DR30) kits. Not just in the piece count but the overall quality of the molding and engineering. Hasegawa's HR31 kit comes as both road and race car, so this chassis has some legacy details - e.g. the detail at the rear where the final muffler box would sit in the road car - and needs quite a few holes drilled out to mount race specific items - e.g. brake cooling ducts, air jacks, extra radiators. 

 

[galaxyg]

Nice work on the underbody. 

 

This is so much better than the Aoshima version. To say nothing of the Fujimi.

[Spiny]

Good work on that. As you say, there is so much more detail to the Hasegawa kit on display there that it's well worth the extra effort.