24145 Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R [COMPLETE]

[SnøMotion]

29 minutes ago, silverfox63 said:

You're right about stance, it's just not practical on the road. Saw a Honda Civic EG one day, on its guts, heaps of neg camber. Drove over the tram lines in Box Hill South (Melbourne) very, VERY slowly, at an angle, it was an... interesting sight.

I actually don't have a problem with ruining the handling for the sake of aesthetics (I have a bike that you can't comfortably pedal faster than 12 mph and only has a very large front disc brake ) but, with decent air ride, you can kind of have both. I had to be careful with speed bumps and steep angles with the MR2, but it was mostly very driveable (my daily). The only, almost daily, issue I had was a junction near home: you come up a steep hill and then take a 120ºish left turn, still uphill. This used to lift the inside rear wheel off the ground which, in a rear drive car with an open diff, is not conducive to forward motion! 

I always like to add an MR2 photo, so here's mine with the coilovers and 16s. Such a fun car to drive!

 

Martin

(I named this car the Black Swirl, as the paint was NOT the best!)

[silverfox63]

And yet, that is still a very sensible ride height to my eye.

Edited September 3 by silverfox63

[SnøMotion]

6 minutes ago, silverfox63 said:

And yet, that is still very sensible ride height to my eye.

Yeah, it wasn't slammed by any stretch. To me, it looked just right. I think, as with a lot of Japanese cars of that era, as standard they ride too high and the wheels are too inboard.

[81-er]

That's a beautiful MR2, Martin, I car I really fancied myself back in the day. While I'm a big fan of modified cars, I really don't get the appeal of making your car look like the wheels are falling off or the axles have broken.

 

James

[SnøMotion]

26 minutes ago, 81-er said:

That's a beautiful MR2, Martin, I car I really fancied myself back in the day. While I'm a big fan of modified cars, I really don't get the appeal of making your car look like the wheels are falling off or the axles have broken.

 

James

Thanks, James! It wasn't a colour I particularly wanted, and I should have held out for a better example, but it was a lot of fun! I actually like a nice 'stance' look, but the one's where you can see the outer surface of the rim, because the tyres are so narrow, and they're running about -30º of camber are too much for me, especially as most of them are static (not air ride). At least with air, you can lift the car a bit to drive it, which will also reduce the negative camber some.

 

Martin

[SnøMotion]

Ooh, a cheeky spoon shot!

 

 

So, this is what I've been thinking on wheel colour. We have body colour at the top and then, anti-clockwise from the left, we have Rays Wheel Bronze, Audi Dakota Grey and finally a 50:50 mix of Nissan Z-Tune Silver and Dark Gunmetal. All colours from ProScale Paints.

 

At the moment, the plan is to go with the 50:50 mix, as it'll work best with my plans for the brake caliper colour, I think. More on that after we start!

 

Martin

[Col.]

Shiny spoons!

I'm liking your combination of the purple bodywork and darker silver wheels; that will look tasty.

[SnøMotion]

Thanks, @Col.! I really like the Rays Bronze, but I think the darker grey just looks better with the purple 

 

Martin

[81-er]

I think the dark grey works best with the purple too (and what a purple that is!)

 

James

[SnøMotion]

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

I think the dark grey works best with the purple too (and what a purple that is!)

 

James

Thanks, James! The purple is my own concoction of Nissan Midnight Purple with a tint of SMS Pearl Magenta Rose over the top. When I paint the actual body, I'll aim to get a shot of the Midnight Purple before the tint, so you can see the difference.

 

Martin

[Keeff]

I loke the purple/darker grey combination .... it looks very cooool! 😎

 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[SnøMotion]

26 minutes ago, Keeff said:

I loke the purple/darker grey combination .... it looks very cooool! 😎

 

 

Keith ☺️ 

Thanks, Keith!

I’m fed up of the laborious process of doing chrome rims, so the whole wheel will be one colour, and I think the dark grey will do the job 

 

Martin

[SnøMotion]

Well, I started bright and early this morning... 

 

On an R33, there are twin round rear lights that are red and then a horizontal strip under each of these that contains the indicators and reversing lights. On the GT-R, the trim piece between the horizontal strips is body colour but, it appears, on some models it's transparent, so the horizontal 'lights' run as a single strip across the whole rear. That's how it's moulded in this kit, as a single, full width strip. So, first thing was to chop it in three and cement the centre section to the main body of the car.

 

 

Then I primed the body, floor pan, mirrors and the blade from the rear wing with black Mr Surfacer 1500, thinned with Mr Levelling Thinner. In the photo below, I've masked the inner wheel arches, fuel tank and such on the floor pan, as they remain black. There are bits of the main body that remain black, too, but I'll add that back at the end.

 

 

Next up was some coats of Nissan Midnight Purple from ProScale Paints

 

 

In the process of the above, I also painted the intercooler, some suspension, drivetrain and steering components with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black (SGB) and then ProScale Bright Aluminium in places. I also primed the wheels, wheel nuts/centres and tyre valves in SGB, followed by the dark grey I mixed for the spoon test on the wheels, gloss black for the centres and ProScale Steel for the valves.

 

 

And a load more suspension components got the SGB treatment. The tyres got a 50:50 mix of Tamiya Rubber Black and Wooden Deck Tan for the contact surface and Rubber Black for the sidewalls. I like doing this because it makes the contact surface look driven on.

 

 

And the brakes...!  The rotors got a SGB base, AK Aluminium (pen) for the braking surface and a black wash to highlight the drilled holes. The calipers got a white base and then a dose of flouro pink from a Tamiya can! This is meant for painting lexan RC car bodies and did not play well with the white base. I basically had to spray a light coat and immediately hit it with a hairdryer before it removed the white and collected on the flat areas! I'm really happy with the outcome, though, and think they will really work well behind the wheels and with the body colour 

 

And that's it.

 

Tomorrow will hopefully be SMS Pearl Magenta Rose for the floorpan, body and door mirrors and assembling the wheels and tyres! 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Martin

 

 

[Keeff]

Well someone's been busy! 

 

All those parts look good under paint and the purple definatley suits.

I especially like those calipers .....  I wonder how that colour would look on my van ..... 

 

Keith ☺️ 

[Col.]

Great progress Martin and I like your method for representing tyre wear - must remember that for my own projects

[SnøMotion]

I feel like...

 

 

2 hours ago, Keeff said:

I wonder how that colour would look on my van ..... 

Thanks, Keith! I think the answer is "perfect!" 

 

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Great progress Martin and I like your method for representing tyre wear - must remember that for my own projects

Thanks, Col! I've also used Rubber Black for the contact area and Semi-Gloss Black for the sidewalls, if you want a 'newer' looking option.

 

 

 

Well, I got stuck in early again, this morning! This is SMS Pearl Magenta Rose... 

 

 

And this is it sprayed over Midnight Purple! I've removed the masking from the wheel wells, fuel tank and what might be a battery box in the boot corner(?) of the floorpan. Last thing for this is some metals for the engine, transmission and some exhaust heat shields and some SGB for the first half of the rear drive shaft.

 

 

I had some PE intercooler masks from ZoomOn, that turned out to be too big for the Trabant intercooler from the Give Peace a Chance GB, so I thought I'd give the Nismo one a go.

 

Pretty happy with how that turned out, for a first go. I used Deep Black and Ferrari Rosso Scuderia from ProScale for the logo as they're both pretty highly pigmented, so I didn't need to spray too much on. I'll do a final black wash over the 'mesh' part of the intercooler, just to give it some depth. 

 

And finally... those wheels... 

 

 

And with the brakes...

 

 

I am extremely happy with these! I think they're my favourite wheels that I've modelled so far (about 40 styles) 

I just really hope they fit, now! 

 

I've done a bit more work with the half shafts and suspension struts, but these all need one more colour adding yet. I'm hoping to get the rest of the underbody details painted today and then I can semi-gloss clear the floorpan. 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Martin

[RossFMJ]

Wow, that is some progress , I've not even lifted the lid on mine yet.

Nice choice of purple and rose for the body 

I shall say nuffink about those brakes 🤐

[Col.]

Yip, that all works, nicely done Martin  

[SnøMotion]

Thanks, Ross! I think getting paint on the body first feels like it’s really accelerated the build!

 

18 minutes ago, RossFMJ said:

shall say nuffink about those brakes 🤐

Just a bit more interesting than red? 🤷‍♂️

 

2 minutes ago, Col. said:

Yip, that all works, nicely done Martin  

Thanks, Col!

 

Martin

[FG2Si]

On 8/27/2025 at 8:00 AM, SnøMotion said:

Yeah, it wasn't slammed by any stretch. To me, it looked just right. I think, as with a lot of Japanese cars of that era, as standard they ride too high and the wheels are too inboard.

 

At least you're not in North America where they sometimes get to ridiculous heights. 

 

When Honda brought the EP3 generation of Civic here they actually increased the ride height further than it already was. The fender gap was absurd. Looked more like a 4x4. I had mine on Tein coil overs with a 2" drop and there was still a bit of a fender gap. 

 

As for the R33, I'm still impressed and amazed how quickly you can design and 3D print the parts you do. 

 

Carl

[SnøMotion]

2 hours ago, FG2Si said:

 

At least you're not in North America where they sometimes get to ridiculous heights. 

 

When Honda brought the EP3 generation of Civic here they actually increased the ride height further than it already was. The fender gap was absurd. Looked more like a 4x4. I had mine on Tein coil overs with a 2" drop and there was still a bit of a fender gap. 

 

As for the R33, I'm still impressed and amazed how quickly you can design and 3D print the parts you do. 

 

Carl

Thanks, Carl! Yeah they seem to have been reasonably sensible with the ride height of the current FL. There’s still the ability to lower it a bit if you want to, but it doesn’t look ridiculous from the factory 

 

Martin

[silverfox63]

Martin, those wheels and tyres look fantastic. With the right background, you would think there from a for sale listing on Gumtree or Facebook marketplace.

Cheers, 

Chris.

[SnøMotion]

14 minutes ago, silverfox63 said:

Martin, those wheels and tyres look fantastic. With the right background, you would think there from a for sale listing on Gumtree or Facebook marketplace.

Cheers, 

Chris.

Thanks, Chris! I am really pleased with them 

 

Martin

[SnøMotion]

Well, the underside stuff is all pretty much painted and the body is clear coated. Last night I semi-gloss cleared the floor pan and also chopped the back box off the exhaust system…

 

Then drilled a 1mm hole in the pipe and fitted a length of 1mm styrene…

 

So I can locate the back box when it’s ’back from paint’

 

With the clear dry, I attached most of the front and rear suspension and drive gubbins. As you can see, I was a bit heavy handed with the Pearl Rose Magenta, resulting in something with a lot less black compared to the spoon.


 

I mean, I don’t mind it, but it’s not as nice as the spoon. And don’t talk to me about the Midnight Purple only spoon that I clear coated along with the body this afternoon! 

 

I feel like I’ve done a lot here and taken no photos! You can’t even see the suspension struts that I masked and painted Titanium Silver, Bright Aluminium and Gloss Black! 
 

Anyway, thanks for looking! I welcome comments, as long as it isn’t “why didn’t you take more photos?” 
 

Martin

[Col.]

Nice progress again Martin and the bits we didn't get to see certainly read like they looked nice as well