JDM Style Acura RSX Type S Tuner

[Bernard Kron]

This project represents a radical break from my usual fare of traditional hot rods, customs and drag racing subjects. I suspect that among those who know me this may come somewhat as a shock. So an explanation is in order. What would motivate me to build a tuner import? Well, to begin with I’ve always liked the concept and have admired many a well-turned-out ricer in my day. Back in the late 90’s when I was planning a streetable sports car for my driving pleasure I briefly considered a supercharged Series 1 MR2, but eventually built a hopped up Frogeye Sprite complete with tilt nose, 1380 cc motor and 5-speed instead. In a sense that was a kind of retro rice rocket in its way.

So anyway, at this year’s NNL West I fell for an Aoshima Pagani Huayra. Once I had time to contemplate that highly detailed and totally contemporary kit I realized this was a style of build that I would have to work up to. I’ve always loved sports cars and road racers but as kits these “moderns” are engineered quite differently from my usual diet of ancient 60’s era AMT, Monogram and Revell kits. I wondered if I might have something contemporary in my stash that I could use to hone my skills. It turned out that I had a Revell Acura RSX Type S tuner kit in stash which I had won as a door prize many moons ago at an IPMS show. It’s actual an extremely well-engineered and thoroughly modern kit, with lots of tuner bodywork options and many of quite highly detailed. Not really in the same league as the mega-parts-count Aoshima Pagani, but the basic approach is fairly similar. I thought it would a good start in getting into this style of modeling.

Of course I couldn’t resist making some changes to the bodywork much as I would have with one of my -hot rod projects. In this case I filled the v-shaped indentation on one of the 2 tuner-style custom noses that come in the kit (red area in the picture below), and also cut out the filled in grilled opening and installed some mesh to allow the radiator to show through. The radiator itself is finished in aluminum paint and a home –made decal of an ARC Brazing, Ltd. logo (they make radiators, intercoolers, intakes and exhausts for the tuner and drift world).

Other than that the build is largely out-of-the box. The body is painted in Duplicolor Toreador Red Metallic paint with the rear wing and stock hood finished in home-made carbon fiber decals which include decorative decal motifs. The rear wing repeats the ARC logo and on the front I repeat the sponsor decals arrayed across the leading edge of the doors along with a dragon figure and the phrase “Tao of Acura RSX” in kanji characters. The various silver JDM style hop up parts logos on the bodywork are from a Hobby Design JDM sheet I bought. The quality is absolutely first rate. Everything is sealed under Duplicolor Clear, and once it’s properly cured I will give it a good polish.



The interior is straight from the kit and detailed out in red pseudo leatherette (Testors Flat Red Acrylic) and matte black (Duplicolor Black Primer). The same is true of the motor which is detailed out in various shades of Testors Metalizers. The wheels one of the two kit optional tuner wheel sets, finished in Testors Metalizer Brass.



Still left to do is the glass work, which on these modern cars requires a good deal of detailing, and then final assembly.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[jbwelda]

Looks great Bernard, welcome to the 21st century!

I have that Pagani too, but have a whole stack of more interesting (to me anyway) stuff ahead of it on the build pile, including some potential table mates with this tuner you got going here.

jb

[Bernard Kron]

Apr 10, 2018 22:22:17 GMT -5 jbwelda said:

Looks great Bernard, welcome to the 21st century!

I have that Pagani too, but have a whole stack of more interesting (to me anyway) stuff ahead of it on the build pile, including some potential table mates with this tuner you got going here.

jb

Thanx Bill. I've been enjoying your SCCA style series of late and look forward to seeing your 21st century import "hot rods" whenever they pop up. I've expected a pretty low-key response to this sort of project, and I haven't been wrong. I think it's because because this style of is well past the first bloom of its fad. But there have been some mighty fine machines done this way over the years and I've long wanted to try my hand at it. We'll see how it goes, but so far it's great fun...

The Pagani is quite a long ways away in my build stack. I've got some older sports car builds to get done to a high enough standard to justify the challenges the Huayra kit will offer. Somehow in the midst of this changeover in subject matter I've still got some rods and kustoms that need to be modeled...

[jffj]

Great intro and post, as always Bernard. I wanted to stop reading and rush down to the pictures....

I don't believe I would be shocked , unless you built a lowrider or *dumb oversized nerd kar*... 😄 and I don't necessarily mean that in any disparaging way. I can, and do, enjoy certain aspects of both, a well designed and painted lowrider, and a well designed and engineered *dumb oversized nerd kar*.

Not surprised at all to hear about your Frogeye Sprite. Those are way cool! Maybe we'll see a wee replica of it someday?

Love the paint, and a bit surprised that this kit didn't already have the grill area cut out. Hard to imagine it any other way than how you did it 👍👍

John

[jbwelda]

Hi Bernard, not to take away from the flow of your thread, but here is my "on deck" stack of jdm projects. Almost all of them require extensive body work, or have upgrade kits with them, so none (save maybe the SilEighty) are quick builds. I typically pull something out of this stack when I want something medium complexity with not much thinking or imagination required. You obviously put a bit more into this build as you filled in the nose and opened the grille (neat tricks), but in my case these kits up next are a jump in complexity from what I usually build in this style.





see anything there that you have or you want or that captures your imagination? The Sileighty is of interest to me, its a cross between a Nissan Silvia (aka 240SX for the USA market) (front) and the 180SX (the rear). Apparently it is a common enough variation that there are multiple kits out of them in various guises. And that Beesmax 240RS is promising too.


Here is my deep bench; plenty to pick from in there:








I tend to try to buy cheap and its amazing some of the deals out of Asia right now.


jb

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx for the look-see, JB. The Rocket-Bunny Toyota 86/Subaru RBZ has always appealed to me. I have grandiose plans to do a version of it with the hood lowered to emphasize the fenders more. Modern cars all sit taller and have flat hoods level with the fender tops. This would giove the car mor of the look of the kind of sportscars they're obviously imitating. And the various Japan Series GT cars always look super cool, like that Nismo GTR in the picture. They are obviously the in;spiration for the whole JDM thing.

[Bernard Kron]

This project is now completed! Lots of new things to watch out for, like cleanly gluing surface mounted windows and trimming them out with their black surrounds – basic stuff for modern cars but a brave new world for this modeler whose subjects have never seen the far side of the 1960’s! This kit was well ,engineered and the parts fit excellent so there were no technical challenges that weren’t inherent in the way contemporary cars go together. I had thought about modifying the stance but the way the suspension was constructed in this kit gave me pause – it was unfamiliar territory and I thought I’d wait for another swing at a contemporary car before I start fooling around with stance.

Overall an uneventful and interesting build working in a subject area that, when it comes to doing things in scale, was a brave new world for me.

Below is a summary photo showing the final details as they appear on the completed model. I’ll post the final beauty pics under Complted Models in the next day or so.

As always, thanks to all who followed along…

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[jffj]

Love your philosophy Bernard, and your fearlessly living it out. Bravo!

John

[deuce]

I'm building a Mustang funny car that has paint codes mentioning "metalizer." It's usually a color, such as steel, with an additional code for "metalizer." What is metalizer? Do you spray it over the color or is it a metallic color all by itself?

[Bernard Kron]

Jun 6, 2018 7:53:07 GMT -5 deuce said:

I'm building a Mustang funny car that has paint codes mentioning "metalizer." It's usually a color, such as steel, with an additional code for "metalizer." What is metalizer? Do you spray it over the color or is it a metallic color all by itself?

Testors Metalizer Lacquer Paints (see: www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/metalizer-lacquer-paint )are metallic paints sold either in small 1/2 oz. bottles ( see: www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/metalizer-lacquer-paint/bottles ) or 3 oz. aerosol cans (see: www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/metalizer-lacquer-paint/sprays ). They are extremely realistic metallic paints. They are stand-alone colors all by themselves. Even though they are lacquers they are extremely mild an can be applied to virtually any surface without causing wrinkling or crazing. They are very opaque and hide the underlying surface quite well. In my case I often apply them to bare plastic because that gives me the smoothest surface. As you'll see if you visit the product pages linked above, the bottle paints are sold in 12 different shades or types, whereas the aerosol is only offered in 4. Testors indicates that the bottle paints are pre-mixed for airbrush application only, but I have had excellent results applying them with a brush (as for example the wheels and wing mount on the Acura above). The jar paints also come in both buffing and non-buffing types. The buffing type is specially formulated to allow it to be buffed with a soft cloth for a gleaming metallic shine. In my experience the best results for this can be had by waiting 24 hours before buffing. Then the Metalizer has really hardened and set and is quite resilient. Below is a picture of exhaust pipes where the header part is white styrene hand-painted with Testors Buffable Aluminum Plate and then polished. The larger diameter back half is aluminum tubing polished with Simichrome. As you can see they match quite closely. (The heads, manifold and gearbox are also finished in various shades of Metalizers.)

[deuce]

That looks great! Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. I guess I need to stop at Hobby Lobby tomorrow and see what they have.