Post by jbwelda on Oct 4, 2018 0:38:29 GMT -5
I felt kind of bogged down the other week so I took a look at my "quick build" shelf and noticed this recent arrival, an Aoshima Nissan Silvia from 1966. Such a kool kar, beautiful shape and really classic international look to it. Never seen one in person, which piqued my interest as well.
Unfortunately this kit was originally a motorized toy basically, with very crude molded together interior shell, big room for batteries and electric motor, at the expense of any chassis or interior detail. Quite Spartan in fact, although the body and exterior pieces are very beautiful. So I decided to make an advantage of the lack of internal detail, and concentrate on looks alone. To the point of deciding to just make a bare flat black interior (at this point without a dashboard or steering wheel) behind deep tint windows. I am going to leave the body lose from the chassis so if I decide to put more time into it I might tackle the interior again; as you will see from the pics I already put significant effort into it, but the lack of detail elsewhere just makes me want to do a quickie and not sweat details.
Lets take a look at the box art, perhaps some of us have not seen this particular kit, nor the real deal item in person:
Here is a shot of a side panel showing a fairly pedestrian example, typical of Tokyo streets perhaps. As the front cover photos imply, there is also a Police version complete with gumball machine light and all kinds of kool markings on the decal sheet, and also some communications gear for the interior:
This one ain't gonna look like that.
Here is what I had for an interior: molded in seats, very plain, no details on side panels, and minimal dashboard detail. There was a dash face panel and decals but I decided I would make some modifications:
Here are components I was planning on using, most taken from a Suzuki Cappichino I had earlier made a last minute substitution of interior on, and these parts were basically sitting in the junk pile: dashboard, left and right side panels and some racing seats.
And here we have a mess in process: I have removed the seats and panels and made floorboards and a dash mount and am in the process of cutting the stock dashboard off the console. That's about where the interior work came to a halt...mostly the dashboard is too narrow by just a bit, fixable, but too much trouble for what I had in mind. So...
There is actually very little left to do, some body detailing, attaching the glass, and permanently attaching the wheels. I did some extensive lowering as can be seen here, and those are XS Tuning wheels and tires (and awesome disk brakes). I tried all kinds of tires and wheels and finally decided on this slightly outsized set, I was partial to some Panasport style wheels with vintage looking tires to begin with but after fitting a few sizes and style I found I liked these best.
The paint is cheap hardware store "Sour Apple" satin finish, followed by a good color sanding and then a few coats of Tamiya clear.
And it really looks good with the front and rear bumpers and lights in place.
Comments welcomed and encouraged, thanks for looking!
jb
Unfortunately this kit was originally a motorized toy basically, with very crude molded together interior shell, big room for batteries and electric motor, at the expense of any chassis or interior detail. Quite Spartan in fact, although the body and exterior pieces are very beautiful. So I decided to make an advantage of the lack of internal detail, and concentrate on looks alone. To the point of deciding to just make a bare flat black interior (at this point without a dashboard or steering wheel) behind deep tint windows. I am going to leave the body lose from the chassis so if I decide to put more time into it I might tackle the interior again; as you will see from the pics I already put significant effort into it, but the lack of detail elsewhere just makes me want to do a quickie and not sweat details.
Lets take a look at the box art, perhaps some of us have not seen this particular kit, nor the real deal item in person:
Here is a shot of a side panel showing a fairly pedestrian example, typical of Tokyo streets perhaps. As the front cover photos imply, there is also a Police version complete with gumball machine light and all kinds of kool markings on the decal sheet, and also some communications gear for the interior:
This one ain't gonna look like that.
Here is what I had for an interior: molded in seats, very plain, no details on side panels, and minimal dashboard detail. There was a dash face panel and decals but I decided I would make some modifications:
Here are components I was planning on using, most taken from a Suzuki Cappichino I had earlier made a last minute substitution of interior on, and these parts were basically sitting in the junk pile: dashboard, left and right side panels and some racing seats.
And here we have a mess in process: I have removed the seats and panels and made floorboards and a dash mount and am in the process of cutting the stock dashboard off the console. That's about where the interior work came to a halt...mostly the dashboard is too narrow by just a bit, fixable, but too much trouble for what I had in mind. So...
There is actually very little left to do, some body detailing, attaching the glass, and permanently attaching the wheels. I did some extensive lowering as can be seen here, and those are XS Tuning wheels and tires (and awesome disk brakes). I tried all kinds of tires and wheels and finally decided on this slightly outsized set, I was partial to some Panasport style wheels with vintage looking tires to begin with but after fitting a few sizes and style I found I liked these best.
The paint is cheap hardware store "Sour Apple" satin finish, followed by a good color sanding and then a few coats of Tamiya clear.
And it really looks good with the front and rear bumpers and lights in place.
Comments welcomed and encouraged, thanks for looking!
jb
It's an interweb thing.....