'Its Foreign to me!' Group Build July, August, September 2020

so heres the build thread for the next GB which starts on 1st of July and runs til the end of September

the theme is 'Its Foreign To Me!'.....as in you can build whatever you want but the subject must not be from your own country.......egif you are from the US of Ayou cant build an American brand car.............but you could build a European or Japanese car for example....if you are into planes you wouldnt be able to build a Boeing or a Lockheed, but you could build a Hawker or a Mirage or Mig....im sure you get the idea...this isnt just limited to cars


The Rules

Group builds will run for a period of three months from the start date.

You can enter a group build at any time during the three month period.

No more entries permitted in a group build once the three month period has expired.

Group builds do not have to be completed in the three month period and finished group builds can still be posted in the appropriate finished thread at any time after this period.

You must post all of your progress only in this group build thread.

Please post your finished group build in the appropriate 'Finished Group Builds'  thread.

Part started kits are allowed but must be no more than 20% started.

im going japanese

not sure ive done a fujimi bike kit before, but it looks a nice kit, apart from some of the chrome which is dodgy, buts going to get stripped anyway



the bear on the box is a japanese tourism mascot thats a bit of a cult in japan and honda really did do bikes like this a couple of years ago



but i dont like it so it will be either yellow or purple, not decided yet

Yes the honda monkey bike has a cult following but it was far more than a couple of years ago, tamiya do a great 1/6 version.

Kpnuts wrote:Yes the honda monkey bike has a cult following but it was far more than a couple of years ago, tamiya do a great 1/6 version.

i meant the Kumamon the Bear version.....was in the 2017 Honda range......the Z50 has been in production since the very late 60s

With ten new kits eligible for this build, it's been a difficult decision but I finally decided on this one..............



Just like the one I had a couple of years ago........



Gotta finish the Pajero first though, so it's going to ne 7-10 days before I get started on it.

German for me. A very old kit(mid 70's) but I will give it a go. My only real concern is the decals.

never seen that kit before, looks nice for its age

sorry for lack of updates......ive been painting all the bits and pieces.......should go together quickly now thats done

had problems with the frame, painted it and got a crinkle effect..........didnt happen to the primer so no idea what i did wrong.......tried stripping it and no matter what i used the paint wouldnt come off!....even with brake fluid!,,,,,,,hopefully a lot of it will be hidden by body work

gone with purple......i really wanted to do it yellow but after looking at the decals the honda logo is all white so wont really show up on the yellow background.........so gone gloss purple!

bit of progress

got to say, worst bike kit ive ever done, nearly got thrown against the wall in frustration earlier today

but the end is in sight

Here is my choice for a rebuild ... went a different direction then originally contemplated and decided to grab this 1989  Mercedes 190E (I think) out of the parts bin for a rebuild.  Thinking of making it something on the track and wont stay a curbside for long as I plan on scavenging an engine and suspension out of my junk pile for it.  




I found a picture of this kit on the internet (But the wheels are different).  



To start, want to redo the chassis and grabbed this Revell item from the parts box ... a GM F-Body item I think.  It had to be shortened a bit.  





The collection of parts for a "Gasser" style Merc.

and finished!!



probably the worst bike kit ive ever done .......and strangely enough the first Fujimi bike kit ive ever done........i think the only parts that fitted without fettling was the mirrors......and they were some Aoshima ones from the spares box!!.......had problems with the paint early on

more pics in the finished thread

Paul, great job on a build that fought you all the way to the end.

On my build, working on dialing in the the rear end and enlarging the wheel openings for my straight line Mercedes.

That is a Cosworth 190, 5000 had to be built to homologte the  Touring car racing version, it was Merc's version of the original BMW M3.

Nice idea for a Merc Gasser!

Nice tiny Bike Paul.

Finally, some work on the R100RT. This is a very old kit and it shows. There is just something about this engine configuration I love.







The original motorcycle was offered in red. The color coat will go over a coat of AK Chrome

I've been real busy lately, primarily getting myself back into carp fishing, so not been building.

SO........... I've put the Pajero to one side for now and going to start on this one:



It's curbsidfe so shouldn't take too long.

Making slow progress on the Mercedes (thanks for clarification on what it is DB).  I've deconstructed the body as far as I will take it .  I've removed the glass (damaged the front headlight lenses) and had to use a grinding wheel on the motor tool to release the windows.  The hood was rather easy to cut out as there was reliefs molded in on the underside which made quick work of it (I decided to leave the grill in place).  The engine is a big block chevy from the F100 with the flip front end from MPC.


Creating the firewall with a parts box item and plastic fill added after cutting out the heater box and along the cowl.    This also gave strength to where the frame snapped where the wipe mount is.  I trimmed the headlight buckets and glued them in place.  



I had to come up with another interior tub .  The kit's was a platform style that built off a curb side style chassis.  While I could've shortened the sides and created a new floor with a transmission tunnel.  I decided to go to the parts box and see if I had one that was a close fit.  



And came up with one that is pretty close.  



It fit the body well length wide, I will have to add a strip of styrene to outside of the side panels to dial in the width and tweak the package shelf a bit.  But it will work.  Also in this shot the firewall has been molded in and the cracked windshield frame fixed.  Fine (white) milliput was the putty used.  

The main colors are done. For the tank and fairing, the color coat was applied over AK Chrome. For the fenders, the color coat was applied over gloss black. The effect I wanted to create was Candy Apple Red, and Black Cherry. You be the judge.
I was very lucky to salvage the decals. After letting each one soak for about 30 minutes I was able to separate them from the backing. Luckier still, they didn't break up. The BMW logo for the tank was trying to separate from itself, but the result is satisfactory.

that is a very nice shade of red

That is absolutely stunning paint  on your BMW!  

Played around a bit with the Mercedes.  

Because I cracked the headlights (it cracked at the 90 degree angle for the turn single) during disassembly I had to come up with a fix.  The parts box had no suitable replacement so I decided to modify the body by throwing putty at it and filling in where the glass is missing.  



The next series of shots are focused on dialing in the rear suspension.  

With noting that fit in the parts bin I decided to try my hand at using plastic stock ...



... An the results are workable,.



With the interior tub, I wanted to widen it bit to get a good fit. The tub it from AMT's 72 Nova "Old Pro" and had a "V" in the upper line that didn't match vertical line of the Mercedes., which I corrected when I glued in the widening strip (which were thinned to fit once the glue dried by hitting it with 150 grit for a few minutes). I will be throwing some putty at the edge to blend it all in.

The next set of parts; front forks and brake calipers, horns?, lower fairing with crash bars, stand, rear suspension, rear lights

Some great building going on here guys, I'm loving them all.

Life has 'taken' over' of late but I've finally made a bit of progress in that I have a lot of parts prepped and in primer and the body in it's base coat colour:

The tank and engine have been installed on/in the frame. The way the kit is engineered, the tank will not be going anywhere. The seat frame will get the black cherry treatment. I am toying with the idea of a natural tan finish for the seat. I can always convert to black if I don't like it.

So Al, Plum Crazy?

You really need a V8 now. lol

Looks great.

No V8 Shay.

And after the second coat of gloss, letting it gas out for 6 days, maybe nothing else. Seems I just can't do anything right with paint at the moment. Time to take a long break methinks.

i like that colour......what paint is it?

Colour is fine. It's Zero Paints Candy Purple.

Paint laid down well as did the first coat of Promatic clear. The bloom appeared 6 days later when I gave it the second coat. Really ticked off so sorry Paul, going to take an extended break right now.

It's a bit hot for single pack clear at the moment Al.

You could always give it a quick wet sand, it's going to be colder later this week.

Keep going.

Wasn't to hot here yesterday Shay. Nope, just can't seem to get paint right just now so going to give it best and take a break for now.

Progress to date. Haven't made up my mind about the saddle.

id say it needs a good coat of matt varnish to get rid of the shininess..................................or going matt black lol

Couldn't put it back in the box.......  




It's a bit deeper now but hey ho!!

I'll let it gas out for a couple of days then attempt the gloss coats again.

i think it looks better for being deeper!

Good stuff Al boy!

Keep going.

A bit closer to completion. The fit and finish of this 40 year old kit is what one might expect. The photographs obscure most of the fit and alignment issues. The upper and lower fairing pieces were quite finicky. After installing the foot pegs and controls, exhausts, and some wiring, I will be happy to call it done.

must say i really like that Beemer.......the colour is spot on

That is looking great Cole. Glad you left the seat that colour. Black wouldn't have looked right.

The MX5 is back in the box again I'm afraid. I'm still having problems with the clear coat and can only conclude that it is because the can is now several years old. When I can get a fresh can, I'll dig it out again.

In the meantime, I'm going to get cracking on this:

And I'm calling this one done.

Nice one Cole.

I can't catch a break with paint right now.

I laid the primer on the Merc, waited several days to gas out. All OK. Laid three coats of Zeropaints Camel Yellow at 24 hour intervals. Let it sit for couple of wheeks then laid two light coats of Promatic clear at 48 hour intervals. All OK. Finally I laid a wet coat of the same clear and the paint dried with a 'rippled' effect. WORSE... when I stripped it the ripping is embedeed in the bare plastic and will nee a LOT of sanding out!!! This happened on mu Italeri Mefistoffilies build a few year back, again with Promatic. It's now in the bin and I'm going back to 2 pack auto paint.

I tried taking a photos of the rippling but I can't catch quite catch it.

Lookout shortly for my THIRD attempt at this group build!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Decided on this one:

In light of my recent paint problems I have decided to tackle the body first before doing any other work.

Overall the body is very nice but does have a couple of bad flash points on the upper rear of the c pillar. Also the window opening 'braces are like tree trunks.



The rear vents supports are also very thick and broke at two points, despite using fine sprue cutters!!!

Al: Sorry to hear of your troubles with painting. Looking forward to the Audi Sport. Best regards.

SWB Quattro!

Go on ya good thing.

Even the road car was a bit of an animal back in the day,.

Some awesome work going on here!!

Turned my attention back to the Mercedes 190 and painted assed some paint to the donor chassis and the engine. Took a different approach to the rebuild of the parts box Chevy ... in the past I would blow it all apart then rebuild it. Because of the heavy glue on it I knew it would not have a good outcome so I decided just to clean up what was there and mask off the valve covers, block, headers and transmission as the various layers of paint were laid down. A bit of touch up is needed after the header paint seeped through the mask on the passenger side.

The engine is looking good Chris. and nice masking too!!

My paint woes continue:


Thinking that my previous problems were maybe due to lack of proper prep, I was scrupulous at every stage this time. Wash the body, clean up mold lines etc. Wash again. Sand. Wash. Spray two coats of Promatic white primer. Wash. Spray light coat of Zero Paints white colour. Let it dry overnight. Spray another light coat. Again let it dry overnight. Spray mist coat of Promatic clear. Let it dry overnight. Spray second mist coat of same and again leave overnight. Spray wet coat of same and again leave overnight and....................DISASTER!!!!

It too is now in the paint stripper and I'm just about at the end of my tether.

They're both acrylic I think Al, so it should work in theory.

There is obviously some kind of reaction going on, the Promatic is a bit hot to be fair and it looks like the Zero paints can't take it, use a Halfords or Holts rattle can for the colour coat and you should be fine.

My thoughts exactly on the Promatic clear Shay. It's too hot for the Zero Paint colour coat. BUT I have used that combination ever since since you put me omto the Promatic clear a number of years agp, without any problems until recently. Whic is why I think there has been a chemical change in the clear, as it's a brand new can.

Oh well onwards and upwards.

At least this time there was no damage to the body apart from the roof. Sanding has taken a lot of it out and no doubt I could get it all out with a LOT of sanding but I need to move on, so I'll live with it. Besides, I may decide to 'mucky it up' a bit yet!!! LOL

Stripped, sanded and ready for primer:




 Two coats of primer. I'll let it sit for 24 hours then apply the colour coats.




Then I will atart applying multiple coats of Zero Paints own Clear Coat Laquer.

This why Grp B rally cars were banned, not because the cars per se were dangerous but because the foreign rally organisers failed to put into place adequate safety measures for the spectators;

And the Road car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRTehcxjIg

Finally making some progress:







And a mock up