Big Dazza's Workshop

G'day all, welcome to my workshop and my first build in many, years. After seeing the work you guys produce, I'm a bit embarrassed to show my humble efforts, but as I class myself as a beginner, I'm sure you'll go easy on me. There's a bit of a back story here so bear with me for a moment. Just before Christmas I was in our local Toyworld with my three (adult) children, the oldest bloke was checking out the RC stuff when I spotted this -

I mentioned to the team that Santa had brought me the same kit for Christmas in 1975. Well imagine my surprise when he brought me another one 40 years later. I finally finished it over Easter, I don't get a lot of spare time, but I took some photo's along the way, so I'll post those up along with some comments, observations & questions. I'm not real good with these new fangled computers so it'll probably take a few days. Thanks for looking.

Dazza.

First up, this is NOT an entry level kit. The moulds are from 1982 and the parts show it. I started with the body as I could see many hours of trimming and sanding to remove the flash, ejector pin marks and other imperfections. It was so bad, there were lines that I wasn't sure whether they were supposed to be there or not. Eventually I was happy enough with the result.

Next up, Primer. After a good bit of research I decided to go with automotive paint, namely Holt's Duplicolour.

Then on to the engine. This caused me a bit of grief as the magneto and oil filler just crumbled in my hands. I did manage to produce a passable maggie out of scrap but I didn't bother with the oil filler. Two of the chrome breather caps looked like thalidomide victims so I didn't put them on.

The chassis went together quite well. As an 11 year old, I couldn't figure out the posable front wheels but now knowing how real cars work it was pretty simple. The instructions are very vague and unless you have some mechanical knowledge I think you will struggle with this kit. I recall the '70's version of the instructions had a lot more pages.


(edited some errors)
Cheers,
Dazza.

Love the commentary...what a model to get back into the hobby with.  Talk about doing it the hard way.  You build this...you will be on the way for sure.  Keep at it. 

Nice start and welcome back to the hobby Dazza.

Next was the interior. All pretty straight forward although I should have painted the blue on the seats and parcel tray instead of using the decals as the clear coat reacted with them causing them to dissolve around the edges, easily touched up with a bit of paint though.

Had some dramas with the rear shocks, one was deformed and the instructions showed them going on the wrong sides, by the time I figured that out I had damaged the good one. The '75 kit had a steel rear axle where this one is plastic and doesn't fit through the diff housing without redrilling.

The original car(s) came in at least three different blues, black and I think silver (although that may have been a poor photo of the metalic blue) I built this one in '76, well one that looked like it.

That one came with a lot more decals than the modern one which I tried to make look like this one

So after a few coats of duplicolour "Polarus Blue",  a couple of clear coats and some decals it came out like this.

After a couple more coats of clear it was on to final assembly and more dramas. The floor pan did not meet the firewall it was about 1.5mm short. it couldn't be moved forward because the tunnel was already touching the gearbox. If I moved the engine and gearbox forward the tailshaft would be to short. In the end I took about 1mm off the front of the fuel tank mounting plate and chassis which gave me an acceptable compromise.

Thanks for the comments guys. Well it's done. Talk about a steep learning curve, but all in all I'm happy with the end result given the degree of difficulty and my skill level, or lack there of. I watched a tutorial on utube a while back and they said you will destroy your first half dozen kits. While I don't think it's destroyed, there are plenty of errors, some my doing and some inherent to the kit. Here's how it turned out.




I had a lot of fun building this and I'm keen to start on the next one. Once again thanks for looking, comments and advice welcome.
Cheers,
Dazza.

Great job Dazza.............whats next mate?

Antwon wrote:Great job Dazza.............whats next mate?

I've got a Tamyia 2005 WRX in the cupboard. I don't when I'll get to though.

Cheers.

I'd be interested to see how you go with the WRX mate, the Willys came out just fine.
Once you really get back into the hobby you'll end up with 50+ kits in the cupboard like many of us. Then it'll be a case of Hmmm.......which one to build next.

Cheers

G'day Antwon, the WRX looks like it should be easier than the Willys. Now that the confidence level is up a bit, I'll post progressively rather than waiting 'till it's done. Oh, and I've already started hoarding. I've got three tanks ( is that a dirty word here? ) in the cupboard, I recall they were a lot more forgiving the cars.

Cheers,

Dazza.

Dazza That's one thing I never get to......posting works in progress, most of the time I build and fit and paint and then think "I should have taken some shots of this!"
Next build maybe, anyway enjoy the next build and enjoy the forum.

Cheers

Nice build Dazza. I must admit, I bought this kit..opened the box and put the lid back on. haha. The fact that you got the same kit for Christmas 40 years after getting your first one is the best part of the story for me..That is just great.

Nice job Dazza. Having built a couple of these through the years I can appreciate the difficulties you would have encountered , so you have done very well to acheive such a nice result. I think after this baptism of fire , building any of the modern kits will be a much better experience !

Thanks for comments guys. Baptism of fire is so appropriate. Started the WRX last night.  I was pretty happy with the paint job on the Willys, so I'm going with Duplicolour again. I'll post something up soon.
Cheers,
Dazza.