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Post by ShawnS on Oct 10, 2020 22:48:26 GMT -8
Hi Guys. As I really need to post more often and since modelling season is well under way I figured that I should do a WIP thread so here goes.
Here is the recently released Aoshima/Beemax Starion kit and the SK decal sheet that I will be using to replicate the car that finished 7th in the 1987 Bathurst 1000. The Australian Mitsubishi Starion factory team ran from 1984 to 1988 but the cars were too underpowered to be competitive with only modest results throughout their time on our racetracks.
As with any kit, building an Australian spec car out of the box isn't an option so many tweaks will be needed here and there. First impressions of the kit show that there will be some fitment issues and that the kit is full of compromises to make some parts carry over to other kits such as the chassis which is the same that is in the new Beemax Lancer kit. The first starting point was the dash. For some reason the Australian Factory team cars were LHD. I took the LHD dash from Fujimi's ancient Starion kit and as it was 3.5mm too wide I had to cut a section out of it. I sacrificed the aircon vent and control panel out the LHD dash and replaced it later with the one from the RHD dash. I used the top vent section from the kit dash (the black part). Here you can see the size difference between the Fujimi (white) and Beemax (black) instrument binnacles. Added some PE gauge rings and hit it with primer and it's ready to go. Now on to some major surgery. The rear fuel cell cover that covers all of the area that is under the hatch isn't correct for the Australian version so that had to go. I wanted to flatten the angle of the cover so I cut the whole thing off and rebuilt it with Evergreen sheet. Before. Note those massive rear wheel tubs that are old school Aoshima and reminiscent of the old motorized kits. After My mods Vs the original kit. The rear shock mounts and roll cage cross bar mounts were cut off the kit part leaving only the basic shape which were then glued to the wheel tubs and filled in with putty.
I'm making good progress so far and I hope to have even more done by the end of the week. Thanks, ShawnS
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Post by afx on Oct 11, 2020 2:36:38 GMT -8
Mount Panorama is such a great track! Looks like a nice project Shawn.
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Post by Joel_W on Oct 12, 2020 5:21:11 GMT -8
Shawn, This is going to be one outstanding blog to follow for sure. Your corrections to date already make a great deal of difference. You've also backed up my issues with a lot of the early BeeMax kits. They're good, but have a ton of compromises in them. Their newer kits are for the most part way better.
JC, As I've said on occasion, I'm most likely one of the oldest online/league/off line sim auto racers out there these days. I do know of one guy that's 81, but rarely races these days. While I don't run Aussie V8 Super cars, I do run GT3 cars in a few series, and everyone one seems to find a way to actually run Bathhurst at Mount Panorama. From personal sim experience I can tell you that this is one of the hardest, if not the hardest tracks to master and be competitive on. Up the hill, then down the hill is basically more like a Rally race, but the rest of the lap of the track is super fast and offers plenty of side by side racing. How these guys race there in real life is beyond me. Truly world class by any standard.
Joel
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Post by ShawnS on Oct 13, 2020 1:38:52 GMT -8
Thanks guys. It's Bathurst weekend this week so progress will slow to a crawl but here is some more work from last weekend. While all the glue and putty was curing on the interior I started work on the front bumper and body. The front bumper had 4 massive sink marks and some gaps that need to be dealt with. When test fitting I found there is also an issue with the bumper being slightly wider on one side so I'll attack that later with some sandpaper. One other thing that was going to be an issue for me was the fuel fillers. The kit has a pair of ugly toy-like fuel filler points that mount on the outside of the body and don't look correct in any way whatsoever so I had a hunt around my spares boxes and didn't find anything that was even close so I had to come up with a solution. I took some Apoxie Sculpt 2 part putty and wrapped it around a piece of sprue. When it had hardened I machined it with my Dremel and a chisel blade to match the reverse shape of the fuel filler. I will be using that as a stamp. After drilling out the holes in the body I pressed a blob of Apoxie Sculpt on the the inside of the body being careful not to squeeze it through the hole.
I then pressed the stamp (lubricated with a little bit of cooking spray) into the still soft putty and just like that I had the correct shape fuel fillers. I am concerned about the putty dropping out at a later time so I will have to flood the edges of the putty with CA glue for extra strength.
Ahh yes fitment issues. In this pic you can seen the black just above the window line, that's the interior door panels on the un-modified interior.
I added some evergreen pieces to drop the chassis and interior tub down just a bit. It looks drastic but it's only a couple of mm. It looks like I will also have to tweak the rear suspension ride height.
Stock Modified The rear mounting tab on the chassis now fits under the mounting slot instead of in it. That's all for now. I have been working on the rollcage and so I suppose that will be the next update soon. I have also been working on the Australian spec wheels too but they wont be ready for a while yet. Thanks
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Post by afx on Oct 13, 2020 2:30:26 GMT -8
Clever idea for the fuel filler. How are you handling the wheels Shawn? Are you making a set or modifying an existing set?
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Post by Chris K. Hale on Oct 13, 2020 5:18:48 GMT -8
I forgot Apoxie Sculpt is machinable, excellent example on the filler neck, of what you can do with it instead of just a filler. Bravo. That is a prime example of what this forum is for, Learning New Tricks (Tips) Thanks Shawn.......Chris
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Post by Joel_W on Oct 13, 2020 6:07:13 GMT -8
Shawn, The Apoxie Sculpt fix for the fuel filler looks great, and is a "tool" that I'm going to be borrowing for sure. The modifications you're doing continue to kick up your build quite a few steps.
Joel
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Post by arcticwolf on Oct 13, 2020 8:55:00 GMT -8
I never thought of it either. A lot simpler than molds and resin!
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Post by ShawnS on Oct 14, 2020 0:48:22 GMT -8
Thanks everyone. Clever idea for the fuel filler. How are you handling the wheels Shawn? Are you making a set or modifying an existing set? A little of both. The wheels in question are these.
Made by Simmons wheels. These were mostly used by Australian and New Zealand racing teams in all sorts of sizes and configurations, and were rarely seen on cars outside Aus and NZ so the chances that they will be kitted or even available through aftermarket sources seemed pretty slim, that is until I was browsing through pics of new models and I found some very similar wheels in Belkits Opel Ascona 400 kit. I was lucky enough to find the wheel sprue from that kit on SpotModels spare parts page so I didn't have to pay full price for the whole kit. I knew I was going to have to chop it up and modify it so I cast some in resin and set about the job at hand. I spent a lot of time last year making different versions and sizes and stud patterns. The wheel with the resin rim is for a Sierra build in the future and the metal rim and tyre is from scale production. I first used the centres on one of my DR30 Nissans earlier this year. I made some for a yet to be completed BMW M3 with different insets front and back. One feature of the Simmons wheel was that the front face wasn't flat. Belkits made their wheel with a dead flat face so I had to round the face. In this pic the wheel centre on the right is the one I will be finishing for this build. It was an early practice run for the last batch but it is slightly too small so I need to make it a touch bigger to fit SK Decals metal rim. You can see the resin centre and the white of the Evergreen styrene that I used to add to it.
They are far from perfect but they are as close as I will get until I learn 3D design and printing.
Anyway, Thanks for your interest in my project and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Cheers ShawnS
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Post by afx on Oct 14, 2020 2:29:15 GMT -8
Impressive work on the wheels. I am looking for a set of 16" BBS E50 wheels for a current Porsche project and thought the wheels for the Starion might be close. I don't want to hijack your thread however.
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Post by afx on Oct 15, 2020 7:05:49 GMT -8
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Post by ShawnS on Oct 16, 2020 0:39:20 GMT -8
Classic D.W. His passion for motor racing and his sense of humour combining to make a golden moment in motorsport TV.
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Post by Joel_W on Oct 16, 2020 5:39:01 GMT -8
Shawn, Your wheel conversion/correct detailing is simply amazing.
Joel
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Post by shunter on Oct 18, 2020 11:38:32 GMT -8
Looking great with the mods, I do not think I have seen this kit built.
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Post by tatocorvette on Oct 19, 2020 16:00:29 GMT -8
A Starion! I didn't know they made it in scale! One of my favorites from my youth. Looking good!
Thanks, Ismael
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