GRM Forum August 2020 Model Car Challenge Contest!

In reply to ZackM :

Shoot me a message. I have little sponsor decals, number panels, big sponsors, stripes, the works. I bet we could come up with something cool.

Flipping a coin to decide whether to do a replica of one of our Miatas here, or dad's '62 Vette.

The simplistic chassis of these older kits might be considered a downside. However, the upside is that it's easy to lower the ride height just by hacking away at the axle holes.

Also, less pieces to assemble means more time to ponder what color I'm going to paint the chassis.

Am I the only one bothered by the lack of a bar to attach the harness to?

(former Spec E30 racer here)

I was the dork who first proposed "replica stock" class, so here goes. Still far from sure any of this will be complete though because race car! And the damn heat. First the proof photo.

Then the kit as it sits now.

Then we have the next race car I want to build, and the just installed new display cabinet with a place for it.

Right next to the same scale Honda I built a few tears ago.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Tell us more about that display case and the models in it!

In reply to ddavidv :

Yeah on this car/series, they actually didn't have a harness bar. They went all the way back and bolted into the rear seat area. 

I thought about some seat belt material etc, but I decided just to rock the decals. 

Zack

You can just barely see this is the case in these photos....Really mad I ruined these decals!

https://drive-my.com/en/blogs/entry/schnitzer-group-a-bmw-e30-m3.html

Zack

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Yes, tell us more! Did you build it? My case is full, so my car collection is parked on a corner of my desk right now. I'm looking for ideas for a second display case.

Looks like I better find a race car to build!

Reply to BenB and Javelin. The case was originally one quarter of a watch display at a Costco or Sam's club. About 15 years ago a friend garbage picked it and kept it in his body shop. He is closing/retiring and offered it to me, complete with 15 years of bondo dust. It is MDF with black laminate finish. Also had pinnable cloth covered interior doubler panels that were trashed, and 240 volt florescent lamps. I brought it home on Thursday. 5 coats of white on the inside and a 6' string of LEDs with a Power Wheels wall wort and a lot of scrubbing later it looks great.

Top row of models will be the entire Merit race car collection, all but 3 built by my father when they were new, 1958-1960. Only the Talbot Lago is not present now. The 1/72 scale WW1 aircraft are 50/50 my work and Pop's. Much of the next row down you have seen in these builds, and occasionally on the other model thread. I have been dragging pieces out of storage and refreshing, like all of the planes, and moving so-so cars into my other displays to move the best into this case, as it shows them the best.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

I love everything about that story and display case.

I think I may go with this... but still subject to change, lol

In reply to Saron81 :

That is a good kit.

In reply to TurnerX19 :

Well I broke the fender while removing the hood bracing last night... we'll see if I can fix it. Highly annoyed. :/

In reply to Saron81 :

Just build a crash-damaged version if you can't fix it. 

alright my goal is to inventory and seek inspiration tonight.

My model display case. It is made from a very inexpensive gun cabinet.

This was a cheap particle board DIY kit. It came with the sliding glass doors but nothing inside other than the rack pieces for rifles/shotguns. I deleted those and bought a bunch of metal shelf brackets that have pins on the backside. Drilled appropriate holes in the side panels and then had a glass shop cut the shelves. I'd wager the glass and brackets cost about as much as the cabinet. It was a awful faux walnut, really dark. I painted it with some clearance 'mis-tint' paint from the hardware store. Added a little fluorescent light in the top and ran the cord out the back. The only 'fail' is that after painting the thing the glass doors don't really slide well. There are better quality 'kits' for these nowadays. I quick Google search didn't find me this cheapo type so don't know if they are still made.

BTW if anyone would like that Peugeot rally car (Tamiya) I'd sell it or trade for an unbuilt kit of some sort. It doesn't really fit with the rest of my collection and is an old build. Still looks good.

My childhood bedroom had shelves set into the wall. It used to be a window, before the house was expanded in size, and closed off and turned into shelves. It turned out to be a great place to display model cars. I wish I had a way of replicating that without closing off a window.

Anyway, the building continues at a glacial pace! Good thing this is a simple one. I painted the chassis silver, and I'm going with silver wheels as well. Black primer behind the silver makes it look pretty nice, like there's some depth and shadows in the crevices.

A couple nights progress on my Grp. A Starion build. Needs a lot of little tidying up, but she is coming along. 

I am having a really hard time deciding between the STP or traditional Ralliart Livery. I think I may go STP just because I like the blue and red a little more than the black and red....thoughts?

In reply to ZackM :

As much as I love the RalliArt livery, STP all the way. Looks cooler on that particular car and is the rarer decal anyway. Leaves you room for a Tommi Makkinen EVO build later anyway.

And now my build for this 'contest'. My real life vehicle was my father's 1957 CJ-5.

Yes, the little dude in the hoodie is me. Dad amateur restored that thing in my aunt's barn and used it as his back and forth to work vehicle. It was 6v and didn't start if the temp dropped much below freezing. I guess a block or dipstick heater never occurred to him. Anyway, it had a steel hard top on it that I never liked so am going to build it as the Jeep I would have owned had I inherited it as I hoped. Unfortunately it met it's demise when mom overheated it on a trip upstate and poofed the motor. Cracked it right across two cylinders. F-head engines weren't exactly plentiful even in the early 70s. There's a lot more story but the Jeep still exists in a private collection but has been engine swapped and altered so much I'm not interested in trying to get it back.

Though I typically loathe MPC kits they did churn out a shockingly good one with this:

Totally, utterly wrong as Daisy's Jeep (which was a CJ-7) but a very good replica of a late 1960s Kaiser-era Jeep, though it does have a few wrong era parts (the dash is a 1973). One thing I noticed is MPC creatively 'forgot' to put any of the stamped 'Jeep' lettering on the tub or tailgate to avoid paying to use the trademarked name. This tooling is way too good for 1968 or thereabouts when it was first released. I'll have a video of this one when it's finished that includes unboxing and pointing out some of the errors. I'm missing the original steering wheel which annoys me greatly but Slowbird is hooking me up with something closer than the AMC style wheel that's in the box. Stay tuned.

Alright! Got my work area set up and unpacked everything.  (See "that's grassroots" thread).

Here's what I have for currently incomplete kits:

Completely untouched Hemi Cuda.

Painted and partially assembled 67 Mustang.

Painted and 3/4 or so assembled 60 Chevy.

As for the contest I could do the Cuda as a replica and just pick one off the internet.

I could do the Mustang as a local racer from back in the 70s or 80s but I don't have a good collection of wheels/tires/decals to sell that.

I could do the Chevy as a push truck from a local track but I'm not sure if that fits the theme?

Thoughts? I could do a totally different kit too if I ordered something from Amazon or such.

Also, is there a good, reasonably priced starter kit of small paints and brushes? I remember the small glass testors bottles from back in the day.

Adding the front suspension...