Fujimi 1/24 Mk I GTi Wrong Side Drive

[Lysus]

So I thought I'd try my first ever GB, and my ever first car kit. So what better car than my first ever car? Without too much consideration I nabbed one by Fujimi:





The box has seen better days, but all the bits are intact. I thought I'd try and recreate my GTi to the best of my ability, right down to the door dings. However my haste to procure a kit has presented me with a problem: the kit is right hand drive--or wrong hand drive as I like to say (seriously, shifting with the left hand, barbarism).

It's also a curbside (I believe the term is) so there's no engine to do up, sadly. I could go get another one, but I'm woefully not made of money so right hand drive it is. So but for the unfortunate driver position, I'll be going for making a mini version of my first, and to date most beloved, car.

Now that finals are over I have some time available...updates to come soon.

I hope.

[Lysus]

Got some time at the bench today. Never built a car kit before, so I'm totally at a loss for order of operations (i.e. best way to build and paint all the fiddly bits, etc.) and I'm just making this up as I go.

Started up with the undercarriage, got the front wheel steering and suspension put together and, after some finicky work with some dry fitting, figured out what the instructions were trying to tell me to do. I'm used to Bandai kits where solid lines mean glue, dashed mean no glue. Fujimi, apparently, doesn't care--you have to pay attention to which type of line in the step they decided was "glue" and this won't be the same in the next panel. Strange.

About to sand down seam lines on the exhaust when I noticed it was just a blunt knob--no hole. So I drilled one out.





(By the way, if anyone wants to secret Santa me a camera, I'd be much obliged. No? Ok, just thought I'd ask...)

That done, cleaned up all my seams, glued her up, and sprayed it down with Stynylrez.



Rear wheels up next, and then a run to the store for some colors. The call out lists "gold" and "silver" for the exhaust. Now if I remember right, my GTi was anything but gold and silver underneath, so I'll look for more appropriate colors. And dirt. Lots of dirt. Stuck to grease. Lots of dirt stuck to grease...

[Lysus]

Some more work today. The call out wants just flat black everywhere and some gold and silver for the exhaust (as I mentioned above). Considering this is a curbside and the greebles under the engine are sparse, I thought for the sake of interesting detail I'd paint up the undercarriage with some color variation on the panels: Tamiya XF-1 flat black, some bare primer (btw, the Stynylrez black primer is a really nice black on its own) some Tamiya X-1 gloss black for the shield (as called for in the instructions), and some Tamiya XF-84 burnt iron.

I realized I still had some Citadel paints from some D&D minis I did 6 years ago, so I broke those out and used some Dwarf Bronze in place of the gold, some Gunbolt Grey and Mithril for the silver.





Not bad, but really pretty, ya know? That's not how I remember my GTi.

I also had the Tamiya Weathering Master set (A-F) from my dabbling with minis and broke out the rust, soot, and oil powders. I had brushed on the colors once with a smooth application, then again once it was nearly dry with some careless, goopy strokes in random directions. I'm hoping this makes some peaks and valleys for the powder to cling to.





Exhaust:







There's some dust to clean up, but I need to be careful since until it's locked in with a clear coat it can be easily blown away or wiped off. The bronze and gloss black obviously didn't take the power quite like I'd hoped and I'll spend some more time with it. Once I set up some of the next bits for the interior and the rear wheels for priming I'll shoot a matte coat down to lock the weathering in.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Sorry completely missed this one; went in under my radar
Cool little cars these, have always loved them especially the GTI versions
My older brother had a Rabbit (not GTI) unfortunately and I loved bombing around in it

Keep plugging away on the build, will be sure to pester you the entire duration from now on
I bet you could change it to "normal" side drive with a bit of fun surgery

[Lysus]

Sorry completely missed this one; went in under my radar
Cool little cars these, have always loved them especially the GTI versions
My older brother had a Rabbit (not GTI) unfortunately and I loved bombing around in it

Keep plugging away on the build, will be sure to pester you the entire duration from now on
I bet you could change it to "normal" side drive with a bit of fun surgery

Heh, scratch is still a bit above my grade, but I was considering a "revenge" build with a Revell Mk I GTi kit if time allows. This kit, while nice, lacks things like an engine and even a pedal cluster. Yeah, no pedals.

Also, I just noticed that I somehow completely skipped the seam line on the exhaust before I painted and weathered.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Take a picture of the dash, maybe a relatively easy re-arrange

[Lysus]

Take a picture of the dash, maybe a relatively easy re-arrange

Maybe after I get these kiddos in bed

Gonna be working on seats next (next means this week if I'm lucky) so plenty of time for a consultation.

[Twokidsnosleep]

I am dying to do this conversion one day.
If you keep the ends of the dash and swap out the glove box and instrument pod areas, you can change the drive side without messing up the fitment of the dash to the interior tub
I have a couple of wrong side drive Fujimi kits in my stash, so have researched ways to change it
You will need a pencil, a good thin kerf (fine blade) razor saw, some styrene tabs, filler, CA glue, an old priest and a young priest and some sharks with frikin lasers on their heads.
This ain't my stuff so bear with me.

Cutting out the glove box and dash to swap them. I would get shapes drawn and cut as symmetrical as possible so easier swap

Little tabs inside your cut outs to act as supports and positive seats while placing and letting CA glue set.

Then go to town on filler.

On a curbside kit you wouldn't have to change the firewall and steering column as there isn't one
Here is the link to the guy doing it
http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/tips_tec ... 13308.aspx

Just an idea I have been dying to try myself....don't do it if it doesn't float your boat

[Smiffy]

Looking very good indeed. Not too sure I should say this, what with Paul being such a big Ford fan, but I'd take a Mk1 Golf GTI over an XR3 any day

[Lysus]

Looking very good indeed. Not too sure I should say this, what with Paul being such a big Ford fan, but I'd take a Mk1 Golf GTI over an XR3 any day

Thanks! (I would, too...Mk I's were awesome to drive...shhh...)

I am dying to do this conversion one day.
Just an idea I have been dying to try myself....don't do it if it doesn't float your boat

Thanks, dude. Here's the dash so far:



It's asymmetrical (duh ) by that I mean it's not a 50/50 arrangement. The task looks a little daunting, but I'm open to some advice from you. As it is, I'm just thinking of living with it. Many of the other car builds in this GB are, to me, masterful and beautiful, but I'm going for lived in and not 100% accurate, just accurate enough. Just wished I had done more research on the kit first

[Twokidsnosleep]

Yep, that is a tough swap over...the steering column hole and the radio mess an easy l to r transfer
Not symmetrical for sure
Would be some major surgery and scratch building

[Lysus]

Yep, that is a tough swap over...the steering column hole and the radio mess an easy l to r transfer
Not symmetrical for sure
Would be some major surgery and scratch building

Yeah, too major, methinks

[Lysus]

Made a little progress this last weekend. Got the interior bits sprayed up, a mix of Tamiya XF-8 Flat Blue with some XF-1 Flat Black for the darker bits, and XF-8 and XF-2 Flat White, all over some black Stynylrez:



My camera stinks, but really the door insides look much more blue in person in places. Just a single light coat so far, I'll hit it again and attempt some fading/wear and tear.

Got the shiny wheels done up to be less so:



They're a little too dark, so maybe I'll brighten them up a bit with something more alloy-like before I hit them with brake dust.

Then I turned my attention to the shell. The instructions tel me that cutting the sunroof out to mount it as open is "advanced," something I am not, but I am foolish so let's give that a go. I almost never passed up a chance to have it open, so this kit needs to reflect that:



A few strokes of the hobby knife along each edge of the sunroof were all it took to set it free.



I didn't want to put in the glass for the hatch until after I spray, but the hinge assembly required the glass be in place for stupid reasons. Looking back I think I can probably pop it back out and spray it separately, it doesn't matter too much in the end I suppose. Just sort of liked the idea of spraying the whole thing without having to remove any paint to glue the hinges back on, ya know? We'll see. I think this will depend on my willingness to mask when I get to the spray stage.

[Lysus]

With the egg planes off the bench I returned to work on the GTi. I managed to lay down a primer coat last week, so I was chomping at the bit to try out the Zero Paints gloss black today. Started all normally, nice slow build up of coats...the stuff seemed to enjoy coming out the airbrush and landing nice and evenly on the shell. However, towards the end of my first session I noticed some rough bits on the hood (bonnet) near the vents:





Curious if anyone has worked with this paint before, maybe there's something I'm missing. In the mean time I'll let this cure for a bit before, I guess, I sand it back a little and go in for the next coat.

[Vleugelmoer]

Nice build Lysus nothing wrong with doing the first hot hatch, even if it has the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. Could have been expected from a Japanese company, as they drive on the "correct side" of the road so they claim

Nice to see you actually got in some bench time this wekend. As always happy modeling and keep sticking styreen.

Paul

[Lysus]

Nice build Lysus nothing wrong with doing the first hot hatch, even if it has the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car. Could have been expected from a Japanese company, as they drive on the "correct side" of the road so they claim

Nice to see you actually got in some bench time this wekend. As always happy modeling and keep sticking styreen.

Paul

Could have been, but I'm an incautious shopper sometimes

[Vleugelmoer]

aha the old twitchy buy me now finger syndrome strikes again

[NorthernModeller]

gotta be my favourite hatchback. looking forward to it being finished

[Twokidsnosleep]

You are making me want to break out my Fujimi Honda Civic Si and build my first car
Then I sit down and let that feeling pass

[Lysus]

aha the old twitchy buy me now finger syndrome strikes again

maaaaaybe...

gotta be my favourite hatchback. looking forward to it being finished

Me too! I really, really miss that car.

You are making me want to break out my Fujimi Honda Civic Si and build my first car
Then I sit down and let that feeling pass

The Civic calls to you, just let it in...

[AdamLuscombe]

Looks very nice, all the details look great!

[Twokidsnosleep]

You are making me want to break out my Fujimi Honda Civic Si and build my first car
Then I sit down and let that feeling pass

The Civic calls to you, just let it in...[/quote]

It will be a full on hack job of a project. The closest kit I could find was a Fujimi CRX Si and it might be RH drive too. So I have to modify everything.
Want to do a model of each auto I have owned.
Keep plugging away on yours

[Lysus]

It will be a full on hack job of a project. The closest kit I could find was a Fujimi CRX Si and it might be RH drive too. So I have to modify everything.
Want to do a model of each auto I have owned.
Keep plugging away on yours

I dare say you have the chops for a "hack job," but maybe get that Bugatti done first... I can't wait to see that sucker complete

[Twokidsnosleep]

It will be a full on hack job of a project. The closest kit I could find was a Fujimi CRX Si and it might be RH drive too. So I have to modify everything.
Want to do a model of each auto I have owned.
Keep plugging away on yours

I dare say you have the chops for a "hack job," but maybe get that Bugatti done first... I can't wait to see that sucker complete

Toi et moi aussi

[Lysus]

I dare say you have the chops for a "hack job," but maybe get that Bugatti done first... I can't wait to see that sucker complete

Toi et moi aussi

Nous sommes d'accord!

[Twokidsnosleep]

I just checked the little 1/24 Fujimi CRXsi kit...it has two dashboards in the kit; either LHS and RHS drive. Now how smart is that.
Pondering a 1/24 BMW diecast model that is similar to my current ride hmmm
Keep plugging away at this project, just something cool about re-living your own past cars

[Lysus]

I just checked the little 1/24 Fujimi CRXsi kit...it has two dashboards in the kit; either LHS and RHS drive.

You know what you need to do now...

[Twokidsnosleep]

I just checked the little 1/24 Fujimi CRXsi kit...it has two dashboards in the kit; either LHS and RHS drive.

You know what you need to do now...

I gotta stick to the Bugatti....just a little stumped as so much to scratch build that a quick hour isn't enough
Gonna shut up, shut this off and go work on her RFN

[Lysus]

I just checked the little 1/24 Fujimi CRXsi kit...it has two dashboards in the kit; either LHS and RHS drive.

You know what you need to do now...

I gotta stick to the Bugatti....just a little stumped as so much to scratch build that a quick hour isn't enough
Gonna shut up, shut this off and go work on her RFN

Ha! I asked the judges and that's an acceptable answer. As for time, just do what I do, don't ever sleep.

[Lysus]

Have I quit, is this on a shelf of doom?

Nope.



Zero paint gloss black on. Actually it's three coats of ZP; I did a wet sand between coats to take it down to a smoother finish--that's what I hear the cool kids do. ZP is great stuff, but I will say that a little sanding makes it smooth as smooth can be by the next coat or two.

One gloss coat of Alclad on, another to go on soon I hope just to be ready for some shining up. Also, I noticed I need to paint up the rail for the sunroof to sit in if I want it open, so that will also happen.

Once the second coat of gloss is on and this sunroof sorted, I'll be able to get the trim and grill on...and she's nearly done. Tick, tock...

[Vleugelmoer]

Hi there Lysus,

What color is actually on the car, it looks like an interesting one but under those lights its kinda hard to tell.

Slow and steady will get you there, you dont want to be like the Tortuous and the Rabbit See what I just did there

As always happy modeling and keep sticking styrene.

Paul J

[Lysus]

Yeah, sorry the lighting was crap there. It's just gloss black from ZP. I wanted an Alfa red from ZP for a future project and thought I'd grab a black to try the brand out before I used the red.

VW black for the Mk I wasn't anything special like the tornado red or silver so I thought it'd be a good way to try it out

I'll snap some better pictures once I start polishing it up.

[Lysus]

Hm, only two weeks left. How do I keep doing this to myself?

[Lysus]

I sat down this morning with finishing this in mind. Time is short, this will need to be assembly-lined. Cut free all the trim bits:



Got them sprayed with Stynylrez/Ultimate black (love, love this primer color) and detail painted the grill and tail lights. Meanwhile the glass insert fought me and fought me hard. The fit is awful and it needs to be bent to fit the shape of the shell. I've been fighting with it a little every night all week with different glues and clamps.



In the end it was close to right, but after spending all morning trying to get this all together, I found a winning strategy:



So there it is. No finish on this one, at least not for a long while. I realized around lunch that I had spent all morning with the car and I wasn't enjoying it much. The Revell Mk-I I picked up a while back looks much better, has an engine, and from the poking around I've done with the runners looks like it has zero warped parts and no thick, horrid flash to trim and sand.

Shelf of doom for Fujimi. I can't say definitively that it's a dog of a kit, but it isn't at a minimum a good fit (HA!) for my skill and experience at this point. I have kits I'm enjoying on the run right now and this is killing the mojo for me.

Sorry if I've disappointed anyone, but this makes room for other projects I'm enthused about and I fully plan on doing a "Revenge" build with the Revell kit down the line.

[SkyPainter303]

Revell US dose an American VW Rabbit complete with ugly DOT 35 mph bumpers.

[Lysus]

Revell US dose an American VW Rabbit complete with ugly DOT 35 mph bumpers.

Yep, and now I've got Euro bumpers to fit to it

[Twokidsnosleep]

Sorry to hear that, but sometimes for the best
Maybe when you get the other one going, you can bring this one back on line too

[Lysus]

Sorry to hear that, but sometimes for the best
Maybe when you get the other one going, you can bring this one back on line too

That's my hope. I just didn't want to look at it for a while