Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Test fit

Held together with Blu-tack, I think this is going to work. The resin body is a little precariously balanced on the Revell chassis, but with a bit of bodgery involving nice, thick epoxy glue, I think the two can be held together.

The Airfix kit wheels fill the wheel arches nicely enough ad look right to my eyes. Things will be even better with proper hubcaps fitted. Revell axles can just about be forced into the centre holes. A bit crude, but I can't be bothered to build a full front beam - the body kit isn't sharp enough to justify that. I'd only end up making my own using the kit body front and this is to be a quick project!

Inside, the four-seat body will need a bit of trimming. I'm not sure what goes in the back of one of these things, but I doubt you can see much through the windows anyway. The seats are wrong, those are from the 1970s and only the racier versions of the car, but I can modify them.

Talking of windows, fitting the one from the kit looks to be the most painful job, but as the Beetle has very nearly flat glass in the front anyway, I can trim some clear sheet to do the job with a bit of luck.

1 comment:

Huw Griffiths said...

That looks like a great project.

OK - I've never seen a prototype version - but I could imagine the interior being a case of cutting the "bathtub" behind the doors - replacing it with a flat scrap of plastikard behind there - and removing the headrests from the front seats. Well, it's either that or replacing the front seats with a bench (I wonder where you might get one of those from ...).

Otherwise, this is a "lockdown" build - so I could imagine a couple of guys with long hair and ZZ Top beards - perhaps also lower the front and give the thing a "flame" paint job.

OK - maybe not some of the latter steps - but it certainly looks like a fun project.

Now where did I put that Zvezda 1:35 Gaz AAA ... or those "Revellogram" 1:24 Mustangs, that were just screaming out for van or station wagon conversions?

I know ... I was joking about the Mustang van - and some "pony car" enthusiasts were reputed to be less than delighted when they were shown photos of a couple of (effectively prototype) station wagon conversions.

Personally, I think they looked almost as good as a similar prototype conversion that was done of a Rover SD1 a number of years back.