Daihatsu Midget - Part 3: Job done, lessons learned

Finishing the Midget is pretty simple. Part fit is good, you just need to trim the odd bit of flash away, especially on the clear parts, and glue them in place. Deluxe Glue'n'glaze handled the windscreen and lights. Odd there is no glazing for the doors, did the prototype have it? 

Silver lines were applied by bow pen, much easier then trying to keep the brush on top of the raised area. Of course, this lagely vanished in the dirtying. As with the T2000, the transfers needed a lot of excess carrier film trimming away. I didn't bother with anything for the sides as I doubted it would have sat properly on the "dirt" and if applied before that, might have affected where the paint sat on the body.

Around the back, I've kep things simple. Probably should have painted the tail lights, but I'm not sure of the colours - presumbably just red as there's no sign of any indicators. A black dot will do the job as you often don't see the colour until the lights are illuminated. 

The canvas cover is going in the bin - it's a terrible fit, only just sitting in place. It could be glued on, but I think the model looks nice without it. One day (!) I'll make some stuff up to go in the back. The box art shows crates of fish, which looks nice. Maybe if I see some suitable mouldings, I'll pick them up and spend time with a paintbrush detailing the scales. 

At 10cm long and 4cm wide, this really does have diorama potential. One day. In the meantime, it was fun to build, which is the point.

Daihastsu Midget - Part 2: A lucky painting accident

  

Painting the Midget didn't start well. I chose some Humbrol satin grass green for the body colour, but my airbrush was playing up. In fact every airbrush I tried played up, until I dug out an Badger 200 which seemed happy to throw paint around. 

In the garage, the results looked OK. The next day, less so. Although there was good coverage, it was far from smooth, there was actually some texture. Paint or tool? I didn't know, but the die was cast, this model was going to get weathered. 

Another bit of web searching, and I failed to find a single photo showing a dirty Midget. Contemporary images all seemed to be taken of new vehicles. I was on my own...

On the shelf are a couple of Vallejo colours - brown and rust. I slapped a mix of both on the sides with a sponge, didn't much like the result so wet them with a brush and wiped the resulting mess away with a paper towel. 

Result - surprisingly good. Once dry, REALLY good. And so simple. 

Defintely a happy accident. The acrylic seems to cling to the rubbish enamel base coat in a way that looks realistic to me. Maybe there is skill in knowing how much to wipe away, but I'm not claiming that this is all down to me. 

Around the doors, I have fiddled with some MiG weathering pencils, but the results don't wow me at the moment and I can't work out if they are just another toy, or something that will make a big difference to my modelling. I've watched a few videos, but aren't convinced yet. More research needed.

Daihatsu Midget - Part 1: Look in the box

 

Moving on the second wierd Japanese 3-wheeler kit in the pile I bought, I'm looking at the Daihatsu Midget. A quick web search shows that this truck has been through several facelifts, the most recent of which sees the spare tyre pearched on the nose in a way I can't decide is hideous, or quite appealing. 

Anyway, this model is of the 1958 version, which I suspect is the classic Midget. By this point it looked like someone had designed it for a start, and that curvy nose is really attractive. 

Inside the box, there's a one-piece moulding for the body, which has some pretty bad flash, in some anoying places - along curved edges beside the windscreen which won't be easy to clean up without taking off detail. 

The first thing that struck me was how much smaller it is than the Mazda T2000, under half the overall length for a start. It is undenably cute and would make (in real life) a lovely vehicle to potter around on short journeys in. 

As ever, the plan is to stick this thing together with no pretentions to super-detail. 

Rubber tyres are a nice feature of the kit, although I'm tempted to argue for plastic ones. These could have better tread detail, and would be easier to flatten at the bottom in a realistic way, but I said I wasn't going to get all finescale. 

One thing I found out by accident was that twisting and pulling the tyres from the runner gives a better result than cutting with a knife. This tends to put a flat in the tyre, whereas the twist'n'pull doesn't. I wonder why?