Monday, May 11, 2020

Bug bodies

Looking for a fairly painless project to take my mind of Covid worries, I pulled a plastic kit box out of the cupboard. Inside were this collection of 1/32nd scale VW Beetle bodies.

From left to right: Resin van, Airfix bug, Revell bug, custom bug.

I've fancied building a Beetle van for years and when I spotted this resin kit, snapped it up.

VW never made a van version of the bug, but several coachbuilders did and there has been at least one custom kit offering fibreglass joy for anyone happy to hack the back off their car.

VW van

One problem any builder faces, and the reason VW didn't bother, is that the engine is still correctly at the rear, messing with loading through the back door.

Beetle van

And I know someone out there is shouting "Fridolin" but we will ignore them as it's not pure Beetle.

Anyway, the resin body is designed to fit the Revell VW Beetle kit which I happen to have handy. The only issue with this is that the wheels are trendy alloys, and in my mind, I'm building a period car.


No worries, as the Australians say, in the box is an Airfix Beetle kit too and I think I can nick the wheels out of this. That kit is destined to be a donor for the custom bug also shown above. That one is a nice moulding, complete with a bonnet air scoop presumably for a V8 at the wrong end of the car. However, it would look better sat on some fancy-pants alloys so a swap is in order.

All I need to do is work out if this all goes together.


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