1/24 Nissan 300ZX - A copy of my 1:1 car

[Captain Mark]

1/24 Tamiya Nissan 300ZX


Hi all,

For this project I thought I’d copy my own 1:1 car, a Nissan 300ZX (or more affectionately known as my “Z”).
I’ll be detailing the engine bay which is pretty much a first for me, so there could be some mixed results. But we’ll see.

Some of the planned “things” for this build…
- SMS Faux Fabrix for use on the carpeted areas in the interior;
- MFH Leather Look Adhesive to simulate the leather on the chairs;
- Acu-Stion detail photo-etch;
- A number of different types of Alclad paints for the engine and engine bay, plus a few other Humbrol metallics like copper, brass, bronze, etc. Just to give it a more realistic metallic kind of look which my engine does have in parts. Plus it just makes it nicer to look at.

So… the engine…
For those of you who know the Z you’ll understand that there’s virtually no space under the bonnet/hood to fit anything else. Even getting the alarm/siren in there was a challenge. For those of you who aren’t so familiar with this car, here’s what I have to replicate…










I tend to keep the engine pretty clean and give it a once over whenever possible. Me and my old man have also added a few more colourful vacume hoses, some chromey type bits and pieces here and there, and generally just done what we could to make it look reasonably good without spending a small fortune on it.

So, yeah… it’s going to be challenging to make the engine look that “full”, as the Tamiya kit is a little sparse.


On to the kit. I actually started this one some years ago but didn’t get very far, and have just pulled it out again today and started work.

The body had a coat of silver but I’m sanding it back to start over, and will use Tamiya Silver Leaf lacquer (TS-30). My own Z is slick back, meaning I’ve taken the wing off it – and to my thinking it looks 1000% better without any wing at all. The lines of the car just seem to flow that much nicer when it’s clean of aero stuff. So I’ve filed the small molded wing off the model and am now sanding and filling to get the shape correct.







This kit wasn’t designed for this modification though, and the filing left reasonably big holes. A bit of Milliput (the yellowish stuff in the picture) was a good solution. For those of you not familiar with Milliput it’s a two part epoxy putty that is quite malleable and dries ultra hard. It’s very sandable, and can also assist in bonding parts together in some cases.




The yellow Z below is a kit I made maaany years ago. It’ll serve as a donor kit if required, and a test bed for modifications.




The Acu-Stion PE parts.




The chassis has been completed for the most part. Some challenging masking for the flat black and the rest is body colour. A brown wash (using oil paint and turps – works like a charm) was run through the silver parts just to give it a used look, although it doesn’t show up too well in these pics. I’ll have to work on the lighting and camera settings to get it to show properly.







And the engine bay, which may still need some alteration for the mods that will be going in. Also had to be body colour, and also got a light brown wash.





And just to round the thread out I thought I’d post a few pics of my 1:1 car for reference on how the build progresses.














I’m still waiting for a bunch of stuff to arrive for this build… paints, decals, etc. So progress over the next few weeks probably won’t be lightning quick. And that aside it’ll probably take me a little while to come to grips with all the scratch building that’ll be required for the engine – so just bear with me. I’ll update as often as possible.


Cheers all, thanks for looking!
Mark

[Zachary Zoomy]

looks very good! I'm building one of these kits myself.

[robrex]

It's about time you did this build Mark! I'll be following closely. I'd probably suggest dropping the idea of covering the seats in the MFH leather....

[_TRAVIS_]

a 300zx i myself own a 1990 300 n/a but i still love it..good luck with this i will be paying close attention

[Captain Mark]

Thanks guys! Nice one Travis, can't go wrong with a Z mate.

Rob: is the MFH leather product no good? I gather that's the reason for suggesting to steer clear. Any alternatives?

[robrex]

Originally Posted by Captain Mark

Rob: is the MFH leather product no good? I gather that's the reason for suggesting to steer clear. Any alternatives?

The MFH leather adhesive is Ok but will struggle to adhere well to too many compound curves. It's really suited to very plain seats with flat cushions or door panels etc. I'd try painting; Flat black paint rubbed with your finger when dry can achieve a very nice leather look.

[Captain Mark]

I thought I was pretty close to getting the rear end nicely shaped, although remembered I had an old Tamiya 300ZX convertible kit I'd built some years ago which I could pop the rear "glass" out of to test the new shape. This is pretty important as the kit clear piece is no longer the correct shape since I removed the wing.

It seems I still hadn't filed enough off, so I've taken to it again with a vengeance and now it's almost right. Just lucky I had that old convertible kit to test before I put any paint on it! I've also ordered a replacement rear glass/clear piece from HLJ.com , so hopefully they'll source and post that before too long.







Most of the interior and suspension parts all painted black. There's not a whole lot more to do with the suspension and a lot of it can be assembled without too much more attention. I'm not going to do much to the underside of the kit as I just don't ever look at the bottom of them.




Cheers all.

[AustinMartin]

Awesome!

[Orion37170]

like this projekt, nice work
i own it's little brother and am trying to replicate it to

[Captain Mark]

Lots of work being done, but not so much to show for it yet unfortunately.
A few odds and ends I can show...

My car is an auto, but this isn't an option in the kit. So, outcomes the stick and so starts some scratchbuilding. Just to the left of the interior tub is a white sheet of plastic/styrene (can't remember the exact name) which I'll cut a suitably shaped piece from to put in the auto gear lever section. From here I'll scratch the lever and other various pieces in this section, and generally get it looking as close to the original as I can.




The kit wheels are chromed, but you'll see in the pics of the real car at the start of the thread that they're actually a light aluminium colour in reality. They're not even quite silver. So I ordered some Alclad White Aluminum and shot it straight over the top of the chromed wheels. The result came out fantastically and you can quite easily see the before and after difference below. A slight bit of weathering to the rims and a light coat of clear and they'll be all done.




The rear chassis assembly is mostly done, complete with PE brake discs. The Acu-Stion PE is quite easy to work with compared to some other brands of PE I've used. Most of this section is black with only a few sparse highlights of colour. Of course it's all quite mucky underneath my car but I'm going to keep the kit fairly clean with only light dirtying up.







Some goodies arrived... The decals I'll be using for the pin striping along the side of the car, and also the 24th scale carbon fiber. I actually fitted some carbon look wipers to my 1:1 which look pretty good, so I'll be doing my best to replicate that. Also the MFH Adhesive Cloth arrived. As Rob has said above it'll prove hard to apply to a 1/24 scale seat as the adhesive cloth is quite thick, but it'll work fine for the rear baggage/boot/truck cover.







I'm hoping to have the body top coat of silver completed this weekend, plus the majority of the interior (including using the SMS Faux Fabrix fabric paint), so another update shouldn't be too long in coming.

Cheers all!
M

[Captain Mark]

The first top coat of silver has gone on using Tamiya TS-30 (Silver Leaf). The result isn't quite good enough though when inspected up close. Normally I sand the primer base coat then check it in sunlight to make sure it's all good to go. I skipped the checking in sunlight part this time, and obviously it's done me no favours as some blemishes show through into the silver.

So now I'm in the process of wet sanding the silver with 1200 to 2400 grit sandpaper and polishing cloths, and then it'll be right for the next top coat and detail painting.







Mark

[voyageur]

Look like this is going to be a mighty fine 300ZX. Keep us posted!