WIP - 1/24 Datsun 240Z Mr.K Tribute

[hirofkd]

Feb 19, former Nissan USA president Yutaka Katayama, known as the "father of the Z-car," passed away at age 105. I've been working on and
off on a model of his customized yellow 240Z (or a replica of it) since it appeared on Nissan ads many years ago, and I thought it'd be the best to
finish the project.


The car features the G-nose and wire wheels, but no ZG fender flairs. When I started the project, Hasegawa hadn't released their own 240Z
kits, so I started with the then-newest Fujimi 240ZG kit, which has molded-in fender flairs, unlike Hasegawa's. (Another way is to graft the
Z-noze on Fujimi's 240Z-L kit, which I didn't have back then.)


I cut the flairs, and moved inward. Then I puttied and smoothed the surface. You can see the trace of modification on the inside.


I'm thinking of using my failed attempt to making a set of hand-laced wire wheels. It was stored away after it turned out too large for Revell's
1/25 E-Type. I'll add outer rims to increase the depth, and also adjust the diameter to accommodate Fujimi's 195/60/14 tires.


Suspension has been lowered a little, but I wanted to keep a little bit of gap between the top of the tire and the fender arch to make it look more
realistic as a street car.


The kit's L24 engine sits a little too far back, so I moved it forward by about 2.5 mm to align the engine mount with the lower sub frame and to
create enough space between the back of the engine and the firewall.


Firewall is a vacuum-formed plastic, which I originally developed for my 240Z mild custom project. This time, I decided to modify the back part of
the wheel housing to make it look more accurate, instead of cutting away a large section of the firewall to match the shape of the kit's wheel housing.


Next is to finish the engine room, so the body and chassis will be ready for painting.

[nugundam93]

looks like you'll be doing quite a number of mods but since this is a tribute build, it'll all be worth it

[hirg]

sweet!!

[Veyron]

Watching.

[Nissanmotorsport]

I stay tuned

[hirofkd]

Shallow and undersized wire wheels needed to be deepened and enlarged.
I'm using Fujimi's Yokohama tires, so the wheel has to be 18 mm.
My 3D printed handy-dandy rim maker has the smallest diameter of 19 mm,
so I couldn't use it. I ended up taking the old-fashioned approach of using
a circular template.



I curled a 10 mm wide 0.5 mm thick strip of styrene, taped two ends
together and glued the seam. Then I placed it in a 18 mm template with a
17 mm circle inside (1mm smaller than the rim) to hold the rim tightly. The
circle also helped me determine the depth of the rip later.



Then I added a narrow 1.5 mm styrene strip, which strengthened and
deepened the rim, and it also acted as an guide for the wire wheel insert.
Length of the strip is determined by trial-and-error, and it's recommended
that you insert the seam side first. If it's too tight, trim the strip a bit.
Once the strip goes down with a moderate friction, you know there's no
gap between the narrow strip and the outer rim.
Once the wire insert is glued, I added another strip of styrene on the back
side of the rim in the same way as the front side.



Now the wire wheel has an adequate depth.



I repeated the above step three more times, and now I have a set of four
wire wheels without spending whole a lot of time or money.



I dry fitted the wheels, and adjusted the ride height. Looking good.



I also began fabricating the engine room. It's similar to what I'm doing with
my moderately modified Z model in another thread, except this time I
decided to make the side panel as a one-piece part. I modified my
vacuum-form master, and also made the area behind the wheel arch more
accurate.



I also started adding details to the intake assembly. Kit part is very
simplified, and I decided to flip it upside down, so I could add the water channel (?) easier.
EDIT: It's the air balance tube.


That's it for today.

[ChristopheB]

Impressive skills. Very interesting!

[hirofkd]

Phase 1 (curbside) of my 240Z Mr.K tribute is finished in time for Houston's Model Mania this past weekend. I'm trying to catch up with
WIP photos.

Fujimi omitted quite a lot of details. Here, I made a battery tray, a hood latch base, and compression bar mounting brackets.


The parts are installed. Compared to the partially modified engine room of my another Z-car build, the new one looks much better.


I had to remove a portion of plastic for the chassis to fit properly.


G-noze version has much simpler hood hinges - only one pivot axis.
I made the hinges from brass sheet, and glued them to a piece of styrene to make the rest of the assembly easier.


The body was primed with Tamiya gray primer, white primer, followed by Model Master Daytona Yellow, which acts as the base for brighter yellow
for the Mr.K tribute, and metallic orange for another project.


Mirror was made of a combination of styrene and brass. I just pressed the back end of a hobby knife against a sheet of brass on a sponge sheet.
Then I cut the curved surface to the desired shape. The support was made of styrene.


Although not noticeable once finished, I just couldn't stand the lack of basic details on the drive axle, so I added simple pieces of plastic to simulate
the look of a joint.


Wheels were base-coated in black, and painted with Mr. Color Super Metallic Plate Silver.



Mr.K tribute was painted in Mr. Color #4 yellow. It has no hint of orange, which is exactly what I wanted, but apparently, the real car is painted in
special pearl yellow.




Once the body color was finished, I sprayed Testors Wet Look Clear Lacquer, first, a few mist coats, let it dry, then several coats of medium wet.
The body was stored in Mr. Dry Booth for overnight, and the clear was ready for sanding. I like this clear!

Then I used my usual polishing materials in the order of Novus 3, Top Compound 2000, Novus 2, and Hasegawa Ceramic Compound, each without and
with water, so it's actually eight grades of compounds.


And to get to hard-to-reach areas, I use Gaianotes Finish Master. The tip feels like some kind of hard sponge, and I can't do any polishing work without it.



I didn't take good pictures, but the surface is smooth like a mirror.


Next is interior and exterior details.

[da_ashman]

Awesome Work!!!