SAS Kaminari Celica Progress Thread

I've been working for several weeks on this SAS Kaminari Celica, and taking slides of the project for a magazine article. Today I took some digital pics of the primered body and of the first coat of paint.

Long story short, after removing the front/rear bumpers and gluing on the resin pieces, the panel lines were a bit big and I didn't do a great job of removing the front bumper, removed a bit of the hood as well. So I decided to grind down the glue joints w/my Dremel, making about a 1/8" wide trough in the areas of the panel lines. These troughs were filled w/putty, so that I could rescribe the panel lines into the putty. Why? Rescribing is difficult enough w/o having to worry about scribing plastic/glue/putty joints, it's much easier to scribe just the putty. Sounds difficult but it really made the job easier and cleaner.

Once the pieces were nearly finished, there were a few gaps in the panel lines that I filled from behind w/some epoxy putty, so it would ooze out of the front side, and I could scrape off the excess. It worked well.

Here's the car in Tamiya white primer this morning just before the first color coats:

http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Celicaprimedfront1-vi.jpg

http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Celicaprimedrear-vi.jpg

And here it is w/the first coats of Tamiya TS 58 (?) Light Blue Pearl.

http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Celicabluef-vi.jpg

http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Celicabluer-vi.jpg

Hope you enjoy! Today I'm working on lowering the suspension, fitting the XS Tuning rims, and making the end plates for a custom-fabricated GT wing that's using SAS uprights. The center of the wing is from a Viper GTS-R, matches the curve of the Celica body.

Sorry if the pics are slow to load, my album service seems really slow today.

cars lookin great.

one thing those the pics to a few seconds to load. you might want to try uploading them directly to AF

here ya go.

Click here to upload (http://www.automotiveforums.com/upload/)

keep up the good work on the model :alien:

Awesome work! You'll have to let us know which issue of Scale Auto or whatever magazine it will be in is published so we can pick it up :coolguy:

Good beginning. I build the same but without SAS kit... with a personnal kit :D.

Looks good! Ooze? :D

Originally posted by Veyron
Looks good! Ooze? :D

Yep!:D

And squished, too!;) Looked like silly putty going through the extrusion machine!

Oh, and what scribing tool did you use? Was it hard starting from a smooth surface, or did you leave a bit of the panel lines as a guide?

Looking really, really nice ! Can't wait to see some further progress!

Olivier

Coming along nicely.

looks great

Originally posted by daggerlee
Oh, and what scribing tool did you use? Was it hard starting from a smooth surface, or did you leave a bit of the panel lines as a guide?

I had to draw the panel lines in w/a pencil (using another Celica body as a guide) and then I used a curved, triangular-section riffler file to get the lines started and shaped. I sharpenened them up throughout the process before/after primer w/a pointed scribing tool (I think it's by Squadron). The traditional kind of panel line scriber, the one where you drag it along, only works on styrene. I really like using the riffler files and the pointed scribing tool.

I'm helping a friend this weekend do the same type of work on his SAS 350Z, much more work than the Celica because of the separate hood and more complicated joins between the resin and the plastic. It's his first major body modification project, and he's doing quite well. It's also going to be part of another magazine article.

Cool projects!!!:cool: Plus you guys are providing exposure for Chris, which means more kits for us!!! We ALL win in this situation!!:cool: :cool:

lookin great:sun:

Looking great Bob, really looking forward to this article you've been planning for so long;)

Thanks for the comments so far!:)

Got a chance to work on it more over the weekend, mainly getting the suspension/wheels fit which wasn't too big a hassle. The XS Tuning rims are a direct replacement for the Tamiya parts, and their brake discs are also direct replacements but you have to trim off the alignment pin on the Tamiya suspension parts. I lowered it as well using Chris's trick of cutting the upper suspension mount and adding a tubular donut to the lower mount. The rear only required one minor cut/trim to lower nicely. Everything's assembled w/fun tack right now. My GT wing just was too big/obnoxious looking for this model, the Kaminari kit and these rims aren't wild enough to support a GT wing. I wasn't happy w/it, then looked at the stock wing and it looked fine to me and my friends, so that's what it's going to be. Think I'll add blue carbon fiber stripes over the hood/roof/spoiler.

http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Fronttestassembly-vi.jpg
http://images3.fotki.com/v25/photos/1/10258/17860/Sidetestassembly-vi.jpg

Lookin' sweet! Find some cooler mirrors for it. :devil:

Originally posted by Veyron
Lookin' sweet! Find some cooler mirrors for it. :devil:

:thinkerg: alternative mirrors (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=842254#post842254)

It's looking :cool: Love the rims, they really seem to suit the Celica. Will the article be accessible via the web? Will we be able to see your friends 350Z?

This is all great for Chris and the success of SAS, the more exposure his kits get the more we're likely to see being developed :D

Originally posted by Veyron
Lookin' sweet! Find some cooler mirrors for it. :devil:

Yeah, these mirrors do tend to look like "Dumbo ears", and they don't fit very well either. I'll scratch around for something!

I like Chris's idea too, but more along the lines of oval mirrors instead. Maybe some early Miata mirrors, which have a thin mount and oval shape will work.

Originally posted by Focus2000
It's looking :cool: Love the rims, they really seem to suit the Celica. Will the article be accessible via the web? Will we be able to see your friends 350Z?

This is all great for Chris and the success of SAS, the more exposure his kits get the more we're likely to see being developed :D

Thanks for the comments! These rims look tailor-made for this car with this body kit. And the fact that they come w/big cross-drilled brake rotors that will fit the Tamiya suspension, and Tamiya-style pins molded to the rims, they fit like a glove. They are 17's, I tried some 18's but they were too big.

Time will tell w/the articles, it depends on when they get them and when they publish them. I forgot to take my digital camera over there this weekend, but when the Z gets further along I'll get some digital pics too. Right now I'm taking lots of slides since they are better suited towards publishing.

Nice job, your right about the wing though, the kanimari kit is subtle so good to go with the kit spoiler. :)

The SAS Kaminari Celica slowly comes along, today I wet polished the first coats of blue w/3200 grit in anticipation of respraying it. After polishing, I detailed all the panel lines w/my black .005 Pigma Micron pen. The black lines still show through the successive light coats of blue, looking very realistic. A few coats of clear to seal the blue, later I will add some blue carbon fiber and another round of clear.

I'm very happy w/the stance of the car, it lowered very easily (from Chris' tutorial), and the XS rims/brakes fit amazingly well. Steering still perfect. I also used some old-school GM racing style mirrors, I didn't like the "Dumbo ears" look of the stockers.

http://images3.fotki.com/v27/photos/1/10258/17860/Celicaside-vi.jpg

More coming in the next week or so!

Looking nice! Just wondering, won't the coats of clear cause the panel lines to have a glossy, unrealistic look?

Nice job.

The extra time and effort put into closing up the pannel lines makes for one sweet looking model. :bigthumb:

Great work so far! Now that I have the transkit, I gues I should go ahead and buy the Celica kit to go with it!:tongue: Thanks for sharing the progres with us!:sunglasse