Auster racer project

This is just :screwy: From an ugly car comes such beauty :eek7: :smokin:

:bigthumb:

What kind of 1:1 toy did you pick up?

Another old Datsun for my collection :iceslolan This ones a 1962 Bluebird wagon. The car was driven over land from Australia to Norway in 1972 and has not been used since. It still has the Queensland licencse plates! It's very rare and certainly the only one in the UK now.

Not sure how many I have now but this is certainly the oldest. The newest is a 1989 Nissan Sunny ZX twin cam (N13). I used to have a Primera (P10) and a 1999 Micra (K11) but they were not much fun so the've gone :grinno:

I should stick to collecting models they are much easier to store :rofl:

We Brits have the best style I think :iceslolan . You've made th best of two kits there one was too dull and one was too wild, I like the rear end and the way you filled in the Testarossa style side slats avoiding a completely boy racer style look. Nice.

You're completely crazy ! I want to see it finished !
:screwy: :eek7: :screwy:

Now comes the problem. I haven't got a 1/24 one!
This kit could help http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/plamo/index_e.asp?Bno=&Typ1_c=102

You're completely crazy ! I want to see it finished !
:screwy: :eek7: :screwy:

Quite possible:bloated: And if not now I will be by the time it's done :jump3:

This kit could help http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/plamo/index_e.asp?Bno=&Typ1_c=102

That like only seems to take me to the front page, however I did a search and they do list the High Power Unit Skyline but are out of stock :shakehead

We Brits have the best style I think :iceslolan . You've made th best of two kits there one was too dull and one was too wild, I like the rear end and the way you filled in the Testarossa style side slats avoiding a completely boy racer style look. Nice.

The trouble I have is the kits of cars I like are all old and rather crap. They are usually motorised and have no decent detail. I don't think either of the two kits I used would have been much good built out of the box.

Yeah, had to ditch those vents :iceslolan There were some bits of 80's auto styling that are best forgotton :evillol:

IMHO, the vents look good on a Ferrari, and a Ferrari only. So, filling them was a damn good idea, have you thought of dual exhaust on here?

Hey ratdat, looks to be coming along well! I have a question for you. That white, yellow and black S12 with the super nasty deep wheels. Is there a way to get that kit? and those wheels? :smile: Thanks!

IMHO, the vents look good on a Ferrari, and a Ferrari only. So, filling them was a damn good idea, have you thought of dual exhaust on here?

I'm a little undecided about this. Theoretically on a race car like this it should exit through the side skirt but I'm not sure I have room to do so. Even if I do take it out the rear it will be a single exhaust though. From an accuracy poiint of view that would be correct. If I was doing it as a road car it'd be twin pipes for sure :evillol:

or if it were the V6, twin pipes would be nice. I hear ya, I'm using sheathed wire (bendable and stays put) on the skyline from the turbo to the muffler replicating 2 and 3/4'' exhaust, no back pressure whatsoever, crazy huh :screwy:

Hey ratdat, looks to be coming along well! I have a question for you. That white, yellow and black S12 with the super nasty deep wheels. Is there a way to get that kit? and those wheels? :smile: Thanks!

I've never seen a model of the S12 but you can get the S110 version that was raced before it. The S110 is still a Silvia, just and earlier model. Aoshima make a kit of it and it still has those wheels although the rears are huge 19" monsters and the fronts 17" I think.
I have one of these kits and it looks like it'll make an awesome model. Here it is unpainted...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911my_silvia_racer.jpg

Here's what a complete one would look like...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911S110slivia.jpg

Aoshima also do the Nissan Gazelle version of this car but this might have mesh type wheels instead of the Hoshino Racing type....

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911S110gazelle.jpg

HLJ list the Silvia (http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?AOS30912) as being in stock. They also list the Gazelle (http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?AOS32046) as well as the silhouette Bluebird (http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?AOS19351) and Skyline (http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?AOS28681) but none are listed as being in stock. :disappoin

Don't know how I missed this thread.Absoleutly stunning work.Although the new engine does look a bit small.Have you considered putting 4 individual cars on it?

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/NetHenry5/engine_nissan_sr20.jpg

Damn! :eek7: That's a sexy SR20..I wouldn't mind that in my 1:1 car :iceslolan

I looked at using carbs (side draughts) but I figured by the time I've made a custom efi intake and the turbo setup with all the plumbing it'll probably fill more of the engine bay. The four cylinder does look kinda small in there...almost out of scale but the Auster is supposedly 1/24, the chassis from the Revell 510 is 1/25 and the engine is 1/24. The engine is Tamiya so I'd think that was correct at least :iceslolan

I still haven't decided wether I'm totally happy with this set-up. I might end up going for an entirely scratch built engine. If I do that it's be an Nissan LZ20B like this, only turbo :evillol: ...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911lz20bsm.jpg

no turbo, go all motor. Seen this on a mid 90's civic hb the car is gold, looks clean, 2'' lowering, 16'' rims, very nice car. The sticker on the back said: All Motor Baby!

no turbo, go all motor. Seen this on a mid 90's civic hb the car is gold, looks clean, 2'' lowering, 16'' rims, very nice car. The sticker on the back said: All Motor Baby!

Hehe, I do track days in my Datsun 510 and that's non-turbo but will kick the ass of a lot of modern turbo stuff... and it's even better that it'll do it without a turbo :iceslolan :iceslolan Torque + light weight is a winner every time :bigthumb:

The only reason I'd kind of like to stay turbo on the Auster is the Group 5 race cars of that era were. Those Silhouette cars like the Silvia and Skyline were 2.0L but put out nearly 570bhp...Awesome for the early eighties, especially when the engine is based on a 1967 dessign :eek7:

then make you a turbo out of the stuff I used to make my exhaust pipe, 12 gage 20 amp house wire, It should be sheathed 2 x's with 2 wires in single sheaths, then wraped with another sheath, peel the first sheet and make that turbo.

SENSATIONAL!!! cant believe that i missed this thread, the attention to detail and engineering is brilliant, its great to see something unique and way off left field,this give me a good inside on how to plan a major project, have you logged how many hours so far that you have poured into this model??keep up the good work!

Hey, RATDAT, btw, what color is this car gona be when it's ready for paint, or have you decided on that paint scheme??

The main colour will be black with greenish-gold bits like the Nissan March in the background here..

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911127-2774_img.jpg

I have got a bit of an update. I put priming the body on hold for a while as I fugured I still have to handle it quite a bit until the chassis and suspension are done. I started work on the suspension today. The first thing I did, which is rather a major change at this stage.... was i mover the front wheel arches up the body by about 4mm. This allows me to get the front much lower to the ground and keeps the angles of the lower suspension arms correct (I'm getting carried away with the accuracy maybe? :screwy: :rofl: )
This mod meant I had to find some narrower rims for the front as they touched the inner wing in front of the strut tower. This wasn't much of a bother as I needed to have slicks on it anyway and didn't have any to fit the old rims. I now have some nice fat RS Watanabes, only painted silver rather than the usual black. I added some valve stems to them as well. The front sits nice and low now. I think I'll build some kind of diffuser under the rear end.

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_071.jpg http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_072.jpg

A rummage through the parts bin found me everything i need for building the suspension. A C10 Skyline crossmember and swaybar for the front and the same car donates it's diff and suspension arms for the rear. The front struts are from a Fujimi R33 Skyline. I'll replace the brakes with the Brembos shown in the pic below. I'm cutting off the strut legs and making my own from aluminium tubing. the spring in the pic is 20A fuse wire. I'll make the rear springs too. I also have to make the rear crossmember and some suspension mounting brackets so it's off to my LHS tomorrow (not very local unfortunately..a 35 mile round trip :disappoin ) for some supplies :iceslolan

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_073.jpg

You know that'll look damn good on that car. I bought a ford probe (don't laff) that I wanted Rs wantanabes on, my LHS had them, so I bought them. Come to find out, 2 rims had the deepest dish I've seen, put it this way, imagine a 1/24 scale 15'' wide rim with the offset in the front. That's how they were, so I converted it to rwd. Long story short, those deep rear wheels will look better than the ones you have on now, just my :2cents:

Here's a pic, sorry so blurry, no macro-mode on my cam

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/5/web/449000-449999/449738_75_full.jpg

But as you can tell, it's a pretty deep dish.

It's so AWESOME! I love it!

It looks beautiful. WOW!

The main colour will be black with greenish-gold bits like the Nissan March in the background here..

HOORAY! That's going to look awesome. But with all the incredible detail work you're throwing into it, you could paint it absolutely any color and it would look great. I'm really impressed with how well it's coming along, I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical after your first couple posts. Like snk33y said it's very interesting to see this thing go through all these stages of buildup. It doesn't look like you planned it a lot at the start, but you're planning the hell out of it now!

Oh, and it just occured to me, letting the exhaust out the sideskirt shouldn't be too hard. You'd have to cut the undercarriage a lot, but you could run it in a recesses portion of the floorboard, taking a cue from the R34 Skylines they race these days. I don't know much about the racers in the '80's but I can't imagine them doing something much different. And running the exhaust out that would continue with your incredible attention to detail and the racing heritage this car is being birthed from.

Keep it up! I can't wait to see this car finished.

Oh, and it just occured to me, letting the exhaust out the sideskirt shouldn't be too hard. You'd have to cut the undercarriage a lot, but you could run it in a recesses portion of the floorboard, taking a cue from the R34 Skylines they race these days. Keep it up! I can't wait to see this car finished.

I did that with a probe RWD drift car, before I trashed it.

wow now that its all one color it looks great that takes a lotta time to do sumthin like that, very fine work :evillol:

Hi again :naughty: I haven't been able to get on here and read the new posts for a few days as I've been too busy but I figured before I dive into catching up on everything I'd post an update.

Progress is fairly slow but steady. I've been working on the front suspension. I started with the front crossmember and lower arm assembly from the Tamiya KPGC10 Skyline. I didn't like the way it was moulded ...in particular the junction between the suspension arm and the crossmember itself. So I carefully carved away the plastic and I think the result looks much more realistic...here you can see one side done for comparison...

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_075.jpg

Next I started on the struts. I've done one side so far. I started with struts from a Fujimi 180SX kit. I sanded the rotor and caliper away and then cut away the rest of the back plate. The strut leg was replaced with some aluminium tube with a little collar of slightly larger tube slipped over for a spring seat. The spring is 20A fuse wire as is the shock absorber piston rod. The top mount is made from different diameter bits of aluminium tube glued inside each other.

I used the PE rotors from SAS (very nice!) but wanted to use the nice Brembo calipers that come moulded onto the drilled rotor set that comes with Fujimi wheel sets. This was an absolute nightmare to do :banghead: as I had to cut two of them away from the moulded rotors and join them together to make one caliper. The hard bit was carving the backs of them to form a slot for the rotor to run in as before glueing the halves together. They are really hard to hold as they are so small but with plenty of fresh scalpel blades and care it worked. Amazingly I didn't slice any fingers! The result is the rotors ...rotate! :naughty: All that's left to do is trim the steering arm joint down to a realistic size! I might do a how-to on the rotating rotors when I do the other side if anyone is interested as it used common easy to get parts and is based on the very common Fujimi struts. It's not painted yet but here's the results so far...

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_077.jpghttp://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_076.jpg

Oh yeah, and before anyone says anything... I know the rotor is on the wrong side :iceslolan ... I was so busy working on getting it to go together and work I never noticed until I was done. Luckily as I haven't painted it the rotor isn't glued to the center pin yet!
Now, I better go and get reading the rest of the posts:iceslolan

Wow great work. This is coming along well and keeps looking more amazing! :iceslolan

nice rotor, looks so realistic.

It's always a great pleasure to read up on your awesome, and meticulous progress.

I love al the mods you r doing and as an extra which is commonly forgot while doing modifications to modelcars, yu DO respect the authenticity and accuracy!
This is just a stunning piece of (I shall not call it modeling , because that might be a diminuitive in this case) Engineering.

And about the rotating rotors, I would love to see a how-to about it, but first make sure you finish this baby!

It's gorgeous!

Olivier
(and thanks for the elaborate updates! I love them)

I agree with everything Olivier and Willimo have said so far!! :sunglasse Simply awesome!!!

man this has been such a joy to follow along on such a cool and interesting project. all the work is very professional and you can really get a sense of just how much appreciation you have for this car through your attention to detail. I personally think the FJ20ET looks great and I would love to see you knock out a cool custom turbo application for it.

that SAS brake kit looks stunning....i will have to buy a set as soon as i get a kit that needs some decent brakes.

this car is going to be a beauty when its finished. unique as well. :iceslolan

i cant wait to see what you are going to do next to this baby

Haven't seen much about this lately, any new updates?

Haven't seen much about this lately, any new updates?

I'll post one in a couple of days. I finished making the struts but won't be painting them yet... not until I have a few other bits ready for paint anyway. I'll hopefully have the interior side panels made by Wednesday evening and maybe the roll cage too.. :naughty:

I too a break from it for a few days to restore a Tommy Kaira M30 Skyline (R31). I started it a few years ago but had a bit of a paint reaction with some kind of pearl laquer I was trying so I abandonded it. I finally got round to sorting the body and painting it properly. I did the decals last night and I'm just about to clear coat it. It should be 99% finished tomorrow evening so I'll post some pics of it.

I've got about ten projects including those shown below on the go at the moment so some of them will be some time in the making :lol: I've got four that are about 95% finished so I'll probably end up getting a load of them finished at the same time shortly :iceslolan

Cool Cool. I am in no way rushing you. I have a bunch of stuff on the go. They have all bottle-necked at the painting stage, as it is too cold to paint out in the garage.

Cool Cool. I am in no way rushing you. I have a bunch of stuff on the go. They have all bottle-necked at the painting stage, as it is too cold to paint out in the garage.
OT: Can you post a thread of your mid-engined silverado, Bong?

OT: Can you post a thread of your mid-engined silverado, Bong?

Yea, I will post a thread about it after Xmas when I have a digital camera, lol. It isn't a Silverado tho, it's a mid 80s Chevy Pick-up.

C10 something like that, ok after x-mas. That's cool.

Awesome work.

Great progress thread Eddie.
You’re doing a superb work and I just can’t wait to see this one finished.

An update! :iceslolan

I finally got on with finishing the interior side panels off. Well, I say finished..they are 90% finished..they still require some sanding and smoothing before I glue them to the chassis.

I used a service manual and a photo I took of one I restored to get the general positions of the holes etc in the interior panels. I made a side panel from sheet styrene, scanned it then in paint shop overlaid the bits of the images from the manual and photo. I then printed that out 1:1 and used it as a template. I modified the design a little in the final stages but I wanted to use the real car to get the general look right.

I then cut them from two sheets of styrene which were then laminated together. I'm quite pleased with the effect so far. I have to make the door opener levers and the actuator rods yet. I also modified the rear firewall and reinforced the center tunnel in the floor as it was a little weak there. The exhaust now runs out under the side skirt too. here's some pics...

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_1111.jpg

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_1112.jpg

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_0889.jpg

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_0889.jpg
That's what I wanted to see!!!!!! Superb job on the door panels. mind me to never buy this car, seeing as it has no good holes in the door panel for a pioneer 100watt 6.5'' full-range speaker. The ones in my corolla (door holes) were just large enough to fit the speakers. Your gona have a tough time with the rod, I'd just not make it, but it's your build, might be less tough than I think!

EDIT*** did you see the update on my r31?? I took some tuded' pics.

Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick.

The level of detail and accuracy you're reaching for are uncanny, and that you're achieving said level is incredible.

I can't help but be impressed each time I look at that door panel.

WOW! I am glad to see we share our passion for in-scale-detail :)

I hate you. You made me cuss on Christmas. Those door panels are insane. Insane!! The first time I saw them I thought they were real, the second time I thought they were real, the third time I noticed the paint jars in the background, and expletives ensued. I cannot, cannot, cannot! voice how impressive that is to me. I was planning on doing two-sheet-laminated-hole-cut door panels for my RX-7 but it was going to be arbitrary, simple, and just enought "to look right." Now I hate you more because you've raised the bar. I doubt I could do that, but I want to! Those are insane. They took my breath away! Seriously! Ok, enough brown nosing, I have to go hide under the bed now. Your detail and accuracy is freaking me out.

And you're going to add the actuator bars and levers? Insane! Those are incredible.

Edit: Oh my goodness I can't beleive them.

Edit again: Still can't belive them. Can't.

Edit two hours later: I... uh, yeah, still can't beleive them. Yarr! I am a pirate.

I hate you. You made me cuss on Christmas. Those door panels are insane. Insane!! The first time I saw them I thought they were real, the second time I thought they were real, the third time I noticed the paint jars in the background, and expletives ensued. I cannot, cannot, cannot! voice how impressive that is to me. I was planning on doing two-sheet-laminated-hole-cut door panels for my RX-7 but it was going to be arbitrary, simple, and just enought "to look right." Now I hate you more because you've raised the bar. I doubt I could do that, but I want to! Those are insane. They took my breath away! Seriously! Ok, enough brown nosing, I have to go hide under the bed now. Your detail and accuracy is freaking me out.

And you're going to add the actuator bars and levers? Insane! Those are incredible.

Edit: Oh my goodness I can't beleive them.

Edit again: Still can't belive them. Can't.


Ahhh... yeah,,, what he said. :iceslolan

Those door panels are better than any model I've ever done! I'm through modelling for a long time!!

hey dude, you should make door for money! lol...

those door panels are bangin, and i want one in my car

:iagree::iagree::iagree: Hey, guy! You managed to make us dream with such a project! It's not a supercar, it's not a Ferrari, and more than that it's not a Skyline! lol!
How incredible!

:worshippy:worshippy:worshippy That's all I have to say!!!! :biggrin: Blessed are you! :icon16:

Amazing! Definatly "Best of Show" material.

JeFF

This project is coming along great. Those interior door panels are superb, thats something i've wanted to do on a project for so long now but a lack of refference makes it difficult. The refference you have and knowledge of the car makes all the difference for something like that.

Bump

Where'd you go? I miss you. And by "you" I mean the Auster... of course.

That makes two of us..

Life's thrown up a few problems of late which has kept me away from the models but I have still managed to do some work on them. The Auster's interior panels are fitted and trimmed and I started on the cage. That's done apart from the upper front section. It looks pretty nice at present. I'll upload some pics after I prime and paint it. I've yet to build the mounting for the steering column...that will be some kind of "V" brace from the cage. There's still a few parts of the chassis to complete before it's ready for paint such as the radiator support panel and slam panel.

The DR30 Skyline kit I'd hoped would donate an engine didn't so I'm back on with the scratch build. The kit did have a nice Bride seat (with decal)in it though which I'm sure will find a home in another model :iceslolan

I've also now got some p/e detail parts for it such as hood pins, wipers, harnesses as well as various wires and hoses.

Pics soon :naughty:

thought the car had an engine Eddie, the skyline that is? Oh well, drop an RB26 in it and say fudge it. j/k. hope your paint turns out well, which I'm sure it is, and keep your lids peeled, the blitz 4dr drift machine will be up soon, done with half of the decals!

Okay, here's a bit of an update :evillol:

Here's where I'm at now. The body needs a few defects sorting then it's a quick sand and re-prime in white primer....

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1828.JPG

The interior panels are fitted and the rear shelf has been modified somewhat. I've done most of the cage too. This is made from a chopped up Tamiya JTCC Primera cage ( it was too long and too wide to fit straight in) and some styrene rods. I still have to add a few bars and make the bars that run up the screen pillars (I couln't do those until the dash was done). I'll add some padding when it's fitted for the final time...

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1836.JPG

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1838.JPG

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1839.JPG

I made a dash from some styrene. I will be adding a secondary instrument panel between the dash and the top of the tunnel. I have yet to add the steering column support as I have to convert the Revell 510 steering box to RHD. I will be making the instuments and switches as separate pieces...

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1837.JPG

On the chassis I have added the radiator support panel. This, again is made from styrene sheet. It was impossible to exactly copy the one on the rear car as the profile was just too complicated and in light of the fact that most of it won't be visible when it's assembled I decided to simplify it a little....

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1833.JPG

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1835.JPG

I have modified the original grille too. The Auster grille on the model box art is the high spec version complete with extra driving lights.

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/0910_001.jpg

I figured this wouldn't be right for a race car as the presence of the lights would limit the available grille opening (and be unneccesary weight). Also the grille in the kit was so badly molded that the center area where there should be thin horizontal bars was totally smooth! :eek7: So, I carefully cut the center out of the grille and made a new center for it to match the lower spec grille. The damned thing was very fragile once the center was out! This was just made from styrene , the bars are cut with a razor saw. This will be a pain to paint as the grille surround is graphite, the bars black, the headlight surrounds are silver and there's fine chrome bits that will be BMF :banghead: I've also made some reflector bowls for the headlights from some milliput. These will be BMF'd and polished before fitting. I'll take some pics of them when they are done as the putty hasn't set yet.

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/grille.jpg

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1830.JPG

Finally, I am thinking of using these Technoracing TV-R rims as they are very period looking and have semi race tyres on them (they look like Advan A008R's). The centers will be painted. What do you all think?

http://www.ratdat.com/auster/100_1831.JPG

thought the car had an engine Eddie, the skyline that is? Oh well, drop an RB26 in it and say fudge it. j/k. hope your paint turns out well, which I'm sure it is, and keep your lids peeled, the blitz 4dr drift machine will be up soon, done with half of the decals!

So did I. It has an opening hood but no engine! :banghead: It's an Aoshima kit..this one...

http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/105911aos_rsx.jpg

I wanted the kit anyway to replace the awful body in the Fujimi Group A Tomica race Skyline kit so it's not too disappointing. I'll be using the Fujimi decals on this one. It also came with two sets of wheels and some other goodies.

The Auster may yet be in a completely different color scheme to that which I originally planned as I have a few new ideas :naughty: :naughty:

I agree with those wheels compared to the RS Watanabes. The Watanabes just looked too spindly under that bulky body.

The car still looks spectacular. It's going to be one for the ages once it's done.

looks good eddie. nice cage, what rod size you used? I find .100 rod works the best for me. those rims look hot under there, go with them they have a deep look in the bak.