Fujimi Veilside MR2 SW20 In Progress

Hi guys I thought i might get off my butt and do a quick build since its been a year since i finished one,like most im currently lacking a bit of inspiration for some of the larger projects that i had in mind.Im also teaching a couple of guys that work with me how to build car models,so im going to be as thorough as possible with this buildup, providing lotsa updates and pics time permiting,hope that you enjoy following this thread,thanks for looking :) any feedback always welcome.

Anyway this buildup is going to be Fujimi's Veiside MR2, I have mixed feelings about this actual car since im not really a big fan of Veilsides interpretation of producing the kit for the MR2,however i just love MR2's and also drive an MR2 GT so it had to be done.Im planning to build all variants of the SW20 and along with other complex projects in the future.

This kit is basically your standard Fujimi MR2 kit with the addition of 6 extra resin pieces(front/rear bar,side skirts,rear wing) and a set of veilside 18' wheels.Im not keen on the wheels that are supplied with this kit,i guess its a matter of taste.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs1.jpg

after close inspection, the resin parts are quite clean and doesnt look like its going to take a lot of cleaning up,one of my biggest pet hates are cleaning up resin,hopefully there isnt much problems with fit,fingers crossed.As far as colour im tossing up on Tamiya's Mica Red with a Tan interior,but its early days yet colour is really the last thing in my mind.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs2.jpg

Ok here goes,i thought i would start at the front end of the car,the front bar was cut with a no1 blade turned upside down scoring the lines slowly and reversing the directions at every pass,real time consuming stuff but if you try to take too much plastic off you are going to slip and gouge the plastic.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs3.jpg

Great!!! problems already looks like the front resin bar doesnt quite line up with the body!! :banghead: and i here i was thinking this was going to be a quick project.This is going to require some sheet styrene to sort out the misalignment along with a bit of extra body work.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs4.jpg

Not the start that i wanted, but will keep more pics and updates coming,thanks again for looking.

Hang in there, most Veilside (or Fujimi resin) pieces are undersized, I think it's because the resin molds they use must shrink terribly (rather than the resin itself). Go back to a thread by CADguy on his Veilside Porsche 911, he had to cut every resin piece in the middle and stretch it w/sheet plastic so it would fit. That's probably the easiest thing to do w/these parts...if they're too short, cut 'em in a way that it's the easiest to widen w/sheet material. IIRC, he had to widen both bumpers and both side skirts.

That will look nice when it done! Good luck whit that model! :bigthumb:

Man...i want this kit so bad. But its expensive. Anyway, i will be watching this build very closely and cant wait to see it done. I personally prefer the TRD widebody kit, but we dont always get what we want lol.

sorry to hear that, im having the same problems with my 300zx veilside, except the pieces were 2 mm too small, keep us posted

im going to be as thorough as possible with this buildup, providing lotsa updates and pics time permiting,hope that you enjoy following this thread

I bet I will :D

Dam I'm really like the veilside kit, Try and hang in there and do the best you can to fix it up.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one

Hi,

inspite of some starting problems this seems to be an interesting thread and nice looking model.

Micha

I'll be keeping an eye on this one
:1:

Looks like a nice project anyway. Good luck, and keep us updated!!

Great Kit.
I can easily bet that you'll do a great job here. Keep the pictures flowing and good luck with fitting.

Thanks for the encouragement guys, anyway here is a quick update,all seems to be going as planned, although encountered more some more problems as you could see from the pictures below. These Fujimi multi media kit does seem to have a lot of fit problems and will require a bit of work to make it look right. Here i was wanting a quick build, was i wrong, that said im actually having a bit of fun doing this project.


It was time to cut the side sils and part of the intake vents, again pretty boring stuff but a bit of care is required so that the panel cut is straigh otherwise the resing parts will not sit straight in the bottom of the door sills.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs5.jpg

Yay another problem!! :banghead: not as drastic as the front end but easily fixed, as you can see the resin was moulded short so i had to put in some sheet styrene to compensate for it, if left alone the door lines will not line up properly since the shape of the MR2 doors has a complex curve that leads into the side air intakes. The front of the side skirt also falls short so some more styrene is stuck on to line it up with the front wheel arch.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs6.jpg

Here it is after its been glued and with a slight sand,perfect fit, undecided if i was to scribe panel lines to separate it later on, im also filling the side molds to give the car a smooth clean line.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs10.jpg

Now to the rear end, pretty straight forward cut since it was just a straight cut, big difference compared to the standard bar, i have a few ideas that will be carrying out on this at a later stage.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs7.jpg

Well what do you know another problem! :banghead: the rear bar falls short and will require some styrene and a bit of putty work should be an easy fix.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs9.jpg

Just placed some sheet styrene here to line it up with the wheel arch, the rear back is just a fraction out so it will require a small amount of putty near the tail lights to tidy it up
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs8.jpg

damn that sucks, I hope it all turns out good in the end.

Your doing a great job, keep it going.

Mike :sunglasse

Man that blows about the body kit not fitting...it seems to be pretty common for the fujimi veilside kits though..
Any idea on rims or colour>?
Later, WIDE

Seems like you don't have a problem with fixing the problems :icon16:
I like this thread, nice progress!

I have built this kit too, and then dropped it after I had just painted it! That was the worst because I did just what you are doing and made sure the body kit was smooth and fit appropriately. Mine used to be on tinyimports.com before. Looking good so far, can't wait for it to be painted!

Don't you think that this guy just having fun giving us a hard time about kit not fitting properly... :D

He probably have it finished by now. :S

Geat work man, and quick fix.

Keep it going.

Well, you got a keen eye for details. You're really making the best out of this problem beast. It looks perfect so far. Keep it up!

Hi guys the car is now sorted and mostly cleaned up, took a little while but i think it was worth the effort im pretty happy with the results especialy the rear wheel arches and bumper alignment, it was a real mess. Its been raining heavily here in Sydney over the last 2 days so painting anything is definately out of the question :mad: hopefully i should have this in primer over the next few days.

Heres some pics of the car with different wheel combinations,my pick is the TE37's, most would say that the TE37's have been done to death but it just looks so good regardless of what car you put it on.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs11.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs12.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs13.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs14.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs15.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs16.jpg

Im still undecided to what colour to do this car, havent really thought about what sort of look i want it to have,however Im considering droping a modified low slung GT wing from scale auto style,ive got an idea rolling around my head so i will post some pics if i manage to pull off the mod.

Im also in the process of test fitting the suspension components and other parts, like my previous MR2 this will require to be lowered since this car rides like a bus.Thanks again for looking, feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Looks good. Take the original rims with a green paint job.

I like that last set of wheels, but go with what you like best! As for the rest of it, it looks magnificent. Very good work with the kit. :smile:

I had some problems with a Veilside 300zx. didnt have the time so it's in a box right now but Im thinking of getting it back out.

Dam dude it's really coming along now, I'm glad you solved the problem with the body kit.

you have done a nice job on the fit problems. i'm liking the TE-37, might look awesome with a white on white color combo.

I don't know I think you should go with the te-37 and either do them all gold or gunmetal with a silver/chrome lip.

Nice job on the fix snk33y...
Pity about the rain...sent some of it brisbane bound..
My opinion on would be a very light gunmetal with the original rims dished a little bit.
Later, Troy

i like the te37's they look pimpness on it!

Hey.. you should open a thread "how to fit problems" :)... nice work..

I´m not a big fan of Veilside body kits.. but you´re doing a god work... about paint.. i don´t know.. but.. blue could look good on it..

Cris
www.scaleimportracer.com

Hi guys, the weather has finally cleared so i was able to spray the car with Tamiya white primer, its not the most glamourous part of the build but the model's overall finish will depend on the preparation before laying down the paint. The first primer coat will always show imperfections,bumps or small scratches.

I wasnt surprised to see that the surface was still a far from perfect, i wanted to give the car a clean look so i puttied up the side strips that runs through the side of the car. After the primer was laid down it was ovious that i didnt do this properly in some areas.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs17.jpg

After looking over the model i wasnt really happy the way the front end looked it just looked too long, i think this front end wasnt to scale it also looked plain. I decided to put the car under the knife again and cut out the retractable lights just to break it up a bit and was considering giving the car a "sleepy eyed" look.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs18.jpg

Looking at the car for sometime i still wasnt quite happy so i decided to have a bit of a dig around my parts box and found some neat projector light housing, it was from an NSX by memory, i found some spare brake discs and calipers which should look nice and will complement the TE37 wheels that will be used on this car.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs19.jpg

I also added some sheet styrene to break up the huge mouth on the front bar,never been a big fan of the huge gaping front mouth on the veilside kits,simple adition of this piece makes it look better, the radiator now looks right before this modification the radiator leaves a huge gap in between.
http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs22.jpg

This build up wasnt really suppose to get this complex but early fit problems made it so, but im really enjoying it. Thanks again for the feedback and encouragement, will try to post as much info and pics every few days.

Hey man thats is awesome progress, i like what u did to the front bumper. Makes it look soooooooooo much better. i really think you should go with the rims that came with the kit, i dunno lol i just really like them. Oh btw can i buy the projector light housings somewhere? like sepratly?

nice touch! i always thought the front looked longer than it should on mine. very creative with the lights and bumper. i really would like to see this completed.

yeh i know what you mean about the long nose, my 300zx is the same way, way to out of scale. I see some nice progress, nice thinkin on the lights to, will give it more depth.

This is coming along great! Very impressed with all the little things you've done to make it come along so nicely. Fujimi kits require a little finagling, but it looks like you've got it under control. Keep it up, I am very looking forward to seeing this complete.

Hey man thats is awesome progress, i like what u did to the front bumper. Makes it look soooooooooo much better. i really think you should go with the rims that came with the kit, i dunno lol i just really like them. Oh btw can i buy the projector light housings somewhere? like sepratly?

Thanks :) The front bar on this kit looked wrong, it was too long and the mouth way too wide, so i just couldnt resist to alter it, it was a quick mod but it made a whole lot of difference to the way the front end looked. I was also looking into integrating some turn signal lenses mounted in the front bar but still tinkering on this idea.

I was thinking the same with the wheels, I would have only used them if i had some pegasus aluminium sleeves and dish them out, but as is i wasnt happy the way they looked so i had to stick with the TE37's,still early days yet once i have this thing painted i might change my mind.

The projector light housing is from a Tamiya Mobil NSX kit,im sure you can order the sprue set direct from them.

that looks beautiful

great progress so far, the front end look's much better with the styrene sheet in the middle :thumbsup:

Just another quick update, unfortunately this is another non glamourous part of this build. Today im working on the suspension setup, Most of you guys out there who has built either a Fujimi or Hasegawa knows that its not uncommon for their kits to have a very high ride height, personally i dont like my cars riding like a bus especially if you drop in a set of 18' wheels. I just want to share my technique of lowering the suspension which will work with most Fujimi kits and can also be applied to suit other kits as well

The first pic below shows the MR2's interior and suspension in its test fit stage, the first thing that you notice is the front end's ride height compared to the rear end is just way too high so a little bit of surgery is required here.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs20.jpg

This shot shows that suspension is so high that you can see the coils and struts,even my MR2 in real life dont ride this high, sometimes i wonder why Fujimi does this.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs21.jpg

This is really a simple mod, first thing is i measure approx how much i want to drop the car, in this instance around 2.5-3mm will just tuck the wheels slightly under the guards. I cut the tops of the strut and inserted some brass tubing to replace the old stub which goes into chassis, make sure that you are precise here, use a digital or a decent vernier caliper to measure it up correctly otherwise the car wont sit flat when you re assemble the suspension.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs23.jpg

Once you cut the tops of the struts you will also need to sleeve the bottom part of the hub carrier otherwise it will just float around, just cut a bit of brass and insert and glue in place,thats it the car has been lowered in place. While test fitting i also wanted to give the car a slight negative camber so i heated the bottom suspesion arm and bend it a fraction.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs24.jpg

Now its time to mount the brake and caliper assembly, this was out a Tamiya kit where the polycaps are not mounted in the wheel, so i had to drill out the centres of tthe brotors out to accomodate the Fujimi wheels.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs25.jpg

After all the mods this is how the car sits with the wheels and suspension looks,not too low but not too high, the tops of the rubber is nicely tucked under the guards.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs26.jpg

Anyway still working through a few other things and making good progress, hope im not boring you guys with the details, i know that the suspension and tiny fidly stuff is mind numbing to read but i just want to make this project as detail as possible so that the new guys that im teaching produce decent results.

More pics and updates soon, i usually do every 2 days,thanks again for the encouragement and feedback all is appreciated. Cheers and thanks for looking!! :smile:

This is looking really good - great job on the tutorials they are really helpful and understanding. Did you decide on a final colour???

Wow thats all I can say about it man WOW, Yea did you decide a final color? What are the rims going to be?

where do u get those brass tubing and what sizes did u use? btw very nice progress!

where do u get those brass tubing and what sizes did u use? btw very nice progress!

The brass tubing is made by K&S, they sell an an assorted bulk pack which consist of aluminium,brass,copper offcuts this will last you ages, its a must if you are fabricating exhaust or any sort of scratch building. it cost approx $12.00AUD

They were 2mm brass rods not sure what that converts to inches. The progress of this project has been surprisingly smooth even though the start was far from ideal.

I think the detailed prescription is perfect and I really like to read it. Usually nobody tells any details like this. I think lots of guys can learn from this, myself included. Continue the way you post your progress! I think that more people should do it like this. I'll be following this thread closely!

I think the detailed prescription is perfect and I really like to read it. Usually nobody tells any details like this. I think lots of guys can learn from this, myself included. Continue the way you post your progress! I think that more people should do it like this. I'll be following this thread closely!

:iagree:

Maybe you could make an extra thread about the lowering and put it to the "How To"s.

Great progress so far!!.. so.. you see why i didn´t like veilside body kits to much.. it´s too big.. but.. you did a good job!!.. it gets much better now!!

keep going !!

Cris
www.scaleimportracer.com

Hey, nice tutorial.
Great build

This thread is what great modelling is all about!! :sunglasse Thanks for sharing.:)

I am really enjoying this build. Thanks for the explanation on the lowering, etc. I have bought this kit also, and can appreciate how frustrating it is for the resin parts being small. With reference to pictures from Veilside's website, I agree with the front being too long. I think that Fujimi got a bit lazy and used the front from the Fairlady Veilside kit.

Hope to see this finished, and keep up the great work.

I am really enjoying this build. Thanks for the explanation on the lowering, etc. I have bought this kit also, and can appreciate how frustrating it is for the resin parts being small. With reference to pictures from Veilside's website, I agree with the front being too long. I think that Fujimi got a bit lazy and used the front from the Fairlady Veilside kit.

Hope to see this finished, and keep up the great work.


Im glad that you are enjoying following this project hearing such response like yours and the others keeps me motivated to keep on going.The lowering technique i use in this buildup is what i use on a lot of Fujimi kits, i just wish they would make their kits with decent ride height, Tamiya has got it pretty spot on,while Hasegawa is the worst, my hasegawa lancer was riding so high that it lookes like a hummer lol.

I was thinking the same thing, im sure thats what Fujimi did its very close to the Nissan kit, i was tempted to mill down the nose but the amount of stuffing around with fit problems was enough to keep me busy.

Im glad that you are enjoying following this project hearing such response like yours and the others keeps me motivated to keep on going.The lowering technique i use in this buildup is what i use on a lot of Fujimi kits, i just wish they would make their kits with decent ride height, Tamiya has got it pretty spot on,while Hasegawa is the worst, my hasegawa lancer was riding so high that it lookes like a hummer lol.

I was thinking the same thing, im sure thats what Fujimi did its very close to the Nissan kit, i was tempted to mill down the nose but the amount of stuffing around with fit problems was enough to keep me busy.

I agree again with Fujimi's ride height issues. I'm sure that Fujimi's problem is that they use parts from older kits in order to make up the parts for a supposedly 'new tooling'. They will only make new parts as and when they need to. They sometimes even slip in parts that 'resemble' parts on the picture they choose to use for the box art. Although I uderstand that they are saving manufacturing costs (and it probably explains how they have so many new releases compared to Tamiya), I still feel cheated when I buy a kit and find that only 50% is 'new'.

I think Tamiya is the best, no doubt. However, I do feel that sometimes that their road going versions have too much tyre compared to the amount of wheel.

Hasegawa's wheels have got to be the smallest!!

Aoshima is probably the next best to Tamiya IMO.

Just Another quick update, progress has slowed a bit since im still cleaning up the body,I keep finding imperfections so spent a bit more time sanding and filling depressions on the body, she should be ready for its final coat of primer tomorrow,hopefully its sunny on the weekend so i can finally paint the body, I still cant decide on the color but im starting to swing to Tamiya's Italian Red since i dont really have a lot of red cars.


In between sanding and filing i kept looking at the rear end and i wasnt quite happy by the way it looked it lacked something. The rear bar just wasnt interesting to look at.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs27.jpg

Over the last few days i wasnt sure what sort of theme i was going to go with on this project, since i was thinking interior colours, i was looking at giving it a tan interior to give it that leather luxy look but with the lines of the body kit i wasnt so sure, so i decided that i was going to give this a JTCC/F1 style interior with plenty of metalics and carbon inside. That said figured i would fabricate an F1 style diffuser to wrap down the rear bar.

Below are pictures of the mocked up rear diffuser with its twin exhaust tips,im still to fabricate the mufflers but you get the idea of what its going to look like. This is still on its early stage of design and im going to add a few elements to the centre probably mesh,wire or styrene strips. I was toying of the idea to run the exhaust through the middle where ive cut the hole but decided not to do this, its most likely that i will replace it with vents instead.

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs28.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs29.jpg

http://www.modelautosports.com/images/pics/vs30.jpg

What do you guys think? funny how this project has turned out lol this was suppose to be a quick out of the box build but its getting outa control :screwy: but im really enjoying the buildup. Thanks again for looking, will update in the next few days,hope you guys are finding this project informative. Cheers!

i think the diffuser looks great. definatly make it CF for the finshed product.

All i can say is excellent work...and its lookin gorgeous...

Fujimi has made the rear bumper larger than that of the actual car. The diffuser is a great idea to 'busy up' the rear end. Go for it, I think I make have to hijack this idea when I eventually get round to building my one.

Look forward to more progress.

this really a great job, i will think about this kit in coming month

WOW it's really coming along now cant wait for more progress.

Fujimi has made the rear bumper larger than that of the actual car. The diffuser is a great idea to 'busy up' the rear end. Go for it, I think I make have to hijack this idea when I eventually get round to building my one.

Look forward to more progress.

Yeah it shows,you can tell straight away once you have it next to the stock bumper. The diffuser thats currently on it is only a quick mock up, i have something in my head thats a bit more elaborate. Im also continuing the diffuser past the transmission giving chasis a flat bottom.

The exhaust tips seems large, I might scale it down a fraction, i guess it will depend on how it all looks visually once all the bits are in place. Your more than welcome to hijack this idea when you build yours, thats why im trying to make this post as detailed as possible hopefully,people might get something out of it.

man your work is awsome great job just makes my jaw drop everytime i see this thread!

This is an amazing build...inspiring. I really like the modifications to the bumpers, especially the rear difffuser. It does a lot to break up the lines of the Veilside kit. Keep it up!