Mitsubishi FTO

Fujimi kit, one of the best looking Japanese cars design, I think.
Planning to build the late model GP version R, but I will have difficulties with decals.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01904.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01905.jpg

Apparently if I start drilling holes through the front bumper I will lose the front chassis-body mounts, so the first thing that needs work are new mounting points. These mounts uses the space directly above stock points.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01906.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01907.jpg

Ah, very rare subject...the FTO.

i'll be watching this...

I like the FTO.
Good luck with the project!

so next the FTO gets the treatment?

Should be enthralling, no less.


A masterwork in the making. Such attention, and skill.

Thanks for the kind words guys!

The center hole has been opened.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01908.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01909.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01911.jpg
Added the inside wall to give the hole some "thickness" before applying putty of any kind. The kit had the early model front lip engraved on the lower front bumper, which I now removed with a carving knife.
These are basically just the opening steps to prepare the body for milliput tomorrow.

be carefull about the lights.. they are horrible...

Thanks, I will keep an eye on that!

Side holes (fog lights, signal lights) opened. With the styrene tubes installed it should be easier to sand when the time comes to shaping the entire bumper, especially the inside of the tubes
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01912.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01913.jpg

Impressing job so far, nice mods!
May I ask you what size of tubes are you using?

The tubes are Evergreen brand, 5mm outer diameter, 1mm thickness, so holes are now 3mm. I don't have exact measurements of the real car light sockets so I only eyeballed them in pictures.
The process of drilling holes to fit those tubes were pretty risky, There were huge amount of twisting force on the body when the drill bits bit on the jagged plastic and tried to spin the whole car over while I was holding it.

First layer of putty applied, the center hole will need some major filing since I can't smooth the putty out with my fingers, and it's getting late at night.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01914.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01915.jpg

yeeaah!

Brilliant idea with the tubing to preserve the inner portions of the bumper.

Keep it going.

Thanks for the answer, keep this good work up, mate!

Frist layer of grey primer:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01916.jpg

Second layer of grey primer after second layer of milliput
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01922.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC01923.jpg

Now trying to get the inner wall of the center hole the right and symmetrical shape.

Almost there, I think.

Hopefully the center hole looks symmetrical enough.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02049.jpg
Headlight lenses now have a better fit with the putty work done.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02051.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02052.jpg

The rear wing was made with absolutely no measurements, but every attempt was made to make sure both ends are symmetrical. The assembly was very fragile.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02053.jpg

With life got on the way of modelling this past month and death(read: back to school!!) getting in the way in the coming few days I really have to pray to get this done before the end of this year. I had thought many times to cut corners on this project but in the end I figured it's not worth it to save a day or two on body work. The result was spending 1.5 months on a front bumper and rear spoiler mod :banghead:

Excellent progress! Keep it up! :thumbsup:

Somehow when I clicked on this topic,something like "This is going to be COOL" ran through my mind! :screwy:

And yeh,I was right! ;)

It looks awesome!!

The FTO is now in white!

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02060.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02061.jpg

Also completed printing of the VERSION-R decals.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02059.jpg

The quality is nothing compared to what's inside the original box but about shouldn't look too shabby once put on and clear over. Body will get cleared once all decals get applied.

look at that front end! Very nice.

Always a joy to see you work on a kit. beautiful work!

Just wanted to say you've done a fantastic job on the front bumper. I really wish I could work with putty like you do. It now looks a lot better. Also, do you mean that the rear wing was scratch built? Fits the car very well! Can't wait to see more and what wheels you might choose.

Clear coated.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02062.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02063.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02064.jpg

Good thing I printed 3 times as much of the decals I needed because upon some experimentations 3 of them were destroyed while 2 were put onto a testing body.
The process of printing diy decals were not very complicated. Use photoshop or similar to draw out the graphic, or google an image to use as a base. After resizing the image, use decal paper (I used Testors)to print out the work with the printer's best settings. The resulting paper needs a protective clear and flexible coating applied on top of the ink(Microscale makes a clear decal film). On my previous projects I found that brushing on the film has a high chance of eating away the printer ink and it makes the resulting decal very thick and has a tendency to peel. (the film at one side of decal shrinks over time making the entire decal curl outward) I was told long time ago that applying the clear decal film using an airbrush will "kill" the airbrush itself. This time I tried applying the decal film using an airbrush and the results were much better. Full protection of the decals while remaining a reasonable thickness. Althought they still tend to curl a little bit it is easily remedied by clearcoating the decals right after putting onto the body.
There was no harm done to the airbrush as the liquid decal film can be washed off using paint thinner. :dunno:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02066.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02065.jpg

Just wanted to say you've done a fantastic job on the front bumper. I really wish I could work with putty like you do. It now looks a lot better. Also, do you mean that the rear wing was scratch built? Fits the car very well! Can't wait to see more and what wheels you might choose.

Thanks! The rear wing is indeed built from scratch. It is the OEM wing for late model FTO's. Apparently cars that have the "aero package" option have this wing? And with the front bumper being standard issue after the facelift, The only aero part included in an "aero package" option is this wing....

Over the past month or so I did some extensive reading (I mean pictures, at least) about this car through this site: http://www.mitsubishi-fto.org/
and lots more pictures in tradecarview.com. This car didn't seem to get a lot of attention since there are not much more info outside of these sites.

Looking good dude!!! Love the bumper mod

Stance adjusted. Stock ride height all corners with front steering rack shortened slightly to give some toe out. If I have another chance I would have not touch all the stock pieces except the steering rack. I tried tucking the wheels within the wheel well but accidently broke off one rear strut. Oh well, the struts won't be seen anyways :uhoh:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02068.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02070.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02071.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02072.jpg

Just looks wrong to me if you're going to go with those rims, and also if you're not going to lower it. Seems a sort of waste of your bodywork modifications. Also, is it just me, or do those wing mirrors look really big? Only just noticed, but they just look 'swollen' in a Shrek sort of way :p

I think Kaho strives for realistic stock looking models. As such, this FTO fits nicely within those design parameters.

Amazing work, my friend. Certainly another gem in the making.

Amazing work, my friend. Certainly another gem in the making.


:eek: Great job Kaho! Looks like you nailed it.:smokin:

Interior work:

Seats were airbrushed with tamiya XF8 + XF1. "FTO" letters hand brushed. It's a little bit sketchy...
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02078.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02079.jpg

Interior tub, I put on the floor carpet. The original shift knob was so poorly made I machined a new piece with aluminum. "MOMO" steering wheel off the fujimi evo kit. I have an endless source of these wheels since I bought quite a few fujimi evo series and each one comes with 3 wheels to choose from.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02080.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02081.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02083.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02087.jpg

Fujimi totally left the radiator missing, I think they could have at least put a section of it where it will be visible from outside the bumper. I cut a hole to put in a piece of a radiator.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02088.jpg
Completed interior/underbody:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02090.jpg

Exterior:

With the front bumper completely modified, new blinkers and fog lights were needed. I thought some regular sized clear frame rods from the leftovers were good enough as a starting material for the lenses, but turned out the holes in my bumper were too big for them to fit!! Luckily, I had some leftover clear parts tree off a Italeri truck model, and the Italian frames are "fatter" than the japanese. They fit into the light sockets just right.

Lenses machined to shape, polished, painted, then coated with future.
The small orange ones are for the side markers.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02089.jpg
Test fit....
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02084.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02085.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02086.jpg

I must admit that I am not a fan of this particular vehicle, but I'm glad I clicked on the thread - your craftmanship on the body is amazing! Very well done! I agree with KevHw that it would gain from sitting a tad lower...

Keep it up. I always like it when somebody builds a kit that is not commonplace.

Great job on those lenses and those seats look really nice! I want some!

Over the past month or so I did some extensive reading (I mean pictures, at least) about this car through this site: http://www.mitsubishi-fto.org/

That's Steve's (Hiroboy) website. He had the FTO before the Skyline. Great job on this by the way!!! :sunglasse :sunglasse

This is a sad day for me....

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02091.jpg


I did not take photos of the actual mishap, but what happened was I polished through the white paint at the rear right quarter to reveal the bottom layer of grey primer. This is at the more complicated creases where I was trying to polish the recesses. During the whole process I was contemplating using cotton swabs instead of using a 6" x 10" cloth folded into a smaller but thick "cloth ball". Unfortunely I was too much in a rush (or lazy) to walk to the bathroom and get the cotton swabs.

I tried spraying new white paint on top of the burn, but for some reason the exact same bottle of paint I used before gave me a different shade of white this time, so different that I can see it from a meter away after feathering the edges. This is my first time feathering paint by the way.

Then comes the polishing part again. All the feathered edges got polished away, leaving a perfect outline of the white color differece telling everybody that this car had it's body been repaired poorly by someone who put paint on with a broom.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02092.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02093.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02094.jpg

I had these kind of paint burn throughs all the time but there had usually been some way to fix it relatively easily. (ie, rear overfender on a 05 STi, rear bumper pass it off as a recent rear end collision) This time the mistake just happened at the worst place possible. If this was a real car, you would think it had severely been T-boned and should have gone to a junkyard a long time ago.

I might finish this off in a near future but with it's current condition and school work catching up on me, I might have to give it a break. I must admit that I was doing this in a rush and lost my senses for finding the best way to do things. :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

(note: pictures did not give justice to the paint problem)

Sad to hear, I can imagine your frustration!
Keep it up, some day it'll pay off!

no worries man.

The work you've done up to now far exceeds nearly all other examples.

Give it some time, then revisit the situation.
I make mistakes, and let them sit, then return and find tackling them is hardly a serious issue.

I would suggest sanding the offending area down, and try spraying again. And again, if necessary. You'll succeed on one of the attempts.

Any rate, I always enjoy your threads, and wish you the best on this build.

An idea just popped into my mind concerning the FTO scripts on the seats. Perhaps you can fashion a "stamp" like set of letters to ensure symmetry? Just an idea...

At last I decided I will try to get this thing finished this year without forcing myself to proceed quickly. This week I have been hammering on the school work crazy to buy myself about a day and a half to work on this model. It was mostly polishing the repainted body, which does show some signs of heavy paint buildup since it has been repainted directly over the old paint with the full grey primer - white primer - paint - clear package, and I was pretty generous on the grey primer during the body shaping stage.

I have better luck this time with the polishing. Eventhough one decal on the spoiler came off while polishing (again), it was easy to put on a new piece and clear coat that side again since I made some more better decals. Now I have like 50 'version R' decals sitting around!

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02099.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02100.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02101.jpg

Some small body pieces like lenses were installed. The process of gluing the glass into the body was *almost* disastrous :uhoh:
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02102.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02103.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02104.jpg

Also, thanks for the support from the last 2 posts right after my major paint blunder. I did get pretty mad when that happened since I knew that so far every model I built (minus the altezza) had some kind of paint burnthrough from over polishing. I did everything to prevent it yet going off guard for 3 seconds out of the whole 3 hour polishing process was enough to cause such damage that pretty much guarantees a full respray. On the other hand, it just makes me smile looking at the model knowing how much extra work was done to make it what it is now.

Exactly! As I run the scriber oh so slowly through the panel lines removing bit by tiny bit, I just think of what the end result will look like, and all the very small steps equal the final result.

Don't really worry about the little mistakes. As I said, this build alone rises above pretty much any Fujimi builds I can recall. Little errors or not, you'll have the most amazing FTO yet.

Good thing you continued on. These latest pictures are jaw dropping.

Finally, remember that all the little lessons learned here will transfer onto the next kit. :grinyes:

absolutely beautiful. the nicest and cleanest FTO

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/kaho4g94/FTO/DSC02108.jpg

I can't believe how much time the pair of wipers took me! The kit wipers are not very well made. One side was too straight it won't conform to the windshield and the other side has a very special bending blade, from the look it it wouldn't be easy to change wipers on this car! So out came my leftover wiper arms/blades many years ago....

And I was expecting the washer nozzles would take me the longest time to attach:banghead:

Wow, it looks perfect! :thumbsup:

And I was expecting the washer nozzles would take me the longest time to attach:banghead: Can you explain how you fabricated them?

They were made by sharpening a piece of black sprue and then taking that sharp point. Some final trimming may be necessary to get the final shape, which I spent an extra 30 min or so and slightly blurry eyes for.

and then you just glued them on?

Yes. I don't know what kind of glue I used though. (called "Dufix", the rest of the label are in Japanese) Since it doesn't have to hold much force, testor's clear parts glue should work well.

great. thanks!