This is the project I am currently working on - a present for a friend of mine who loves the Land Rover Defender (but has never owned one)
The kit itself has an interesting provenance. It started out as a Ferrari which I later traded for a 1940 Ford which I in turn traded for this kit. You could say that, in a way, it's the first off-road ferrari
hehe
I want this to be a quick(ish) build so I am really going to just whack it together and hope that weathering will cover my mistakes
Speed will be helped by the fact that this is a curbside kit so there is no engine to distract me.
The kit itself is rather simple with a fairly low parts count. The molding is acceptable but it took me a week to clean up all the parts form flash and major parting lines etc.
Since this is going to be a WELL used and beaten up version, the first thing I did after cleaning all the parts was to trash them.
The body has been Dremmeled from inside and then dented and rust holes poked out.
I have also applied dabs of CA glue and sprinkled it with baking powder to get a rust texture in places.
The roof was also dented as was the hood (which I forgot to photograph LOL)
Chassis parts were also treated to CA and baking powder...
The exhaust train was also textured and I replaced the tail pipe with a piece of steel tubing.
I couldn't wait to try out Lutz's aged seat tutorial. All I can say is that IMHO it ranks among one of the best ideas I have ever seen - deadly easy and the results are just amazing. All in all 40 mins work for all three seats :o
I proceeded exactly as Lutz suggests although I added a little touch of my own by earlier Dremelling out the back of the seat (lust like making rust holes) to make them look even more abused. The spring was made with some thin wire and the seat stuffing....
...is some of that fluff from the clothes dryer fixed with white glue LOL
I thought I would try some armor techniques I have seen so I pre-shaded some areas of the body for extra shadow.
The body was painted with a custom mix of Vallejo acrylics (40% French Blue / 60% Dark Sea blue) and followed with some shading using the same color lightened with some white. The roof and wheels are painted with Vallejo white.
Interestingly, the photos do not catch the final results. In reality, the shading etc have give quite a good effect and the body color is sort of "patchy"
The undercarriage also has seen the beginning of the weathering process. Rustall dirt sprinkled over wet matt black paint in places.
Thanks for looking in :thumbup:
I assembled the suspension parts and attached them to the chassis frame.
Despite being a curbside, the kit has quite an interesting suspension layout and has the option of either a left-hand drive or right-hand drive set-up.
This shot gives you a good view of just what a haphazard modeler I am
Who else do you know that would have parts of the underside weathered and other parts untouched?!?!
And a test fit to see if it has 4 paws on the ground…
The cabin tub sub-assembly completed. I have added some scratches and dirty wash. I will add (or not) some dust and debris once I have solved my conundrum below
This is how the cabin looks at present.
My dilemma...
Italeri have kindly included an alternative rear door solution on the tree that is not supposed to be used in this version but I painted it up anyway.
If I were to use it, I would be able to make the Landy as a "topless" version.
Full-top version...
The up-side would be that the seats and any detailing would actually be visible. The down side is that it would mean quite a lot more work to make the interior more worth looking at.
In the meantime, I have been invaded by The Blobby-Thing Monster !!!!
(see below)
I thought I would make a start on a possible base - a waterfall scene with the LR in the front.
I made an L-shaped base out of Styrofoam but, instead of using "normal" ways to make the rock face, I wanted to experiment with a material I have never used before -
the polyurethane expanding foam used to fix doors and windows.
Boy, when I get it wrong, do I get it wrong!!! What a disaster!!!
Firstly, while I was applying the foam to the base, the base fell apart and two sticky, foamy pieces of Styrofoam fell on the floor. Naturally enough, it fell sticky side down just like the proverbial slice of bread and butter LOL
Believe me, this stuff makes a mess!!! Luckily for some reason I had decided to do this in the garage rather than my workshop.
I had this gunk in my hair, on my hands. on my clothes...everywhere. And boy, is it sticky!!!
Secondly, while I went back to my bench to make a second base, unknown to me the original foam was expanding....and expanding....and expanding...and expanding.
I nearly wet my pants laughing when I returned and found that the stuff had blobbed out all over the place LOL
To top it all off, even when I tried to be more conservative with the foam on the second base, it has still expanded so much that I don't think there is enough room there now for the LR!! hehe
The Rescue plan
Cut away the excess foam and make channel for water fall. Added bonus is that I found a huuuge hollow place in the middle which might make a cool grotto or something
It will look something like this:
I have opened a Little Rock factory. I am casting 2 million plaster rocks to stick to the places I had to cut flat hehe
