Axia Skyline from Tamiya (rebuild)

[Marianitem]

Hi. I got an Axia Skyline from Tamiya very cheap on eBay in used condition. It was actually "built" but unpainted and with the decals unused. When I received it I found the the kit was bare plastic but almost completely glued with (i guess) superglue. Also the body already had the rear wings and the front rectangles already glued but very poorly done. Looks like a kid wanted to have a little good time with it and glued everything together, and that´s ok as this hobby is to have a good time, but it gave me a headache as soon as I started wondering how I was going to paint it. Happily both decals and clear parts were untouched, but the small decal sheet and original wheels were missing.

So I just focused on a decent recovery, kinda OOB, maybe with the lift jacks down so I could live without having the wheels.

First of all, this is what I found on the box:















And this is what I ended up with after failing to unglue. I had to cut in lots of spots and also got the floor of the tub damaged due to the strong bond of the seat. (Sorry for the confusing mat)



And then the engine was removed:



The interior ended up looking like this:





Next post I will show the chassis and engine. And the body, which is still unfinished.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

[Marianitem]

I don´t have pictures of the body as I found it, but I had to remove the rear wing by cutting under it. Also sanded down the extra glue from the previous builder, and filled some gaps here and there. I ended up with a body that wasn´t new, but quite acceptable.
I painted the body with Zero Paints Mica Silver and messed up as I applied the automotive 2k clear. So I sanded down the mess and painted with Humbrol Crome Silver, which also filled better some scratches remaining. Then applied automotive 2k clear and this is how it looked:





So it was time to try on those old and dried decals. Scary moment...



... and I was happy ever after.

MicroSol was a bit hard on this one, but it could survive anyway.



And the body so far looks like this:







I know I should have shaved down those badges all around but now is too late. So I decided to re-arrange the rear decals a bit and I will keep thos badges detailed.

Now I have to place a few more decals left and on to the 2k automotive clear. I will have to go extremely slowly on this one as I´m not sure if the decals will withstand, but I have to give it a try.

C&C welcome and expected

[potsie]

Like the rebuild. In my opinion this is one of the best liveries of R32 GT-R's. I built this kit when it first came out, and now have another set of decals so a rebuild is in the future. Good luck with yours!

[nugundam93]

looking nice! love these rebuild threads, really give a challenge for it.

[Marianitem]

Thanks for your comments. Yeah, it´s quite challenging even if I´m not expecting to do a full detail. You try to get the best out of what you got.

As promised, here are some pics of the chassis . I left the whole suspension untouched as I don´t care too much about the underside. Just some colors similar to what it should be and I´m happy enough. So i had to mask a bit and I also used lots of tiny pieces of paper for fast and cheap masking, and the result was this:



Good enough for my purpose.

Also, this is how I re-arranged those rear end decals. The moulded badges will be kept and will be detailed with metal logos from HobbyDesign (some leftovers from other builds). I also used some side "GT" badges to cover what I forgot to shave. If it is still there, let´s not try to hide it.



You can still see some texture where the wing post will be. It was really nasty with all that superglue attached.

Now I will clear coat it slowly and progressively not to ruin those HTF decals.

Thx for looking.