1/43 Ford Focus WRC

[Murray Kish]

Hi everyone,

Haven't posted here in a while, so I thought I'd put up a few pics of my current project. It's the Airfix 1/43 Ford Focus WRC. Definitely a small little kit, but it's been fun so far. I had to lower the stance quite a bit because it just didn't look right (at least not to my eyes.) Still have some touch-ups to do on the wheels, too. Let me know what you think!

Murray

[RallyRaider]

Looking great Murray, don't know how you guys do such a clean job in 1/43rd. Only thing I don't like is the red seat - should be black.
Keep the pics coming!

[Murray Kish]

Hello again,

I'm getting close to finishing this 1/43 kit, so I thought I'd post a few update pictures. I'm not going to do much more to the kit, even though I know there are some important missing items (like the decals from the side of the car...). A few things you'll see in the pics below:

1. I've added a pretty rough roll cage inside the car. Scratch-built from pictures I saw of a build-up of the Tamiya 1/24 version on the net. Not perfect, but it's better than nothing.
2. I also added some seatbelt anchors made from simple masking tape.
3. I attempted to put some of the 'lines' in the headlight lenses. I think you can see this on one of the pics if you look closely. I've never tried it before, but it actually worked better than I expected. But in 1/43 scale it's pretty tough. In retrospect, I wish I would have spent more time fitting the headlight lenses properly.
4. The kit glass is quite thick, and if the side decals would have gone better, I would have replaced the glass with some sort of replacement. Unfortuantely as it is, it's tough to see the details through the glass.
5. There's still a few details to clean up yet (windshield wiper channel, front grill, wheel centers...)

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions for future builds.

Murray

[supermod04]

i worked on 1.43rd so damned hard to do body work and shape things. and they dont have as much detail BUT looking really good!

[pre98zetec]

Look's cool

[willimo]

Awesome. We'd be hard pressed to guess its scale had you not told us. Is there a 1:43 invasion going on or something?

[lotus_man]

Nice build. Those Airfix kit's look better than I expected. Are you planning any more 1:43 builds?

[labandabonnot]

1/43 resin kits don't look better!

[RallyRaider]

More nice work there. It's a shame you're not going to finish off the decals.

[IImportSupra]

I worked with 1:43 scale, i know how hard it can be, Nice job man.

[jswillmon]

very nice build.

[Murray Kish]

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

The 'decal' story goes like this:
- firstly, I messed up putting one side on.
- later, I decided to go get another kit and just rob the decals to complete this kit. But, when I opened the kit, the decals were quite a bit different in the new kit. The 'red' in the decals is much more 'red' and less 'pink' (like in the kit I am building). After looking at them, I decided that mixing the decals from the kit would not be a good option. I considered painting the stripes on, but I'd be fooling myself to think I could do that and make it look good. Seeing as the blue/white edge looked pretty good, I just decided to leave it alone.
- So, seeing as I've got another complete kit now, I will build that one too, hopefully with all of the decals intact. I'll likely replace the kit glass too and improve on a few other areas as well

For now though, I'm going to finish this one off and call it done. Time to move on! Glad I built it though. I can see a couple more 1:43 scale kits in the future. I'd really like to tackle one of the Formula 1 kits (following lotus_man's thread closely!!!) Gotta get some experience and skills improved before I tackle the "good" kits!!

Murray

[aeroace]

LOOKS GOOD,but i dont know why people like 43cars,it is cute,but its undetails,it looks like a toy more than a detailed model,the panel line is tough,the tires have no details.can somebody tell me why people like 43cars.even it is so expansive

[lotus_man]

If you think they lack detail, you're looking at the wrong kits! Tameo's WCT series are probably more detailed than Tamiya 1:20 F1 kits, and for ultimate detail, see if you can find some pictures of LP Creations work. They are amazing.

I like 1:43 for several reasons- the choice of subjects is enormous, they are easier to display in large numbers and they look good without adding to much extra detail. To my eye 1:24 looks like a toy unless you add a lot of detail to the average kit, where as with 1:43 you can add as much or little as you need and still get a model that displays well. There is also the different skills involved with 1:43. Often you have to work with different media (etch, machines, cast metal, resin etc), and the kit's don't just fall together. I guess it's horses for courses really...

Don't want to hijack Murray's thread, but thats my !

[hrmodeler]

It's very nice.
Just in time for rally model contest! :-)