Eunos Roadster

[pettercardoso]

Here I am with another project, this time with a Tamiya Eunos Roadster. Initially I thought about doing a coupe version, "à lá" willimo's S2000, using the hardtop as the base. But then I realized my skills aren't quite good enough, so I scrapped it...Instead, I'm just adding new, bigger wheels and some other minor details. I'm thinking of adding some carbon fibre to the door mirrors, but not sure yet.

I still not sure about the colour yet. I was thinking about a pale gold, or bright yellow, both with black wheels. Any suggestions?


The body is primed. Here I filled that gap between the fender and the bumper, I think it makes the front a little more "fluid"




Here are all the parts cut from the tree, ready for the clean up


Most small parts that needed primer:
Before primer



And after primer



Thanks for looking.

[Orion37170]

tiny little roadster....
can anybody tell me where it is called eunos and where mazda? Cause in germany this car is called mazda mx5

[SchuberT]

It's the Eunos Roadster in Japan.

[lancerevoRS]

give it a wide body

[willimo]

Are you sure you don't want to do a coupe? Mazda even has one coming for us soon. This will be a cool model nontheless, a much ignored and great segment of import tuning - some of the quickest cars around!

[Porsche Carrera]

Can't wait to see it finish! Keep us posted!

[MidMazar]

interesting progress

[pettercardoso]

Originally Posted by willimo

Are you sure you don't want to do a coupe? Mazda even has one coming for us soon. This will be a cool model nontheless, a much ignored and great segment of import tuning - some of the quickest cars around!

This is what I initially had in mind, color scheme and all:



And I think it's not very difficult to achieve, but I don't have easy access to some products like Evergreen's styrene. The main idea would involve gluing down the hardtop and smooth it out with putty, working carefully around the edges. But I don't think it would look very good:


Photoshopped preview


As you can see, the rear window sits too vertically, and the small side window would have to be ommited, compared to the real car. That's what I don't like about using this method. I would be much happier if I could just cut it off, and build the damn thing from scratch.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Oh, and yes, those are Skyline R32's wheels...and yes, that's what I'll be using, if I can get them to fit

[Samurai75007]

Originally Posted by Orion37170

tiny little roadster....
can anybody tell me where it is called eunos and where mazda? Cause in germany this car is called mazda mx5

it is also the mazda MX5 in the states...

[stisnan]

I really like this car. Keep up the progress!

[willimo]

You could cut the roof right through the middle (across the width of the roof) at its highest point, and lengthen it a few scale inches, and glue the back of the hard top further back. The change would be small enough to be filled with putty (good putty) if you don't have access to styrene. You could then trim the back edge of the stock window opening to match the little quarter windows in the prototype, and then use some scrap (shaped sprue even, if you're having trouble finding plastic) to make the small piller at the back edge of the door. It's doable, but I won't sit here and argue with you about it....

The wheels look great, too, but I think the tires are (gasp!) too large. If you can get your hands on lower profile tires like the (gasp! again) tires out of the Revell Civic/Integra, you might make them fit better and more convincingly (note the narrow sidewalls on the prototype pics you showed, for example). Are you still planning to make it yellow?

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Originally Posted by pettercardoso

This is what I initially had in mind, color scheme and all:



And I think it's not very difficult to achieve, but I don't have easy access to some products like Evergreen's styrene. The main idea would involve gluing down the hardtop and smooth it out with putty, working carefully around the edges. But I don't think it would look very good:


Photoshopped preview


As you can see, the rear window sits too vertically, and the small side window would have to be ommited, compared to the real car. That's what I don't like about using this method. I would be much happier if I could just cut it off, and build the damn thing from scratch.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Oh, and yes, those are Skyline R32's wheels...and yes, that's what I'll be using, if I can get them to fit

I've had the same project on my to-do list for years. The rims are even available now from Pegasus.

As for the roof, I looked very closely at the car when I saw it at a couple of shows, and from magazine pics (Road and Track had a comprehensive article), and I suspect they made fiberglass molds from an RX-7 and used that on the Miata coupe. I remember reading about the prototype and that it was made from very thick fiberglass. The double-bubble roof and rear glass for all intents and purposes look identical to the '93 era RX-7. My plans are to take an RX-7 roof section, use the RX-7 rear glass, and blend it to the Miata. That would be much easier than working w/the Miata/Eunos hardtop.

I'm trying to find a suitable rear window donor for a current Miata coupe like they sell in Japan. The tapered rear glass isn't like any other current car, looks more like '60's vintage.

[tc3house]

I have had this planned to do for a while to... both in model form and on my 1:1 Miata

May I suggest using smaller rims, or at least those rims with smaller tread, it kinda looks like a SUV now.

[pettercardoso]

Originally Posted by willimo

You could cut the roof right through the middle (across the width of the roof) at its highest point, and lengthen it a few scale inches, and glue the back of the hard top further back. The change would be small enough to be filled with putty (good putty) if you don't have access to styrene. You could then trim the back edge of the stock window opening to match the little quarter windows in the prototype, and then use some scrap (shaped sprue even, if you're having trouble finding plastic) to make the small piller at the back edge of the door. It's doable, but I won't sit here and argue with you about it....

The wheels look great, too, but I think the tires are (gasp!) too large. If you can get your hands on lower profile tires like the (gasp! again) tires out of the Revell Civic/Integra, you might make them fit better and more convincingly (note the narrow sidewalls on the prototype pics you showed, for example). Are you still planning to make it yellow?

Yeah, cutting it through the middle seems like a good idea and not very complicated. You're making me change my mind..I might try that...eheheh

About the wheels, you are very right. Altough I still think 17" is pushing it a little, I could pull it off by, as you said, getting lower profile tires.
These are 16" and I think they would look good. The only problem is the tire quality and the fact that they are slicks:


One other option would be shaving the original kit tire to fit the new wheel, but then I'd loose the wall detail. And it wouldn't look that nice, would it?

Originally Posted by ZoomZoomMX-5

(...)As for the roof, I looked very closely at the car when I saw it at a couple of shows, and from magazine pics (Road and Track had a comprehensive article), and I suspect they made fiberglass molds from an RX-7 and used that on the Miata coupe. I remember reading about the prototype and that it was made from very thick fiberglass. The double-bubble roof and rear glass for all intents and purposes look identical to the '93 era RX-7. My plans are to take an RX-7 roof section, use the RX-7 rear glass, and blend it to the Miata. That would be much easier than working w/the Miata/Eunos hardtop.(...)

Here are many pics of that build up. I, too, think they sarted off with an RX-7...
I have one waiting to be built, and I don't like it that much, so I might see if it can be pulled off.

On the color subject, yellow seems to suit this little roadster very well. But racing green wouldn't bad either..eheheh
Nevertheless, I'm open to ideas (bear in mind that I don't have a good airbrush, so I can't use mixed colours without ending up with a terrible paintjob...rattle cans RULE! )

[Wheelin75r]

Hey Pedro,

Don't mind the slicks. My MX7 from Aoshima has them too. Don't mean to steel your tread, hope to give you some idea's.

- color is somthing from Tamiya(NSX blue, I guess)
- wheels came from DTM-calibra.
- Mufflers came from Fujimi-Grade Up Parts
- single rollcage is self made










Hope you like it.