Complete (Part I): Fujimi 1994 Honda Prelude VTEC "Gran Turismo Styling"

[Jay!]

Done, for now. Pics, then text...










This was a kit destined to rot on the shelf.

Don't get me wrong, I love Preludes, including this 4th generation. Every time I've had to think about buying a car, a Prelude was at the top of my list.

That said, I didn't even buy this kit because I wanted to build a Prelude. I just bought it for the wheels, because in the brief time I owned my Civic, Bob tipped me off that these wheels might be a better match for my Si wheels than the wheels in the Revell Si kit. Close, not quite - but turns out that's neither here nor there. I lost my motivation to build my Civic in 1/24 after my real Civic was stolen, stripped and totalled. ( )

So this kit got shelved. Good. It's kind of a crappy kit anyway. Screw-together construction?! WTF?! Lame!

But still, there was an old, old idea rolling around in my head...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qZlg6Q8U-2Y

Furthermore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSw6Q6-Tgkw

Man, I LOVED this Prelude and the Castrol Integra Type R. LOVED them!!!

I'd forgotten all about it until early this year, when for some reason, I put my Gran Turismo disc (not "2" or "3 A-spec" or "4"!!) into my Playstation, and it was still waiting there for me. I think it was even the car I had used last in that save file. AWESOME!!!

That's when I dig this kit back out. And boy, was it buried deep! I didn't really keep track, but the first pictures I took of it in primer and paint were back in April. Yeah, I'm slow. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?

Did I mention this kit sucks? Because it totally does. It's ultra simple, but then has features that try hard, but do nothing useful. The 4WS is recreated in such a way that the rear sway bar limits the turning angles of the rear wheels to only a few degrees... Really, all it does is make them look off-center constantly. Argh. And the wheels are the last place I want to draw your attention, because... shhh! There's no brakes!

Oh, also - it's an automatic. I could have changed it out, but why bother? I decided early that this kit wasn't worth the trouble of scratchbuilding a race interior, since I couldn't find any real-life reference about it anyway. Best case scenario was to make it some kind of poser race-car tribute car (like everything in the Fujimi Auto Gallery line! ) See more of my unanswered research here:
What JTCC Honda Prelude did Gran Turismo copy?

So really, what this is going to be is my experiment in custom decal making and using. ... Whenever I get around to it, that is...

In any case, this model at this stage can represent the "real" car as it appeared at some point in its evolution. There'll be a few other parts added in the next iteration to give it even more of the GT feel...

Look for that thread in the Spring of 2008!

[skylinehks]

that is some mask and painting u got there, but im more interested in...


the evergreen and APL container, do you work in that industry? or those just containers from apart of a intermodal collection?!

[willimo]

Looks excellent! Even the stripe between the colors looks good, and I was skeptical about how that would turn out. Where is that totally rad, rare muffler you got from that little tuning boutique that makes such great parts? I like the pics, too, in front of the containers. All you need now is that yellow light and nighttime like the use to shoot magazine spreads.

[tonioseven]

Great stuff, Jay@AF!!

[gionc]

I'm not an honda fan (despite I love civic from ever, all generation, and obv. S2000) but I ever loved this (not the next sharp one) Prelude. Recently I bought a kit from a friend . BTW what I ever loved is tailight cut (seem normal now but awesome in the '90) and the amazing line of the 3rd volume, the ass seen from side: a piece of art. Not the same with the front, a bit standard.

Sorry too long: fantastic job fubaz, waiting to see decalled

[Jay!]

Thanks for the comments, fellas. Went back to the freight depot for a couple daylight pics.




Looks to me, especially in the bright light, like it needs some panel lines. But that will wait until I figure out the decals.

About the containers:
I loved Will's generic "warehouse wall" backdrop. Especially after he moved it from the US to Greece with a simple tacked on sign. That got me thinking about background details that could be internationally ubiquitous. So, I tracked down and picked up the 40' intermodal containers from a garden-scale train store.

[tonioseven]

I can see that as a nice Skyline backdrop