first road car WIP: Mini Cooper - Roadster Concept

[rallymaster]

Hello all,

Welcome in my first road car thread, simply because it's the first road car i build !
(except a modest 1/43 Peugeot 403 heller kit years ago...painted with brush... Hmm forget that)

Problem: I have a Mini Cooper MC67 winner; something normal for a guy building rally cars...
But I bought this kit during a time when I thought to build (almost) everything existing, whereas I don't really love the car and such former cars...
But this Tamiya kit is interesting, with engine.

So I had to find something original to build it other way than a rally car.
There are million possibilities with a Mini Cooper, as we all can see it in Mini collectors meetings.

After days thinking to build a surfer car with surf boards, or a "plein ciel" concept with a moving roof according to the Citroen 2CV model, I finally decided to completely cut off the roof and all windows and keep only windscreen to build a roadster.




Here it starts:





Firts aim, make a fully smooth body except for the parts that hinge the doors.
A rear boot will have no sens on a roadster, so I filled it with putty.





It took me some time to find wheels that could match with this car; I would like something bigger than the 13" (or even 12" ?) Minilite, but all wheels I had where too big...
I finally find some rims in a Tamiya Celica kit on which I will have to mold my own low-size tyres to make them enter wheel arch, but they would match and probably give a nice effect to the car. (hope so )
I only chose to reduce a little bit their width.
(I think I won't show more of the wheels before they would be in place on the car, to see what effect they give ! )






What I plan to do (but only plan at this moment):
- widering the body especially fenders, but not too much, mostly to be able to accept new wheels.
- adding new spoilers
- giving a left hand drive to the car
- give a new inside, seats, dashboard, steering wheel, gear lever...
- painting it two tones, I think to mat black and orange (black under the orange).
- detailling the engine and give it a nice paint scheme.
- opening air intakes in the front hood.


That's it for the moment.
all comments, critics and even ideas are very welcome !

Phil
(I still can't believe it, I'm building anything else than a rally car... )

[auw12]

WOW Phil you know? I can't dispute those cute cars! And this one looks very interesting! Can't wait for more!

[quadzero]

I think it's great that you are branching out from your normal genre. I like to build a variety of subjects just to try new ideas and keep things fresh. But, this looks really interesting and fun, I will be following along.

[Kiss My Axe]

nice idea

[rallymaster]

Hello, thanks for your words

It's been a long time I wanted to try something else. To be honnest I think I am a little fed up of all my rally cars (around 900 to buidl... ) which ask much work and not as much pleasure. (moreover most of 1/43 are not accurate, and even don't allow modifications as I would like to...)

And I have a problem, I always want to do big project, big detailled cars etc but rarely see their end...

This time I really wanted to find back the pleasure of modelling without any pics or building instructions to follow with stress, just for fun !

Building detailled rally cars with much expectations put me on a wrong way, I was much more taken by the aim and the result than by the pleasure to build itself.

Well, this Mini project isn't neither a box stock build, but the only expectations would be those I give to the model ! So if I keep reasonnable...
well I think I could do something good with it.

I recently decided to vary a little bit my collection, and build some sports cars, and I plan to build some cars I really love: one or two Porsche, Gallardo, Ferrari F355 & 308 and the awesome Audi R8 (when released) for example.

I won't let rally cars fall, but I really needed to find a new breath in my modelling affairs !

And I have to say that AF and most of you and your great builds and skills are the essential of my motivation for that. So thank you for all encouragements and kind words



I will update this thread later in the evening, after final sand work on the
body.


Phil

[rallymaster]

hello,

After my modeler psychology, time to update.
(if only I could make the same for the 99 argentina sub... but still no decals after 2 months and half in order)



I sanded all the body; I noticed that it's better to prepare to a mat paint effect.





Some finishing sanding would be required.

After that I came to the wheels.

here are those that I firstly intended to use:



Ugly, isn't it ?

So I decided to scratch some new ones; I sacrified other unused wheels to get edges rims and original street mini wheels to get a center, then used plastic tubing to make the design...





I firstly thought more to something like that...



...but will finally get something close to original racing mini Minilite...




that's all for tonight


comments welcome
thanks for reading

Phil

[rallymaster]

Update time !

I thought that my scratch wheels would get more interest and reactions, so I hope I'm not coming back with another boring wheels session, because here is the process of this scratch

The new rim:



the new hub and the 8 round spokes:
(please note that hub will be detailled after assembling)



assembled hub and spokes:



first fitting test after resize of the spokes:
(spokes will be deeper inside the wheel according to my idea)



full view of the process:




All comments and opinions about my scratch wheels are very welcome, feel free to tell me if you think it's nice, ugly, good or bad choice etc.


Then I came back to the body;
I cut a paperboard disk to measure the size of the wheels arches to sand.
I verify if I did well by fitting the disk in the wheelarch:
(as you can see I finally decided to have a fully smooth body and cut off the doors hinges)







Everything seems (almost) perfect.


I also started to work on the engine; nothing extraordinary for the moment, only painting.
Mini's engine blocks used to be fully dark green, and I firstly agreed to use this color, but as I intend to paint some engine parts (ignition wires, top of the block, for example) with the same color scheme that the body (orange so) I thought that the mix of green and orange wouldn't be nice...
I also wanted to give a modern look alike to the engine, and on my opinion green would be better for a classical look alike car with a dark green body than for this modern spirit roadster.

Here is where i am for the moment:






For the same reason (modernity) I decided not to use some parts of the kit like transmission and brakes but to add modern parts for these parts.


Don't hesitate to give your opinion or simply comment that, it's my first road car and maybe I don't have enough practice to feel the best choices for a Mini even if I have my own idea of the model of course

Thanks for reading

Phil

[cyberkid]

Great work so far on the body and the engine. I too agree that a green/orange engine would look.. erm.. off.. Like what you did with it.
The 'spokes' of the rim kinda looks primitive without paint.. Are you planning to shape them more? Maybe a mock-up with the rims/wheels 'in' the body would do it more justice?

Steve

[rsxse240]

I like the new rims. they are a bit plain, but that's ok. I can see them on the car (imagination works for me) but as for size, I think if they were a scale 14 inch, or 15 at MOST, they'd be perfect

[rallymaster]

Hello,

thanks for posting your opinion.

I aggre with you, the rims and spokes really look "primitive" and even a little too big.

I could moke-up them in the bidy but I still have no tyres to put on, that's why I didn't do that but I will.
BTW i found a tyres donor kit this afternoon, a Honda civic hasegawa wasn't complete and I got it for e few euros, only for tyres.

I'd like to reshape the spokes a little bit but I don't really know how and what to do...
sand the back of the spokes to get only the external face round ?
sand the whole spoke to reduce its size ?

they are very fragile as they only fit with a piece of glue, I am a littl bit scared to brake them (I've already brake and reglue some spokes...)

I think I will make a mock-up to decide, according to your opinions.
I have to finish them, then detail the hub and apply primer; after that I think it will be esayer to decide.

Thanks for posting

maybe another update later in the evening (still working on engine)

Phil

[rallymaster]

So here is the promissed upadte

I found these tyres for my model:



mock-up:





They only aren't wide enough for the rims:



So I started the widering process, using two tyres to make one:

Cut 2 1/3 of the tyre width:



and join 2 cut parts in one:



and now perfectly fit rims width:



and look fine on the car, does it ?



Next step is to mold a tyres set.


I came back on the engine. It's not very clean and well painted as I try to go fast and then go too fast, each time I take the engine in my hands to paint a side I catch the paint not dry on my fingers.

This time I stop there, and will make paint finish just before assembling engine on chassis frame.
I also have all its details to make.









Thanks for reading
comments welcome

Phil

[quadzero]

Everything is really coming together. All the work on the rims looks really daunting but I think it's worth it. Nice save with the tires too.

[rsxse240]

personally, I think it would have been better to cut down the rim than the tire, they are REALLY wide for that little car, but they do look good. are you going to put over fenders, or flares and have the wheels mounted outward like on DTM cars?

here's a though on the rims. make the spokes flat on the back, and bevel the outside end of each spoke just before it meets the rim to give it a little more character.

[rallymaster]

Thanks guys,

Well, talking about the wheels, they probably look wide (too much ? ), right.
But it's part of the effect I'm looking for, as I intend to figure the wheels to be partialy mounted over body line under extended fenders. (I imagine an extended fender covering half of wheel width)
something like the real car which is on the pic posted more above.

According to my idea, this mini roadster is more a fully modern car using a modified mini body than an improved original mini...
A kind of a concept car used for automotive show...?

Am I wrong ? I don't know, I am really not a road car specialist, even if I have some ideas about was may be possible and what would be completely no sens and crazy.

Just after having cut the tyres, I felt the same, I would better have done by reducing rims width than enlarging tyres...
But when I see the spokes width, enlarging the tyres was an evidence.
Spokes would be almost half width of the tyre if using the tyre as it was.

RSXSE240, so I agree with your though about spokes, I think I will try to make back of the spokes flat to reduce their width, especially That I would like to put them a little bit deeper in the rim.
but on the other hand this round spokes had to contribute to my idea (inspired of the new mini by BMW) of the roadster bye giving to the former mini body a new design and modern look alike with rounder lines and shapes...
And even with spokes fully on the edge of the rim it gives a similar effect...

I should probably try to paint a wheel to have better idea of what would be the result...

But anyway, I will have to make an edge in the inside of the wheels, tyre's valve will come through this edge.
So if I put the spokes too deep in the wheel, I won't have enough place for brakes system.

You're right quadzero, this work on rims is daunting, but worst is to find enough patience to see finished items beacause I'm sure (and will hardly believe it) that once the model finished I'll have forgotten all these wonders !

I think I will have very soon to decide exactly which choice applying to the rims, I have already chosen to enlarge the tyres, I can't go back any more on that point.
so let's go straight !


But once more thank you all bringing your opinions and ideas to this build.


Phil

[Ferrari TR]

Nice project.
How did you cut the tires? Every time I try I make a mess!