here's another Z I'm working on sometimes when the weather gets bad and I'm bored. It started many years ago and was stopped for several years, then I dug it up from my storage worked on it a few evenings only to put it back for a couple more years etc. Basically it's a thing that allows me to let any built up steam go out, and really I'm not aiming at trying to finish it soon. Just work on it when I feel like.

it's a Fujimi 1/24 ZG which I had and once I started building it I felt like I wanted a normal 240z, but instead of going and buying a kit like that, I decided to fabricate the normal 240 nose into this one. Also the whole front of the kit was one piece, so the hood wouldn't open, and I wanted to make that a separate part so I found myself basically rebuilding half of the car. First cut off the g-nose. Then opened the bonnet. The engine bay had no details whatsoever, no firewall, very boxy wheel housings, no strut tower housings, no structure to hold radiator, no usable radiator to speak of. basically everything you see in the engine bay is either built from scratch or heavily modified. the headlamp housings were very inaccurate and I had to remove a couple of mm of plastic from them and reshape them. everything in between and below the headlamps is built from scratch. currently the model is primered, and brake lines being fabricated from brass wire. (should be nice to get a realistic patina on those..) this link is for the complete gallery, and here's a couple of pics from the process.. next updates maybe in 5 year's time

http://s694.photobucket.com/albums/vv30 ... 0z%201-24/

Very cool

_________________
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Black 2007 350-Z
67 Camaro Custom
Orange Late 71 240-Z Sold and sitting in a Doctors Collection

Colin Foote Never Forgotten!!

Oy, Oy, Oy! That's wonderful work!

Guyz, he's really been bitten by the Z bug for a long time! This is a now a die-hard Z addict. When he is old and grey, he will still have Zs.

thankZ guyZ. At some point after cutting of the hood I was thinkin out loud (TOL) that maybe I should make the doors and hatch open as well. My wife said don't. sometimes i listen to her so I didn't. But I have a 1/12 tamiya 240z safari kit waiting for my retirement days (when I'm old, grey and still have z's.. ) that one won't be built to safari specs but rather to a more or less stock 240 (color 920 gold ) with some really wide, matt black or matt gun metal Watanabes that I will have to scratch build as well
and I have some plans for that as well. one being that I will DIY a cnc router for dremel or similar, then computer model accurate (dadaa!) sill plates (what else now that I have real size samples!!), mill out negative molds from hard material and press 1/12 sill plates from thin sheet aluminum.. that's just one of the ideas but I really will have to be well grey before I have time for anything like that

Yeah, or you COULD just save yrslf some time and buy one of Rick's 1:18 scale model 1970 240Zs, in the color of your choice.

Rick brings these beauties to each of our meetings and events and sells them almost as fast as he can transport them. For $25 they're a steal. Most of us here already have at least one of them.

The detail is great ~ everything opens, the wheel steers the front tires (rack & pinion, I'm sure!) and the engine and interior are accurate. The wheel covers are the only anachronism, being off a later-year 240. They get great gas mileage on the livingroom floor and you should hear the great exhaust sounds when we are playing with them!

wow those look great! where do they actually come from?? Rick? he's not the manufacturer right?
very tempting in any case. and those wheel covers are Z best man!


anyway I really enjoy building models although I do it extremely seldom. the one pictured above is the first ever that I plan to finish at some point. I built a few as a kid with zero life experience= zero patience and basically without any proper tools. since then the one shown here is the first..