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Tidying up the resin tail

The resin tail has some manageable flaws, but it does need some care to make a decent model. It has varying gaps between itself and the kit parts and the edges at the back are a bit thick. Like this.

I decided I could probably get a better result by removing the license plate panel (in the center above) and replacing it with the original kit part. That's not perfect either, but it's a lot better. So I set to cutting it out with a scriber.

test fitting the kit part

adding some structure to keep both parts aligned

lots of sanding

Now I just need to put some filler in the (smaller) seams and gaps and button it up for painting. It's looking a lot better!

the line across the trunk lid is filled with black CA glue and polished out. You won't see it when it's primed and painted.

4 comments

Comments (4)

Alex

Dec 13, 2024

Good idea Chris, the inside is very thick and at first, I didn't want to cut out the boot but I did anyway since the shutlines between trunk and body is uneven. I still don't know if I should sand and glue imto place or go all the way like you. 😀

Chris Craddock

Dec 13, 2024

The hard part with “going all the way” is building the interior walls of the trunk and mounting hinges for the lid. What I did (trial and error) was cut out styrene for the front “wall” between the trunk and the cabin, and used that as a baseline. The one you have has that molded in. You could try tacking the side walls to that molded part. Beware it has to fit flush against the wheel arch on each side. There’s also the problem of positively locating the kit’s trunk floor. IRL and in the kit, it curves up towards the rear. The coupe kit has a locating pin but you don’t. I solved it by cutting and flattening the floor, but if I did it again I’d leave the floor alone and provide a support at the back edge. It should line up about the middle of the license plate panel. If you’ve still got your donor kit body you can mess around with that to see where things should sit.

Chris Craddock

Dec 10, 2024

I have just noticed that (once again) the kit is very different than the real thing. The kit has the sides of the license plate opening being a bit like this < plate > and the real thing is nothing like that... the sides of the opening are straight, and they have a thin strip of chrome around 3 sides. So I guess I have more work to do to sort that out. I'm thinking of just building a little 3 sided styrene "box" to go in the opening. <sigh>

Chris Craddock

Dec 26, 2024

I'm going to wrap that opening in some styrene and install it last. That will allow me to paint the "inside" of the styrene and run a bead of chrome around the edge like on the 1:1 car.