Starting a work-in-progress thread for something of a group build; a DR30 RS and two HR31 GTS-R Nissan Skyline Group A racers. Only one will be box art and two will be based on cars that ran in the Australian Touring Car Championship in the mid- to late-1980's.*
Aoshima DR30 RS Leyton House (kit #042816). This will be built as the Gibson Motorsport car of ~1987, sponsored by Peter Jackson. Decals for this are from Pattos Place that have a vast array of decals, mostly for slot car application. Decals will need to be coated in MicroScale Liquid Decal Film or similar before use.
Fujimi HR31 GTS-R Calsonic (kit #TC-SP-06158). This will be built again as a Gibson Motorsport car from 1989-1990. Decals are form the long gone RooDecals that made sheets for various Australian touring cars in the early to mid 1990's. These decals do not look too bad but will likely benefit from a refresh with Liquid Decal Film. This livery is the "works" scheme of the era; mostly white with red bonnet and blue boot area. It will be a better look to mask and spray these areas, but colour matching could be interesting. I have read this kit essentially put the interior 'race'*bucket and wheels from the Fujimi R32 Group A kit into an old motorised road car kit; and I think this is likely correct.
Hasegawa HR31 GTS-R Calsonic (kit #21127 / HC-27). This will be built out-of-the-box. Looking at this kit is appears to be very highly detailed (far more than the other two!), though missing some photo-etch details and seatbelt materials as one might find in a Hasegawa rally kit. Some online research suggests this was the first race car to sport the iconic "Calsonic blue" though the photo on the box - and others online - seems to suggest it might be slightly darker. I think I will run with the Tamiya equivalent of Calsonic blue anyway.
Not too much progress to show as yet. I have gone through each kit and cut and sorted pieces from sprues. The Hasegawa kit was very interesting in this regard, with lots of parts having little 'knobs' of plastic which I assume are mold details to aid the injection process. I have also assembled parts of the bodies prior to sanding and spraying. The Aoshima kit comes with a separate bonnet, with a choice of white or clear plastic, but no engine bay detail. Also, the real DR30 I am building had headlight covers painted as part if the livery, so these went in as well. The Haseagawa has a separate front bumper - no doubt due to the many road version of the HR31 they have released - that is suggested to be added after the front light assembly. Thankfully this can be added from the start and actually has a very positive 'tongue-and-groove' style locating method.
For reference, photos of the kit boxes. The Fujimi kit did not come with a box and was 'free' with another kit I purchased. Not sure I would have bought it otherwise.
Photos of the three bodies. Left-to-right is Aoshima - Fujimi - Hasegawa.
An image of the three chassis parts, in the same order. It is clearthe Fujimi is an old motorised kit and that the Aoshima also has little suspension detail. The interior tub of the Fujim HR31 is already glued in, which was via a terribly vague location onto the seat mounts of the road kit. Will not be surprised if this does not line up particularly nicely in the end.
And finally a photo of an R34 GT-R I build many years ago. This is a homage to the Nissan Motorsport 'works' HR31 GTS-R and early R32 GT-R cars run by Gibson Motorsport. If the RooDecals do not work I will do something similar on the HR31 here.
More progress to come.
Grant.
