Nissan Skyline Group A race cars × 3

[potsie]

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.

[potsie]

Another comparison photo, this time of the wheels and tyres. Again, L-to-R it is Aoshima-Fujimi-Hasegawa. The Aoshima and Fujimi are female type on the wheels and the Hasegawa male, as expected.







The Peter Jackson DR30 ran a few different style of wheels from the reference photos I have, including these ones from Aoshima but in white. I have a photo from the 1987 Bathurst (with infamous Eggenberger 'Texaco' Sierra in the background) where the car is running yellow wheels, though they look a different type. I am going to take some artistic licence and paint these yellow as they will look different 'on the shelf'. The Aoshima kit also came with some cool Impul turbo fans which I will not use here; even though the 1:1 car clearly ran them sometimes. I think I will save these for another project.



The Gibson Motorsport "Works" HR31 ran an eleven-spoke wheel in white based on the reference photos I could find. However I have a couple of photos of it running turbo fan style covers, in white, so maybe I can use the Aoshima ones here. Either way, I will paint the kits wheels white and see how that looks. I only intend to build an homage, not an exact replica!



The Hasegawa wheels are the most detailed. Hasegawa even supplies two pre-cut semi-circle masks to cover the outer chrome rim while the inner is sprayed gold. Cool idea that I may try, but I have a Mr Color gold metal paint that I think will give a better result and needs to be brushed on. I suspect the width of the wheels and tyres of the Hasegawa HR31 are also closer to the correct scale of the 1:1.



The DR30 has been primered tonight, the chassis and all suspension parts painted various 'metal' colours, and the interior tub and rollcage sprayed white.



Grant.

[malscar]

Grant, if the RooDecals are stuffed, pretty sure Pattos did a copy of them as well. I know the earlier ones you have from Pattos are a copy of some done originally by Auscar Decals back in the late '80s

[potsie]

Originally Posted by malscar

Grant, if the RooDecals are stuffed, pretty sure Pattos did a copy of them as well. I know the earlier ones you have from Pattos are a copy of some done originally by Auscar Decals back in the late '80s

Thanks mate, that is super useful information. Looking at the complexity of the curves, body lines and rear spoiler, I am not sure I am even going to use the main red and blue sections of the RooDecals. I am also not convinced the blue is the correct shade, as it is very dark, and there is definitely some blue and a 'Nissan' missing for the very rear of the car. Those strips on the back edge of the red and leading edge of the blue will be fun to mask and paint though!

I am quite certain the RooDecals are printed on clear backing so rely on the car being white for the background of, for example, the 'Nissan' on the sides and number on the bonnet. The number I can mask for white then cut out the number, but the 'Nissan' will have to rely on various white examples I have in my decal parts bin. May not be 100% the correct size, but good enough for this homage.

Might look at some Pattos Place backups just in case. Thanks for the tip.

Grant.

[potsie]

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A small update. Progress painting on the DR30 'Peter Jackson' car had progressed. All parts painted except the clear parts. Body is in white, waiting a week for the paint to really cure before maksing and painting the blue. Plus need some time for the Liquid Decal Film to really dry as well. Wheels are Tamya's Camel Yellow and seat in red as these were a good match to reference photos.

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It was only when taking this photo I realised I had painted the chassis in road car style colour palette with, for example, matt black inner wheel arches to mimic the inner lining of road vehicles. Probably should have done a stark white chassis. But the chances of anyone looking at my completed models, picking this up, turning it over and critiquing the metallic grey is vanishingly small!*😝

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[potsie]

The chassis and interior on the DR30 are complete.



Chassis pieces are shades of metallic colours. The rear of the chassis was clearly originally designed for a simple stell rod connecting the two wheels. Here, to enable to addition of the brake rotors and calipers, there is a half-cyliner piece on either side that glues to the chassis at the wheel inner and then just floats into the wheel arch. There is no vertical support so ensuring the two are at the same height is difficult, and there will be a real risk of this part ungluing when mounting the wheel.





The interior is sparce but well molded. The separate door cars allowed for the roll cage to be assembled, glued and painted in place, ensuring a good fit. Reference photos show a red seat. The Aoshima kit came with a single decal for the seat belts including a very long length to reach the back of the interior for the mounting points. I cut this out and used double-sided tape to locate it on the seat. Gives a slight three-dimensional quality. In hindsight, I might have been better running the belts back to the parcel shelf for mounitng rather down to the roll cage.





Have had something of an issue with the decals. Some have reacted poorly to the Liquid Decal Film, becoming quite wrinkled. They can still be applied, and become smoother when applied, but not completely flat. I am not intending to order more decals, so will have to accept whatever happens. I am sure it will look fine at the back of the shelf, in a dim room, from five metres away!



Grant.

[potsie]

Progressing on the Fujimi HR31 kit, which will be done as the Gibson Motorsport car. As noted in the original post I have some RooDecals for this livery, which have reacted well to a coat of Liquid Decal Film. I have just realised DecalPool released this livery in the last few years, and these are printed with more modern methods and at much higher resolution. However the cost of the decals (~$55 AUD) and the poor quality of the Fujimi kit means this would be throwing good money after bad. The RooDecals will have to do for my homage.



I have completed the "chassis" of the Fujimi HR31. Total part count, including spacers for ride height and track width, comes to a grand total of ~20; and this is mostly because each hub is three parts. The hubs actually have five studs that locate into the back of the wheels. I have never seen this before and fear for how well the wheels will locate in the end. This would have to be one of the worst chassis I have built; see for example the solution for the side mount exhaust!









The interior, such as it is, has been painted up ready for assembly. Photo to come.

[potsie]

Have completed the interior of the Fujimi R31 GTS-R. I am quite certain the interior tub and roll-cage are not for an R31. The dash looks about correct, but does not fit the interior tub and the roll-cage needs to be trimmed to fit to the top of the dash. The seat also feels something of a Fujimi 'parts bin' item. Do not have the motivation for up-specc'ing the interior or adding seat belts to this kit.

[potsie]

Moving on to the Hasegawa HR31 GTS-R kit and you can really see the increased detail of the newer model over the Fujimi (HR31) and Aoshima (DR30) kits. Not just in the piece count but the overall quality of the molding and engineering. Hasegawa's HR31 kit comes as both road and race car, so this chassis has some legacy details - e.g. the detail at the rear where the final muffler box would sit in the road car - and needs quite a few holes drilled out to mount race specific items - e.g. brake cooling ducts, air jacks, extra radiators.*

[potsie]

The interior of the Hasegawa R31 GTS-R is now complete. The interior has some excellent details - such as the top of the rear air jacks - but it is a shame Hasegawa has not included a small photo-etch set and seatbelts. We know from the rally kits they can do it! I added some parts-bin seatbelts from seat back to the rear bulk head to add a little more realism to the seat belt decals. The roll cage could easily be dry fit to the interior tub to assemble prior to painting, which gives a much nicer finish.



The interior had 20 (!) individual decals, including the best resolution decals for the fire extinguisher I have ever seen. It is possible to make out all the wording under a magnifying glass, though slightly pointless on a piece that will never be seen once the car is fully assembled. Well, I know it is there....

[potsie]

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The interior tub of each model had been attached to the chassis and wheels added. Photo below has, L-to-R, Aoshima DR30, Fujimi HR31 and Hasegawa HR31. I dug out a Fujimi Skyline R32 GT-R Group A kit and can confirm the interior tub is the same as the one in this HR31 kit. For the HR31 Fujimi just included a different dash; that does not fit correctly.*☹️

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As can be seen below, the quality of the wheels and tyres also varies considerably. The Aoshima DR30 comes with road wheels and treaded tyres. The Fujimi wheels are not really correct for the Gibson Motorsport car, but as this is an homage I have not bothered to change them out. The Hasegawa wheels are quite detailed and can be fairly easily painted to bring them to life. The white and gold are simply Tamiya pot enamel brushed on.




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[potsie]

I have started on the Peter Jackson livery of the DR30. It has been masked and clear-coated to seal the edges:


Painted with 2 light plus 1 'wet' coat of Tamiya TS-44 Brilliant Blue straight from the can:


And had the masking removed to reveal to two-colour scheme:


Overall I am happy with the result, with minimal bleed around the tricky edges of the side trim on the doors and side skirts on the bottom. The only significant bleed of blue happened to be on the door rubber which will be painted black anyway.





The exact shade of blue is something of a mystery to me. I have reference photos ranging from many shades darker than this to something approaching Tamiya's French Blue. I suspect it should be something lighter than this, but I think it will be okay. I will leave the paint cure for a few days before tackling the decals.



On to the even more challenging masking job to spray the red and blue areas of the Gibson Motorsport HR31.*

[malscar]

Grant, the door rubbers were painted the body colour, they were not black.

[potsie]

Originally Posted by malscar

Grant, the door rubbers were painted the body colour, they were not black.

Thanks for the tip. I will see what I can do to fix it, but maybe this homage will have black rubbers instead!

[potsie]

I have masked and sprayed the front end of the Fujimi HR31. As I said in a previous post, the decals I have are (a) quite old and (b) the large red and blue sections for the front and back are complex and not quite the correct shades of colour. I decided to mask the stripe transition even though I cannot replicate the finer stripes; this is an homage afterall. The are new release decals available that are a better match colour-wise, but this does not resolve the issue of the complexity, such as the rear spoiler. Also, these would cost more than the kit!



Masked:





Painted Tamiya TS-49 Bright Red straight from the can:





Un-masked:





Now need to mask and spray the rear blue. I will go with Tamiya TS-44 as with the DR30.