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George Williams
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A tale of two Toyotas - Part 1

October 5, 2015 · in Automotive · · 18 · 0.8K

First, let me say a big thank you to my friend Craig for posting this for me, the Chinese gremlins have struck again...

This is a scale kit of the Toyota GT-Four World Rally Championship car, winner of the 1993 Monte-Carlo Rally.

The World Rally Championship (WRC) was established 50 years ago and from its humble beginnings rapidly gained popularity with both major manufacturers and enthusiasts alike. Its following has waned at times, but it appears to be on a new wave of competitiveness at present, the main protagonists being VW and Citroen, closely followed by Hyundai and Ford. The calendar features 15 events, held in Europe, Australia and South America, which are run on a variety of different surfaces including gravel and tarmac. The Toyota featured here was a very sophisticated machine having a very technically advanced four wheel drive system, the 2 litre turbocharged engine developed nearly 200 bhp giving very exciting performance. It was driven to victory by Didier Auriol.

The kit is quite old, but still went together in true Tamiya style. Any model of this type is very decal dependent, but even though the decals included were traditional thick Tamiya style, they went down with few problems, helped by a big helping of Markfit. I used Tamiya's white primer and TS50 white from aerosol cans, and finished it with a couple of coats of Mr Super Clear. I added a couple of extra details such as a retaining strap for the spare wheel, and extended the seat belts to the rear of the roll bar. The antenna is a bristle from the kitchen brush.

Unfortunately, during the 1995 season Toyota were found guilty of a serious technical infringement of the rules concerning their turbocharging system, and were banned from competition for two years. You'll have to wait for Part Two to find out what happened next!

Thanks for looking, George.

Reader reactions:
7  Awesome

18 responses

  1. Anytime, George...not a problem. Perhaps when/if Martin sees this, he will, as before, correctly attribute the posting as being from you. Nice job, btw. 🙂

  2. I love it ! One of my favorite schemes, well done ! Beautiful work, George, and thanks, Craig.

  3. Superb George, another stunner for your collection.

  4. Good looking as per normal for your latest offering George.
    Thanks Craig for helping out George.

  5. Very eye catching build. Nice and clean, and love the color scheme.

  6. Great build, George! Four wheels, no less. WRC is something I watch when I can, and it's crazy. Requires large amounts of intestinal fortitude.

  7. said on October 5, 2015

    Awesome job as usual George. Can't wait to see more of your car models. Well done!

  8. very nice to look at

  9. Great looking car and beautiful finish! You made a really great work with the decals! Please tell me more about Markfit - decals are my oldest and strongest enemies >:)

    • Hi Gabor, Markfit is a Tamiya product, it comes in a bottle with a brush in a similar way to their cement. It's basically a decal softener which you apply to both the surface and the decal as required. As I mostly build Tamiya models and use their decals, I thought it was the best idea to use their own decal softening product as well. I know there are other products on the market, and I have used Microsol in the past, which works very well.

  10. I have now attributed the article to you as the author. As requested.

    • Thanks, Martin...I certainly don't mind posting for those who have an issue doing so, but perhaps you could save a step by having those articles sent directly to you in such instances. Or not. 🙂

  11. Superb finish. Really like that, George.

  12. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Nice clean work. The stance looks very good.
    thank you for sharing the images.

  13. I am loving this one George! Great job on a real special car.
    I keep going back and looking at again... Right click time.
    California Steve

  14. Nice motor George! I love the Castrol racing livery. I think it looks especially cool on the Supra GT cars.
    Looking forward to part 2!

  15. Thanks for all your kind comments, guys, much appreciated.

  16. Excellent racing car, George. Its alwas great to see a kit from your bench.
    Part one means, i am looking for take two !
    Happy modelling 🙂

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