a 1/48 automotive build!

Being a firm believer in 1/48 I have been adding some vehicles and AM products to my stash over the years

And with a 20% rebate on all things Tamiya I added quite a few cars and lorrys to the stash lately. I have fond memories of my Uncle having a beetle when I was a kid, spending my summer vacations on the farm, I often got driven everywhere in the VW.

The general idea with Tamiya’s 1/48 range of vehicles is to please the military modeler, and with a huge market for 1/43 civil cars etc. and the general military model scale being 1/35 it is quite a bit uphill to add 1/48 to the stash if it is not something with wings.

And with that intro, it is off to get the Käfer back on the road!

I started with a round of primer on all the parts to ease the preparations.

The Tamiya kits in general are highly praised, and these small ones are no exception

There is some minimal seam to take care of, even though they are a bit out of proportion in a close up. To the naked eye they are not at all bad.
The driver is rather well made too


Even if he is leaning a bit up a soldier, he can be modified to a civilian with minimum effort.

The wheels are of course with some rather coarse patterns to suit a military vehicle but there are two different rims

One without the chromedome and one with, and the last one will be just fine for a nice civilian car.

and with that it is time to start cutting. Some assembly coming up next.

I’ve been eyeing this one a few times since I have gone to my local store. And from you say, it sounds like a good investment. Consider me signed up for this one!

Nice choice! I had a uncle that had one too, but he drove it from Brooklyn to Queens NY.

Details

Some of the details were painted

As I still have to come to terms with acrylic paints, it is the good old Humbrol enamels that are being used.

Some matt (dull) for most of the interior, and some brown base in the wheelwells to give a base for some black.

A gloss black was initially sprayed as I thought it would be the color I would use for this car

But I have since then decided on another color as a gloss black may be too dark for such a small car. More on that later.

next up some assembly and testfitting of the resin parts

Erik, @airbum
What a magnificent choice ! These new tool Tamiya 1/48 offerings look exceptionally nice... Now if they would make a Toyota truck with a Huck's starter on top of it in 1/48 scale, (and possibly one in 1/32), they would sell like crazy !

I knew a guy who converted an old Ford pickup truck to run on coal gas smoke fumes many years ago. It's a pretty neat setup to see in real life, and although it's not quite as good as a conventional petrol burning setup, it still works in a pinch. The trick is getting the coal, wood chips (or whatever it is that you're burning) to make the proper amount of combustible "smoke", since that is what actually burns inside the original vehicle's engine, in place of the typical gasoline and air.

I'm waiting to see what color you pick for your VW too... I also started my 1/48 Mosquito for your DE Havilland group...

Spiro's, @fiveten
I can start building our joint 1/32 scale Revell He-219 models any time you are ready. Please let me know when it's a good time for you, and I will get started with building on mine too. I would be posting more pictures here on Imodeler, but my cell phone battery is no longer holding a charge. I normally use the camera on my phone to take the pictures. Luckily I have sent pictures of most of my recently completed builds to our home computer, so I can start posting more articles in the future when I have more time available.

This is looking marvelous Erik, @airbum. Looking forward to following along for the journey.

Thank you gents, welcome aboard James.
Spiros, I would have loved to add more details, but that will be for the next one (yes, there will be more bugs - I'm bitten!)

My bonnet is over the . . .type 82E

Installing the modified bonnet

The resin part was cut out and superglued in place where it seemed to fit. I then brushed it repeatedly with Tamiya filler thinned in Tamiya lacquerthinner.

That way it is drying a lot faster, and can be sanded almost immediately, another layer added and repeat until satisfied.

Some final sanding

And it is off to the painters next

next up the true color is revealed

Thanks Walt (@luftwaffe-birdman). Aren’t they just a bunch of fun – and rather fast too. I do not think there are anyone in Europe at least that did not have a beetle bug somewhere in their family! (or indeed at least one of the new beetles)
And now for another update Spiros (@fiveten), James (@jamesb), Jordyn (@1corsair64), Louis (@lgardner) and Robert (@roofrat);

Paint that dries!

Back from the painters

I thought I might just post a few pictures of the initial painting. The majority of the parts are painted, and will have to dry at least a week or so before I fumble more with this little bug. . .

I still need to decide if Chrome will be added, but I do not think they used that for non-essential surfaces in those days, so I may leave it with painted wheelcabs and handles.

Time will tell if Chrome is added. You may want to cast a vote on the matter, but so far it appears to me to be more realistic without chrome, and I do have a few other 1/48 vehicles that may be “true” civilians