1990's Lexus ls400

ohhhh i'll be watching this one

That will look good go for it

OH YES this will definitely be a slick build.

Cheers guys, this kits been sitting near the top of the pile for a while now and it was a choice between this or a mazda rx7 and this seemed to give me more ideas for how I want to build it. So I made the first cuts tonight and the engine bottom is now gone from the chassis. I also put together the engine block for the nissan engine (I'm using the sharp edged one from the second pic but will be altering the head to enable it to pass for the later bigger engine, so the 2000 writing will be sanded off along with the ridges on one side, then replaced with some styrene strips the size of the ridges) to enable me to check the fit a lot during building. Due to the lack of space around the block it will now be 2 smaller turbos (one mounted low down, the other a bit higher) as the big one wont fit in the space available. As long as the head is the tallest point it should all fit though, and having 2 turbos will let me use the moulded in exhausts as well




I also grabbed some parts out of a failed build (it lost a fight with a wall after putting up a fight all the way) from a couple of years ago so now have some headrests with tvs in to fit, and a tv head unit.

Not much progress tonight, I only managed to get the hood cut out, but it means I now know for sure the engine isn't too tall as long as nothing is above the head, and that there is space for the rad and intercooler in front. Next will be mocking it up with the glass in so I can build up the bay.

Managed to get the firewall and back edges of the bay shaped and fitted. I'm going for the smooth minimalistic look so I wont have to worry about seams and pressing lines. I'm going to be getting the front done next then will be shaping the top edges to add an edge on each side of the body for the hood to sit on.

It took hours, around the front was the worst with all the different thickness of plastic. Next time I'll start with the tamiya kit since it has an engine (as I found out after cutting this one out, lol)

That is nothing short of AMAZING mate !! That is scratch building at it's absolute best, it looks PERFECT !!

Keep up the great work mate praising-the-lord-smiley-emoticon

Cheers guys, going to be doing the turbo plumbing tonight using the plastruct coated wire with heatshrink over it to make it a little fatter. Pretty much know how I'll have it all routed already and I'm going to plumb it to the moulded in exhaust on the chassis

it'll work out les just waiting to see haven't seen a flop yet

Did some more work on the turbo set up tonight. Before I make the second manifold I'd like to know if you guys think it works as it's a very simple version. The exhaust side of the turbos is done though.


I did intend to get more done but I had a bit of a play with that moldable plastic to try out some trim on the seats, and it looks like it will work, however I still need to see if it will take paint without problems, and I'm also going to try flocking some of it to see if the texture still shows up. If paint and flocking work I will be cutting out the centres of the seats and replacing them with this stuff.

Nah mate, it's from the fujimi retro tuning set at the start of the thread. The other engine in the set is for a z car like your building

No mate, it's just heatshrink to fatten the pipes up a bit as I cant find my fatter stuff. It will be getting painted

Been cutting away at the seats for the last couple of nights, to the point that my fingers now hurt, lol. A little clean up on the edges and I'll be ready for adding the trim.