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As I received a piece of history today...


I had to take another picture, because I can take  that picture, as this page of this  specific catalog is the inspiration of a massive project... A picture, that I'm literally the only one who can take it at this stage...

 

The similarity in the layout and presentation of that Marui catalog and the Tamiya catalogs and guide books of the same time period is pretty hard to ignore.  I wonder who copied whom?

Good call Blakbird, especially that right hand page. Blimey !!!

Well, as usual... They probably get inspired by Tamiya RC guide books.
But they made it their own way on the layout side.
- each page with cars have 2 models; and for each model, on the left half of the section is the picture of the car without and with the body, all oriented the same, the box on the top right, some text and some details drawings...
- looking at other chapters of that catalog which are not related to rc, each one have its own specific organization, but always structured the same way within the chapter. And some time a full page of action shots...

Looking at the Tamiya RC guides, they are not that homogeneous (i've checked and downloaded some scans I could find online), and if you are opening a Kyosho catalog, this is another world with the main part being given to action shots... So each one brand had its own way...

On that right hand page : you can find similar stuff on every single manual or rc catalog, whatever the brand is, not sure Tamiya was the one initiating it, because Kyosho started RC quite long before Tamiya... (at the notable exception of Kyosho : those cars were not made for kids).

I have quite a few Super Wheelies and Big Bear here awaiting for some restoration.

However, my first priority is to get a white Toyota and a white CJ-7 ready as soon as possible to be able to make the single picture with all the Marui cars, including the Mitsubishi Jeep... The black CJ-7 and blue Land Cruiser on the shelf will stay the way they are (at least for now, because they deserve a proper work to get nicer), but at least the CJ-7 will end under another chassis...

Some of the bodies went for some work by a friend, and I got them back earlier this week. It's time to work out the cosmetics...  I started yesterday with the White Toyota...


This morning I worked out a black CJ-7 (Barbamama scheme is targeted, after the Barbapapa's Lunchbox), for my daughter), and this afternoon the white CJ-7. Pure White for the Toyota, Pearl White for the CJ-7, and Metallic Black for the second CJ-7..


I'm also tempted to start out the Resin printed Mitsubishi, in a lighter color than the first one (I'm not too sure, which is one of the reasons I've not started yet, the second is my son took the work area to paint a drifter body as he seems very motivated today )...

Today, after a morning running RCs with my son at the club, the afternoon was with my daughter, and her Lunchbox...


That's basically from the Lunchbox that the idea came from for the Super Wheelie "Barbamama"...
After the afternoon at the club, my daughter asked again for the Super Wheelie, and I had to do some progress on this one...

A bit of Pink fluo vinyl, the bodyshell and some time and here is the result...
One key element on the bonnet


And I added other elements on the side...


I've specially ordered a small barbamama figurine for this, and I will have to find a way to hook her to the seat. Hopefully, I get the figurine soon, but I can already figure out what it is going to look like, and it will be fun!

Et hop! Barbamarui.

One of the Big Bear bodies I have had an awfully thick paint on top of it. It seemed thick and quite solid... I put it for 48 hours in the magic sauce bath (aka Glanzer, see my Ninja and Shogun thread)... After about 6 hours, bubbles started to appear, so there was a good chance the paint can be removed...

48 hours after the beginning of the bath, I removed the bodyshell from the bath. There is still some studborn areas...


I used a flat screwdriver, used as a rasor to remove the elements from the big surface, trying to avoid marking the body as mush as possible...
Then I used a hook end to remove the remaining paint from the lines...


Next will be fine sanding, and that should give me a nice and clean surface to apply primer so we can get a nice box art Big Bear...

Took benefit of a improvement of the weather (which is not expected to be more than temporary) to apply blue ( Tamiya TS-51 Racing Blue) on the SLA resin Mitsubishi body


The blue is nice, I have another can, i'm question myself about using this one on the Big Bear or putting a clearer one ( TS-19 Metallic Blue)... I want both of this bodies to be painted before playing with clear coat on all bodies that requires it (most likely the white pearl and the black metallic will require it, but I was not sure for the blue ones)...