Marlin Roadster 1:10 (and 1:1)

[tymill]

Finally took some pictures of a completed project that I've been working on over the winter - building a scale-ish model of my Marlin Roadster kit car.

I've had the real car for many years as my sole vehicle, and it's one of a very few original MK1 Triumph-based cars. Marlins kits are still in production today, but have moved on to much more refined and advanced "donor" vehicles - starting with the Marina, then the Sierra, and now the older 3-series BMW.

Anyway, I started the project by looking for an old holiday buggy to chop up on ebay, and eventually found one that looked to be in seriously rough condition, but would be perfect. I got it for £45 inc shipping, and it actually cleaned up very well - the chassis was in perfect shape and even the gears were fine. (exposed gearbox!)

In any case, after a weekend or so of head scratching, mock ups with cardboard, cutting, filing, sanding, gluing, and fiddling I'd fashioned the heavily-modified body. Sheet styrene was primarliy used, as well as lots of other random bits like cut out discs from the bottoms of a coke can to simulate the headlights...

I've since put in a 540 motor and with its spool rear axle and smoothed-down rear tyres, drifting is actually great with this car now. Not so sure I'd try that with the 1:1 one though...

[Body Paint]

what have you done to that poor little Holiday Buggy

[tymill]

Originally Posted by Body Paint

what have you done to that poor little Holiday Buggy

I know, the Holiday Buggies are such happy little cars!

But hey, the car's still mechanically sound and the original body was pretty beat up so no crimes committed...

[Dreadstar]

That's a really good representation of your full sized car that you've made there,well done. We could all do with seeing more people scratchbuilding/converting their cars to suit themselves,makes them more individual and unique.

[tymill]

Originally Posted by Dreadstar

That's a really good representation of your full sized car that you've made there,well done. We could all do with seeing more people scratchbuilding/converting their cars to suit themselves,makes them more individual and unique.

Thanks! It was a fun little project...

I've just got a stock silvercan 540 in it now, but there's a temptation to try powering it up with a novak 5.5 GTB system I have earmarked for the not-yet-assembled B44...

But that would be lunacy considering its gears don't even run on bushings, let alone bearings!

[peetbee]

Wow! All you need is one of those photos where the model is in the foreground with the full size far enough in the background to make them look the same scale!