Tizer's HKS R32 Skyline TT01E

[Tizer]

Thought I would share one of my recent projects here since it's a bit of a Tamiya classic.

A couple of months I decided I wanted to start collecting some more of the HKS liveried cars since I already had a few and I really like the colour scheme. The easiest one to get quickly was the re-release R32 Skyline, but it seems I was just a little bit too late to the party since it's sold out everywhere. I stumbled upon 1 still in stock at a local hobbyshop so I bought it. Most expensive TT01 I've every bought haha 

The plan for this car is to keep the chassis stock, but to make the body as realistic as possible. There is a LOT of reference material available for the Gr.A R32's and also specifically the HKS one. I'm trying to develop some 3D printed detail parts that I will make available for everyone to upgrade their own R32 too. So far that process is going well.

Around christmas I decided to already  build the chassis. I remember the TT01 as being a quick, simple but fun build and this one was the same. I swapped out all the screws for stainless M3 hardware. I build it using the stock plastic bushings but might replace them with bearings eventually. I added some aluminium hexes because I happened to have them laying nearby 

The standard wheels really do not cut it for realism. I have used Molotov chrome paint to paint the rims and the edge of the faces to mimic the real 3 piece look, and painted the centers white to avoid them yellowing over time. The center of the wheel behind the faces is painted in a flat black. Blue/red wheelnuts added too, but I found the real car uses a grey nut instead of blue so I might swap them later on.

[Rally!]

Good looking chassis. All black. I like it.

[Tizer]

Now onto the body. The big benefit of this livery is that the entire body is just black. Super easy to paint! Can do the windowtrims and body colour all in one go, so I only had to mask the inner part of the windows + all the lights.

The HKS version unfortunately does not come with the lightbuckets from the street version, so I ordered those separately. Because I will have the lightbuckets, the lights needed masking too. With the street version the little indicator light inbetween the two circular tail lights is just a sticker, but I decided to mask this as well. I measured the decals and cut some masking stickers on my plotter to make sure I have perfect circles. I will later probably do some extra masking to get some detail in the tail light lenses that I can't easily do by using 3D lens decals from WrapUp Next or Pandora. The front will be easier hopefully.



Quick spray with the airbrush with black (and a backing clearcoat) and the paintjob is almost done.

As I mentioned before, my goal is to make the body look as realistic and correct to the real car as possible. Luckilly there is tons of reference material available. Based on the dimensions of the decals and a lot of the reference pictures I was able to 3D design the bonnet pins, boot latches, emercency switch and extinguisher pull, airjacks, tow hooks and fuel fillers. All of them I printed at work in resin for the highest detail and it being easy to paint. 

Here's a picture of some of the printed parts after painting them silver. I will add a black wash to the silver bits to give it a bit more depth.

Some of the excellent reference photo's by Larry Chen that came in handy when drawing the parts.

The side mirrors included in all of the R32 Group A kits that Tamiya released are from the street version originally on the TA01. Unfortunately they are incorrect for all the Group A cars, as they used a smaller and more aerodynamic (Ganador style) mirror. I opted for a set of Blade Racing mirrors I often use on my drift builds.

The real car also has a slightly more rounded shape on the bottom of the sides of the spoiler. I rounded the edges of the Tamiya spoiler with some sandpaper and will add a thin spacer underneath to get the same look.

That's all for now. Hopefully soon some more updates. I still need to finish the spoiler and sidemirrors, add a matte coating to the window trims on the outside and start printing some more of the detail parts. I would like to have all the accesoires finished before I start stickering the body. 

[Sgt.Speirs]

One of the best looking R32 livery IMO. I have here for my TA03F the same body (street version) and HKS decal sheet only waiting for the right motivation/ right time for painting the body.

In this case, this thread is a good preparation for my HKS R32 project  

[KenTC]

I'm so envious that you managed to get that kit! 

[Tizer]

1 hour ago, KenTC said:

I'm so envious that you managed to get that kit! 

They still show up in Japan quite often if you really want one

[wtcc5]

Great thread! I should have bought one of these in the past, but had a too strong FF-01 urge at that time. Glad, that you report your build here!

I will start another TT-01 build soon, too 

[Tizer]

Quick update on the body  These small detailing jobs always take a lot more time than expected.....

Since the HKS TT01 kit doesn't come with lightbuckets, like the street version does, I ordered some separately. They were out of stock almost everywhere but luckilly RCMart still had some.

To make sure the lights look as realistic as possible I painted the lenses on the inside of the body with translucent paint aswell as adding some Pandora/Wrap-Up Next 3D lens decals. 

The rear lights I did by masking off the centre section of the lights and painting those with translucent red, chrome and then black. This will make sure there's no light coming through here and adds some detail.

Next I removed the masking and painted the outer section translucent red as well and added a lens decal. The turn signal in the middle I left unpainted as the real car also has a clear lens here with an orange bulb behind it. To mimic that look I've used another lens decal and painted the lightbucket with translucent orange. Came out pretty good if I can say so myself  

Last I worked on painting an intercooler for it. The Tamiya kit comes with a decal for this, but the logo on it is wrong (it says HKS Racing, while it should only just say HKS). I used an old Yokomo intercooler that I painted metallic black and added the logo by cutting a stencil on my plotter. Still needs to be glued into place but I like the result!

And that's all for now! There's some extra 3D printed parts coming and the headlights are painted green & orange already as well but I'll show that later.

 

[Juhunio]

I love reading stuff like this, work that is just way beyond my skill / will level  

Amazing attention to detail, it’s looking fantastic 👏

[TwistedxSlayer]

Absolutely love it.

 

Do you do commissions? Got a lovely body that I don't want to ruin. Lol

[Tizer]

Thanks guys! 

32 minutes ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Do you do commissions? Got a lovely body that I don't want to ruin. Lol

No commissions, sorry! I struggle a lot to finish projects, so I don't want the pressure of having to finish something for other people  I have a sponsor that I sometimes build bodies for, but also there it's hard to finish stuff in time. I feel I'm always too perfectionistic and projects get stranded because I want to much from it. I'm trying hard to actually finish this R32 though

[svenb]

38 minutes ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Absolutely love it.

 

Do you do commissions? Got a lovely body that I don't want to ruin. Lol

Heard your body is a temple David!

[TwistedxSlayer]

13 minutes ago, Tizer said:

Thanks guys! 

No commissions, sorry! I struggle a lot to finish projects, so I don't want the pressure of having to finish something for other people  I have a sponsor that I sometimes build bodies for, but also there it's hard to finish stuff in time. I feel I'm always too perfectionistic and projects get stranded because I want to much from it. I'm trying hard to actually finish this R32 though

Totally fair enough mate 👍 

[TwistedxSlayer]

9 minutes ago, svenb said:

Heard your body is a temple David!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

It's currently in need of a lottery grant and some tlc.

[wtcc5]

I was this old, when I learned, that lens stickers are a thing.

Thanks for widening my perspektive @Tizer 

[FuzzyFlynn]

On 2/4/2023 at 12:21 PM, Tizer said:

No commissions, sorry! I struggle a lot to finish projects, so I don't want the pressure of having to finish something for other people  I have a sponsor that I sometimes build bodies for, but also there it's hard to finish stuff in time. I feel I'm always too perfectionistic and projects get stranded because I want to much from it. I'm trying hard to actually finish this R32 though

So, how did it turn out this time? Is the body finished? If yes, I would love to see it! 

[Tizer]

On 11/14/2023 at 3:59 PM, FuzzyFlynn said:

So, how did it turn out this time? Is the body finished? If yes, I would love to see it! 

As always I get stuck on trying to make everything perfect and lose motivation.

In the meantime I've 3D designed and printed a bunch of scale detail parts to up the realism of the car but didn't have the time (or will) to paint and add them to the car. I have the fuel fillers, bonnet/boot latches, towhooks and side exhaust all done.

I got distracted with a couple of projects in the meantime 

One of them is another HKS car though!

The long discontinued Yokomo HKS GT86 Racing Performer. Hard to find body now! Was lucky to find the complete kit + a lightbucket set for it. Painted it in a metallic black colour to mimic the dry carbon look the real car has without having to mess around trying to get a weave pattern in it. Yokomo themselves suggest to just paint it black but I think this suits it better. I've used a darker black for the rear diffuser. The wing is painted in the body colour and all of it (including all the decals except for the chrome gold striping) has been covered with a matte clear. Windowtrims are painted a mix of matte and gloss black to mimic the rubber trims and glued edges of the glass. The included side mirrors and exhaust have also been painted instead of using decals. I've found the matching Yokomo Advan wheels and wrapped them in Advan tire thread T-Drift tires. Still left to do is add a few 3D printed details such as the aerocatches and boot latches and paint the lightbuckets to match the real car better. 

This was supposed to be a quick job inbetween building the rest but it's also taking longer than expected. I do hope to have it finished before the end of the year. It's so close!