Talbot Sunbeam

This is the first of 2 projects for a mate (same guy who had the Brat and Scorcher Rover)

He built the TT-02 chassis, bought the Sunbeam body, promised to do it himself then took a look at the stickers and literally dropped it on my desk for me to do.

I've heard some less than complimentary remarks about the quality of L&L bodies and stickers so I approached this with a lot of trepidation and some very sharp scissors. As it turned out I was both pleased and disappointed. The body is quite good quality, although there are some rather heavy mold lines across the bonnet that are a shame, but overall it isn't too bad. The stickers though, are another matter. I think that considering the amount of bodies they make it wouldn't be beyond their capabilities to make window masks that are specific to each body, for there is no way on earth these were designed to fit this body! So I ended up making a set of my own. In hindsight, they probably didn't need to be as accurate as I made them, as the window stickers are quite chunky (more on them later.) He then told me he wanted a cockpit set - could I do one for him? I've not done one before, but I have been very impressed (and scared) by the quality of some of the ones being done on here, so I found this idea quite intimidating. Especially as I had no idea how it was going to fit. Amazingly, the fit is just about perfect! It's a little narrow maybe, but the length is absolutely spot on! Who knew!?

As for the stickers.... I can't say I'm impressed with them, either their printing or my fitting. It took a long time measuring and marking to make sure the body stripes lined up on the 3 faces, and the bit around the rear hatch was a real pain in the rear. Every time I got the pinstripe in the right place over the number plate recess I would try and get the sticker to stretch into the recess and it pulled the pinstripe down. In the end I cut the number plate out, made 4 diagonal cuts in the blue around the recess and paint matched the blue in the gaps around the number plate. I don't like the window surround stickers either. I found it almost impossible to get them to match up as they are all in either 2 or 3 pieces and they looked horrible when in place. So I went over them all with a coat of flat clear which I think makes them look much better, but still not great. I'm tempted to remove them altogether and paint them instead.

The wheels are some drift rims (can't remember what brand sorry) that don't have an outer lip fitted, instead they have a 'stretched tyre' look ring that fits on after the tyre. It looked horrible with these tyres, and completely out of keeping with the body, so I designed some new rings and 3D printed them and painted to match the tyres. They almost blend in perfectly, and for a first attempt I'm pretty happy with them. A few other little details like the wing mirror, spot lights and the rubber arch protectors and it has actually turned out better than I expected.

The body is on magnetic mounts, which I might try and tweak a little. I fitted a battery to make sure the tyres didn't scrub on the aches and it looks much better with the extra weight in, unfortunately I'd taken the battery out for the pictures, but it is on adjustable shocks anyhow so it can be tweaked a little anyhow.