new hobby | new opportunities

 

New year, new beginning.

In fact just empty words because the new beginning were back in 2024 when I grabbed my first big scale RC.  It was a Traxxas Big Foot, an RC car that looks like the RC s from my childhood. It delivers fun continuously and more than this, it offers the opportunity to think. You see what it does, you think what its need to do or what you want to do. After this exercise you’ll modify and tune the thing. This is called “upgrading”. And this is the entrance in the rabbit hole of the RC’s. Because it means money expensed and somehow an addiction. Even I do not consider having a hobby meaning you are addicted.

    But honestly, the pleasure of playing RC’s was born back in 2023 when I had my very first RC car : Traxxas TRX4M Land Rover Defender. Now it is the most modified from my collection but not necessarily the best performer. What I am share of is that is the most realistic in the entire collection (in spite of the lack of the interior reproduction).

    So, already I can talk about the two fields of the hobby I am involved in : the micro crawlers and the bashing cars (off road or on roads, we’ll see this later on)

    After the Big Foot I wanted speed and durability and it was the Rustler which I modded for street bashing and speed runs. A lot of technical accessories and esteticaly ones. The Rusty, The Beast, as a friend call it, is now my RC car that I never sell. It will remain in collection no matter what.

    And for the and of the 2024, needing a fancy RC for car lots playing, I added a hot rod to the collection. This is for street playing. Destination : drift car - parts are already on my workbench waiting for mounting on the modest. An power upgrade is not excluded but first I have to find its limits as stock power package.

    Alongside of collecting diecast cars (not so many acquisitions in 2024) those are the milestones of my new hobby along the one already presented on this blog. The passion for scale models remains and I am proud of my scale model collection. I will always enrich with the greatest models I consider.

    About the differences between the RC cars and the scale models we will talk later. In my opinion it is an interesting subject and there are a way to mix them but, at least for instance, I do not agree this mix because of the…. (I’ll explain later because it’s interesting  and I plan to read an entire article on this subject).

    New year, new beginning, promises and so on, better me… bla bla bla. I am sure nothing will change, the same hobbys and the same hunger of satisfying the passion of the scale models no matter what kind of.

    Creating custom scale models allowed you to be creative to feed your abilities of manufacturing tiny things in you tiny world of yourself. Sometimes this helps me passing by difficult moments, but this is another story… and sad stories are not ment to be here.

    So, no promisses for the beginning of the year, let’s see what time brings to us and face no matter what it will be.

Dacia Duster | Rally raid

 Good news from custom | scale | car : new project finished.

After a long wait in order to have all needed parts, the time to put all together has come. In te last week I finished a beloved concept car based on Dacia Duster diecast model made by Solido @1|18th scale.

Dakar rally inspired concept this Duster is my image about what it means a Duster as all purposes vehicle, no matter if we are talking about speed on off road, trial or crawling on the rocky roads of Carpathian Mountains.

Behind the scenes :

- Roll cage from Citroen C2 WRC

- Wheels from BMW X5 - Raid 

- Interior accessories as seats, extinguishers and so on from different damaged models.

Facts : all the parts used are from Solido Models (I didn't intend to... but finlly I have a fuul Solido custom model)

Please check also custom_scale_car IGTv channel for a short presentation video

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LADA 1200 | General Lee

Two years ago, during a trip in Armenia, I bought 3 car models 1@24th scale made by Hachette for Russian market : Lada 1200, Lada 1500 and Volga M24.

I always dream in my childhood at the modified cars of those times. At that time there wasn't a lot if tuned cars, so I can see modified cars just in competitions: rally, circuit races, hill climbing and so on.

The main feature for all those race prepared cars was the stance and deep dish rims. Like in nowadays, for the stanced lowered cars.

The '80-s and '90-s fascinated me... being my initiation in the automotive world.

Remembering this and wanted to have on my desk my childhood atmosphere, I'm modifing some representatives cars.

One of them is this LADA 1200. The style is not a pure '80-s but a modern one. Deep dish Aoshima rims, lowered at the max, General Lee Charger decals and chrome trims redone with MolotoW product.

The base from Hachette 1@24th scale

And the moded stanced General Lee LADA 12oo

BMW i8 | rollin'low

Hello friends,

a little brake in my Dacia building. 

I bought this little i8 made by Rastar @1/24 scale due to its proportions. I don't know if it is really 24th scale but the proportions are so good. The model in the shelf is awesome.

Also the quality of fabrication is not bad at all. A set of 2o inch rims and a little bit of stance made it an eye catching model. I choose to maintain the original pain except the front and rear end where I putted flat black instead if the body color element on the original model.

But let's see what happen...

Mk II | stanc'd

Hello friends,

New model finished few weeks ago.

This is a Revell 1/24 kit. I start working on it several years ago, in 2014. The kit is not a simple one, and, especially the final assembly phase, requires experience. I would recommend it more for experienced modellers than for beginners.

About the car, not much to say. The 2^nd generation of Golf were ment to continue the legend and it did it well. It is one of the world-wild “kult” car.

My model has some mods that torns it in an unique model.

• The Scale Production GL kit
• Front seats home casted in resin
• Aoshima 14’ deep rims
• Stance suspension
• Exhaust pipe custom made
• Big front window conversion (Mr. Revell gives us the first generation of frond doors with splitted window's glass)
• Shaved look (door handles, badges and so on…)
• DeLLorto carburettors
• Engine wiring and piping

But is better to see the final result than read my text:

Reault Mégane | USAF | tribute

Reault Mégane is a family car produced by the French maker, Renault. As the European car market classification, it is a C-segment car. The first generation were launched in 1995 as a successor of the Renault 19.

In 2002 Renault presented the second generation of Megane. An total redesign of the car, a design which last for several years, till 2008 where the 3^rd generation were launced.

The 2nd and the3rd generation of the Megane, offered a sport version, called RS (RenaultSport). The car are manufactured at Dieppe, the traditional factory for the sporty versions of the French maker, Renault, and headquarter of the Renault Sport division.

The 2^nd generation offered both 3 doors and 5 doos body in RS version. For the 3^rd generation, they decided to sell the Megane RS just in the 3 door body. For the 5 door body, the sportiest version is the GT.

Renault Mégane III is reproduced by Welly in the 5 door body variant. The engine reproduced by the manufacturer is the 2.0l essence. The modifications I made are mainly the paint job, WW II USAF theme. I modified also the front lip, the side skirts and the rear lip too. The stance was also modified and the model gets 18 inch rims and stretched tires.
I hope this unusual treatment makes you fall in love with this very normal family car.
But I wrote enough, let's enjoy the ride: