A project that's been a long time grail project of mine.

One of the iconic cinematic cars from the '80s. The one that helped launch Tom Cruise's Mel Gibson's career.

Aoshima released this back in 2003. They then reissued it several times after that, each time with some improvements to the accuracy and details.

They didn't do the version from the first film however even though the initial kit was designed with it in mind. Which is of course the version I wanted to have.

It's a basic kit, mostly a curbside without an engine.

A few years ago, the gent behind Millenium Models cast me some copies of the kit bucket seat and the rear bench. These are the parts I would need to backdate the interior.

The exterior changes I'm going to have to make.

The body shell.

The chassis. As mentioned the kit is a curbside so the engine bottom is moulded in place.

The interior tub. Note that the side panels show a stock interior and not the stripped out one from the Road Warrior. There's also the bottom part of the rear seat.

On the later release, Aoshima modified both parts to more accurately reflect the Road Warrior version. Here's the different side panels for comparison.

And the floorplans.

They did the body with the RW mods already in place- cut out window area and missing trunk lid.

I'm going to have to make both along with the front air dam.

For reference, I have the excellent Auto Art 1/18 diecast.

A size comparison of the two.

You got a nice classic there Carl. The kit seems to capture the brutish look of the original well, with some simplifying detours. I liked the first movie a lot as it was like a rough sketch and not conventional plotted like many other action / thriller movies.

Cheers Rob

The first movie was very different from the follow on films that's for sure. Much more character development than in the later films.

I thought I'd start with something easy so the first step on the build was to make the rear seat back.

I took the copy of the kit seat bottom and trimmed it square.

It ended up like this.

Next, I notched the sides and checked the fit.

On a mostly black interior, I think it'll be just fine.

For Road Warrior, the Falcon had a portion of the trunk stay cut out to make room for the two gas tanks . I had to make this bit using strip styrene.

The same goes for the trunk lid itself.

Time for a very overdue update.

I made the missing front air dam. There's an undercut at the front of the body shell which I used as a base for the air dam.

I then cut some sheet styrene to the required height and started fitting along the front.

The corners were reinforced to help the joint stay together.

Now the tricky part. I marked out the three vent openings in the front part.

These were then cut out starting with the two smaller ones on either side.

Once the larger centre vent was cut out, I started blocking it out.

A quick check on the fit.

Finally I added some thin strip to the bottom to create a lip to the air dam.

Onto the back half, this is the kart I was dreading the most as I had to make a spoiler that would match the end plates included in the kit.

I started by gluing a strip onto the trunk lid.

I made sure the angle matched the endplates as best as I could.

Next was a thin piece across the width to give it the same lip as the end bits.

Then it was the top part, again trying to match the angles on the ends.

It's a bit longer than needed but this gave me room to trim it to fit.

Which I did next.

This worked out way better than I thought it would.

There will be some putty next to blend the sheet styrene together.

Nice work😀 I think it's time to see those movies again.

Nice surgery on that 80´s brute Carl.

Cheers Rob

I finally got the spoiler sanded and smooth enough for a first coat of paint.

It looks the part but there is so much dust and hair(fur?) in the paint it's going to need some rework. Not a huge surprise but I just wanted to see how everything looked.