The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

I like to build models of 1970s Japanese 4 cylinders and rotaries that I myself owned, would like to have owned, or my friends owned. I never had a Datsun 1600 (AKA Nissan Bluebird 510) but mates of mine did and if the right one had come along and I hadn't been so fixated on Mazdas I would have happily owned it thrashed the life out of it on dirt roads like any good citizen should.

This model represents that 1600 I never had. Lightly modified (probably running an FJ20) with sill and roof gutter rust that hadn't been cut out and bogged yet and a good coating of dirt from unsealed road shenanigans. It's the Hasegawa 1/24 kit. I probably would have got those license plates too, if they'd been available.

The body was coated in grey primer, then rust bubbles applied along the sill and roof line using small spots of superglue gel. I then painted over most of the body in rust brown/red. I put dabs of white PVA glue (because I had run out of maskol) over the rust bubbles and other spots where I wanted rust to show through. It was then sprayed in "Ivory" using the budget automotive spray cans that I usually used. After the paint dried, I chipped and peeled away the PVA glue with the point of a scalpel to expose the rust and added some more rust colour around these spots using pastel powders. This is a new technique for me - I've never attempted rust weathering before. I figured "how hard can it be?". It helps to have intimate knowledge of what it looks like on the real thing [remembers *that* 1975 Corolla.....shudders....]

Dirt weathering was a combination of Tamiya tank weathering pigments (first time I've used these - pretty happy with them) and my own pastels (I ordered a new set with only shades of brown).
Wheels and Tyers were cast reproductions from wheels that came in another kit. Urethane for the wheels, pinkysil silicone mixed with black paint for the tyres. Sports bucket seats were cast repros from another kit too.

Much cutting and butchery took place in the rear wheel wells and on the front suspension to make the wheels fit and get it as low as possible.

Bare metal foil was used for the bumpers and Vallejo liquid silver for the window chrome trim. Number plates are just printed on paper and mounted on thin styrene card.

The greatest praise came when I sent my brother a picture by text (the first one below) and he thought I had played a joke on him by finding a photo of a real car on eBay and passing it off as a model
He said he had tried zooming in on the rust spots to figure it out but that only made him more convinced. Like me, he has plenty of experience cutting out rust on 1970s cars at annual mechanical inspection time and knows exactly what it looks like, so I definitely took that as a compliment

I really like the finish, looks like a real car that's been on the road a few years. Too many cars are show room shinny or abandoned rust buckets that seem to be in vogue.

JamesPerrin wrote:I really like the finish, looks like a real car that's been on the road a few years. Too many cars are show room shinny or abandoned rust buckets that seem to be in vogue.

Thanks. Yes, I agree - showroom queens or rotting hulks and rat rods are de-rigeur but I like to build models of actual road cars as they look/looked on the street.

Admittedly I may have gone a bit overboard on the amount of rust but it was a first time. Future efforts will be more subdued. My last 1970s street racer was far cleaner looking: http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=13261;
I have two mustang Celiacs in progress that will also look less shabby than this datto and more like the Corolla.

When I was a young lout lad, my car looked much like this Datto. No wonder my girlfriend's father (now my father in law) wasn't too keen on his daughter getting into it or having anything to do with its owner...

Nicely weathered Vandal. A good looking car the Datsun 1600.

Nigel

Nice job! Thinking of my old cars (Minis and Ford Escorts), I'd say that you have the rusting about spot on!

Thanks clash, iggie. Years of cutting out sill rust prepared me for this....

The Datsun styling is a little boxy for my liking but still stylish. Very much Fiat-inspired.

that is a great looking model i think the amount of rust you have put on is just right well done

Thanks syd. I feel I've over done it compared to my original vision, but given that most Datsuns are made solely out of rust after 15 years, it's not inaccurate....

I thought they came out of the factory rusty!

VickersVandal wrote:Thanks syd. I feel I've over done it compared to my original vision, but given that most Datsuns are made solely out of rust after 15 years, it's not inaccurate....

Some one never saw one in Blighty after less than 6 months!
Sorry, forgot to say, very believable model.

iggie wrote:I thought they came out of the factory rusty!

Pretty much, hey...

Now that looks great, VV and I think you have managed a very realistic finish. Datsuns had a well deserved reputation for being rust buckets over here too but they were usually far more reliable than their, equally rust-prone, British counterparts - I don't recall British Leyland or Ford cars back then rusting any less than Japanese cars. My Ford Fiesta hatchback for instance didn't take long to succumb to the dreaded tin worm!

Thanks Shaun. Cars tend to last longer in Australia due to the drier weather and lack of snow in winter. Given how easily the Datsun rusted here, I can imagine they would have evaporated straight after leaving the showroom floor in the Northern Hemisphere.

Great looking careworn Datsun. Here in Canada we knew that one as the 510, and they were once common as grass. I am lucky if I see even one a year on the streets now, for the same reasons given by other Forum members. I had heard those early Japanese cars from the late 60's/early 70's especially tended to rot because they were made of recycled metal that hadn't had the impurities coked out of it. 'Recycled rust' I remember it being called. Domestic cars seemed to suffer from that problem at the time as well. That and the protracted trips across the Pacific on the decks of car carrier and being constantly exposed to salt spray probably didn't help either.

gnomemeansgnome wrote:Great looking careworn Datsun. Here in Canada we knew that one as the 510, and they were once common as grass. I am lucky if I see even one a year on the streets now, for the same reasons given by other Forum members. I had heard those early Japanese cars from the late 60's/early 70's especially tended to rot because they were made of recycled metal that hadn't had the impurities coked out of it. 'Recycled rust' I remember it being called. Domestic cars seemed to suffer from that problem at the time as well. That and the protracted trips across the Pacific on the decks of car carrier and being constantly exposed to salt spray probably didn't help either.

I didn't know that about the steel. Thanks for that. Yes, they all tended to rust (my decades of trying to keep 1970s Mazdas and Toyotas on the road attest) but the Datsun seemed to have it a bit worse for some reason.