Shelby Mustang GT 350 H - WIP

Washed 

Since it is an old kit, the wipers are molded into the body. 

After removing the wipers, I applied masking tape as a guide to carve the panel lines. 

Done 

The door handle is blocked, so I think I'll have to make a new one. 

After removing it, I drilled a hole and marked the location.
The bottom is a keyhole. 

The raised air intake on the hood was removed because it was not needed. 

After sealing the back with tape... 

I applied putty to the outesurface. 

Sanded. 

I will need to do more work on the inside later, so I'll just leave it at this for now and move on. 

Too much powder came out, so I washed it. 

I tried a test assembly, and the muffler ended up attaching like this.
It doesn't look like there's any problem as is, but... 

I intend to move the exhaust pipe to the side like this. 

I cut the aluminum pipe to a suitable length and bent it. 

In reality, the tip of the muffler would probably be a thin metal plate, but I like this chrome style. 

I positioned the end of the exhaust pipe right in front of the rear wheel and fitted it onto the silencer.
In reality, the silencer would probably need to be larger, but since it wouldn't be visible anyway, I decided to ignore it. 

It looks like it will look like this after assembly. 

The front and rear bumpers and parts don't fit together very well.
The bumper was plated with severe parting lines, so we will strip off the plating. 

This is parts to strip the plating from. 

I see something that looks like a vent on the dashboard, but the injection molding is blurry, so it would be good to fix it. 

I rummaged through the junk parts I had collected and picked out the parts that seemed like they would be needed. 

I plan to cut out junk etched parts and use the marked parts. 

Done.
It was slightly crooked, but I decided to ignore it. 😉 

The steering wheel isn't bad quality, but the design is too old-fashioned, so I plan to modify it. 

I think I can use junk parts for the handle, and the pillar was made by processing aluminum rods and pipes. 

A rounded, concave groove was made in the dashboard so that the pillar could be attached. 

When assembled later, it is expected to look roughly like this. 

After stripping off the plating, the bumper's surface is in terrible condition due to the primer. 

Furthermore, it didn't align well with the body.
The left side shows the figure aligned with the support on the body, while the right side shows the figure aligned parallel to the end line of the body, regardless of the support. 

To modify it, I cut a 1mm pla-plate into pieces of a suitable width. 

Because the gaps on the left and right sides of the bumper were different, only one side was thinly scraped off. 

It has been reinforced by adding it on top of the body's support. 

This time, the body also needed reinforcement, so after drawing the shape on a 1mm pla-plate... 

I cut it to a suitable size and attached it to the inside of the bumper. 

I will remove the gap roughly like this. 

I sanded it down and fitted it well.
Originally, a long vertical bar that was inserted into the hole visible underneath was attached to the bumper. 

It says to attach a reflector at the marked location, but since I don't need it, I drew a rectangle and... 

I drilled a square hole. I shaved the inner surface to make the plastic thinner.
And since the small hole next to it was a pin for attaching the bumper, I filled it with super glue. 

I plan to attach the mesh like this. 

Since the instrument panel is provided as a decal, the embossed molding became unnecessary. So I removed it completely. 

The part marked on the right side of the photo was unformed.
So, I cut and pasted pla-plate and trimmed/sanded them to create the shape. 

I plan to modify the front part of the body like this. 

The chin part didn't match the angle of the drawing, so I cut a 1mm plastic sheet, attached it, and even sanded it, but the thickness is still a little short. 

So I added it one more time. 

Now, I drilled a hole in the drawn part. 

I folded a thin pla-plate to make an inside wall and attached it. 

I cut out the curved part of the upper frame and reinforced it with 1.2mm plas-plate and attached it. 

Now, I have finished it by trimming and sanding the whole thing.
The part indicated by the right arrow is slightly shorter than the body, but I will just let it slide, hoping that it won't be visible once the chin spoiler is attached. 

The quality of the headlights is really terrible, so I'm going to have to modify them. 

First, I drilled a hole. 

I think I can use parts found from junk parts.
The body's plastic is thick, so I had to shave off a lot of the inner surface to attach the reflector. 

I found two lamp covers among the junk parts, and I think it would be better to use the slightly more transparent one on the left. 

I need some fog lights, and I think I can modify a part I found in my stash of junk parts to use. 

I made bowl-shaped fog lights. 

I just made a small fog light, but I also need a larger one.
Since I needed something to attach the larger fog light to, I cut a piece of plastic and attached it. 

The layout is planned to look like this. 

A hole was drilled so that the small fog light would be half-buried. 

I think this much should be enough. 

I thought the hood hinge seemed a bit off, so I Googled it. 

It looks completely different.
It seems it was unavoidable due to the limitations of mold technology and plastic materials.
If this were a Tamiya product, instead of allowing the moving joint, I think they would have designed it so you could choose to assemble it in an open or closed state. 

Anyway, to make the modifications, I obtained a photo and roughly measured the lengths.
I didn't calculate the scale precisely, I arbitrarily set the length of just one part then scaled the photo down to match that length, and then measured the remaining lengths. 

Next, I prepared the necessary parts by drilling holes in thin metal plates, cutting, and trimming them to match the length and shape. 

I temporarily plugged in the pin to test it, and it seems like it will work reasonably well. 

I have now assembled it properly.
Since I don't know how to solder, I tried to fix the pins with super glue, which made the work quite tricky.
Youtube Video 

The original hinge was no longer needed, so I cut it off. 

And I blocked the hole for the original hinge by cutting a piece of plastic sheet. 

I sketched it to add details to the inside of the hood. 

I attached it to a 1.2mm pla-plate and then cut it. 

After cutting out both the inside and outside, I trimmed it. 

It was so simple that I added steps using the scriber tool. 

Done.
The inside of the original Mustang's hood had a slightly more complex shape, but the vehicle I referenced had this shape. 

When I tried fitting the hinge, I realized I had to drill through the area I had previously blocked to create more space. 

It looks a bit messy, but it won't be very noticeable once it's painted. 

Next, I cut two pieces of 1.2mm pla-plate. 

I attached and trimmed it to block the back seat like this. 

This time, I cut a thick plastic rod to a suitable length. 

I bent it like this using a hot air blower. 

I cut a few more pieces of plastic and added them. 

Done. 

Next, drill a hole in a steel plate of appropriate thickness and cut it, then... 

I folded it up to make a footrest.
I'm conflicted because it's a hassle to modify the pedals visible on the left, but I feel uneasy ignoring them. 

But I removed it for now. 

I made a pedal by cutting an insect pin and a metal plate. 

And, I folded a metal plate to make a footrest for the driver's seat. 

I think it will look something like this when attached later. 

I plan to replace the plated parts with metal for the grille section.
So, I attached tape to measure the length. 

I cut the thick metal with scissors, and it curled into a circle. 

It was clamped in a vise, straightened, the edges were rounded, and then polished. 

It was bent to fit the curves of the body. 

I adjusted it to fit a bit more snugly.
I bent it with force, so it left some pliers marks, but I'm starting to get tired, so I'll just ignore it and move on. 

The grill was made by cutting a hexagonal mesh etching precisely and leaving a slight fold mark in the center. 

Done. 

Next, the aluminum rod was carved into a bullet shape like this. 

Next, after cutting the aluminum pipe a little... 

It was inserted into a cone-shaped steel pen and the back was struck to make it into a funnel shape. 

Now, I put the two together to make a side mirror.
Fortunately, there is no side mirror on the passenger side, so I only need to make one. 

Next, I cut a thick plastic sheet, punched holes in it, and bent it to create a shape. 

I needed a round ball about 2.5 to 3 mm in diameter, but since I couldn't find any commercially available ones, I made one by mixing epoxy putty.
I thought I might be able to use a cloth pin head, but it was a bit too big.
Please recommend an easy-to-machine ball with a diameter of about 2.5 to 3 mm. 

I carved a pla-rod of suitable thickness. 

Then, I cut a thin pla-plate and attached it as shown in the photo. 

It will be attached like this, but since the head, body, and roots are all different colors, I think it would be better to paint them before assembling.