I worked as a Volkswagen dealer tech > foreman > service manager in Toronto in the 70s & early 80s. I moved to the corporate engineering side of the Canadian VW business in 87, and got a transfer to VWGoA in 95. I was born in Wolfsburg, so to say my blood runs blue is an understatement. As a result, my completed and ongoing builds of a variety of VW models are “corrected” versions where the kit mfrs. goofed, and some customized stuff as well.
My daughter was one of the pinball techs at Logan Arcade in Chigago before she moved to S.C. where she started as a tech consultant at Marco Specialties, likely the largest supplier of pinball parts worldwide in the US. She had always wanted an old VW van to use as as a shop truck, so the following build series brings that vision to life, albeit in 1/24 scale. It was her 2020 Christmas present from me.
Here’s a teaser of the completed build:
Build pics and explanations to follow after I’ve uploaded the whole lot.
I also scratch built a 1/24 scale “Taxi” pinball machine in a working, semi-diorama setting that I’ll start over in the Scratchbuilt forum.
I was interested to see how the Hasegawa kit compared to the quality of Tamiya, which are mostly what I’ve built. A pleasant surprise, as it was not far off. I did however encounter a few technical goofs and shortcomings that (me being picky ole me) needed addressing.
First off was the lack of a VW Type 2 front splash pan. Four pieces of styrene later, and here we are:
Next was their use of a VW Type 1 (Beetle) front axle beam and steering arrangement (from one of their Beetle kits I’m sure). Specifically, the axle beam and tie rods supplied in the kit are oriented to driver’s side as on a Beetle, whereas the Type 2 uses a set of relay levers from the steering column to the centrally-mounted steering box and equidistant tie rods. I failed miserably at fabbing the hooks on a set of equal distance ties rods, so I elected to use the Beetle rods with a fabbed box and crank on the left side:
The rear swing axle tubes were too thin, so I beefed them up with some tube stock. The torsion bar tubes also needed beefing (not pictured):
I fabbed the missing heater tubes and trimmed the center section ribs to fit; to keep my daughter warm, of course. (Note Beetle tie rods)
If I was to build a T1 again, I’d go for the one from Revell - much more detailed.
Funny thing - I used to work for VW supplier for 11 years and then for VW in Poznań before the p***ed me off and I quit the automotive sector. I’ve also been to Wolfsburg for a long time - if I added up all my business trips then I probably spent about five years in Wolfsburg and I kinda like the town and the villages around it - used to live in Hattorf for almost three years.
I like your modifications a lot - one can see at once you know the machine you’re modelling. Good luck with your build and have a nice day
That van looks great and I’m sure that your daughter loved it! I can’t wait to see more of your posts because I love the VW stuff, especially the buses/vans.
Unlike the Type 1 Beetle, where the body is bolted to a center tunnel platform frame, Type 2s are unibody. The underside is reinforced with sturdy longitudinal and lateral box sections.
My plan was to expand on the curbside nature of the kit and show underside detail in a display case with a mirrored bottom. The box sections on the kit platform were wimpy, so I added some 2.5mm square styrene, as well as the four jacking posts. The beefed up torsion tubes and heater pipes are also visible in this mockup:
I fabbed a horn with a bracket and detail finished the splash pan.
The instrument panel did not include the parcel shelf underneath, so I added it as well as the two missing switches to the right of the steering column:
For colour, my daughter chose Volkswagen L345 Light Grey after seeing various photos of 1:1 online.
In between resolving small parts assembly, the next challenge was finding a paint supplier. Unfortunately, the outfits that specialize in ready-to-apply OEM colours for model cars, like Gravity and Zeropaints are all based overseas and cost a small fortune to ship here.
I went out on a limb (risk?) and ordered automotive laquer touch-up paint from PaintScratch. For touch up areas where a body shop would use an airbrush or spray gum they offer various sizes of primer, base coat, laquer thinner clear coat. They recommended one-to-one thinning and a 1.0mm needle for airbrush (wow… heavy pigment even when thinned):
The instrument panel served as a good test for the paint process. I used Grey Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, two light base coats follwed by one light clear coat. The 1:1 mix and 1.0mm needle worked perfect. I added a scratchbuilt “chicken handle” and rendered the grill openings in a word document, downscaled it and printed on clear decal paper. the ashtray lid is Bare Metal Foil:
Here’s a mock-up of the primed, painted and slightly weathered undercarriage:
As with the Tamiya Beetle, I found the front wheel gap to be excessive when I did the body/frame mockups (I should have got before and after shots). I whittled away a bit of the frame section to allow the beam to sit a bit higher. I matched the gap with several pictures of 1:1 vehicles. (The multi-colour livery car pictured in the background is the Michelin Enduroseies Sport Class winning Jetta GLX race car on which I was crew chief.)
As this would be her work truck for Logan Arcade in Chicago, I was desperate to get thier logo. I lucked out with getting clean high res .png / vector graphics of all the various logos to create my own decals. Size and location mockup (she chose the final locations). Decal test on a paint/clearcoat test spoon:
The paint/clearcoat test spoons predicted that rocky roads would lie ahead. As usual the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer went on flawlessy, but both the Paint Scratch aoutomotive laquer base and clear coats were frustratingly inconsistent with orange peel on some and okay on others. I determinhed that ambient temperature was critical here, and I was stuck between a rock and hard place becasue my spray booth with exhaust ducting is set up in my garage. My garage heater could barely get the temp up to the needed 68 - 70 degrees during early December of 2020.
With this being an unavoidable situation, I knew that lots of post-painting “elbow grease” would be needed… you know, the kind that Canadian Tire sells… in the red tube, not the blue tube [;)]
Here are the interim results of three coats primer + four coats Base (applied light to heavy & final wet sanded with 3200) + three coats Clear (applied light to heavy & wet sanded with 3200. After a few days I applied the decals and prayed that a final coat of Clear on it all would be workable:
The final coat of Clear to seal the decals settled with only minimal orange peel, mostly on the roof. I could have used more time and elbow grease for both the final wet sanding and polishing stages, but… as most of you know, there’s a fine line between not enough and ruining the finish with too much.
I used the Elmers Glue trick to mask the unpainted sections of the Volkswagen emblem before applying Tamiya gloss white acrylic:
Getting the size, spacing and proper downscaling of the IP grille in the Word document for the decal took me two days of testing. My only worry right now (after a year or so) is that it might lift because I never sealed it with a thin coat of clear.
The van needed to survive UPS shipment from Michigan to South Carolina, so I focused on mounting it securely to the display case base.
In order to determine the height of the mounting pillars, I set the model on top of a dumdum platform and squeezed it down so that the wheels just barely touched the base. I used the compressed measurements to size the styrene tubes:
Last on the list of detail enhancements was to add the four rubber door stop bumpers for the side doors and make the personalized Illinois license plates:
So, my daughter called today and said she’s got a job offer back in Chicago where her pinball tech career all started.
If it works out, she’ll have to move lock-stock-and kitty cat from S.C… and her Pinball Van and the 1/24 Taxi scratchbuilt pinball machine I made for her might be “going home”!
