Mini Me

Firstly I know this is neither Showa nor 1/32 scale, but I had to break with the format at least once.  Now that I have my own car, and being a spare time modeller I had to get a model of my Jazz.

It's Tamiya's 1/24 kit of the Honda Fit, which also recognises the fact that in certain countries (such as here in the UK) it's called a Jazz.

It comes moulded in red, grey, black and clear styrene, with chrome parts and red tinted clear parts.  Parts, as one would expect with Tamiya, are cleanly moulded, without flash and with lots of detail.
I have to confess that I have built very few models in this scale, but from what I can see it looks like a very good kit.

To aid with painting the black surrounds to the windscreen, rear window and side windows Tamiya supply a set of masks to allow the part to be sprayed neatly without much worrying about a neat job.  Masks are supplied for both interior and exterior parts.

You also get a fuzzy flocked sheet of grey material for the carpets... which is a really nice touch.  Nice one Tamiya.

Decals include the usual Honda badges, instruments and showroom plates... but they also give you both FIT and JAZZ decals for the rear door... so no freehand painting for me... hurrah!

The wheels are spot on and the chrome work is flawless... shame my own wheels have kerbing nibbles on them, hahahaha.

I also have a can of Tamiya TS-58 Light Pearl Blue which, while not an exact match, is pretty close for the Ice Blue of my own buggy.

There are a couple of differences between this and my full size Jazz - mine is the mid-range model and has indicator lights built into the mirrors, so I will need to address that wee issue.  The tailgate has a key-hole, as does the front passenger door handle, so I will need to sort those out with some putty and fine sandpaper.

I have already made up a set of number plates to match my car (including the small 'Arnold Clark' text at the bottom), but I still need to make up an Arnold Clark sticker for the back window, a tax disc, and the little Japanese safe driving charm attached to my radio control knob.

I will also incorporate the damage to the passenger side mirror support... making the model as close to my own as possible.

In addition to the Tamiya kit I also found this curious G-Slot body on eBay... in 1/32 scale.  The shell is moulded in dark smoked clear plastic, overpainted with pearly white and black for the window surrounds.

Like the larger model the wheels are lovely replicas of the real thing.

I won't bother with an interior, you can't see anything anyway, but I will make a rudimentary chassis with axles and build this as a purely basic little replica of my car.  The dark windows prevent me from building it as a detailed model, but it will do as a nice little model to sit there and look cute.
Again it will be painted up in TS-58 but this time I WILL have to hand paint the JAZZ name on her rear.

So, apologies for this very self indulgent post, but I felt I had to do it.