So I haven't done a whole lot with XMODS for the past few months.... there have been two reasons for this:

1. I've been spending all my money on my 1:1 Mustang.

&

2. I've been focusing on one car trying to come up with my best work ever so that I'll have an entry for the December competition...

I think I'm pretty close but my photos $uck big huge ones and don't deliver the final product.....

Anyways putting that aside this car has already been entered in the Team XI build off competition and the XMS December COTM competition so I figured I'd give it some exposure with a thread on here.

So lets start with the chassis:

The electronics for this car were always going to be Mini-Z so the original board and servo got taken out months ago.

The chassis was then completely stripped down and the parts sprayed inside and out in a gloss black:

Various RadioShack components where installed, springs, tie rods, lowering arms, etc.... where possible also sprayed black.

I also started to play with rims as the muscle cars ones originally on the chassis didn't cut it. I did some experimenting with modifying Mini-Z rims to work on XMODs and came up with a set I was pretty happy with.

Once the paint was dry the ESC and Servo was installed, this was my second Mini-Z installation and it went way smoother than the first giving much better control and performance.

The board has been covered to make the car look as stock as possible which is why I refer to this chassis as my "sleeper chassis".... :bang:

As you can see above there is a motor but it's not wired into the board.... well that's because I wanted to run something pretty decent so I contacted REDSXmodder and had him hook me up with a FET safe 42T pattern wound motor designed for drifting.... this thing is awesome, I'm running a slightly higher than stock gear combo and the car is so much fun.

If you need a motor I strongly suggest speaking to him.

Final chassis is as follows:

As you can see I swapped the rims and tires out, ended up using the XI model rim adapter to mount the model kit rims:

Which I then sprayed black... these rims allow me to use the model tires which are Aohima's, they fill out the wheel arches much better.....

Now we move onto the body:

I hunted high or low for something unique and final went with a 83 Nissan Gazelle which is basically a Silvia, at this point I can't even remember who I got the kit from but I remember it was a nightmare that took about 2 months to get it delivered to me!!

Here's a few early mounting shots:

The front mount is based on Bondos model kit mounting tutorial... the rear mount is made from a few spare parts and bolted to the rear parcel shelf....

Now we move to paint:

I wanted a fairly simple color scheme, Surgeon showed me a photo of a two tone drift car that I really like so that was what I went with.... I got a really nice layer of black down and honestly that is where I should have stopped.... :) I taped of of what I wanted left black:

and started to lay my red.... the one side was perfect but the other side went wrong... badly wrong... not really sure why... I prepped my paint sprayed the one side, turned the car around and went to work on the other side, when I came back to the other side it was ruined.... I chatted with Bondo and Surgeon and basically we came to the decision that it was best to start again, so I let it dry and went to work sanding....

After many many weeks of painting, sanding and repainting I finally had what I wanted:

Few touches to the hood, indicators, fuel door, door handles, parcel shelf as well as tinting the front and rear light clusters and I have this:

The rally sport body kit front and rear splitters and wing where also painted and installed, the side skirts had been done as well but I couldn't find them until my decal was installed.

As you can see above the Mini-Z rims looks pretty good but they are just two small for the arches... so in come the model rim adapters and I have this:

Which look at lot closer to the scale of the shell....

Now we move to decals:

I'd been working with Surgeon to come up with some decals that would really fit the car and this is what we ended up with:

Its a Samurai on a swirling background with Japanese lettering running down, the decal was the usual water slide one so super easy to install and cut according to the body.

You can see that the side skirts have also been fitted and they have what would have been the stock decals running down them.

At this point I'm super happy with the car because it had been going on for months!! All that was left was to clear coat it, now I've never had any luck with clear... it always ruins the car by ending up as orange peel, for this car I'd researched into what was available and came across a super gloss clear that was supposedly equal to 3 coats of regular clear... I put three even coats of clear on the car over the space of a few days and I have to say it's pretty impressive stuff!! If you get to close with the camera flash this is what happens:

Now that's a shine!! :)

So finished product time:

As I've said numerous times I really am happy with the outcome of this car... I put my heart and soul into working in the snow to get it finished, unfortunately I don't think its a competition winner but I'm certainly proud of it!!

Now if only I could take some decent photos to show truly how good it is I would be set... maybe I'll get up in the morning and take some outside shots with the natural light... if everything's iced like it was this morning it should make for some good scenery....

Anyways hope you enjoyed my thread and comments as always are more than welcome.