December. A month of decorations, Egg Nog, Christmas music, and a severe lack of any car-related happenings (so far). With the holiday preparations, cold temperatures, and the slushy, dirty roads our cars haven’t had any real attention which results in nothing significant to document and share for the blog.

However, the Rocket Bunny models have been progressing and since a lot of interest has been shown in them I thought I’d put together a little update. Winter is a great time to work on models, and they’re a great way to pass the time while waiting for spring to return. The V1-kitted car is naturally still a ways off from any priming and painting as it’s receiving many more modifications, but the V2 is getting closer to the day when colour can be applied.

After cutting the fenders and quarter panels for the flares and carefully aligning and bonding all of the new parts to the kit’s shell, I started addressing any visible flaws. It’s natural for aftermarket parts (and even kit pieces) to need some attention before paint, and especially when combining pieces from different sources one should expect there to be a few things to fix.

Modeling putty was applied to any areas in need of filling, some mold lines were removed, and panel fitment was fine-tuned before the whole shell was recently sprayed with primer. The hood has yet to be primed, but when the primer on the body is touched up it can be taken care of at the same time.

I’ll also note that while I was priming the body, there were emblems alongside it getting a coat as well. Almost there!

The primer highlighted a few more issues that will need to be taken care of but for the most part the shell is looking pretty good. It’s all tiny stuff now, such as a few remaining mold lines and low spots, but the bulk of the body is ready for paint. Once the new-found issues are fixed the primer will be touched up as mentioned and then the coats of blue can start to be applied. That’s when the model will really start coming together.

Almost all of this kit will be built out of the box, with the Rocket Bunny widebody being the biggest change that will be made. Most of the pieces can simply be prepped and painted as intended by Tamiya, so the body will be the most time-intensive part of the entire model.

Since the last post the V1 car has progressed as well so that’ll be highlighted in the next update. I scratchbuilt a roll cage and I’ve also been picking up a few new parts to add to it (and the V2), such as wheels and new tail lights.

-Bill