Late '90s Toyota Ipsum (Picnic)

[Spottedlaurel]

Chevelle's finished, so one with the next project! If you're aware of this car you probably haven't given it much thought, and if you've never heard of it then it's basically six/seven-seater MPV that's a bit smaller than a Previa.

1998 Toyota Picnic GL Auto by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

I've never had one, or even been in one, but I got this Aoshima kit on eBay some years ago for a mere 99p - can't believe no one else wanted it! I've looked out for them since and slowly assembled ideas for what I want to do with it.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Only the 3-spoke wheels came with it, the others have been robbed from other kits. This is my main inspiration:

A one-off created by Toyota GB. It wasn't just about the looks, they dropped-in the MR2 Turbo engine! More here: https://blog.toyota.co.uk/toyota-heritage-fleet-the-story-of-the-picnic-sport-turbo

The wheels are something I particularly wanted to replicate reasonably closely. I have a set of them which came off a Camry Sport I used to own (another Toyota GB oddity which they put into production).

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

These wheels are from a Lexus IS200/Toyota Altezza, pretty good and they have been used on the real thing:

1998 Toyota Picnic GS TD by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

But after some extensive rummaging through my stash I came up these as a better alternative:

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

They're from a Tamiya Mazda RX7, with narrower, lower profile tyres from a Honda Prelude.

The kit comes with some fairly understated bodykit parts, but I'll probably lose the roof spoiler and will pack out the front lip to give it a deeper look. I suspect the suspension will need lowering considerably, and maybe the rear inner arches cut back to accommodate this.

Not 100% sure yet about colour, probably going to be Tamiya TS-60 Pearl Green. I'll give it a silver base first and might go two-tone, as it has a fairly obvious break line which even I might be able to achieve.

Let's see how it turns out over the next few weeks.....

[kelson]

Never heard of this vehicle,but your build looks interesting!.?

[Spottedlaurel]

12 hours ago, kelson said:

Never heard of this vehicle,but your build looks interesting!.?

Thanks Curtis! I know a 1990s minivan is going to be of limited interest ot most people, which is why this will be all the more challenging and rewarding......

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

This shot sums up yesterday's progress (with parts attached to the sprues also primed). Unusually for me, as I'm not a big fan of bodykits etc, I actually attached parts to the body. Side skirts were added as was the front lip, but the latter packed out by around 1mm (so roughly 1" scale) to give it a deeper look. I think these parts are restrained enough to give it a sharper look but with being too crazy.

Panel lines were scribed and wheels got a bit of attention......

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Point of no return!

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Finished result. What's handy about these RX7 wheels is that they're male fitment the same as the kit's originals. Most of the others I had were female, easy enough to overcome but it's one less thing to do.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

This is low as it will go, looks good to me. It appears I can just get away without cutting the rear inner arches. Very happy with the wheel choice, and the tyres stretched onto them are just the right profile - they're supposedly 15", on a rim which I imagine is 17 or even 18", but luckily the rubber has a bit of stretch. The RX7's tyres were way too wide, and a bit too tall, and these 15s were spare from my recently completed Honda Prelude build.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Spottedlaurel

[Lowlife ! !]

 

I like to see unusual stuff being built, makes a change from 32 fords etc. !

That's the good thing with these, you can add a bit of imagination and make it stand out !

 

Good luck with it, just remember lower is ALWAYS better ! ! 

[Spottedlaurel]

On 6/29/2020 at 10:19 AM, Lowlife ! ! said:

I like to see unusual stuff being built, makes a change from 32 fords etc. !

That's the good thing with these, you can add a bit of imagination and make it stand out !

 

Good luck with it, just remember lower is ALWAYS better ! ! 

Thanks Martin. I have plenty of unusual things on my shelves awaiting their turn, someone has to build this stuff.....

I'm mostly with you on the lowering, although when I did it at 1:1 on a Datsun 160J SSS some years ago it wasn't so good. I ended up going through part-worn front tyres at quite a rate due to the negative camber I ended up with, and it didn't drive so well on the bumpy country roads. Worst of all, I couldn't run matching wheels front and rear.

Progress during the week:

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Green will definitely be the main colour, champagne gold around the bottom if I'm feeling confident enough to do two-tone.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Sprayed a white basecoat on last night, which went down nicely and just minimal work required before I can get some colour applied.

Interior the next big job. More seats to do in this one than usual......

[Spottedlaurel]

Been a fair bit happening to this one since my last update:

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Much of yesterday was spent whittling away at the suspension, getting it lower but in a vaguely realistic way. Struts and spring all cut down front and rear, I suppose by around 2-3mm so scaling at 50-75mm (2-3"). Front bottom arms then have had material added so the bottom of the struts still locates into something, and I can retain the steerable wheels. Diveshafts have been notched so I can bend them up to suit.

Brakes are the next issue, complicated by adding larger discs on the front and swapping the original front brakes onto the rear (which originally had drums). I'm working with a cocktail of parts from Aoshima, Fujimi and Tamiya, so more cutting and shaving is required there. The wheels have a fairly open pattern, so it needs something behind them to look right.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Finished result, was it really worth the effort?! Compared to when I tried it on the stock suspension, I'd say yes - it looks realistic at this height. Getting it much lower would required more significant surgery and/or cheating (which I am happy to do to achieve the right look!).

Feeling more positive than I did last weekend after the frustrations of putting the '37 Ford back together, I broke out the masking tape and gave it the 2-tome paint treatment it needed:

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Tamiya TS-75 Champagne Gold, an essential paint for building 1980s/90s Japanese cars! I have several tins of it, goes down nicely. Anyway, getting it on the bodyshell was the easy part, what would it look like with the masking tape removed?......

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

I'm happy with that. Bear in mind this is my first ever sprayed 2-tone paintjob, any I've done in the past were in my brush-painted Humbrol days. I had a decent, well-defined recess to work to and I sprayed a mist of TS-13 clear on first to seal the tape edge and hopefully prevent any bleeding, which seems to have worked. Using decent tape might have helped there too. My main concern was the green paint peeling off when I removed the tape, but my fears were unfounded. Needs some TS-13 clear now to finish it off.

Main job for today wil be assembling the interior. As seen in one of the shots above, lots of caramel and brown - the way I've done it isn't particularly accurate for an Ipsum/Picnic but I've based the overall look of it on my 1:1 Lexus LS400.

 

P.S. Looks like there has been some inflation since I bought my kit for 99p - there's one for sale on eBay here in the UK for £49.99.......

Edited July 19, 2020 by Spottedlaurel

[TimJ]

Nice paintwork. I've done a few two tone paint jobs and they are a lot easier when there's a well defined demarcation line.

 

[Spottedlaurel]

On 7/20/2020 at 1:50 AM, TimJ said:

Nice paintwork. I've done a few two tone paint jobs and they are a lot easier when there's a well defined demarcation line.

Thanks Tim. Good job there was a decent line to work to, due to an issue I had.....

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Basically I polished through some green paintwork on the front end. I tried to respray just the wings and bonnet, but even using the same can the match wasn't great so I masked-off the gold bottom half and redid the whole bodyshell. Good job I'd deepened the panel lines.

Above shot is with it mocked-up on the modified suspension. No issues with how that fitted together, but the interior tub sides seemed too sit above the window line.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

I took these shots before rectification, it can be seen that the sides don't seem to sit down and create a flush line with the fixed panel at the back end.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

So yet more disassembly and trimming, about 2mm in this case. I also removed a similar amount off the bottom of the dashboard moulding, where it sits down onto the transmission tunnel. I'd rather it be a touch low than have the body and interior not fit together tightly when the glass is installed.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Lowered suspension successully installed. A sea of semi-gloss black I'm afraid, I wasn't feeling any inspiration to pick out much detail. 4wd running gear evident here, not a version we got.

Only thing I have left to do is attach some brake discs, they're in progress with larger drilled items from an accessory set and the original fronts moved to the rear to replace the drum set-up. Let's assume it has Celica 4wd running gear so needed an upgrade.

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

1:24 Aoshima Toyota Ipsum (Picnic) kit by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Another trial-fit with the suspension fully installed and modified interior, works better now. Before I get any further I should check it with the glass. Wheel location might not be quite right until the brake discs are in place, they've just been loosely fitted for now.

I see that the open back on the 3rd row of seats is rather evident, I'll get that filled.

Since the above photos it's had a careful session with the Micromesh sheets and a resin polish, the paint remaining intact this time!

Quite a lot of detail painting to do now, all that tedious dark paint around the window frames and on the back of the glass.

Edited August 16, 2020 by Spottedlaurel