Revell Honda Civic Buildup

[oldcarfan]

Forgive me as this is my first attempt at a build up post. I recently finished my hobby room and started unpacking some boxes of kits. I came across a box with some bagged kits and pulled one out. It was the Revell EK Honda Civic that they released as part of their early 2000s Tuner Lineup. This bag actually had three complete unbuilt Civic kits. I also found one that has their Acura Integra kit. Don't know where I got them, but probably from a show years ago.

Sorry for not taking more pictures, but I got carried away with the build and just plain forgot.  I hope this will be of interest as I think these are nice kits and deserve to be reissues, maybe updated with stock wheels? Not caring for the, in my opinion, cheesy aftermarket body kits, I was happy to see that most of the parts are there to do a stock Civic except the wheels. I decided to build this one like a friend tried to do to his 1:1 car back in the day. He wanted a subtle JDM sort of look and so do I.

The Revell Tuner kits I've seen are well molded and reminiscent of Japanese designed kits of the time. The parts trees were separtely wrapped and car was taken to make sure the glass in particular was protected. The fit is good, and the mold lines are not too prominent and it didn't take a lot of prep to be ready of paint. This picture shows the body after painting with Tamiya Racing White, which is a slightly off-white. At first I thought maybe the paint was bad, due to the age of the can, but people asured me it was supposed to be that color, and I really like it. After it was dry, I masked off the engine bay and painted it with semi-gloss black from an Ace Hardware can. The rest of the black trim is done in a combination of Sharpie and a fine-line marker I got at an Anime Con in Dallas years ago. 

 

[oldcarfan]

This is the interior partially assembled. I painted it with Tamiya Italian red, on a day that was way too hot and humid for October. That explains why it dried sort of flat and sort of hazy. As it turned out, I think it ended up making the upholstery look more realistic.

After the parts were dry, I masked off the rear seat which is molded to the floorpan, and also masked off parts of the side panels, and then painted those in Walmart Flat Black. In a spark of brilliance, (Sarcasm), I bought a jar of black embossing powder from Hobby Lobby to do the carpets. Not sure it's the best way, but I painted the carpet area and the rear hatch cover with flat black craft paint and then dusted the wet paint with the embossing powder. I think it turned out pretty nice!

As with the body, I used the fine-line marker to outline the seat and side panel details.

[oldcarfan]

Also I forgot to mention the engine. It is nicely done by Revell and I painted it with some Duplicolor gunmetal grey that I had left over from my 1:1 Volvo. The header is painted with Krylon Aluminum with a dull coat over it, and the valve cover is painted with the same red I used on the seats. The air filter is painted flat white. I also carved out the lower grille on the stock front end. I was going to do the upper grille as well, but didn't want to risk messing it up so I outlined it and painted the area black.  

[oldcarfan]

This is the body and chassis ready for assembly. It's strange, but the two are held together with four screws. The paint on the body came out very smooth which was as much a surprise to me as to anyone. I didn't care for any of the wheel/tire combinations that came with the kit. They were typical for their time, but I'm not a fan of the rubber band type tires.

I dug around until I found the box with aftermarket tires and wheels and settled on these which I think are the perfect ones for this little Civic. They are from XS Tuning and I got them in a lot of stuff years ago on eBuy. As near as I can tell, the wheels are around 18" or 19". Not caring for the Chrome finish, I soaked them in bleach and resprayed them in Rustoleum bronze. The tires are still low profile, but look much better to my way of thinking.

This is the last of this 'Build-up' as I am going to post the finished pictures in a few minutes. I realize that most people do their builds posts as they work, but I wasn't planning to do this, so I hope it will be interesting to those who like this type of car.

Stay tuned for the finished pictures.

[atomicholiday]

Cool build.   And excellent work you've done with it.

I agree with you about the Revell tuner kits.   I think they're a little underrated.   I have two in the stash (Focus and Civic coupe) and both are very nicely molded,  with lots of options.