Aoshima Toyota Crown 'Athlete' GRS214

Paints:

• Kapci automotive 2K primer
• Motip semi-gloss black, decanted and airbrushed
• Crystal Purple no.51 (E7 Paints)
• Kapci automotive 2K clear

Additional Parts:

• Hobby Design HD02-0303 photo-etch set
• Aoshima BBS-LM 20-inch rims
• Photo-etch steering paddle shifters
• HD photo-etch and custom seat belt buckles
• Hobby Design HD04-0005 black Brembo decals
• New Speaker grilles from Tamiya mesh
• Antracite flocking added to interior floor and parcel shelf
• T2M-2011-B2 black seat-belt cloth
• Scale_Lab24 photo-etch seat belt accessories
• New fog lamps built from a spare grille and clear parts
• Scratch-built a front lip / spoiler to make the bumper sit lower
• Added a new rear lip spoiler to the boot made from styrene

Modifications:

• Chassis cut and modified to align front wheels better
• 2 sheets of styrene glued to chassis to make a 1.5mm extension
• All brakes were corrected on the back side to make more realistic
• 3 holes drilled to rear seat bottom part for the belt buckles
• Sunroof opened by drilling and sanding to size
• Hood defect corrected with styrene and glue
• Original fog lamps cut out and removed

Aoshima Box. The Best Car GT, No.02-SP

All the pieces provided inside box

I have made a full unboxing video of this particular kit and uploaded to YouTube. So if you're interested in knowing which parts are included, feel free to watch this video above

I shall also be using the Hobby Design HD02-0303 photo-etch set to make this Crown more realistic. This is actually dedicated for the Royal Saloon version, not the Athlete. However, only the badging are different, so I'm able to use most of the parts from it

I have also made another unboxing video for this photo-etch set where I mention the differences between both kits and what I'll be able to use. Watch it from the above link

This kit comes with a lovely set of 20-inch SSR Professor VF1 (bottom rims). However, I had these BBS-LM in my wheels cabinet and when I compared how both rims looked beneath the large Crown body, I liked the BBS more! So I've decided to use the LM!

A person who's into the Aoshima VIP scene, knows that the chassis is shared with various other kits. When mounted to a GRS214 body, one can notice that it's a little short on the front part, as can be seen above. This causes the front wheels not to be exactly in the middle of the arch. On the back, it's ok. But on the front, the wheels are too backwards

This all means that the chassis need to be slightly longer. Aoshima didn't make it, so let's make it ourselves! First thing to do is to mark where exactly to cut the chassis in two!

Chop Chop.. the chassis is in two parts! Big thanks goes to local friend Mark for the knife as it has cut the chassis as if it was made of butter! As you can see I chose to cut behind the rear interior pins, so that it won't affect the installation of the interior tub later on

Next job was adding the styrene. I used two sheets, 1.0mm and 0.5mm to achieve the necessary extension of the chassis. These were then covered with super glue

Super glue was then sanded smooth and on the back side I also added 2 styrene strips in the opposite direction for a stronger bond.! More super glue was also added!

It was then time to re-assemble the chassis to the body and test the wheel position once again. Now, the front wheels sit much better in the middle of the arch, as seen above

With the wheels sorted, I started preparing all the parts for airbrushing the primer. The brakes were a beauty from the front, but on the back they needed some work! Pin holes were so deep they were filled with a 2mm styrene rod and then covered with super glue for a smooth finish. The Brembo lettering and bolts were sanded down while on the back, the caliper had no detail at all. So I added some simple resin pieces to simulate this

It was then time to start working on the interior and the first thing I noted was that the original paddle shifters were too simple. So a quick look at my parts box revealed I had an extra photo-etch piece left over from the LFA. Obviously, I decided to use this instead!

Then, it was time to sort out some new seat belt buckles. For the front, I will be using a pair of Hobby Design, photo-etch pieces. For the rear, I made some simple resin ones

With all the chassis and interior parts cleaned from mold lines and prepared, it was time to airbrush some layers of primer. For this, I used automotive 2K grey primer

Next job were the seats covers. For this, I mixed a custom dark red using a Zero Paints Red Leather colour together with some drops of Alclad Gloss Black. I also applied the same colour to the bottom section of the dash and door cards, referring to the real Crown

Then, it was time for the second colour: custom dark silver. For this, I first masked where necessary, then I mixed a custom colour using Alclad Gloss Black and AK Aluminium

Then I did the brake calipers where these were airbrushed in yellow, Brembo black decals from Hobby Design attached and finally cleared with several layers of Zero Paints 1K clear

Once again, all necessary items were masked so that I could airbrush the satin black

Every part was then airbrushed in satin black. For some pieces, this will be the final colour

Next colour to be applied was chrome, where the chassis and calipers were masked. The engine bottom cover was also masked, then airbrushed in aluminium

The brakes photo-etch parts were attached to a rotary tool to scratch the surface and make them more realistic. All steps carried out can be seen above

With all the chassis parts coloured, all that remains was to assemble all parts together

Here's the chassis almost fully assembled. Here, both silencers are being held in place while the glue dries

With the glue fully hardened, the chassis was all finished as can be seen here

With the chassis complete, it was time to continue the interior. Here, I decided to make the speaker grills more realistic using the procedure seen above. Easy and effective!

At this time I realized I had no holes into the bottom part of the rear seat for the seat belt buckles. So I masked the rear seat and carefully cut out 3 holes for the buckles

Next job was the flocking where I chose Antracite colour from MG Models Malta. You can view the exact procedure I use to apply flocking, by clicking here

With everything airbrushed, the only thing that remained were the seat belts. For this, I chose the black cloth from T2M and photo-etch pieces from Scale_Lab

All the interior pieces were assembled together and it's now complete, as can be seen

Time to start working on the body! First thing I did was to open the sunroof. This is marked from the bottom of the roof and so this gives you the option to open it or not. For this job, I decided to drill holes next to each other and then slowly sand the extra material until the panel line is reached. The clear part was masked to avoid scratches

This is a known issue with hood fitment on this Crown kit. As can be seen above, the line of the hood doesn't match with the grill so this needs correction

To correct this, I used small pieces of styrene glued in place and finished with glue on top. Then, these were slowly sanded and checked until I got the desired shape

It was then time for the front bumper! I was never a fan of the standard fog lights that stood out of the bumper like a pipe! So I took out the knife and began cutting them out!

Both fog lamps were removed and the surrounding areas smoothed in place. To make new fog lamps, I will use a grille and clear parts I had lying around in my spares box

This is the new set-up I came up with. I first cut the grille into two parts which were sanded down to fit inside the holes. Then, I drilled a hole for the clear part and another to serve as a vent. Finally, everything was smoothed together with styrene sides

With the fog lamps sorted, it was time to work on the front bumper height! When assembling this, I noticed it sits higher than the side-skirts and I don't like this! To me, the front bumper has to sit in line or slightly lower than the skirts. Time to solve this!

I decided to build two corners beneath the front bumper from pieces of styrene. These were smoothed in place round the bumper. They are at the same height as the skirts

Once I got the styrene sanded in the shape required, the gaps were filled using automotive body filler, as can be seen above

Body filler was then sanded to shape, making the corners one-piece with the bumper

Then it was time to fill the gap in between the corners! For this, I made a new splitter from styrene, the same height as the corners and this will fit separately later on

Finally, I decided to add a little lip spoiler on the boot. First, a template was drawn on masking tape, and then the part was created using 2 different thickness of styrene

Part was then sanded smooth in the required shape. Finally, two pins were added to the bottom for easier installation, while 2 matching holes were drilled to the boot

Same as the rear spoiler, metal pins were also added to the roof antenna and side mirrors to make their installation easier. The body was drilled with matching holes 

With every part sanded and prepared, all remaining pieces were airbrushed with automotive 2K light grey primer

Now comes a little tip to all beginners in this hobby! Although the primer in the previous picture might seem perfectly laid down, inspecting it closer one can see various imperfections (as seen above). If one doesn't fix these at the primer stage, these will show once again on the colour coats. So it's important to take care of these little imperfections at this stage, before more layers of paint are applied!

Those tiny imperfections were sanded off using a 1500-grit automotive sand paper with water. This was done very carefully to avoid the sand paper sanding through. If this happens, it's important to re-apply some primer over the exposed plastic. With those imperfections out of the way, I can proceed with the colour coats!

Next, all items that needed to be black, were airbrushed with several layers of satin black. The colour used above is decanted Motip aerosol can, semi gloss black

Now, it was time to use a paint I had been wanting to use for a long time! The nice Crystal Purple 51 from E7 paints. This need to be airbrushed over a black/dark base

And here it is airbrushed.. what can I say, I love it! This still requires clear coating!

Next job is to airbrush the body with 2K clear and keep applying more colours to other pieces, so keep watching this space for more updates on the Aoshima Crown 'Athlete'.