Hotrod Flying Saucer

The Saucer

Let us consider the age old question: What was the young rock'n'roll fuelled rebellious Martian teen getting around in during the 50s, while his old man was out abducting earthlings?

Well obviously, he had a Hot Rod! A Flying Saucer Hot Rod! An older model of course, fitted with more engine than you can shake a stick at, a flashy paint job, and stripped of all unnecessary weight so it'd go like the clappers!

The Model

This model was built for the Whatif Modelers One Week Group Build in 2008 from a Tamiya Schwimmwagen I'd had hanging around for ages. I bought a cheap 1/32 toy Nissan Skyline GT-R to provide the interior and alloy wheels (and the spoiler, which I eventually decided to leave off).

Various military looking fitings and protruberences were shaved off while other indentations where filled. The largets change to the body being the filling in of the nose mounted spare wheel well. I added a 'power bulge' in the hood to cover up most of the area, even if the engine is in the back.

The Skyline provided it's dash, which had to be narrowed to fit, along with it's front seats. I had wanted to use the back seat, but as the toy featured a pull back action motor which porjected through them I was forced to use the stock Schwimmwaghen item. Modifications were made to fit the Skyline's gear stick and steering wheel. I also built a new floor as I though the slatted wooden stock unit didn't really fit in a sports model.

The skyline porvided a set of five-spoke alloy wheels which were modified to fit the Schwimmwagen. I fitted the Schwimmwagen's brake drums to these wheels as they doubled as the mounting points in the rear. The front wheels fitted onto the axel without modifications being required.

As the rear mounted engine was not visible due to the way I'd installed the rear seats I left it out, glued the cover on and built the outboard motor stock. Finally, I installed verticle stack exhausts in the rear deck well out of the way of the water.

The interior was painted with a variety of Citadel blue shades, and the floor covered in turquise car modeler's interior flocking. The body was treated to Auto touch-up rattle cans in two shades of blue before being polished extensively.