1/6 Scale Condorman Condormobile Nova Sterling scratchbuild

[Marine Boy]

Earlier this year, i bought a classic car, so work on my model projects had to take a back seat for a bit. The car needed some work done to it, adding remote central locking, a new stereo, reversing camera and some other goodies. It made sense to do this work during the summer months. As winter set in, i went back to my shed to continue my model building.

I had been working on the Mad Max V8 Interceptor, but this has reached a point, where i'm mainly working on the smaller details. For my Xmas break, i like to start a new project, as i can get a lot done in the 2 weeks. If i went back to the Interceptor, it would have been all the finicky detail so there would have been little visible progress. With my interest in classic cars, i decided i would like to own a Nova / Sterling, a VW Beetle based kitcar from the 70s.

As these are quite rare and seldom up for sale, i decided to build a model for the time being. The Nova was also the basis for the car from the 1981 Disney movie Condorman, so it made sense to build both versions at once.

As the Nova uses a VW Beetle floorpan, i made this the starting point.

Building up the bodywork.

The main difference between the Condorman car and the normal version, is the elongated tail section.

Adding the roof and rear bodywork.

Normal version

 

[Marine Boy]

Building up the front wheel arches and the trunk interior.

The back wall and cockpit sides made.

Canopy roof and front lid in place.

 

[Marine Boy]

The front bodywork finished.

Trunk lid hinges fitted.

 

[Marine Boy]

Adding the air ducts on the trunk lid. These are only on the normal car.

Building the side panels.

 

[potato]

dude should start making molds for mass production and quit you day job and go for your dreams.

 

[Marine Boy]

Finishing off the side intakes.

Making the roof hinges from square brass rod.

A square brass rod connects both hinges together. This makes for smoother operation. Real cars use 2 actuators (1 each side) which don't always extend together at the same speed, making the roof opening wobbly. The rod will be hidden by the dashboard. A lever will connect to the rod, operated by a linear actuator hidden in the centre tunnel.

 

[Marine Boy]

Adding some interior detail, the transmission tunnel as well as lowering the floor pan for the seats. This is a common mod in the real cars, to increase the headroom, since the roof is about 38" high.

I had to rework the roof mechanism. Originally, there was a central rod to connect both sides together. This was quite small, in order to fit within the roof supports. The force needed to lift the roof caused the square rod to round off very quickly, so I had to fit actuators on each side.

It was a very tight squeeze to fit the actuators within the side panels.

 

[Marine Boy]

 

[Marine Boy]

Building the interior. I had to make the seats quite narrow, in order to fit within the lowered floor pan.

Checking there is enough headroom.

 

[Marine Boy]

Making the instrument binnacle.

Much sanding later.

Making the 2nd set of seats. Still to add the headrests.

 

[Marine Boy]

Making the air intakes, these start off as a stack of plasticard squares glued together.

I used a Dremel to shape the inside.

Cutting the opening in the bodywork.

Glued into place, just a bit of filler and sanding needed.

I also made the rear louvre panel.

 

[Marine Boy]

Making the wheel inserts. This starts as 4 discs of 2mm plasticard glued together. The centre is drilled out and the edges bevelled.

The slots are drilled out and shaped with a knife and files. The hub is glued to the back.

They are a push fit into the existing wheels.

 

[Heavy Metal Spike]

I've only just spotted this thread - OMG! . . . such AMAZING work!


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[agonistes86]

As always, amazing work!