MINIATURE MODIFICATIONS

DAVE BAILEY BENDS THE TRADITIONAL PRACTICE OF MAKING SCALE MODELS TO REPLICATE THE MOST BADASS CARS ON THE PLANET IN MINIATURE FORM

NZ Performance Car: Hi, Dave. We’ve seen a few of your scale models online. How long have you been building them for?

Dave: Hi, NZPC. I’ve been building models since I was about seven years old, but I’ve been seriously building more solid examples for just over a year now.

We understand that within that past year you’ve made a few notable examples?

There’s still a few in my mini-stables that are awaiting livery decals to be made. However, I’ve had a go at ‘Mad Mike’ [Whiddett]’s ‘MADBUL’ RX-7 and ‘HUMBUL’ RX-7, as well as Andre Simon’s ‘DOCILE’ Evo II and some detailed replicas of old WRC [World Rally Championship] legends such as Tommi Mäkinen’s Evo XI and Colin McRae’s 22B WRC.

How did you originally become interested in cars?

Well, my dad was always into motorbikes, cars, and speed, but I think my real passion came from my mate, Mark, taking me to watch the WRC New Zealand years ago. The anti-lag going bang and crackle, and the flames, seeing cars go mental on gravel — it all just made me fall in love right away!

What has your involvement with them been since then?

I’ve had a dabble, but it’s such an expensive hobby and, sadly, one I’ve never really had enough coin to enjoy. I’ve had a fun Toyota DX wagon with a 4A-GE Trueno engine, a GTT Caldina, which was a bit of a nightmare, and my favourites have been a 1992 Mivec Cyborg and my current purchase: a 2008 Suzuki Swift Sport. I love how it’s such an unassuming car yet packs a nice naturally aspirated punch when needed. Mods on it are just HKS ram intake, aftermarket exhaust, and it’s chipped — reliable fun on the daily.

How did you find yourself building miniature versions; was it an evolution of your full-sized interest on a smaller scale?

Yeah, you could say it’s an evolution. I’m a big ideas person, a bit like Mike Whiddett, but without the budget for it, so I decided to make my dream cars in scale form, because I can sustain that as a hobby from a monetary point of view. I get to do things like my current project of putting a V12 in a Mazda MX-5 or slam out and widebody a Lambo Countach, all at minimal cost — although some of the kits I make and kit-bash aren’t cheap in the end.

“i started making my own bodykits and upgrade components like the Sinco manifolds”

What scale size do you build?

Pretty much solely 1:24 scale at the moment, although I’m going to try a few 1:18 scale kits soon, as I’m working with a company to start importing and selling their kits.

Do you use specific-brand kits, or is it varied?

For the basic kits, Tamiya is the main brand; they make a really nice kit. Also Aoshima, Belkits, Fujimi. From those, I wanted to find some real ‘out there’ kits, as there were always these crazy cars popping up on my Facebook feed of people overseas building Lambos with Liberty Walk kits and twin-turbocharging the V10 engines, etc. I wanted to do that with my kits, so went out and found my mainbrand kit through Hobby Design. I’ll start importing these soon, as Eightyone and V-Modeller kits, so others can make cool stuff too.

You’re now doing more intricate models that include many custom parts; when did you decide to start making your own pieces?

The thing that I think gets forgotten about cars is that building these insane road weapons is also an art form, and it takes some serious imagination to make them work — creativity and technical knowledge. Even with the custom kits and engines that I buy, they are always in stock form, so I just got to thinking, why can’t I just make some custom parts of my own? I got some electrical wire, plastic tubes, and sheet plastic, and started making my own bodykits and upgrade components like the Sinco manifolds — because I love the look of them.

What was the first replica that you made using your own parts?

There’s just so many cool cars and not enough kits; the first would be Andre Simon’s DOCILE Evo II. I picked that one for the challenge of reconstructing an entire front end in drag-spec from scratch. It was a challenge! I loved making it and have since made Mad Mike’s MADBUL and HUMBUL RX-7s.

What materials are you using to make the custom pieces?

Anything I can find; I now have a pretty vast spare-bits box to draw from. I might kit-bash with parts from other kits, or make them from scratch using electrical wire, plastic tubes, plastic sheet, aluminium welding rods even — just anything I can make work.

What tools are used in the process?

That’d be such a long list — painting, I use Badger airbrushes and sable brushes; for the crafting, I have mini drill sets and files, scalpel knives, a huge range of tweezers, and needle-nose vice grips. There’s so much you only use for one part. It’s a very long list [laughs].

How long does each one typically take to build?

Time it takes does vary from model to model; it all depends on how much scratch building I have to do. I’d say that, if I was doing it fulltime, a kit like ‘DOCILE’ would take three days to build and paint.

What’s the hardest part of each model build?

I still have a lot to learn with this stuff and am no master by any means — just passionate — so I have to teach myself as I go. The hardest part would probably be sculpting guards with putty — which isn’t super fun, as any panel beater would know; it’s flipping time-consuming, with lots