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I was quite enuthused by the Blockhead Wild One - (well the blue colour and silver parts) when it first appeared some 8 months ago, actually going as far as feeling more positive about the "designer". Less so when I saw the price, less again when I saw it was prepainted and there was no choice of using the fake sponsor decals on the side panels.

Then there were the supply problems and eBay scalpers

_Then_ I spotted a pic from 1978 of the Chula Vista Imports Chenowth ... so not much actual "design" going on there, was there? 


Fast forward 6 months & I really wasn't going to bother with one from the second wave, but then I saw that Fusion Hobbies had it for 25 to 50 GBP under what it was being sold at elsewhere. I've lost my 10% discount, but had a few loyalty points to redeem, so thought what the badword - I am a sucker for a (perceived ) bargain, and  I can make some replacement side panels & decals, and use some repro real sponsor logos ...

It arrived yesterday, so today I thought I start on the vinyl replacements. I got some way in. but really needed some better/different reference material ... a quick Google had this -  tamiyabase.com/...s-chenowth - as a first page result :blink: TBH I'd forgotten about it :blush:

In the past I've commented on my annoyance that me buying and restoring something - or even embarking on a build of something Tamiya didn't sell seemed to lead to a re-release or release in very short order, but this seems more .... honestly IDK what to say that doesn't risk lawyers threatening the site again - you'll have to make your own judgement.

 
 

This 2nd wave kit has the same manual as the first - and the prepainted body, roof, and driver - with the same "Some bodies may be pre-painted or have other work already carried out" reference. I still think future releases may have an uncut/unpainted body as a cost reduction. 

There's no doubting that it's very well cut & painted, but the "Light Blue" would not have been my choice.

I've finished the 1st pass of the images for replacement vinyl cuts, it's not exactly the right Taz but I spent so long on the 4 colour separations I'm going to use it

    

Vinyl cuts worked quite well, although the stencil Chenowth logo I wanted for the front just wouldn't work at the small size it needed to be. 

Pleased with Taz - the insides of his ears should be pink but I think they look fine in the same beige, the GRRR! (or is it GAAA! ?) should also be orange, but it the interests of keeping the colour count down (6 instead of 8) I can live with it. My light blue vinyl is quite a bit lighter than Tamiya's PS-3 paint.

Glad I found other reference photos for the car, in hindsight it was quite unlikely there were actually _two_ letters between W and REHOUSE


Feeling a lot less negative about the car now, and I'm also wondering if my modified Rough Rider wheels/tyres with the VW style outer are a better fit than the kit items ...


In other news, the driver figure came precut and prepainted in white, black and satin clear - but looks very bulbous & boxing glove handed so will need a lot of work.

I also found I had three set of the additional racing number decal sheets - that's seemed like a mistake, but from the parts list it is correct.

 

Yeahhhh taz. In french, it's pffrfrttsss

Tackled the driver - the result looks ok from a distance & is surely better than leaving it as found in the kit & using decals, but vacformed drivers are never going to have much realism.

There's no doubt that the James French heads are better sculpted than the Tamiya ones (even though those are very good), but the Wild One head is so small that I lack the paint skills to exploit the detail, making it pretty poor value for me. The helmet "should" be yellow, but I didn't check before painting 

Step 1 is charging the battery, the remainder of the first double page spread of the manual includes assembling those nasty yellow toy headlamps (I used Rough Rider/Buggy Champ ones instead) & the front bumper:
 



Steps 6 to 11 are putting the bumper  & front arms on, and building the front dampers






Steps 12 to 16 - front dampers, cage & other sundry bits fitted: 




17 to 22: building gearbox & fitting rear arms:

Motor & rear shocks ...



Radio gear ...



Sorry for poor photos

Still taking 1 photo per manual double page, wasn't much to do on the body cutting & painting, just had to fit the other two lights:





Went with different wheels:




Battery hatch step really needs some foam to stop the battery rattling 




Quite impressed with these nippers, seem to be almost identical to "modelmaking" ones but are half the cost dues to being sold as wire cutters.

Added some sponsor decals

 

Love the wheels!
Same ones I want to use on my T1 Campervan build.

Did you order from Shapeways?


The whole project looks brilliant btw