Gurachan series available here

Patrol car parts set B

LibertyWalk is currently producing some of the world’s wildest Lamborghini’s, however it’s founder Wataru Kato has one real passion – ‘kyusha’. More commonly known as classic cars by most Kato-san’s love of the classic ‘shakotan’ or boso style tuning has gained the attention of tuning crowds around the world. Recently his tuning examples have inspired Aoshima who are creating a series of his own personal collection. One which they haven’t included is this example – the ‘shakotan police’.

This 4-door ‘Kenmeri’ skyline I noticed could be quite easily reproduced using purely Aoshima kits so I set about getting down to business.

This was the base kit I used, identical to the car I wanted to recreate, except for one thing – the rear wing.

Coupled up with the Patrol Car Parts Type B set the shakotan police car was now good to go.

First step in the build was sorting the chassis out to ensure it sat low. Luckily with the top quality that Aoshima kits bring, only a small nick in the chassis was required before cementing the rear together.

As you can see, the axle is sitting on top of the mocked up chassis. I have substituted the metal piece in favour of a toothpick.

The reason for the substitution was that the ends on the toothpick are pointed and allow me to adjust the amount of camber the wheels have easily. This means no chassis modifications in turn saving a lot of time. I have just stuffed the wheels with a knob of ‘blu-tac’ and this keeps them attached to the car.

The tyres and wheels used for this build are SSR MkIIs. These did not come standard in the kitset, they are however Aoshima parts, and came courtesy of a bosozoku fender kitset. The tyres once fitted to the rims give the real ‘hippari stretch’ look and do look superb.

Once the spokes on the wheels had been painted they came out looking very nice. Period-correct tyre decals were the finishing touch on them. Proportions on width and dish-depth are also very very good on these wheels.

The body was now ready for getting it’s own chop. All these kitsets come with a ‘standard’ body as they rolled out of the factory. In order to strap those big fenders on, and get the wheels tucked up right into the body, some cutting is required. A template was provided in the kit which was cut out, the guide lines were pencilled onto the body and then I cut out the unnecessary plastic from the arches with my dremel kit.

After the work was complete, now it was time to look at fitting the fenders. When cutting away be careful not to get too carried away, it is easy to do. Don’t worry about how rough the edges turn out as the cutting is all hidden by the fenders once they are attached.

With a test fit of the fenders on the body it was also time to create the rollcage the 1:1 car has inside. It was relatively painfree although just remember to allow clearance once the interior side panels go in then everything will be nice and snug. I left the rear seats in the car as well as they were the support for the back window speakers etc.

The police lights that came in the kitset look like this before assembly. Moulded in clear red, after being painted a little care was taken to avoid ‘glue spots’ with the transparent parts and they were assembled. Aoshima really is a industry leader for the finer scale model detailing needs of customers. They are the only company that make inexpensive and good quality products to make scratch-built models such as this shakotan police car.

A quick test of the body was in order along with a rear wing from a Fujimi ‘Hakosuka’ KPGC10 GT-R Skyline. The police lights were fitted up and checked for size and proportions. As always they are inch-perfect and look great!

The seats I started with were historic rallycar ones, although I wanted the classic Japanese style of bucket seat so they were sanded down to look more like this…

The original seats in the real car.

After sanding and modification I was much happier with how they were looking.

The finished interior of the kitset. The dashboard connects up to the body therefore it isn’t quite attached yet.

Next up was the challenge of creating the stickering for the car. A combination of Japanese and English lettering. A good friend of mine came to the party and created some 1/24 scale stickers for the kit. The thinnest signwriting vinyl available was used and in the end was almost perfect for the job.

Roof decals for the build.

Painted and stickered, the Kenmeri was finally resembling a police car.

Silver window trims were done courtesy of a silver fine-tipped paint pen, while the black was masked and brush painted. Also the Aoshima police lights set of front lights were painted and attached to the front grill along with the front bumper.

The end result

For the finishing touch I wanted to recreate the ‘boso’ pipes that the 1:1 car had. They serve no performance purpose, it is purely a design influence that started somewhere during the ‘boso tuning’ craze.

Overall Impression

The Aoshima products I used in this build were fantastic. Product quality was exceptionally high and made the scratch build process of this kitset nice and easy. I would highly recommend the base kitset to anyone wanting to go for a one-off build such as this, or even just make a midnight highway boso cruiser. The police light kitset looks very good, required no cleaning before assembly and even came with a sticker sheet containing the kanji of Japan’s different prefectures for building a factual police car.

If you are looking for something a little different, and attention grabbing then look no further than Aoshima’s ‘Gurachan’ kitsets.