Lada Niva 1/35, The Blast From The Past, Russian Dinosaur For Offroad Purpose

[Clunkmeister]

I knew these when they were new.  Awesome vehicles, actually. A two horse Amish buggy was faster, but as far as I was able to find, it was absolutely impossible to get a Niva stuck.  Period.

Plus, they had a heater that would melt the driver, even in -45 weather.  

Plus, the Ladas seemed to be the only thing that would start and run in those temperatures.  Truly AWESOME vehicles, and I’d LOVE to find a decent Niva goal, because I’d own it in a heartbeat.

We were given some horrible ComBloc vehicles in the 80s, and we laughed at the Yugo, Škodas, etc, but the Ladas were not one of them.  I’ll go out on a limb and say the Niva was the best small 4x4 available in the 80s. At least in Canada. 

[HubertB]

I remember a heavy snow fall in the early 80’ on Strasbourg, where I was leaving at the time. A number of my then colleagues lived on the countryside, and had to have the local farmer’s tractor to get their out of thick snowdrifts... until the tractor was stuck itself. In came a Niva who got the tractor out of trouble .

Hubert

[GusMac]

4 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

We were given some horrible ComBloc vehicles in the 80s, and we laughed at the Yugo, Škodas, etc, but the Ladas were not one of them.  I’ll go out on a limb and say the Niva was the best small 4x4 available in the 80s. At least in Canada. 

The 4x4 Fiat Panda was pretty good back then as well. Wheels at the extreme corners and basically bicycle tyres on it. There was one that ran around at the ski centre at Glenshee for years and never got stuck. It was so light you could have picked it up if it did! 

[DocRob]

The off road capability of the Niva is unmatched. It's a different concept than most other 4x4's. It's small and relatively light, so the small engine is perfectly capable. As with the Panda, the wheels are on the corners, not much hindering steep climbs. It weighs a little more than the Pandas and Jimnys, which helps in some situations, were traction is needed.

5 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

Plus, they had a heater that would melt the driver, even in -45 weather.

The heater is the most outstanding feature of seemingly all Ladas. They work fast and relentless.

5 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

Truly AWESOME vehicles, and I’d LOVE to find a decent Niva goal, because I’d own it in a heartbeat.

Until last year, you could buy new ones in Germany. They got some extra care from the importer, starting from better corrosion protection, up to the complete expedition package. I think there are some left, but bringing them to the US might prove hard, not to think of exhaust regulations.

In Germany the Niva has a relatively big fan base. It's cheap, forgiving, easy (sometimes often) to repair. Many forest workers or hunters own one.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The painting stage begins. I prepared all the parts and glued some wire into pre drilled holes on the inside of the rims and drilled holes into the axles too. That makes painting easier and helps to make the wheel assembly stronger, when time comes.

All parts were primed with AK's Xtreme Metal black gloss primer, as I plan to use a coat of their Polished Aluminum for the metal parts like rims and bumpers and as a basecoat for the body, where I mask it later for the head- and taillights and maybe the middle body line will be masked, as a metal trim. I decided against Chrome, because it's too shiny for the finish, I have in mind.

The body looks a little wired with the Polished Aluminum on top, but after drying and masking it will receive a coat of Tamiya red.

Cheers Rob

 

[Jeff]

[GazzaS]

Nice progress, Rob!

[DocRob]

On 12/1/2020 at 8:24 AM, GazzaS said:

Nice progress, Rob!

Muchas Gracias Señhor .

Yesterday I sprayed the body parts with Tamiya gloss red and didn't like the result at all. With all different mixing rates with thinner and changing of the pressure, I got a little grainy result. There were also traces of the cast form still visible, that were not properly filled by the primer and red coat. I decided, to let it dry completely and today sanded with a 4000, 6000 and 8000 grid pads with moisturized surfaces. I'm not completely satisfied with the result, but the Lada is not supposed to look completely new, that's why I decided against stripping and repainting for now and against a clear coat as well. The interior and doors are only attached loosely and the next steps will be detailing with PE, chroming some details with Molotow markers and then the much dreaded adding of the window panes.

Cheers Rob

 

[Bomber_County]

I like the slightly past the showroom look, all the Lada’s I have ever seen always look a little unloved.........you’ve nailed this one....

[DocRob]

42 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

I like the slightly past the showroom look, all the Lada’s I have ever seen always look a little unloved.........you’ve nailed this one....

Thanks Phil, you found exactly the right words for the look I'm after, not totally rotten, but past the showroom look. It will be a little bit more refined looking, with all the tiny bits and pieces added, along with the lights. I already chromed the window frames and other tiny trimmings.

Cheers Rob

[Jeff]

LOL, I think some guys would call this a 'Day 2 Build", and when they are rusted out completely, it would be ...."ready for restoration"....   Love what you are doing here Rob, and the great approach not to make it a show room beauty or a 'garage Queen "..... she is coming together quite nicely..... looks every bit the part for sure..

[BlrwestSiR]

Looks great Rob. I thought the polished aluminum made it look like a die cast car. 

Carl

[GazzaS]

Rob,

   Nice progress.  I'll be interested to see more.  

If you want to get beyond the shine you can get with paper backed abrasives, try some automotive buffing compound.  I use Meguires. 

Works great on non-enamel paints.  Rejuvenates clear plastic parts, too!  Saved a lot of canopies for me.

[DocRob]

50 minutes ago, Jeff said:

LOL, I think some guys would call this a 'Day 2 Build", and when they are rusted out completely, it would be ...."ready for restoration"....   Love what you are doing here Rob, and the great approach not to make it a show room beauty or a 'garage Queen "..... she is coming together quite nicely..... looks every bit the part for sure..

Thanks Jeff, maybe the look is caused, because the Ladas were imported individual by road from Siberia, through ice and snow, to show their trustworthiness. The Tamiya red is pretty close to the actual Lada red, that's why I used it.

30 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Looks great Rob. I thought the polished aluminum made it look like a die cast car. 

Thanks Carl, haven't thought about this, but you're right, these Xtreme Metals look extremely, err, metallic.  

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Thank you Gaz, I will keep your idea in mind for other builds. I have to admit, that I'm completely lost with car builds, at least with that glistening showroom look. I have one or two car kits in my stash, to train exactly this look. Then it will be time to use some polish. With the Lada, it wouldn't look right and I would have had to spent more time with surface preparation before priming. I was astonished to see that many cast marks after the aluminum layer. They skipped my eye before.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Looks good to my eye Rob. Red paints often fade to that slightly pinkish shade that you seem to have there, so I think it looks great for that 'slightly used' look you're after. 

[DocRob]

Thanks Gus, you are right, red tones are the most sensitive car paints. They fade rapidly in the sunlight, with only some exceptions. I saw some rather old Toyotas, where the red paint still looked, yeah, red.
In daylight, there is no pinkish shade in the Tamiya red, it looks more, as if you added some drops of red brown and one drop of blue into the mix. I like that shade a lot for the Lada and liked it even more for the red parts of my recent 1/48 Siemens Schuckert WWI plane build, where it has just the right deepness, without being to prominent and flashy.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Some more progress with the Niva. I added the windows, front grille, many tiny PE parts for body fittings, added the headlights and painted the backlights. The gluing of the windows proved to be not to easy. it's printed acetate which has to be cut out. Yesterday, I applied some CA on some of the cut out acetate and had no reaction. Today while gluing in the windowpanes, I seem to notice a little clouding, lets see how this will work out. I have to do a lot of touch ups, before I assemble the body to the chassis. It's not the easiest kit to build and I made some mistakes during the process. You have to find these miscues yourselves, this time, because most are simple errors, which nothing to learn off . Please remember, this car is really small, it's 1/35 scale and looks better to the blurred non macroed natural eye .

Cheers Rob

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Rob, it looks good to me. Just needs some wheels. 

 

Carl

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Rob, it looks good to me. Just needs some wheels. 

Ahh, the wheels, just joking, they will be added, when the base is ready. There are some other bits too to be added .

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Looks good, Rob!

 

 

[DocRob]

The tiny Lada got wheels at least, among other parts like fenders and mud flaps. It payed off to insert copper wire into wheel hubs and drill the axles. This way, it was much easier to adjust the wheels correctly and there is a bigger area for the CA to bond. Some details are still missing, like the mirrors and wipers, but adding these will be the last step, because of their fragility. Next steps will be some touch ups and the license plates.

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Almost there....

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Almost there....

Indeed, now it's about the base with the shape of my island.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The Lada is done so far, except for the mirrors, which I don't risk to add now. I did a lot of touch ups and added details like license plates and wipers. Now it's time for some work on the base.

Cheers Rob