Kit Bashing!

Reference Material

This page is dedicated to the reconstruction of the found parts portion of the two fifth element cars I'm working on.

I am going to rebuild the undercarriages, as they are pretty soft and mushy.

Please help me identify the parts that were used to create the detail pieces. So far, none have been indentified. Click on the pictures to see larger, more detailed versions. Please e-mail me if you recognize any of the parts. matthewmunson@yahoo.com. When e-mailing, be sure to reference the picture by number, and please give a description of the part you have identified.

Found Parts Maps

To keep track of what has been found and what has not, I've put together these maps illustrating the finds. Red indicates parts that were found, blue indicates parts that I have determined are scratch built.

This part is coming along slowly. I'm going to scratch build much of it. DONE
I have found SIMILAR transmission parts. I think I may just use them, cast them separately, and then if I ever stumble upon the identical engines, I will include them. All parts shown have been built, save for the speeder bike style cowling. Pieces marked in red have been found. Purple parts have either been completed, or have been contracted out. The large disk is currently in progress. The square core rod is hypothesized to be square drive cap screws. Couldn't find any, but a friend has machined these for me.

Technical Drorings

A couple of folks have asked for measurements on the various parts of the car to help locate them. I've put together a couple of technical drawings for the cars that include measurement call outs. They are saved in adobe pdf format, so you'll need adobe acrobat to view them. If you don't have it, you can download it here. Note that the grey car is not quite finished yet.

Found pieces

Mo from Denmark chimes in with the first found piece. He says it's a "Tamiya 1/12 Tyrrell 6-Wheeler. Important to find a Ford engine. It's the bottom of the motor block". Thanks Mo!
If you look at Image 2, you can clearly see this piece at the bottom of the engine, by the number "8" on the ruler.

Also from Mo comes this piece. He colored the piece in question in red. Mo says it "Could be from Tamiya / 135 T34/76". This piece can be seen in the same photo as the piece above. In looking closely at the piece, it looks like it might just be a clump of clay that the model maker threw on there. I'll have to check out the kit.

Two sources from Canada have identified the engine assembly from the undercarriage of both cars. Looks like it is a stock Plastruct part.Here is a link to the family of parts that it is from. From measurements, I beleive it to be either part PCM-10, or PCM-37. One of the dimensions does not match on each of those parts, but I can dismiss that as shrinkage, or warping. I will order both and decide.

Yours truly has identified this piece. It's a stock piece of Evergreen plastic. I found a supply of it at my local hobby store, and it matches perfectly. It is Evergreen Part #4530. Metal Siding .125" spacing, .040" thick.

I have concluded that this assembly is scratch built. I came to this conclusion because in looking at the two parts that are on the grey car, I notice a lot of differences. The bases are not symmetrical, and the rings are in different locations. Because I've come to this conclusion, I'm taking this off the "wanted" list.
Because I had so much fun making this piece, I put together a scratch building tutorial, illustrating how I made it.

I have concluded that the rings are found/made parts. While at the hobby store, I picked up a length of styrene rod that appeared to have the same outer diameter. I used my coping saw to cut off a few thin slices, and the pieces looked great. The stock that I picked up was a little thin on the inner diamater, so I searched the plastruct website and came up with the perfect tube. The tubing I need will have a 3/8" OD and 1/4" ID.

I believe this to be a scratch built part. It was originally suggested that this is the front cowling from the Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike kit, but due to it's assymetry and weird lines, I beleive this to be untrue. I will probably rebuild this from scratch.

Yours truly chimes in with another found part. I recently acquired my catalog from Plastruct, and found this piece that is located on the back end of the grey car. it's a "column wedge". Part number PW-12. The picture shows what the wedge looks like raw, and the blue rectangle shows the piece as used on the model.

I managed to find another part. I ordered a catalog from "Engineering Model Associates", the company that happens to be Plastruct's parent company. Went through their catalog and stumbled onto one piece.
It's an "ABS tubing Saddle", part number VS-x from plastruct, where the x indicates size. It's the "U" shaped part on the yellow picture at the top of this page. VS-200 is the proper part for this project.

Reference Photos


This part is coming along slowly. I'm going to scratch build much of it.	DONE I have found SIMILAR transmission parts. I think I may just use them, cast them separately, and then if I ever stumble upon the identical engines, I will include them.	All parts shown have been built, save for the speeder bike style cowling.	Pieces marked in red have been found. Purple parts have either been completed, or have been contracted out. The large disk is currently in progress. The square core rod is hypothesized to be square drive cap screws. Couldn't find any, but a friend has machined these for me.

	Mo from Denmark chimes in with the first found piece. He says it's a "Tamiya 1/12 Tyrrell 6-Wheeler. Important to find a Ford engine. It's the bottom of the motor block". Thanks Mo! If you look at Image 2, you can clearly see this piece at the bottom of the engine, by the number "8" on the ruler.
	Also from Mo comes this piece. He colored the piece in question in red. Mo says it "Could be from Tamiya / 135 T34/76". This piece can be seen in the same photo as the piece above. In looking closely at the piece, it looks like it might just be a clump of clay that the model maker threw on there. I'll have to check out the kit.
	Two sources from Canada have identified the engine assembly from the undercarriage of both cars. Looks like it is a stock Plastruct part.Here is a link to the family of parts that it is from. From measurements, I beleive it to be either part PCM-10, or PCM-37. One of the dimensions does not match on each of those parts, but I can dismiss that as shrinkage, or warping. I will order both and decide.
	Yours truly has identified this piece. It's a stock piece of Evergreen plastic. I found a supply of it at my local hobby store, and it matches perfectly. It is Evergreen Part #4530. Metal Siding .125" spacing, .040" thick.
	I have concluded that this assembly is scratch built. I came to this conclusion because in looking at the two parts that are on the grey car, I notice a lot of differences. The bases are not symmetrical, and the rings are in different locations. Because I've come to this conclusion, I'm taking this off the "wanted" list. Because I had so much fun making this piece, I put together a scratch building tutorial, illustrating how I made it.
	I have concluded that the rings are found/made parts. While at the hobby store, I picked up a length of styrene rod that appeared to have the same outer diameter. I used my coping saw to cut off a few thin slices, and the pieces looked great. The stock that I picked up was a little thin on the inner diamater, so I searched the plastruct website and came up with the perfect tube. The tubing I need will have a 3/8" OD and 1/4" ID.
	I believe this to be a scratch built part. It was originally suggested that this is the front cowling from the Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike kit, but due to it's assymetry and weird lines, I beleive this to be untrue. I will probably rebuild this from scratch.
	Yours truly chimes in with another found part. I recently acquired my catalog from Plastruct, and found this piece that is located on the back end of the grey car. it's a "column wedge". Part number PW-12. The picture shows what the wedge looks like raw, and the blue rectangle shows the piece as used on the model.
	I managed to find another part. I ordered a catalog from "Engineering Model Associates", the company that happens to be Plastruct's parent company. Went through their catalog and stumbled onto one piece. It's an "ABS tubing Saddle", part number VS-x from plastruct, where the x indicates size. It's the "U" shaped part on the yellow picture at the top of this page. VS-200 is the proper part for this project.