William Watkins’ Back to the Future Delorean

Polar Light’s DeLorean from “Back to the Future” in 1/25 scale. It was a birthday present for my friend Chris Leland.

This is a snap-together kit with all the drawbacks that that entails: Fewer parts, less detail, and tabs and slots. If I were to build this kit again (and it’s possible), I would do a few things differently. I would test-fit every part, trimming the tabs so that they would fit easily into the slots. As it stands, many parts have to be bent, bowed, and forced into place, which is not good for the paint. Also, I would leave off the “quantum flux arrays” (parts 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36) until final assembly. And you can skip making backs for the seats: They won’t be visible.

Looking for photos on the internet reveals that there are several slightly different versions of the car, varying in details. This isn’t helped by differences within the movie either. Case in point: When Doc Brown arms the time circuits, he turns a T-handle mounted vertically on the console. Later, however, when Marty bumps the T-handle with his elbow, it’s mounted horizontally in the device on the console. (By the way, this T-handle is not included in the kit. I scratch-built one from sheet plastic and installed it – while leaving out that shapeless blob that passes as an alarm clock for the dash.)

I did a lot of masking to paint the side moldings, rocker panels, windshield surround, B- and C-pillar louvers, and end caps. These are mostly straight lines, which is easy, if tedious. Curved lines were masked with Silly Putty.

The headlights, taillights, and wheels come chrome-plated. The headlights were painted thinned white acrylic to give a more glassy look. The taillight grilles were painted Gloss Black, then the chrome on the lenses was painted with Tamiya clear colors. I stripped the chrome plating off the wheels, and painted them Alclad Chrome over Gloss Black. The wheels, by the way, were a bear to assemble, both getting them into the vinyl tires, and getting the axles into them. For the last, I had to pad the wheels with paper towels and pound them onto the axels with a ball-peen hammer. Nerve-wracking.

There is no detail on the dashboard gauges nor the instrument faces. The former were painted white, then spots of red in appropriate places. Next was a layer of Future floor finish, and finally, Gloss Black was airbrushed, just enough to cover the white. After that, I referenced a photo of a DeLorean dash, and used a straight pin to scratch tick marks, indicator needles, and icons. Which can’t be seen on the finished model except under good light and at just the right angle. But I have pictures to prove it!

For the red and yellow “cables,” I raided my wife’s sewing kit for coloered thread. Cutting short lengths to fit between the zip-ties on the fenders was tedious; gluing them in place even more so. I used a toothpick to spread a bead of white glue on the molded-on cables, laid the thread on it, and coaxed it into position with another toothpick. I used a fine-point brush to apply Future floor finish to the threads in order to lay down stray fibers. I did the same with threads on the dashboard and on the “cables” along the interior console.

Several metals were used, for different tones, including Alclad Chrome, Aluminum, and Duraluminum, as well as Testors Silver, Steel, and Aluminum enamels and Model Master Gunmetal.

Final assembly was a challenge. I got scratches and fingerprints on the clear windows, trying to get it to snap into place. The interior was quite a tight fit. I finally managed it by bracing the back of the body shell against my chest, spreading the rocker panels with my thumbs, and maneuvering the interior with my index and middle fingers. This entails getting the back panel and instrument panel past the edge of the windshield, and then guiding the tab on the back of the interior into a slot in the body shell. The same spreading-and-guiding was used to get the chassis in place.

But once it’s together, it looks great.

William Watkins