Akira Nakai-San is a rare genius – he’s renowned for his extreme customizations of Porsches (real ones!) All anyone has to do to observe his creativity in action, is look at one of his You Tube videos and watch him at work – absolutely amazing and I never tire of looking at him in action again and again. More on him further along.
Anyway after a long time absence here, I’m back in harness doing some modelling. During my layoff, I developed a insatiable appetite for all things Porsche, especially the 911. This was mainly due to a wonderful visit to the famous Nordschleife (Nurgburgring) in Germany, where I experienced the track at full speed courtesy of the talented Porsche,McLaren and BMW drivers!! Also, since building that Playmobil 911 Gt3 last year, I just got a huge “bee in my bonnett” to build and modify Porsche models. I quickly realised that proposition wasn’t a runner!. Building, modifying, painting and decalling all takes a huge amount of time, and at my current rate of output, well it would just take several lifetimes – a (very) sobering thought! So I decided to take a shortcut and just modify models that are already built – specifically 1/18 built diecast models from the likes of; Autoart and GT-Spirit. To narrow it down further, I focussed in more on the characters and their Porsches, and indeed people of a similar disposition. What I mean by that is; some of these characters become Legends because their cars (and how they use them) becomes an extension of themselves. So now we are back to the gentleman I mentioned at the beginning; Akira Nakai-San – he founded the company RWB Akira Nakai-San – a bit of a mouthful; RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF (RWB), it’s basically dedicated to making Porsches look “Uber” wide and purposeful – and while its not everybody’s cup of tea, his creations certainly turn heads and get tongues wagging! My second Porsche legend is; Magnus Walker, aka The Urban Outlaw! He’s an Englishman living in Los Angeles. After making his fortune in designing and wholesaling clothes – under the label: Urban Outlaw! – he turned his attention to restoring classic Porsches –Magnus Walker – Urban Outlaw.
On my way through all the various versions of Porsches which took my fancy, I stumbled across another petrol head who has become famous for not just being a World and Olympic champion skier, but the designer of some of the most outlandish road going Audis and Lamborghini’s! His name is Jon Olsson. Olsson likes to advertise his great love for skiing by fitting all his cars with a cargo roofbox. Not such an outlandish idea for a skier you might think, but when the roofbox is fitted to an Audi RS6 with 800+ horsepower or an equally powerful Huracan – well it definitely looks a bit odd to say the least! So here, I’ve made a small start in trying to (a) introduce my next couple of projects but (b) more importantly, I’m trying to convince myself that I can deliver some of what I’ve been waffling about – we shall see!. My driver for trying to give myself some badly needed momentum, is the fact that in the last month or so, the world has been thrown into such a spin with this Pandemic, that I’m having to reach out for some sort of anchor to ground myself and well, I could do worse than immerse myself in something completely different (model making wise). In the meantime, we offer our thoughts and prayers for all those directly affected by this virus. We hope that the tide will be turned by the healthcare workers and all those who support them. By staying safe ourselves we hopefully keep all other safe. Below is a couple of snapshots of two RWB Porsches together with undercoated figures of Akira Nakai-San . The figures are beautiful resin castings I got on eBay from a guy in Poland. He trades under the name Res-cast I hope to modify and combine this lot. More to follow…
