1/24 Porsche 962C
Model, Text, and Photos by Anthony Calderisi
This is Tamiya's 1:24 Porsche 962. I love the livery and had to have it in 1:24. My objective for this curbside, as it has been for a while now, was to succeed in clear coating and sanding back the body. This is an ongoing process which I¹ve not yet mastered and I and decided it was time to get some control over my famous 'citrus' finishes: orange peel and a lemon paint job.
The beginnings of this model were no different. I was probably responsible for 80% of the threads on the GPMA Yahoo group about clear coats this past year!
This model required a bit of body preparation due to the horrible molded-in windows, which cannot be removed from the body, and a few 'in your face' unsightlies. I sanded down all of the windows and ground out the headlight covers from inside, because their thickness deformed the view through them and they were not to scale.
But I sanded a bit too aggressively and crazed the plastic in the headlight covers. Next time I¹ll go more slowly and delicately. The shallow air intakes on the tops of the doors were deepened and new radiators were scratch built from metal sheet and staples. The large step in the body below the rear wing was filled and smoothed out, and the attachment pegs on the sides of the body filled in with putty. The rear wing was removed for ease of painting and replaced with locater pins and new wing supports. Exterior molded-in details like the fuel fillers, oil filler, exhaust pipes, tail lights, front tow hook, body clips and door hinges were all removed and replaced with scratch built or p/e parts. Also transparent lenses were made for the lights all around. The Porsche experts will notice that I haven't put back the rivets on the body sides.
Tamiya spray cans were used for three of the four basic colours. I practiced on a scrap body first. The yellow decals were a bit redder than Tamiya¹s spray can yellow. Once all the clear coats were on, I sanded back with 1000 grit wet paper to achieve a satin finish. Further sanding from 1500 to 12000 grit brought the satin finish up to a high gloss. I often went through to the decals before achieving a uniform satin possibly because the clear was not thick enough.
The decals were a perfect fit, but I think using paint for the white areas instead of the decals would have given a better result. For some reason the decals didn't adhere very well and I was glad I replaced the black decals with paint. This proved to be a big problem throughout the construction with silvering in certain areas, and decals which lifted. Also, Tamiya clear, though finely misted on, still attacked some decals. For example when the body was in its final stages, after many coats of clear, after sanding it all back, after bringing it up to a luster as you see in the pictures, I was going to spray on a final clear satin over the black area on the roof. Unbelievably, while I was adjusting the mask for this area, the tape pulled up the white decal underneath! Aaaaarrgghhh! At that point, I felt this project was overdue and overworked, so I patched the area and finished-up. Real prototype racing cars have been called research laboratories, I suppose the same could be said about this model
I wouldn't have been able to achieve so much with this one model without the input of GPMA members. Thanks goes to Nenad for his article on two-part clear finishes which spurred me on, and to his and Hiroaki's tireless and well detailed responses to all my detailed questions, and to the many many others who helped me along with great advice. It wasn't easy and I made a ton of mistakes, but I think I'm headed in the right direction thanks to their help.
Racing Sports Cars Statistics: 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours
Porsche 962C #010 – Porsche F6 4xOHC 2998cc Turbo C1
Porsche AG (D) Closed bodywork Mid-engined
Colors: yellow/red (+black) Tyres: Dunlop Sponsors: Shell/DUNLOP
Driven by: Hans-Joachim Stuck (D)/Klaus Ludwig (D)/Derek Bell (GB)
Result: 2nd (2m36s85 behind the winner) Grid: 1st(3:15.64)