Porsche 917 by Richard Alexander
Fujimi kit 12198 with Studio27 p/e (well some of it anyway). Weathering is a mix of airfrushed on acrylics, brushed on enamels and MIG weathering pigments. 'Battle damage' was carved in before painting. Built over 2 months for our local model club (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ipmswellington/) Build the Same Kit (BSK) competition last year.
Porsche 917/20 by Roger Virgo
1/43rd Starter Porsche 917/20 'Pink Pig'
Standard Starter kit, resin body and small photo etch fret. This kit went together very easily but the decals were shot, they split into individual letters and dashes. Luckily Pattos place had a replacement sheet as I didn't fancy putting the design on letter by letter and dash by dash. Pattos decals are a bit grainy, very thin and have tendency to want to curl up on themselves. Once on the kit they look fine, but it took a lot of time and patience to get them all on and in the right place.
As far as I can make out the car started the race with the passenger door a deck lid taped closed and had joest misspelled as Jost, the decals correctly reflect this.
Ferrari 512S by Rob Mepham
This car (and my Porsche GT below) was built during our club's annual Lemans build. While watching the Le Mans race on TV, we start with an unstarted kit in the morning and have until race end to complete it. It is great fun! This Ferrari 512S was built this year during our 24-hour build, using the Fisher kit, Tamiya paints with parts box and Studio 27 decals.
NART Chevrolet Corvette by Phil Dauphinee
Until the recent dominance of the C5-R Corvette in international GT racing, the Heinz & Johnson Team could previously lay claim to being the most successful Corvette racers on the world stage with a grand-slam of the big three GT endurance races in 1972. Racing with the controversial Confederate Flag livery, Heinz & Johnson won the GT class at both Daytona and Sebring [see my 1/32 model of this car in the small scale class]. To contest LeMans, Heinz & Johnston joined up with the North American Racing Team usually just referred to by it initials. NART was Luigi Chinetti's USA based Ferrari racing team which was very experienced racing at LeMans.
Apparently Leo Mehl the racing director of Goodyear wanted an American at LeMans and said he would pull Ferrari's worldwide Goodyear sponsorship unless NART gave up one of its entry slots. Chinetti relented but insisted the Corvette wear a NART/Ferrari badge and the same livery as the Ferrais entered. As a driver Luigi Chinetti won LeMans in 1934 in an Alfa and in 1949 won almost single-handed in a Ferrari. In 1972 NART entered three 365 GTB/4 Daytonas, one Dino 246 and the Heinz & Johnston Corvette which was the GTS over 5000cc class to finish and fifteenth overall. One of their Daytonas was sixth overall second in GTS under 5000cc driven by Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz while the race was won by a Matra driven by Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill.
Modifications to the 1971 Revell Stars & Stripes Corvette
- Removed headlight doors. Fabricated headlight boxes. Found some chrome wheel hubs that would do as headlights once lenses were added. The headlight covers can be installed two ways and both look correct for different cars. I chose to install mine with the more streamlined part forward. Removed side sills to expose frame.
- Removed emblems and door handles. Some Model Car Garage photo-etch added after painting.
- Front flares were cut from a Monogram 427 Cobra. Both front and rear flares molded to body and old wheel well radius removed.
- A virtually stock interior except for the racing seat was used to comply with Lemans rules in 1972. Additional roll-bar braces were fabricated. Scale Motorsports racing harnesses were added. The steering wheel used on the racecar was from a Vega. I managed to find a reasonable facsimile in my parts box.
- Removed bumper from grill kit supplied unpainted grill and filled in openings in body pan below grill. Driving lights fabricated from styrene and attached by wire to horizontal grill over-riders.
- Fabricated front spoiler from sheet styrene, which, was painted and then covered with floppy-disc slider sheet metal.
- De-chromed rear licence plate mount.
- Side exhaust made from aluminium tubing. Header chromed with Alclad.
- Removed and filled spare tire well on chassis
- Mounted four of the same size Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Special tires from the parts box. Front wheel hubs shortened so tires would fit inside flares.
- Separated engine block from transmission to paint separately. Cowl induction under hood panel had to be modified so it did not interfere with distributor and ignition wires
- The decals are no longer in Fred Cady's catalogue but some are still in stock. He missed a few according to my research photos but the parts box came to the rescue again. At LeMans in 1972 the front end was severely damaged in an early practise session and the car raced with virtually the whole front-end covered in duct tape. In addition I made up the BP and "licence plate" with my Testors decal program.
- Paint - Because the car was built from a wreck many components were painted white including areas normally black on stock Corvettes such as the frame and engine compartment. Humbrol paints were used almost exclusively on the model.
Chevrolet Corvette IMSA by Roger Virgo
This is the Scale Designs 1/24 scale Spirit of Le Mans '76 Corvette. A very nice resin kit with photo-etch details and excellent decals.
The kit body shell has the tops of the original fenders continue along the rear deck and under the winglets. The period photos I found showed the rear deck to be flat, so I sanded the rear deck flat to match the photos. This also allows the winglets to sit flat on the rear deck as per the period photos.
The concave rear window was tricky to cut and fit. I had to cut the photo-etch rear window surround into two pieces to conform to the tight curves in the bottom corners. I cut out the bottom section of the etch frame by making two cuts that were later hidden by the vertical retaining straps. Window templates printed on the instruction sheet would have been nice. All the decals went down without a problem and fit perfectly.
All in all a very nice inexpensive kit the really shows off the size and aggressive shape of the real thing.
Porsche 936/81 by Dale King
This 12th scale model, Jules Porsche 936/81 number 11, was loosely based on the Tamiya white styrene R/C body brought out in the mid 80s. The modifications on the 81 car are : lengthened nose, complete new rear body work, new engine air intake scoop, higher sides around the cockpit, new air exit on top of the nose, removal of the louvers on the front fenders, side Naca ducts and new rear wing just to name a few. About the only thing left untouched on the body are the tops of the doors.
The chassis, interior, wheels and tires, turbo chargers, mirrors, etc. were completely scratch built. It was painted in Krylon white (pre Tamiya spray paints) and gently rubbed out. I did the artwork (the hardest part was the BBS pattern on the wheel dishes) for the decals and had then printed up as I.N.T.s (rub downs). I burnished them down on pre clear coated decal paper, sprayed them with clear, cut them out very closely and applied them like normal decals. This was all pre computer/Alps printer, ancient times for you younger modelers. The diagonal stripes were done with very thin map tape. This is only one of the 5 completed 1/12th scale Le Mans winners in my collection. Soon I hope to have a 6th - the Sauber/Mercedes C-9 of 1989.
Lancia LC1 by Jeremy Banks
LMP (Little Garage) Lancia LC1 1/24 (1982 Le Mans).
Porsche 956 by Joe Chan
This is the Tamiya kit 24049, which I built earlier this year. This is the 1984 Le Mans winner sponsored by New Man, a private sponsored team which beat the Factory Rothmans and other 956 Porsche teams.
The model is a three color painting scheme. You must paint one color, wait for it to dry, and then mask the body for another color. It has to be repeated for a few times. I got a little bit confused while masking to the right alignment between the 3 colors. I painted the white to match the body color rather than using the white decals. The Cartograf decals are excellent and easy to apply. A few layers of clear coats were applied followed by extensive polishing work. This results in a glossy look.
After checking with some reference photos, I decided to detail the engine bay a little bit. It took me some time to run the many different wires between the engine parts.
This is a very good kit and it is my first time to build a Porsche 956. I'll definitely try another one later, such as Canon and Rothmas version.
Porsche 962 by Harald W. Weber
This is a model of the BLR (Britten, Lloyd Racing) Porsche 962 running at Le Mans in 1987. Unfortunately the car caught fire close to midnight near Mulsanne corner, running at 5th overall position, being the best private Porsche. The car showed the first radical bodywork modifications on a Porsche 956/962.
The base kit is a Hasegawa 962 in 1/24th scale. Paint is Testors. Decals are self designed dry transfers, rubbed down on clear decal film, flags and Le Mans badges came from the scrap box. The model is curbside. A Tamiya gear box carries the wing support.
I created more than 50 p/e parts, most obvious the centers of the BBS rims - each one for the mesh and the ring that holds the bolts (20 seperately mounted pins per wheel). Others are several wing parts, head light mounts, mirror faces, radiator meshes, etc. A few other aftermarket detail parts have been used.
Special thanks to Jeremy Banks for providing some wonderful photos of the real car, Thomas Gatermann for turning my graphics into metal and SD Studio for the brilliant dry transfers.
Porsche 962C by Evan Jones
This car was completed during the Guelph Plastic Modellers Group 24 hour LeMans build event. I've always liked the look of the Blaupunkt sponsored Porsche 962C, with the white body and light blue dashed stripes, one on each side. The car is not technically a LeMans car for a few reasons:
- the rear body is a short tail and the vast majority of 962C's that ran at LeMans had long tail versions
- the markings are not exactly those of the car that ran at the 1988 LeMans race - there was a red/orange band in the front of the nose and some of the logos are missing
- the hole in the body for the exhaust pipes should be angled and not horizontal
- there should be some small louvers in front of the exhaust hole
This model is based mostly on the Hasegawa Porsche 962C, with wheels, tires and decals adapted from the Tamiya 962C Joest. Since it was a 24 hour build, the paint does not have a gloss coat and was not polished at all, the decals have a couple of wrinkles, no seatbelt detail was added and the windshield has a couple of small scratches.
- Tires and wheels from Tamiya Joest kit (modifications were needed to mount them correctly), detailed with 1-72 brass nut and air valve
- Joest decals were modified to fit, leaving out some details
- Chrome foil behind headlights and taillights
- Some exhaust and front nose weather dom=ne with pastels
- Paint is Tamiya Pure White on body (decanted from rattle can), undertray is semi-gloss bottle black, both shot through an airbrush
- The wheels, cockpit panels and radiators are Testors Metaliizer Aluminum, buffed to a really nice finish.
Mercedes C9 by Doc Wiseman
Nissan R89C by David Durst
See the build diary here: http://www.scaleracecars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=545
Ferrari 348 by Chip Wamsley
Dauer Porsche 962 by Dale King
This car has a rather interesting history. Dauer bought a number of 962s from the factory and turned them into street legal (in some countries) cars. The factory, wanting the benefits of racing a street machine as opposed to a prototype at Le Mans, bought the cars back from Dauer and restored them to full prototypes but with the street bodywork. Needless to say the French were not too happy that the car won as Porsche had obviously leaned pretty hard on the rule book. The car was driven by Yannick Dalmas, Hurley Haywood and Mario Baldi. The sister Shell sponsored car came in 3rd. Needless to say the rules were changed before the following year. Anyway, the high detail kit is by Provence Moulage and was a delight to build. The curbside version by Starter is just for comparison. I added a fair amount of detail to the interior (which of course you can't see <g>), the engine bay and hinged the doors.
Ferrari F40 GTE by David Durst
See the build diary here: http://www.scaleracecars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=529
Porsche GT1 by Bill Via
This is Tamiya's version of the Porsche GT1 in 1:24th scale, converted utilizing the Scale Motor Sport declkit that turned it into the car that showed up at Le Sarthe for the pre-qualifying day in 1996. It stunned the racing world not only with it's outrageous design, but also that it showed up in bare carbon fiber, kevlar and duroplast with minimal livery.
The SMS kit requires that the base color by changed from bare, white plastic, to semi-gloss black. This was accomplished using Tamiya TS-29 spray lacquer as the base. The only body panel that is not covered in sg-black is the driver side door which was coated in Tamiya Pure White. Every single body panel, save the above mentioned door and the engine access panels, were then covered in pre-templated CF/kevlar decals. Specific areas, such as the fender lips were left in their sg-black state and several panels have multipledecals on top of decals.
Covering the body was a time consuming processes and the smell of Micro-Sol/Set made me the least popular person in the house, but the end result was worth being ostracized, I think. Exhausts where replaced with aluminum tubing and a new tow ring and overflow container were scratchbuilt, but that was the extent of the engine detailing. Wing endplates were covered in sanded Bare Metal Foil to give the appearance of aluminum plates and they, as well as the lower wing supports, were detailed with SMS PE boltheads.
SMS CF decals also cover the visible parts of the chassis as well as the interior walls. While barelyvisible now, the seatbelt was made using 3M cloth tape, SMS PE hardware and Tamiya supplied decals. SMS Pirelli decals replace the kit supplied Michelins and the wheels were sprayed with Model Master non-buffing Brass for the spokes and the wheel nuts were coated in transparent Tamiya acrylics as appropriate.
Once all the decals were applied and allowed to completely dry, Model Master Semi-Gloss Lacquer was sprayed over the decals to protect them and even out the sheen. The SMS supplied livery decals were then applied and a coat of carnuba wax was used to seal and protect everything. Final detailing involved making the fuel filler from scratch using sheet styrene, adding Modeler's PE fasteners to the hood and making the antenna using wire.
While not for the faint of heart, SMS and Tamiya combine to create a kit with few pitfalls. Follow the instructions, take your time and you will end up with an impressive model that will leave non-modelers scratching their heads!
Porsche 993 by Rob Mepham
This Porsche GT was built during our 24-hour build in 2004, using the Tamiya kit and paints along with bare metal foil and ill-fitting Carpena decals.
Panoz LMP Roadster by Bill Via
This is the Le Mans Miniatures Panoz kit. Tamiya paints were used throught along with a mix os SMS and LMM CF decals. Seat belts came from David at ScaleRaceCars.
Cadillac LMP by John L. Roberts
This is the Quik Skins Resin kit built box stock. Silver paint is Krylon dull aluminum with Model Master Ultra Gloss Clearcoat. The rims are Krylon dull aluminum without clear coat. I didn't use any CF decals on the kit, just Krylon semi-flat black. It was an easy and fun build.
Cadillac LMP by William Bauer
This is the QuikSkins Cadillac LMP 2000 run by the DAMS team. This particular car developed an oil leak on lap 5 and when the oil touched the exhaust it burned to the ground ...right in front of the world feed television coverage. Not the best publicity for Cadillac, but it was a nice looking car. It's built straight from the box, with seltbelts from ScaleRaceCars and Lacquer paint from MCW Automotive finishes.
Dome S101 by David Durst
See the build diary here: http://www.scaleracecars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207
Gulf Audi R8 by Michael Stucker
This is the Le Mans Miniatures 1/87 scale Gulf Audi R8.
Porsche Boxster GT3 by Dale King
The car, although fictitious, is based on what would happen if there really was a racing Boxster using GT3 racing technology. Here I thought I was being so clever creating this Le Mans fantasy model and about 2 or 3 days after finishing it I received my copy of the Porsche magazine Excellence and inside was an article about a real Boxster GT3 ! I guess I was on the right track and didn't even realize it.
The model is based on the Tamiya kit # 24187. I used Michael Graber's Scale Production 911 GT3 R transkit for the fender flares, nose, wheels, rear wing (with new aluminum end plates) and interior components. I removed the rear window defroster lines, opened up the area where the center brake light used to be (to relieve engine heat) and molded in the GT3RS rear deck body work that's under the wing. The shaped valances below the doors are modified from the Tamiya 911 GT3 kit and the decals are a combination from several different sources. The model was painted using Tamiya Pure White spray # TS26 and gently rubbed out with SemiChrome and Novus 2 polishes. A fair amount of small details were added to both the interior and exterior using aftermarket P/E and scratch built components. The exhaust system was scratch built to more closely resemble the one used on the 911 GT3 RSs (except both tail pipes were brought to the center). I currently have 7 finished Boxster variations, ranging from box stock to radical conversions, and an 8th Land Speed version is currently under construction.