1/12 Hawaiian Tropic Porsche 935
by Dale King  

In the 1979 Le Mans 24 Hour race, the IMSA class Hawaiian Tropic 935 finished second overall, and first in its class. This was quite an upset. And even more amazingly, the winner was the Group 5 Numero Reserve Porsche 935 K3.

The faster Group 6 cars did not fare well that year.  They proved to be less reliable in the race than the Gr. 5 or IMSA 935s. But thanks to the many privateer Porsche entries, it was another winning year for Porsche at Le Mans, with Porsche taking 1st through 4th overall positions.

The Hawaiian Tropic 935, driven by the unique team of car owner Dick Barbour, Paul Newman, and Rolf Stommelen, became an important piece of Porsche and Le Mans history.

This model is based on the 1/12 Tamiya Porsche 935. Following are just a few of the changes made to reflect this race version.       

Rectangular to Round Headlights

I cut square blocks of Renshape, drilled out the center and then glued them into place.  The spaces
around the block were filled with bondo then the whole thing shaped to match the front curve.

I then machined Lucite cylinders, shaped and polished with the front to match the curve of the front clip. I covered the back of the cylinder with Bare Metal foil and painted the sides flat black.

Here it is installed in the primered body.

I also filled in the louvers on top of the front fenders. I glued a sheet of styrene underneath and then used bondo to fill the holes.

Doggie Dishes (Wheel Covers)

This shows the changes made to the front doggie dishes. The valve stem opening had to be filled in and the rivets were removed so the decals would lay down properly.

I created the decals in Illustrator on my Mac, and then printed them up on a Canon inkjet printer. The rears, which are quite a bit larger and required different artwork, didn’t need the valve stem opening filled. But everything else was the same.

Rear Wing

I changed the rear wing from a single to a double element type. I cut the kit wing into two pieces and then added half round styrene strips to the leading edge of the rear wing and trailing edge of the large front wing. The three ‘hinges’ were made from styrene. I also filled in the seam between the lower and upper portions of the rear deck.

The rear of the interior required the addition of the cover box for the new intercooler for the twin turbo set up. The side ‘hoses’ were carved from Renshape and wrapped with copper wire. They look a bit crude but then the real ones were too plus the fact that they barely show when the model is buttoned up.

Sills/Running Boards

 
For the running boards I again used Renshape and some styrene. The radiator opening was
narrowed and I built a new interior with Renshape and styrene. The pale blue is filler.

Twin Turbo Setup

Although this picture is from my 935 K3, it’s nearly identical to the one I built for the more standard 935. The entire exhaust/turbo system is scratch built using resin, aluminum and brass. As the model is a curbside, I didn’t bother creating a completely new and different top to the engine.

1/24 Nissan R91VP JSPC 1991
by Hossain Salimi

Hossain Salimi, a past GPMA award winner, showed his immaculate Nissan R91VP prototype at NNL West.
The kit is the Tamiya Nissan R89C upgraded with Studio 27 decals.

The chassis, engine, and interior are painted with a variety of Testors enamels and lacquers, while Tamiya lacquers are used for the bodywork.

Engine and interior details were added, including carbon fiber decals.

To see more of Hossain’s models from this year’s NNL West, go to the GPMA Gallery.

1/12 Porsche 935 K3 Jagermeister
by Dale King

This 12th scale version of the Jagermeister 935 K3 is as it raced at Zolder in 1981.  The various Kremer K3s were very successful, even winning Le Mans outright in 1979. I based this model on the Tamiya 1/12th Porsche 935 (kit no. 12038).

As I wanted the model to be displayed closed up I built it as a curbside .
It was difficult enough to create the exhaust and twin turbo set up but I really didn’t want to spend many additional hours building the new injection/intercooler system that sits on top of the engine as well.
I have too many 12th scale projects underway to make each one a full detailed model.

The interior has been heavily reworked as well, especially the area behind the driver.  The work was done with resin, aluminum, brass, styrene, Lucite, Renshape and bondo over about a 4 year period.  (as it is all the work on the interior really doesn’t show)

The front headlight covers were created by pulling heated clear sheet vinyl over bondo patterns. The headlight buckets were filled with bondo, the outside sanded down to the correct shape and then popped out. Then they were primered and polished before pulling the plastic over them. To finish them I carefully cut and sanded the edges until a near perfect shape was reached.

The paint is a custom mix by MCW (Fruehauf orange to be exact). After MANY coats of primer (sanded down between each coat) I painted the body with Tamiya orange as a base. I then shot on the MCW paint and after that Tamiya clear. I normally don’t clear coat but this time it seemed like a good idea.

 The paint was allowed to cure for several weeks and then I rubbed it out with a series of Tamiya polishes. The decals are a combination of ones taken from the Tamiya 934, the CMW 956 and custom ones done in Illustrator on my Mac and printed up on special decal paper with my Canon ink jet. My own decals were gently clear coated with Krylon Crystal Clear, cut out close to the edges and then applied.

This beautiful 1/12th Tamiya model of the factory Porsche 935 was built by Pete Johnson using the Scale Motor Sport super detail transkit. It helps demonstrate the changes that were made on the Jagermeister K3.