Arnage Aggression - Scenes from Le Mans in 1/24 Scale
by Stephen Miller
From the Website: Speed Details
This Diorama is entitled "Arnage Aggression" after the challenging early-race pass attempted by the Nissan on the Mazda. It was first conceived back in 1990. I had seen a 1/43 scale diorama in England which modeled the Dunlop bridge to Tetre Rouge. While remembering this, I thought it would be interesting to create a Le Mans Diorama in 1/24 scale.
Tamiya and Hasegawa produced models of a variety of the racing cars, so all I had to do was pick a corner and start. While the diorama was originally supposed to only be "L" shaped, it ultimately grew to the 54"by 72" shown in these photos.
There are 15 vehicles and 13 figures, not counting the drivers in the cars which are detailed as the actual drivers of the cars. What seemed like a good idea at the time evolved into a massive project, which involved many challenging areas of modeling, packaging and display.
Lexus LM-GTP
by Stephen Miller
The Lexus LM-GTP was a follow-on of the idea behind the BRM SMR-3B, which I built 2 years ago and was featured here on the GPMA website. In the past we have always been graced with models of concept drag racers which mix and match chassis and engines and various parts and sponsor logos to create unique racers. Sports and F1 cars always seem to done as replicas. Why not sports prototype concept racers. When I was looking at the new Toyota TS-020 kit I thought it would be perfect for a concept. The first idea was to chop the top and create an open topped car. The final idea was to keep the top, but convert the engine to a V-10.
When the Scale Motorsports detail kit became a reality, it was added to the superdetailing plan. But perhaps the most interesting part was to highlight the Lexus brand and create a unique graphics package, which would not only fit the design of the car, but be reminiscent of those special art graphics which are sometimes seen at Le Mans. These often involved some "every day" elements crafted into a unique scheme. While sitting at the computer key board one day, punctuation marks suddenly leaped from the keys and became the theme.
Another interesting part of the project involved an incredible amount of detailing and scratch building of the internal nose pieces and air ducting, fitting and aligning the new engine, carbon fibre decaling and developing a unique, but credible wiring and plumbing scheme for the engine and transmission mechanicals.
To see more of Stephen Miller's great work, visit his website: Speed Details
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