The Porsche 914 is very rarely seen in modeling. Maybe it is not as popular as the 911 but it did have some good results in circuit racing and in rally. It's best results, a third place was achieved by Waldegaard in the 1971 Rallye Monte Carlo, behind two factory Alpines.
Revell has an old 1:25 kit of the car but since my example was badly damaged and broken, I was happy to see the affordable Historic Racing Miniatures transkit. The kit comes with the desired wide wheelarches and plenty of excellent parts. The only thing you need to get from the recommended Fujimi Enthusiast 911 kit is the engine and the mirrors. Since I don't have that kit, I used the revell engine which is not too bad base if you add some details to it. The only drawback of this excellent transkit is the window flash which is as thick as the roof itself, so you need very careful trimming, preferably starting with a motor tool with a circular saw. My example had a bent nose so it needed some filling, but he front bumper needs some change to represent the rally version anyway. My other struggle was with the front windsield, which I ended up using the trimmed one from the Revell kit. I changed few things in the interior, notably the seats, gearshift housing and the dashboard. I scratchbuilt the old style "Repa" seatbelt buckles (never heard the name before). The color is the original Porsche 1410 Signal Orange automotive spray, mixed at a paintshop and only polished, not clearcoted. In my opinion, these old cars, especially rally cars, look strange when they soaked with 2K clearcoats... I will use the excellent Fuchs wheels from the transkit with the authentic Dunlop tyres from Fireball Modelworks Minilite wheel set. This is my second Porsche kit and since I am not a Porsche expert, any comments are welcome.
