Porsche Carrera GT

[KevHw]

Hello everyone. I've been quite excited with this kit for several reasons. Firstly, it's a gorgeous car with performance to match. More importantly though, it's because I plan to light it up and also have opening doors and bonnet.

This will be the first time I've done an opening door mod too, so I was quite nervous to start on this kit. Thankfully, this is one of the best kits Tamiya has released which makes life easier.


Started on the engine (Alclad Airframe Aluminium) with simple wiring using nylon "Display Wire". Engine is a lot more silvery and lighter in real life, sorry for the pic quality:




I finally found some (very expensive) 2mm solder and reconstructed the exhaust manifold:








Muffler in Alclad Chrome




Proceded to cut off the doors:






Used styrene to fill in the gap between the body and chassis:




1.2mm drilled into some clear sprue:




Milliput is amazing stuff






It took a few days to try and work out a way to hinge the doors sucessfully so they open without jamming on the bodywork. At first I thought the conventional way was to attach the hinge to the inside of the body. After much swearing and frustration, I found out the hinges worked when attached closer to the chassis so...

1.2mm solder. Even though solder is softer than I'd like, it allows me a small amount of movement and flexibility in building.










I still need to open the hood but after that it will be onto primer and then paint. I'm also hoping I'll have enough CF decal for the whole chassis .

Thanks for looking. Please be so kind to leave some C&C's.

[Emilssi]

It is looking great, especially the exhaust manifold is super realistic. I like the way you solved the hinges, It makes me kinda sorry I didn't open doors on my 1/12 testarossa (after seeing your Porsche I might try it myself). I'm looking forward to next updates

[Entau]

the exhaust manifold looks good , what did u use to glue it?

[KevHw]

Originally Posted by Emilssi

It is looking great, especially the exhaust manifold is super realistic. I like the way you solved the hinges, It makes me kinda sorry I didn't open doors on my 1/12 testarossa (after seeing your Porsche I might try it myself). I'm looking forward to next updates

Hey thanks. Regarding the accuracy of the manifolds, the kit ones are actually more realistic. I just prefer the bare look mine have. I took inspiration for it from drazman's excellent build. You can see from these pics the look like they're wrapped in heat resistant foil.





I'm sure you can still open up yours. It just means more work in fitting them and painting. Being 1/12 though, you would have to put in a lot more detail to the doors themselves.

Originally Posted by Entau

the exhaust manifold looks good , what did u use to glue it?

Thank you. I used "UniBond Repair Extreme Power Glue". Kinda like shoe-glue I guess. It's quick and means I don't have to sit around mixing my 2-part araldite.

[KevHw]

Ok, I thought I could get on with painting the body but then if I'm intending to add lights, then I need to sort out the wiring and positioning of everything first so I don't ruin a freshly painted body.

First, I opened up the hood. I'll be creating the trunk to house the battery and switch inside.




Opened up the main headlight housing to fit a 3mm superbright white LED. These things are seriously bright! More on them later. Original on top, modified on bottom. Not sure why it look black in the photo...




Originals:




LED in place. Only slighter bigger but it still fits:






That was relatively easy. It's the rear lights that are going to cause me the most hassle. Most cars allow for the rear lights to be lit up thanks to the space under the trunk. However, being the Carrera GT, the engine bay almost completely takes up the whole rear of the body which means any lights I add will be visible. Solution...? (at least the one I'll try)....run fibre optics from the front to the back!

So, onto bringing each individual real life LED into blinking existence...

Initial Alclad chromed before going ahead with the FO attempt:




testing with the light from the salvaged lamp...




Only 2 down, 100 more to go! I'm hoping by using superbright red LED's, it will be strong enough to shine through the rear lenses and have a strong enough contrast so you can tell when it's on/off.

Thank you again for the interest. It keeps me motivated.

[Ferrari TR]

Nice work.
Looking fwd to seeing how the tails come out.

[rollin80s]

looks great, so your using fiber optics for tail lights?? that's sweet and a lot of work.
the headers look sick, what did you use to glue it together? i had trouble using CA glue, so i soldered it together and sanded it down.

[indecentkikogt]

great work here, will be keeping an eye on this one

[MidMazar]

Sweet progress, can you explain what type of lights (leds) you used on the rear light? Seems like they ultra small, also where did you get them?

Keep the progress coming.

[blwnrtr93]

Gonna need quite a few drill bits to drill out all those tiny holes to place the fiber optics, but it will be worth it in the end!

[janositamas]

Nice modification work so far, keep up the good work!

[KevHw]

Originally Posted by rollin80s

the headers look sick, what did you use to glue it together? i had trouble using CA glue, so i soldered it together and sanded it down.

UniBond Repair Extreme Power Glue

Originally Posted by MidMazar

Sweet progress, can you explain what type of lights (leds) you used on the rear light? Seems like they ultra small, also where did you get them?

Keep the progress coming.

Thanks. I'm sorry, the last photo didn't really show what I meant. I'm going to use one single 5mm superbright red LED for each tail light. This light source feeds the 50 strands of optic fibre on each tail light which I'll somehow route...from the front. Pics below

Originally Posted by blwnrtr93

Gonna need quite a few drill bits to drill out all those tiny holes to place the fiber optics, but it will be worth it in the end!

Tell me about it! I broke 2 in total so I'm hoping I'll have no upcoming needs for drilling 0.3mm and 0.35mm .


This photo should help explain the point I was making to MidMazer. Each strand had to be checked for its optical clarity as any fractures along it's length means a dulled output. A simple but tedious job of using a sharp knife to cut the ends and checking it with a lamp.




The pink straw helps keep all the fibres together. It also fits my 5mm LED perfectly so I'll use it as the LED housing.








And I couldn't resist doing a dry-fit test...






I'm happy with the results, although one or two strands have shifted too far back from the hole to shine through. They're all glued in now so oh well . I'm so glad that even in sunlight it's clearly visible.

So the lights construction is finished minus the wiring which will have to be done right at the end. Thanks again for looking.

[indecentkikogt]

that is so awesome, definitely something i will think about doing on my future builds =)

[MPWR]

Cool idea with the fibre optics. Where did you get them, and are they glass or plastic?

[jano11]

Nice progress on this project!
The use of optic fiber to light up the rear lights is excellent. Keep it up!