Nissan Skyline GTR R34 2003 ... pre season test version

[gulfclk]

So ... since I'm not sure what the future will bring for the 550 Spyder in 1/43 I started a while ago (still waiting on news from Feeling 43 about theirs), I decided to finish this model.
I started the car about 2 years ago. I first bought the kit to go as a body onto a mini-RC chassis which I made myself, but I decided not to as the kit is too nice.

The version I will make will be the pre-season test version. Why? Well, because it gives the opportunity to add some extra nice details such as different aerodynamic features in the front, an airspeed sensor, extra telemetry antenna, ...

I always start a 1/24 kit with the wheels. For me this is like a book. Start with the last page and you'll know if it's a good book. If the wheels look nice to me, I have a good idea of how the finished project will look. The wheels underwent some standard procedures ... balance weight, air valves, ... but also the central wheelhub got a thinner wall and the tires decals were put aside and the logo's were sprayed. After that, I scratched away some paint in the right places and very thinned clear orange was put over the white to make the tires look used and older.
Last point was rubber pickup. I plan to put the car on a base with the wheels turned to one side, so rubber pickup was a must.



After the wheels came the brakes. I hate original PE brake discs, they are too bright and glossy and the color is absolutely wrong. Sandpaper brings a part of the solution, but a lighter to heat them first and make them brown coloured is perfect!
The brake line between the left and the right part of the caliper was made ... for the rest, the parts are kept simple.



As I plan to open at least one door, I removed the part from the body and started on this. The door panel was removed from the interior insert and fixed on the outer panel. Simulating the door lock and the holes for the window lifter mechanism are necessary. The door is finished but good pictures will follow later.



The dashbord is rather basic and I probably will change something in the future. The CF part is done with Scale motorsport decals and toned down with smoke. The CF needs to be flat, so after painting the rest of the dash, a clear flat coat went over the whle thing. The steering wheel received some turned parts to simulate the PTT button, the connecting wire was put between the steering wheel and the steering colum. When the dash will be mounted in the interior, I still nedd to mount the connecting rods between the rollcage and the steering colum to set the steer hight.

[gulfclk]

An eye catcher on display will be the working lights. The rear lights on the real car have 8 dots per light, so a central 3mm LED is not the right solution. I took a 5mm bright white LED and flattened the tip. After that, 8 holes were hand drilled in the head in fish thread inserted and glued. This setup works more or less like optical fibre as the distance is kept as short as possible. For longer distances, this principle will not work!



To avoid the light to spread underneed the body, I used textil paint. This black paint is rather thick and isolates light perfectly. I showed the final result in our club and people were surprised by the result.

As at least one door will be opened, I started on the roll cage. The weld seems on the roll cages were done with some kind of putty. I try to simulate 3 types of weld seems. On the side protection in the door opening, the weld seems are rather thick. I've put a line of putty on there and sanded it down a bit afterwards to give it a flatter look.
The connecting points on the roll cage were done thinner and when moving the needle, I always returned a but to make a small 'heap' of putty and continued then ... The results are not that bad, although I might still change the welding seems on the door opening cross.



Today was a real welding day ... On the real car, the florr panels are welded to the tubular chassis. Simulating this type of weld took me 2 hours with a soldering iron. On the pictures you'll find that the seams are rather wide and heavy, but these images are real close ups. By looking at the real seems, the results are less heavy.





Do not forget the seems still get a layer of primer and when spraying them in silver, they will become lighter and less heavy.
As you can see, the tubular chassis under the drivers seat has been rebuild. The original seat mounts are a nightmare when you intend to super detail this interior and open the drivers door. They are too heavy, so removing them was the only option.
I will use PE seat rails to put the seat back into the car, which will make the whole look 10 times nicer.

The seats underwent some changes as well. First of all, the original mounting prackets were removed and the seat shape was changed. After that, the holes for the seal belts on the sides and the bottom were opened. Next step is painting them ... I'll do it the Huudo way. I already have the pigment he used and I'm sure this will look smashing!

[Spike2933]

the welds are awesome, how did you do that

[speedphreak]

Woooooow! Thats nuts!

[f1wc]

Thats some skills! Welds look great. Maybe you can make a tutorial on that. Wheels and tires look realistic too, but a bit too greasy for me. Looking forward to more progress!!

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by Spike2933

the welds are awesome, how did you do that

The welds on the chassis/floor were done using a soldering iron. The one I have is a very light one (only 10 Watt I think) and the temperature is set to 160°C. This way, you can melt the plastic without burning it.
So ... you start with making one point. The second point is done half into the first one, and so on. This way, you get small shapes of 'half moons' which simulate seems.

The ones on the roll cage are done with putty. I once bought a tube of putty (very thin one) that seems to be used by militaire builders to close the seems on planes, tanks, ... On the tube, I put an injection needle and lay down a 'roll' of putty. After it becomes hard (only a few minutes), I sand down the top of the roll so it becomes flat. The width of the seem is determined by the diameter of the needle.

I'll make a tutorial on this ... just give me some time and I'll get it done.

[potsie]

Excellent start and great descriptions. I am not familiar with this pre-season test car - is it going to be one of those complete cardon fibre bodies?

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by potsie

Excellent start and great descriptions. I am not familiar with this pre-season test car - is it going to be one of those complete cardon fibre bodies?

No. Parts will be in CF (like the front splitter, rear spoiler, ...) but the main body will be in matt black. I'm hesitating though to make the doors in white. I have a picture of a black test car with white doors but no reference on date, driver, team, ...
The white door would give me the opportunity to make the part behind the exhaust a bit yellowed because of the fuel fumes and exhaust gasses!

[nugundam93]

nice details. great idea on making the seam welds on the cockpit

[OrangeR]

Great thread!
I'm amazed with all the new things I just learned here.
Thanks

[Decs0105]

Originally Posted by OrangeR

Great thread!
I'm amazed with all the new things I just learned here.
Thanks

[gulfclk]

Well, opening a door is always fun. For each car, this is different. I opened the left hand doors on Tamiya's 2001 Subaru WRC and it was very easy as the lower part of the dooropening remained in place. Only the rear wheelarche needed to be redone.

This car is different as the floor (and the lower part of the body) are seperated, so when you cut the door away, the body becomes fragile. The first step after removing the door is putting everything back on the floorpanel so that everything added from now on does not influence the positioning of the body on the floor afterwards.
The inner door panels were done as well (the door panel was removed from the complete sidepanel) and the remainings are fixed on the body using styrene tubes. The tubes are rather thick, but they will be miled away afterwards when rebuilding the pillars.



The problem here is that the border of the interior in the door opening is rather high and forseen to be mounted with the original doorpanel. So, if we stick with the original interior border, it will be impossible to have a nice junction between the CF floor panel and the silver dooropening parts. Only solution here is removing the border and rebuilding the complete door opening.



In the image above you can see the styrene strip that will be the border of the metal silver door opening.

Next step is rebuilding the border of the door opening. When everything will be painted, the rubber moulding for the door opening will recover most of the seemlines, but a good basis in plastic is very important to start rebuilding the final shape!



The last image shows the body seperated from the floor. The door opening is ready now to be shapes using putty. Next update will be ... a dusty one after all the sanding and rebuilding.

[gulfclk]

So ... the door opening is finished. After a lot of filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding AGAIN and so on, I'm almost finished. The job is almost done. I still need to do the hinges, which for me is the dullest part! No fun at all doing that, but ... I can't put the door next to the car on the floor!





Meanwhile, I've been working on another issue as well, something that keeps me busy since I got into 24th scale again.

Seatbelts.

I'm doing them with very thing lead sheet for some time now and what I like most is that you can bent them and put them in whatever shap you want. Very realistic, very precise but ... no texture! OK, so there's other aftermarket stuff like Studio 27 and mostlikely everybody disagrees with me know but for me, it just doesn't do the job. Not on scale, too rough, ...

So ... after a couple of months of research and testing, I found the holy grale (for me at least). I'm very pleased with the result, although it still needs some fine tuning. The texture is still a bit too deep on some parts, but we'll get there.

After airbrushing the belts with grey enemal, I applied the PE buckles from Eduard. For me, they are the best out there. To finish them, I wheathered them with Tamiya's wheathering set (from which I still need to take away a bit as it is a bit over the top).



Next thing on the belts are the pads. I'll make them the same as I always do. Double sides tape, one layer of a Cleanex tissue and wood glue.

[Ferrari TR]

So, just what is your 'magic' belt material.
Those look great, BTW.

[robrex]

Yes, what is this material you use. The belts look great!