Fisher 917LH 1971 w/ Fujimi donor conversion

[lezdep]

Hopefully members here can tolerate my multiple long lasting WIPs.

I've started a new project. With all the fuzz around MFH 1/12 917LH and with arrival of Fisher body with Fujimi donor included, I could
not resist and started the conversion project. Idea is to use chassis with most of the components from Fujimi donor kit and Fisher body of
917LH car from Le Mans 1971. Decals I have are for the car with Martini livery. I think it is a cool livery.

First I've detached all parts of Fujimi kit from plastic trees and cleaned them up. Next step is to modify Fujimi parts, so Fujimi chassis fits under Fisher body.
I actually had to shave quite a bit of resin from Fisher body as well. Fit still not 100% as I want it, but not too bad. One kind of funny thing was that Fujimi chassis
did not want to fit well until I removed Fisher copyright block. I guess Fujimi chassis wasn't happy to mate with body from kit with different copyright

First photo shows how Fujimi chassis looks like after modifications. Never mind masking tape, it's there just to hold parts together for test fit tryouts.
Next couple of photos show body and chassis' fit. And the rest show how chassis with wheels and tires fitted works with Fisher body. Front looks too high.
In the rear wheels don't fit well under body and end up with too much negative cumber. Not sure yet what I could do about the front ride height. For rear
wheels I will have to reduce their track width a bit and remove some more resin from the body.

[gtziaf]

Looking great my friend. Good luck...

[ianc911]

Looks like an interesting conversion, but I'm wondering at the point of it though... ;-)

The Fujimi chassis is not really that detailed, and is only a curbside itself, so you might end up with some suspension details that the Fisher kit didn't give you? It will be difficult to cut open the resin body to display any internal detail, although if you do manage to lift the engine lid, I believe there is an HRM resin engine you could use with the Fujimi chassis, but you'd be looking at a LOT of scratchbuilding in the engine room...

When I built my Fujimi 917, I found the front suspension needed to be lowered about 1-2 mm to get a good stance. Looks from your pics that the same might apply here.

Good luck; I'll be interested to see what you make of it,

ianc

[lezdep]

Originally Posted by ianc911

Looks like an interesting conversion, but I'm wondering at the point of it though... ;-)
...

Good luck; I'll be interested to see what you make of it,

ianc

The point is actually to build lightly detailed curbside model. I have to intention
to detail this one beyond of what is provided in Fujimi kit and Studio27 PE set.
I have 1/12 kit to go all the way on detailing. This build supposed to be an easy one.

[ianc911]

OK, makes sense. Is your 1/12th kit one of the new MFH's? I've seen a couple of those for sale on the bay and have wondered what they look like in the box. Will be on the lookout for that if you publish a WIP on it!

ianc

[lezdep]

For no particular reason I prefer to work on this project over F1-GTRs. May be I got a bit tired of them.
Worked more on better body to chassis fit and suspension. I've cut about 0.6mm from upper front suspension
arms and I think it seats lower over all. To be able to mate chassis to body I have extended floor a bit in front.
Also added what I call "rails" - 2 strips of plastic on inside of the body. I plan to epoxy chassis to them later.
I might add 2 more smaller "rails" on the inside closer to the front for even more connection points.
Last mod is for the front of side fuel tanks. I've removed original front pieces, which were more square and put
round pieces in plastic and filled in gaps with super glue and soda powder.

[modlman17]

That's looking good Sergey! I realized that the added plastic in the nose was going to be necessary. At least I had similar thoughts on it and the firewall as you. I'm watching closely but I've got a some personal interest in this one. LOL

Rob

[lezdep]

After leaving this project in the background for few months, I have picked it up again. Spent some time preparing parts for primer.
Then over last 2 weeks I have primed all parts, plastic parts with Tamiya grey, resin parts with Tamiya metal primer. Next, parts
were painted in all kinds of different colours according to my references and MFH's 917LH instructions. I could not find period
references for this car's cockpit, so I based colours on what MFH suggested for their kits. It is also not easy to find period photos
of inside body and colours of frame pipes. I've settled on fibre glass for internals of the body and on white aluminium for frame
pipes. They look bright silver on photos and I had no other better match paint for them in my stock. For the body I have selected
TS30. It seems to be a reasonably close match. Unfortunately I missed the fact the small front ducts were closed on #21 car and
that delayed body painting. I'll have to paint body, when putty is dry and surface is prepared again. Beside body, almost all parts
are painted by now. I will only need to do some detail painting on things like shocks, dashboard, steering wheel and brakes.
Really looking forward to the moment when I will be able to start chassis assembly. I don't have photos of it, but chassis is painted
in grey and aluminium and pretty much ready.

Below are some quick photos. Note, that there are some extra parts from my other builds on the go.

[fanalone]

Looking great, good luck whit the hibrid

[lezdep]

Finally all prep work was completed on the body and I could spray silver over it. TS30 went on well.
I think it is a good match. However resulting finish is not gloss, so I will have to put some clear coats
on top of it before I could apply decals.

I've also done pretty much all detail painting on other parts. While body will need a lot more work,
I should be able to start assembly tasks on the chassis. Might even have an update by the end of this
weekend.

[rgriffs]

good start to an interesting project.

[Pascal D]

Nice paintjob.

[modlman17]

This looks great Sergey! I definitely made the correct choice to sell this project as I don't have the skills to finish it properly. I am glad you bought it because your skills will make a beautiful one of kind finished build.

Rob

[lasagna99]

Sergey,your work is very good,until now.
for the color,I think TS17 could be better...But it's only an opinion...
Then,when you'll spray the clear coat,you will see the TS30 change a lot....Don't forget it!

However,it's a great project!

[lezdep]

Originally Posted by lasagna99

...
for the color,I think TS17 could be better...But it's only an opinion...
Then,when you'll spray the clear coat,you will see the TS30 change a lot....Don't forget it!

You are right. TS30 changed under clear and now looks more like light grey.
Strangely enough, while I can see it with my naked eyes, photo camera does
not pick up that difference. In any case, I'm thinking about taking your advice
and spraying TS17 over it. Yet I wonder how much TS17 will change under
clear itself.

Worked on chassis assembly on the weekend. Because all parts are plastic,
assembly went quickly with only use of plastic glue required. Over all result isn't
bad. But of course there is a lot of room for improvement. I also ended up
with color inconsistencies, because parts were painted separately, and I didn't
realize upfront, they would be connected later. With most of the internals hidden
under curbside body, I'm ok with result so far. Only dashboard and seat belts
are left. Otherwise it'll be left OOB as is.

For next 3-4 weeks this build will be in hibernation, as I go on vacation out of
country and contemplate what to do with body color.