Le Mans Contest Entry: '69 Ford GT40 Chassis 1075

[Samurai75007]

OMG this is the best friggin buildup so far.

[freakray]

Mick,
Very nice GT40 you have there.

You may be interested to know that 1075 wasn't a reskinned Mirage at all, it was an all-original GT40 from the ground up but has several similarities to the Mirage based predecessors.

[MickSz]

Thats good to know. I read somewhere it started life as a Mirage but was rebodied. Thanks for the correction. I learned something new today

[RallyRaider]

Yeah I've read both stories, 1) that was a rebuild of M.10003 and 2) that it was all new. I don't know which version to believe. From a romanic point of view it would be nice to believe that M.10003, the most sucessful Mirage chassis, was reborn into P/1075, the most sucessfull GT40 chassis. The truth is out there.

[MickSz]

The GT40 story is just a fascinating story from start to finish. It's better than most fiction I love Ferraris and Porsches but I'm sure glad the GT40 did it's "thang" in the late 60's. Truly legendary stuff

I've got six more to build before I'm done...sigh...

[RallyRaider]

Originally Posted by MickSz

You are so right Raider, he was much more than a GT40 builder. I too miss his incredible buildup diaries...Sigh...

BTW Raider, I am really watching you're GT40 buildup. It looks to be a stunning build. You are right when you say there are some inaccuracies to my model but as I said in the beginnning, I'm not a stickler for measuring things down to the half millimetre, I tend to build models to achieve the right "look" to my eyes.

I am in AWE of builders who can accurately recreate a car in 1/24th that is perfect in every way. I don't know if you've had a chance to read the autobiography of Mr. Tamiya but it's a great read. Not a lot about car modelling but one section in particular struck me. He said when they were researching cars for reference to a new model, they were often shocked to find that if they created a model to the exact dimensions of the real car, the model would tend to look longer and narrower than it should. The reason he came up with is we tend to look at real cars from roughly 6 feet from the ground whereas models we tend to look at from much higher up (in scale of course) so the perspective is much different. To remedy this they would take the dimensions of their plans and widen them until the car looked "right" from a normal model viewing angle. Food for thought

Yes Tamiya are well known for making artistic interpretation of their model subjects to make them look more impressive in scale. It is very interesting to compare say a Tamiya Celica ST185 body to Hasegawa's version. Tamiya's version is much curvier than the more prototypically correct Hasegawa version. With wider wheel arches and meaner looking super wide tyres.

Just goes to show that you can't win when building models. Make something totally accurate in scale and it will seem wrong. Another example is scale effect on colour. Paint a 1/24th car with the exact same paint as the 1:1 car and it will look too dark!

[bvia]

JS was THE man.

The Gulf GT90 phantom racer.
The 1:12th Renault F1.
and of course the GT40s...

Damn shame he had to pull it all off the web because a cetain person would not repect his copyright.

Beautiful work on you GT, Mick.

A very worthy LM contest entry!
Thank god I'm building a curbside...;-)>

[MickSz]

"Just goes to show that you can't win when building models. Make something totally accurate in scale and it will seem wrong."

Thats why I cringe when guys say "this is 2mm too long" or something to that effect. Cars more than any other modelling genre is about getting the right look...

"Another example is scale effect on colour. Paint a 1/24th car with the exact same paint as the 1:1 car and it will look too dark."

I've ofthen thought the same thing about the scale paint color. All I can equate that to is distance and air density.

[pettercardoso]

Hello Mick.

First of all, welcome to AF. I am truly amazed by your work...I keep coming here just to see these pictures over and over again....It's stronger than me

I have two questions for you:
1st - the Renaissance seat rivets are self adhesive or you had to glue them on?
2nd - I have searched for those rivets, but I can't find them anywhere. I even e-mailed mediamixhobby but they told me to wait (3 months ago....). Do you know where to buy them?

Thank you for sharing your work, and for your time!

Best Regards,
Pedro

[MickSz]

Thank you very much Pedro. This is an awesome forum, I wish I had found it sooner

Now to answer your questions:
1) The Rennaisance Rivet set is not self adhesive unfortunately, you must use a glue. I used micro-scale kristal klear which dries slowly and clear so if you make a mistake it's not very noticeable.
2) I've had a number of people say these rivet sets are hard to come by. I'm sure I bought them at Mediamix.....As an alternative I managed to find something that looks almost exactly the same from Scalemotorsport. http://www.scalemotorsport.com. Go to their Photoetch page, then go to their accesories page and the very top set is called "Nuts, Bolts, Washers, and Fasteners Photoetch Set" Code: 8117, Price: $10.00. This set contains washers that are almost identical in size. The bad part is that you'd have to buy more than one set to have enough to do both seats in a GT40. The good news is the rest of the parts on the sheet are very useful for many race car applications and you'll likely have enough to last a lifetime I hope that helps.
Mick.

[GT-Alex]

Superb work and pics, nothing more to say...
I love the radiator hoses.

[pettercardoso]

It sure helps, Mick!
Thank you very much for you explanation, and, again, for you time!

Pedro.

[Sennake]

Originally Posted by MickSz

Which version of the LMM GT40 are you building ? The full panels off version ?

That is the one I'm talking about yes. Looks very hard to build, but from the pics of the finished model it also looks very promising once finished...

[MickSz]

Sennake,
It is an incredible kit when completed. As we were talking about before, Jorgen Stendahl did a Best Of Show winning LMM Panels off version. It was stunning. What I have never seen was what this kit looks like if you put the panels on. Does it have the same profile as the non-panels off LMM kit ? Does your kit look like it'll fit together?

[Sennake]

The engine cover and the front cover will fit together, although the front cover needed a little sanding and paint-repair-work because the model is pre-painted and the paint finish is way to good to strip the model and respray it completely. The sanding of the front cover (and a little bit of work at the dashboard) are the only things that I have started at the Ford a few years ago, and I found a perfect matching color for the powder-blue so I managed to repaint the inside of the cover with a brush.

But the doors are something else. One of them fits fairly, the other one doesn't fit at all. That wouldn't be a problem if the model wouldn't be pre-painted, now it's nairly impossible to make them fit or the repairs would be visible. And I don't dare strip the doors alone to make them fit and respray them because no matter how close the color matches, it would always remain visible from outside. But I don't intend to close the doors anyway, since the interior is stunning and if I want a curbside model of the Ford I can always build a closed Fujimi kit

BTW you don't happen to have a URL or some pictures of this Best Of Show winning model?