Air Cooled - Porsche 911 GT2 (Taisan Starcard)

[mrawl]

Well, I finally got off my butt and dragged this one out to finish it. Reason being, that the IPMS Kickoff Classic contest was this weekend (4/18/09) at the Santa Clara Convention Center. (That's San Francisco/Bay Area for the unwashed)

We left off with the body decaled but most of the body details are missing because I sliced them off at the start of the build...




Also, I got some good feedback on the seat belts (thank you), which I wasn't that happy with anyway, so I made some minor changes. Fixed the crotch straps, though the fitting is still wrong, and reposed the belts. It looks a bit 'forced' but the fabric is very stiff, I won't be using that stuff again.




This kit is unusual in that the window trims are all molded into the body, except for the rear window. The instructions say to just paint the inside, but I really hate that look, so I painted both sides. Harder to do, but looks better imho.


I made a plastic air-connector...


...and blind wiper stalk.


It took me ages to decide to do them in plastic because I knew they would look like rubbish when painted. Not surprisingly, I then changed my mind and tried doing them in metal.


Much better! Inspired by that, I redid the air-connector again in brass, to match the filler plate


And of course we need a nice wiper. This is a modified PE wiper with a shortened arm and reconfigured arm/blade attachment.


I made a plastic wiper stalk to match the blind stalk. For mounting, the wiper assembly will simply drop into a tube mounted below the sill.


The roof antenna mount...


And the antenna itself, made from stretched sprue.


The upper mesh/netting goes under the engine cowl to keep the birds out, and the lower mesh is for the cabin vent, to fill that seriously ugly hole in the hood, and, of course, to keep bugs out


More details - it's endless! The mirror in this kit calls for a painted reflector, and the side mirror reflectors are rubbish too, so I tried using polished PE. It comes up well, but being such a hard material, it's difficult to get all the scratches out.




These absolute turds are supposed to be Porsche door handles. YUCK!!! Beyond hideous.


So I reshaped them into something more like the real thing.


I used BMF around the lock and guard area. Then I smothered it all with TS14, scraped it back to reveal the BMF, then a final coat of TS13 for protection. The lock could use a wash perhaps, but it's so small you can't see it anyway!


The original idea with the tail lights was was to make rounded internal reflectors, but I totally ran out of time. So I just painted them silver with a black area to give the illusion of separation in the lenses (hopefully).


The lens is done in clear red and orange, though most examples I've seen do not have orange/amber lights - they're usually clear or red.


It looks ok, but a little bit plain perhaps. So I added some BMF reflectors.


Which brings it to life a bit. The lights aren't entirely accurate but they do look very interesting to the eye, with a nice 3D depth to them. I'm very happy with them, so I won't bother doing anything else here. Oh, and I wanted to simulate a ghosted PORSCHE image in the lights, but again, no time.




I just did simple reflectors for the front lights. They should be 3D too, but not enough time.




So that's it!!! I'll take some pics and give you a report on the IPMS contest in my completion thread. Stay tuned!

Edit - fixed some typos, also, forgot to mention that I replaced the molded fender flare rivets with metal rivets - you probably picked that up from earlier pics anyway.

[jano11]

Beautiful result. The detail level is great. You're one of those who work great under pressure.

[Duncan1098]

Great results on the lights, like the wiper blades, and the air connector, great finish all round

[Entau]

excellent detail... especially in those tiny stuff

how did you make those plastic air-connector and blind wiper stalk, although u didnt use it but how did u made those tiny things?

[sam01contact]

Great attention to detail!!

[wilchan]

Mark, this is a super build!!!!!! I am so excited to see Mark's work in person on SVSM kickoff classics last Sat... It is simply amazing!!!

Big congrat to Mark for the awards!!!



Cheers,

-- william

[mrawl]

Thanks William! The show was great wasn't it? And folks you should have seen his 1/12 Ferrari - it was breath-taking. One of the military guys got best in show this year, well-deserved too I must say, their stuff is out of this world. Lots of brilliant miscellania too, I'll try and post a thread on the meet.

Meanwhile, my completion thread is here