Fujimi 1970 Le Mans #23 917K - Attwood\Herrmann

[ewestra]

You're right I didn't post that picture, but I still have it. I use large maskingtape and placed it on the surroundings of the headlights. With a cocktailstick I gently push it in the corner where the headlightcover is placed.



With a new Exactoknife I gently cut out the middle section. After that I check the maskingtape and spray tiny amounts of paint. From the outside of the maskingtape and never against the tape, cause it will build up paint and there could leaks under the masking tape.



Good luck.

Eric

[ianc911]

Great idea! Thanks for the tip Eric, I'll definitely give that a whirl!

ianc

[ianc911]

Wheels on, spare tire made and mounted (although it didn't come out as nice as Eric's), and test-fitting the glass. The headlight covers needed considerable work to lay down flush with the body; the side windows were too wide as well. I plan to dye these with a mixture of yellow food coloring and Future, but will wait until the final clear coat has been sprayed in case the added paint thickness makes additional adjustments necessary. Just need to mask the headlight buckets and spray, then ready to decal...









ianc

[ianc911]

Well, it's finished!

Haha, just kidding. Following are some mockups of the car as it sits now. The decals were really a bear, but that's mostly due to my own inexperience. The white stripes and number placards are translucent in this kit; something I was afraid of after seeing a WIP post on a French forum. Luckily Eric Westra had a second set he was able to forward me, so I was able to lay on a second decal right over the top of the first one for a better effect. However, this led to various difficulties as well. I found that the Microsol tends to eat Tamiya acrylics if puddled on it, so this required some sanding to get back to where I started. After about a solid week of decaling and fiddling about, I was ready for a clear coat. Unfortunately, I also found that a simple wipe down with water is not sufficient to remove the Microset and Microsol, and that the deposits left were enough to foul the clearcoat, which led to yet more sanding. I was so scared of the decals that I didn't do my usual toothbrush and dishwashing liquid routine before clearing. I used Testors acyrlic semigloss for the clear and I'm quite satisfied with it; it dries hard very quickly and doesn't pick up fingerprints like the Tamiya clear. Unfortunately, the Testors airbrushing thinner can also tend to lift decals too. So, it's been a bit of a struggle, but I think I'm on the home stretch now. There's still a lot of fiddly detail work to do, like the front access hatch latches, the headlight cover rivets, etc. but I'll keep plugging away. After looking more closely at some of my ref pics, I did notice that this car definitely had the dashtop-mounted transmission temp gauge. I thought they only mounted this on the 917L's due to the more enveloping bodywork and consequent lack of airflow, but it seems like Porsche Salzburg just mounted it on all their cars, so I was forced to cobble something together there. Luckily I had an extra gauge decal in the set I got from Eric. Anyway, here it is so far:











'Til next time, and thanks for looking,

ianc

[LeeABC]

Wow! Looks absolutely gorgeous Ian. Can't wait to see it finished.

Lee.

[ewestra]

That looks very nice Ian. Glad to see the decals in good use. Are you going to get your clean work dirty? Good to see your progres, keep it up.

Eric

[ianc911]

Hi Eric,

Yep, still going to dirty it up, but I figure that will be the last thing to do after all the rest of the work's done. Looking forward to more updates on your 911S!

ianc

[ianc911]

OK, well it has been too long without an update, so here are some crappy pics I just took in my back yard to give you an idea of where the thing stands. I would rate it about 97% done at this point. I still need to add a little black in the wheel wells; the white stands out there like a sore thumb next to the black rubber marks behind the front fender. The windshield wiper is still not sitting correctly on the windshield; Fujimi's wiper is just a piece of crap which took some reworking, but it's still not right. I'm also not that happy with the rubber marks behind the left front wheel, so I need to rework that slightly. Really wish I had opened one of the doors now; very tough to see any of the cockpit detail I laboriously added. Oh well, live and learn. Will probably post some better shots in the gallery once I get everything ironed out, but this is how it stands now. Thanks for looking!

[ewestra]

Congrats on your beautiful Porsche 917 Ian. The weathering turned out great when watching your pics. In all the 917 looks very good, but I have to admit that the windscreenwiper looks out of scale. Pay tribute to your hard work and look for a PE wiper. That is the cherry on your 917-cake.

Up to the next one, and by saying that...I'll better start doing something to

Cheers,
Eric

[da_ashman]

Looks awesome! nice work!