Trumpeter 1/12 Scale GT40

[Eric Cole]

Sorry for the long first post but….

Here’s a new project I’ve started recently. It’s the Trumpeter GT40 kit that I plan to build into Alan Mann Racing’s 1966 GT40 X/GT2 as it ran in Lemans in 1966. The car was silver with black stripes and wore a number “7”. After a practice crash the nose of the car was repaired and repainted in flat black prior to the race. I intend to do the version with the flat black nose.



The kit itself is lacking detail in a lot of areas, however, there are still over 300 plastic parts to the kit as well as some PE and some turned metal pieces, wiring/hoses, etc. I won’t go into all the issues and inaccuracies with the kit now. I’ll point some of them out along the way and show what I did, or will try do, to correct them.

An overall assessment of the kit before we start is that there are a lot of parts, many of the parts a bulky and flat, lacking molded in detail and about 200 of the parts are chrome plated which is inaccurate. The tires are terrible but there is nice PE and machined parts, the glass parts are nice, thin and very clear. The body proportions are very good to my eye and the body panels fit together well based on initial test fitting.

My intention with this build is to create a good representation of the car as it would have ran in the 1966 Lemans taking into account that there are very few pictures of this car from that time period. Most of the pictures available for this car are as it is today, which is restored. From what I’ve read this car is one of the more faithfully restored GT40’s there is. Even though I will use the KA Models Super Detail Set and the Icon Automotive replacement tires I don’t intend to correct everything wrong with this kit (that would be a lot of work). My only real goal is to achieve a decent looking 1/12th scale GT40 that, at least at a glance, resembles the real GT40 X/GT2.

So, let’s get started…..

Initially, when I started this kit I was all over the place with the build. I had no focus, didn’t know what to work on or fix first. So, this WIP is going to seem a little scattered but should start to follow a more organized process as I get further into it.

Here’s a couple shots of the body:


Here you can see that the panels fit pretty well. These parts are just sitting in place for now with no tape or anything holding them together. You can also see there’s some putty on the body for filling in sink marks. The bulkhead and chassis components have a ton of ejector pin marks that had to be filled and smoothed.


These two containers contain all the parts that were originally chromed. I stripped all the chrome parts in the kit with “Purple Power” which removed the chrome and the clear carrier on the parts. Anything that’s supposed to be chrome/polished will get a coat of Alclad later:


One of the first areas I wanted to tackle was the seats. The seats in this kit are a really weak point. They’re very unrealistic looking and just painting them wasn’t going to help. The KA Super Detail Set comes with a pair of resin seats to replace the kit plastic seats. The overall shape of the KA seats are very nice but the molded in detail of wrinkles and creases seemed overly exaggerated to me. Here’s a pic of the seats. Kit seat in the middle and KA resin seats to the left and right:


Between the two sets of seats I chose to use the KA set. I wasn’t happy with them either but I could work with them and make them acceptable. First step was to drill all the holes a little deeper where the grommets go. After drilling the holes I knew I would not be happy using the stick-on metal grommets that came with the KA set because I didn’t think they would look right just stuck on the surface of the seat. Not to mention they were proportioned incorrectly. They looked more like chrome washers and less like metal rings. I also didn’t like all the wrinkles and creases in the KA seats. After drilling the holes deeper, then I used a Dremel and medium sized ball shaped cutter and removed a lot of the seat detail. A quick sanding with a coarse grit sand paper to smooth the seats a little left me with the amount of detail I wanted. Next, I counter sunk all the drilled holes so my new grommets could actually sit into each hole slightly. Here’s pretty much what the seat looked like after modification and before primer:


Next issue with the seats were the metal rings/grommets and how to make them look more realistic. I tried several options from cutting thin slices of plastic tubing and painting it silver but it didn’t look enough like metal. I also tried cutting thin rings of aluminum tubing but 114 rings per seat was just going to be too much work. So, I ended up making the rings out of thin solder wire. It’s soft and easy to work with and it’s metal so it looks right. Here’s the materials I used:


I started by wrapping the solder around the appropriate size metal rod sort of like making a spring:


Then using a exacto I cut the spring length wise along the rod turning the spring into individual rings. As you can see the rings are somewhat odd shaped at this point just due to the winding and cutting process. Since the rings are made of soft solder they’re easy to flatten and then squeeze them together to close the gap:


Here’s a few of the finished metal rings. Not perfect but better than any other alternative I could come up with. I have no idea how many of these I made. There are 228 used for the seats plus all the ones that went flying across the room and lost in the carpet from squeezing them together with tweezers:


The rings were then attached to the painted seats using flat clear acrylic paint as the adhesive. Since the seats were flat black using the flat clear to attach the rings made it less of an issue if I got a little too much clear on the seat. Here are the completed seats after drilling, smoothing, priming, painting and adding the rings. Overall I’m happy with the result, just needs the seatbelts now:



With the seats completed I moved on to the next area that bothered me a lot with Trumpeter’s kit and that’s the tires. The tires in this kit are horrible. The sidewalls are too flat, the edge between shoulder and tread is too sharp and the tread itself doesn’t represent any kind of real tire I’ve ever seen much less the tires on the GT40’s. I purchased Icon Automotive replacement GT40 tires for this kit and I have to say they’re awesome. The Icon set also comes with a spare tire and a resin cast wheel to make it possible to add the correct spare tire to the model during the build process. Here’s the kit tire (right) and an Icon tire (left) for comparison:


The wheels in the kit are nice representations of the real Halibrand GT40 wheel but they come pre-painted in the kit for some reason. Although not bad the pre-painted gold color was too dark and bonze’ish looking for the car I want to build:



I re-sprayed the wheels with a custom mix of gold and silver to lighten the color. Then I added a wash of smoke to the spokes to darken them a little and bring out some of the detail. After the wash had dried I sprayed everything in flat clear. Once the flat clear was dry I added the silver lip around the outer edge of the wheel using Rub-n-Buff silver leaf paste with a cotton swab. Glued the wheels into the tires and added the air valve. Wheel weights were attached using silver tape then I hand painted the tire lettering and the blue stripe around the tires. Once the lettering and stripe were dry I dirtied them up a little using powder from black chalk applied to the tires with a soft brush:



With the tires completed I moved on to the rear drive axles. Many of the kit parts are very bulky and toy like, lacking realistic detail and overly simplified. The kit axels are a good example of this. Thankfully, the KA set has white metal replacement parts for this area of the kit. As you can see in the image below, the Trumpeter plastic axle parts in the middle, the five separate KA white metal parts that make up one side of a completed axel, and then the completed white metal axel with working “u”-joints shown at the bottom. Just waiting on some paint/wash:


That’s about it for now. As I mentioned in the beginning of this thread I’ve jumped around all over the place so far going from one thing to another. From here going forward, hopefully, the thread will be more organized and follow some sort of normal process.

Thanks for looking….

[da_ashman]

WOW! Great build so far, & those seats look AMAZING!
These manufactors need to take notice of Tamiya when producing a 1:12 scale kit.
We dont want a cheap upsize & halfassed attempt, we want a Tamiya 1:12 Enzo quality kit. I remeber Scale Motorsports anoucement about doing a super detail kit for this GT40, so many people were excited about it but then they had to can the idea due to the kit being so lacklustre.
Good on KA models to do a detail up kit.
Cant wait to see what you do next!

[Hemi Killer]

I have been waiting for something like this to determine whether or not I will buy this kit

[lovegt40]

Also I choosed not to keep it.In 12th scale details are a must, and trumpeter kit has too many messy point to fix.first of all wheels.
Too nicer ones u chhosed. keep on posting. I love this car.

[John18d]

Awesome work on the seats - I was waiting for a builder with the attention to detail and your skills to attempt one of these kits - i have one in my stash so I will follow your build with interest. - great start - John

[ianc911]

Really like what you've done so far and your attention to detail! The wheels really look fantastic and the seats look great. My only suggestion would be to try to add a little wear to the seats. In my eye, they now have the correct saggy, wrinkly texture from use, but the black paint looks too perfect, like the leather is still brand new.

Can you describe your process for countersinking the holes in the seat?

What made you choose this particular car over the '66 or '67 Le Mans winners?

Looking forward to more updates!

ianc

[John18d]

Originally Posted by Hemi Killer

I have been waiting for something like this to determine whether or not I will buy this kit

Hemi Killer - the kit is a little "toy" like out of the box, but it has some real potential for someone with a little skill. If you can get one for around $150 usd shipped to you then I would say get it - you won't be sorry. I got mine off eBay for $142 to my door. Finding one shouldn't be difficult - John

[Eric Cole]

Originally Posted by ianc911

Really like what you've done so far and your attention to detail! The wheels really look fantastic and the seats look great. My only suggestion would be to try to add a little wear to the seats. In my eye, they now have the correct saggy, wrinkly texture from use, but the black paint looks too perfect, like the leather is still brand new.

Can you describe your process for countersinking the holes in the seat?

What made you choose this particular car over the '66 or '67 Le Mans winners?

Looking forward to more updates!

ianc

Thanks everyone..

ianc, I agree with you on the seats and they'll get a little more attention and dry-brushing once I start putting things together as I get closer to final assembly. I like to do some of the weathering closer to the end of the project.

The counter sink was done using a small ball shaped cutter that you would use in a Dremel. I just placed the bit in a pin vise for more control and counter-sunk them by hand. You can see the round cutter in the pin vise in one of the pictures.

Why did I choose this car? Well, mostly because it's not one you see built very often. Between Fujimi's GT40 kits and the various decals for the Trumpeter kit this one is not so common. Aside from the fact that I think the silver/black is a really cool car and color scheme I also wanted to build something a little more unique.

More updates coming soon... it's a slow process working with this kit!!

[MerlinPro]

Eric-don't know how good your reference is for your chosen car. But there are significant differences from 1:1 cars and Trump's presentation of Stauffer's restoration of 1046.
Visible differences like the fuel pumps, cockpit and dash details are notable.
Also don't know how faithful you choose to be to your #7 so Trump's kit almost forces you to take 'license' on accuracy.
Big hints on two major shortcomings: if you want the nose to tilt open accurately, (with the front hatch ajar as 1:1) you have to scratch that mechanism. I fastened my fenders permanently and left the hatch removable.
The other is the front ride height is all wrong for a race car-lower it significantly.
I forgot a third; trail-fit all panels frequently as even paint build on edges changes everything-allow for that. Doors and hatch especially. The rear clip, when closed, sits off the chassis sides. I relieved the plastic at the top center contact and added .010" shim to the bottom forward edges of the clip. The rear pivot pins are very delicate so go easy.
I'll think of more issues as you progress-hopefully before they catch you out.

[p9o1r1sche]

Hi Eric,
I was wondering when you would get around to doing this one. I have a question about the Icon tires - How do they look diameter-wise? It looks like they're a big improvement over the kit tires.
The seats are looking great.

[MidMazar]

Did shaq sit in both of those seats? Great start and looking forawrd to more progress. The rings are a great touch.

[HIPPIE2]

Looks like a bad kit, but a great start on making it a masterpiece,

I've frequently have had the chance to look at the red 427 car at the Henry Ford museum, Their car is still in original condition and although it might be just from siting for a while it looks like quite crude, welds arn't that nice, everything is plastered in grime and oil, and nothing is clean at all, Just thought this might help a bit, like in your seats althought they are great in the car I have seen they are more of a really really dark grey, and look very beat up and used.

Hope this helps you in some way, and good luck.

[lovegt40]

Hippie, some pics of that car will be really appreciate
In michigan u have the best american replica company of GT40s (RCR supercars)

[John18d]

Eric - what did you polish the white metal axle half shafts with? - John

[Eric Cole]

Originally Posted by John18d

Eric - what did you polish the white metal axle half shafts with? - John

John - I just used a fine grit sanding stick. There were some rough areas on my parts that needed to be smoothed. Once I started smoothing I just used the same method to polish.

Merlin - Thanks for the tips... Im undecided on how much I want to correct. I'm somewhat familiar with GT40's and have been collecting books and photos for years. I've seen several real GT's at various Concourse but I still learn something new every time I study the car. Anyway, as I build this kit I'll decide as I go what to fix and whats not worth the effort depending on how visible it is. I'm in the process of modifying the dash now. I do intend to modify the front end to tilt forward correctly. Not sure how yet but I'll figure it out when I get to that point.