Audi R18 LeMans 2014 1:24

[jaykay640]

So, here we go again. It’s been a while since the last update. The Audi has been almost finished since June, but I didn’t find the patience to finish writing the build report and, well, there was one last piece missing, so it wasn’t really finished :-)
Anyway, I got to that recently, so here’s the final build report update.

After the last one it was time for the last biggie, the rear wing.
I first installed the decaled, clear coated and slightly polished endplates. They went in place with nearly no glue thanks to my locator pins. I added LED-rear light strips made from 1mm round plexiglass rod. It took quite a while to make two nice examples. Machining half of the round rods off was no big deal on the lathe, but heating and then bending them 90 degrees with the right radius proved to be rather tricky.





Then I installed the wing using a bit of epoxy glue and custom made “rivets”.
The final element was the central swan neck mount. To the CF decorated part I added the “metal” bit, painted with Alclad Chrome and then dressed them up with some etched washers.

The remaining small bits that followed, were the white metal cowling fasteners, the windscreen wiper, built from modified etched and white metal kit parts, the central antenna and pitot tube on the roof.





I scratch built the additional antennas on the nose and right side of the roof, because the white metal kit parts were all too big.





At the back I mounted the red tow hook and the small wastegate exhaust pipe ( at least I think that’s what it is...) and some metal bits above the main exhaust outlets.





Then I installed the wing mirrors. The white metal parts were quite heavy, so to get a solid connection with the fenders I machined aluminium rivets with big heads that I glued in from the undersides.





The mirror faces were made from polished nickel silver sheet.





At the front below the headlights I installed the trim tabs using metal rivets as reinforcement, once more after decorating them with CF decals, clear coating and polishing them.




This was as far as I got during this year’s LeMans weekend, missing just one final bit :-)
That’s a small air intake/cooling thing on the left side behind the driver’s door.





Instead of using the kit white metal blob, I made a resin copy of it I could safely thin at the edges prior to painting.

So this is it and I can finally call this project finished. Once more it took a lot longer than expected. Not counting the last bit I missed my original deadline by “just” one year :-)








As a general advice from lessons learned during this build I’d recommend: stay away from Studio27 kits unless you really want to build a model of a particular car that no one else does.





If you want to build a 2014 Audi R18 and actually enjoy the process, get this:





Out of the box it’s almost as accurate as the S27 kit :-)

[lovegt40]

amazing model.
The lego one..I mean. LOL

[da_ashman]

Increible Work as usual JayKay!!! Whats going to be the next masterpiece?

[ghoul_gh]

WoW

[chris24]

Man this is awesome ! Especially given the quality of the original parts...
You got to have a strong sense of humor to build Studio 27 kits nowadays

[sam01contact]

Amazing work!!

[kitbash]

Inspirational work, as always. I still drool over your Tamiya Jordan; it's possibly the best build-up of a Tamiya F1 car I've ever seen.

So tell me, have you ever done any 1/43 stuff?? I bet you'd kill....

[Shunter2402]

Simply stunning work...

[The Sheene Machine]

You really are a very clever model maker - sows ear/silk purse comes to mind looking at this. Fantastic model making.