1/8 Porsche 935/78 'Moby Dick'

[nugundam93]

Originally Posted by Brandon Miller

Holy $&@! Batman! That windshield wiper and motor are insane.

agreed!

SB, please tell us this wiper assembly will move when done

[ScratchBuilt]

Sorry folks, the wiper is strictly non-functional! You won't see much of the motor mechanism once it's all assembled, but it's all about adding as much detail as I can - I don't want things to look empty.

So, what's new this week? First up, to close-off the gap between the top of the dashboard and the window edge, I added a curved strip of fibreglass:



From the front you can see where I've cut the leading edge away to fit around the wiper assembly, and the strip of angle-section styrene which reinforces the join:



Next, time to start preparing for painting. Here's the floor panel after a light sanding, a wipe with some thinners, and the chassis tubes masked:



The main roll-cage and chassis needed a little final detailing too - as well as odd bits of greenstuff here and there, I added the support tubes for the harness shoulder-straps and the headrest:



Here's the headrest pad and backing plate:



...and the main chassis masked and ready:



So, by now I've run out of excuses not to start painting. The main chassis and roll cage were sprayed with Mr Surfacer 1200 Grey Primer:



As always, it makes an immediate difference! The floor panel was primered in a similar fashion, then sprayed with Tamiya IJN Grey (straight from the can). The main chassis and cage were airbrushed (yes, really!) with three coats of Tamiya acrylic XF16 Flat Aluminium, with light rubbing down between each one:



The two inner sill panels were primered and airbrushed with XF1 Flat Black - these are a bit experimental right now as I wanted to see how the flat black would look. Most of the interior will be black, so I might end up using a few variations - some of the panels are supposed to be steel, some fibreglass, etc, so it doesn't all want to be a high-gloss finish. Here's a couple of detail shots of the frame:





I'm tempted to pick out the welds with a slightly different shade of silver - might give this a try somewhere out of the way before tackling the whole frame. The floor panel is not glued on yet - I feel that the grey needs a bit of depth adding and needs the 'newness' taking off, but I don't want to go overboard with weathering effects. I've got some other grey shades on order so will try to get it looking better at the weekend, before assembling everything.

If anyone's interested, I mixed the Tamiya paints 50:50 with their thinners and sprayed at about 20psi. Seemed to work really well - I can't remember now why I had so much trouble getting it right when I did the 917-10! My main concern with using the airbrush is how I'm going to handle touching-up any odd little bits once the main assembly process is underway - but I guess it's nothing that plenty of masking can't handle.

To finish up tonight, here's the headrest pad and plate after painting. The pad was given a couple of coats of the 'Sandy Paste' to give it some texture and was painted by hand with Citadel paints. The mounting plate was given a quick airbrush with Flat Aluminium to match the rest of the frame:



Finally, I've started working on some of the various electrical control boxes which will be mounted under the dashboard. There's a few photos of these on the Freisinger car and other sources, but the main components are all very similar to those used on the earlier 908, 917, etc, so that gives me even more references. These will all have to be painted, wired-up and attached to the bulkhead panel, before it gets fitted into the frame.



Definitely making progress now! I can see I'm going to be spending a fortune on primer spray, for a start, and will be getting more familiar with Tamiya's paint range. I've already got the fuel tank and oil tank pencilled-in as some of the next parts for airbrushing, so we'll see how that goes. The problem with the fuel tank, of course, is that it's the one part that should (effectively) be natural fibreglass in colour, but is made from styrene sheet. It's going to be tricky getting the colouring and texture acceptable, without any texture to pick out...

Have a good week,

SB

[JesusM]

Thanks for sharing it!!!

[stump]

OMG!! SB at his brilliant best.
A coat of paint on the chassis, even without picking out bits of the weld seams, this has to be the defining point and an indication this is headed to a fantastic finale..
Chassis is smokin' HOT!!
GREAT work Simon.
Cheers Greg

[mrceej]

Been watching along all these years (along with the other Porsche build) and I've been waiting for this time period to come. Adding the paint always brings out the realism for everyone and I'm sure that many of us are excited to see the next few progress posts.

The primered frame caught me off guard. If it weren't for the work bench I would've thought it was a real frame for the real thing being restored.

[da_ashman]

Great to see some paint on her, sad to see the beautiful Carbon fibre floor pan covered in paint, but I guess they werent using it back in the 70s...
Cant wait to see more!!

[ScratchBuilt]

Back again!

Apologies for the gap in updates. As has happened before, it's not due to a lack of progress - it's more that I've been working on lots of different things, none of them particularly 'big', but they look better when presented together!

So, what's up first? The electrical control boxes have been temporarily mounted in place under the front firewall - still plenty to do here as everything needs to be wired-up. I made the decision to modify the lower dashboard panel to have the extra stack of dials in front of the gear-shift mounting - this is more like the original factory car, rather than the Freisinger reference photos:



I'll have to add a short length of angle to the lower frame tubes to secure the bottom edge of the extra panel, and there'll be some extra detailing at the top, too.

Still on the subject of instruments and dashboards, I spent a good part of a Saturday morning examining all the reference photos trying to work out what all the different gauges were actually for! Two A4 pages of notes later, and I'm happy that I've got it all sorted out. So, here's the start of the main cluster of gauges:



The little one on the far left is the gearbox oil temperature, then the main five are for turbo boost, fuel pressure, tacho, oil pressure and engine temperature. The extra panel in front of the gearshift will have two pairs of water temperature and pressure gauges for the two cylinder head cooling circuits, plus an extra temperature gauge for the intercooler system. Add in some switches, warning lights, etc, and I'll have a full set of controls!

Instead of cutting clear plastic discs to fit into the gauges, I decided to try something different. I bought a bottle of Vallejo 'Water Texture' and made some test gauges to try it out:



Not the best photo, but you can see the effect I'm aiming for. Once the dial is painted and detailed, the Water Texture can be poured in to create the 'glass'.

Next, I returned to the fire bottles. Close inspection of photos showed that the original car used a 'Heinzmann' system. So, go online and find more photos...or not! Seems like these Heinzmann systems are rather expensive and probably very desirable as a 'period feature' in '70's racing Porsches. I found some shots of various systems and installations, and managed to work out what was going on with the -78's set-up. This is what I've ended up with:



The two pull-cables will pass through the top of the upright section in the rear bottle, connect to the lever on the end, then continue to a similar lever on the second bottle. One pull-cable in the cockpit, one between the windscreen and the bonnet - pull either and you set off both bottles. I've still got to make the cables, add the extinguisher pipework, and sort out how I'm going to make decals for the labels.

Amongst all these other jobs I've been continuing with some painting. The first panels to be attached to the frame will be the door sills and the front inner wheelarches. After adding some hex-nut detailing to the top, I gave both panels a coat of primer:



As usual, they looked a bit rough after the first coat so needed a little more flatting and smoothing. The weld detailing around the airjack supports needs a little work to make it more noticeable, I think, so I'll do that before the next primer coat.

Finally, the frame has been glued to the floor. Despite painting both parts last month, I've been reluctant to put them together for fear of messing things up. However, the need to make progress has won, so this was the project for Saturday evening. I couldn't use CA glue over the whole frame then fix it down in one hit - it would have gone off before I finished putting it on! So, I used 'Uhu' on the inner sill tubes, then a little CA at the front, then put it together using the outer sill sections to get everything in the right place (using the little aluminium dowels described a while ago). I've then run-in more CA glue into the gaps between the tubes and the floor, so most of the main lower tubes now have two seams of glue bonding them to the carbon. The extra bits of fibreglass 'strapping' will be added later as reinforcement.



The outer sills are not fixed yet - I have to add the fibreglass panels between them first. I should be able to get a really good glue bond with these, plus they'll be pinned through to the inner tubes, and bolted through to the floor at each end. Once they're on, it'll be as secure as I can make it - hopefully I can have this done for the next update.

That's it for tonight. Now I've got the frame attached to the floor I can start adding some of the interior panels and other detailing, ahead of fitting the top section of the roll-cage, front firewall, etc. I'm aware that there's still a lot of fine detailing to be done, so I don't want to get carried away with fitting things then find I've caused myself a big problem somewhere down the line. After spending over four years on this project now ('seems like longer', I hear you say!) I don't want to mess things up...

Have a good week,

SB

[jaykay640]

Gosh, here we go! Now it really comes alive!

[ScratchBuilt]

Yep, here we go! It's daft - now I'm actually starting to assemble a few of the parts, there's still a voice in my head saying 'woah - don't rush it!'

So, what's new tonight? The big news is that I finally attached the front and rear fibreglass sill panels:



I re-primered the front wheel-arch panels, then sprayed everything with a basecoat of Tamiya Flat Black, then Semi-gloss Black. Very pleased with the result - glossy enough to look 'alive', but not unrealistically so. The outer sections of the sills will be painted white eventually, so this will all need re-masking, etc, later on. Since taking this photo I've also fitted the small inner sill panels - you'll see these next time.

Although these panels were designed to be removed and re-fitted in one position (using small studs to locate them each time), I still wanted to be sure the roof would still attach properly:





Yes, it does! There's still enough flex in the front wheel-arch panels that they will twist to match the line of the 'bolt-in' X-frame, and to mate up with the base of the windscreen surround.

I've also glued in the styrene box-section sill reinforcements each side - the small ali dowels have been pushed through the floor to make sure everything is aligned properly, but they're not bolted-through ...yet.

In a rush of activity(!) I added the left-hand water pipe which disappears into the front wheel-arch panel:



This is pinned in place at each end, and had to be fitted before any of the panelling is added around the front of the chassis frame.

In addition to the painted parts you can see in these photos, there's a few other bits that are in progress right now. Most are being airbrushed, but there's still plenty of opportunities for me to get the regular brushes out! Here's the pedal assembly underway:



Still needs all the little bits of detailing added - return springs, clevis', etc - plus some colour variation, but it's looking okay so far. I used the Sandy Paste again to get some anti-slip texture on the pedal pads.

So, that's it for tonight. Not a massive update, but fitting the sill panels is a big step for me in the assembly process. I can now start adding all the other interior panelling and plenty of detailing, before I add the front firewall and main roll-cage section. It won't be long now before I can think about working on the doors, too...

SB

[88Porsche944]

Absolutely incredible work!!! I'm at a loss for words....

[chris24]

Now I'm sure : you come from Mars. And of course you like Bowie, Ronson, Visconti...

[heyes57]

SB. Once again a wonderful post full of hints and techniques that I know I'll use in my model making and I'm sure that goes for everyone who so enjoys your work.
Regards RH

[ianc911]

Oh my lord, the paint is coming out in earnest now; you'll be done in a couple weeks!

ianc

[MarcoSaupe]

Just awesome!

[ScratchBuilt]

Done in a couple of weeks, Ian? It's taken me three nights to get eight photos uploaded to Photobucket! I don't know what's going on there, but it's been a real pain getting these sorted out...

So, hello again, and here's another update for you.

Most of the work in the last couple of weeks has been painting, with occasional outbreaks of gluing. The short-term plan is still to get everything ready for fitting the front bulkhead and firewall, but only being able to airbrush at the weekends has required a change of focus.

First up, here's the side radiators and small gearbox oil cooler, and the main oil and water rads from the front. These have been hand-painted over an aerosol grey primer base, working up through various greys and pale browns, with a couple of silvers thrown in to get a little metallic shine in places. The gearbox cooler is basic black, with a light drybrush to pick up some highlights.





Next, I added the small steering damper coupling to the lower column. Not sure if I've already posted the painted rack, but here it is anyway:



The two fire extinguisher bottles were airbushed with Tamiya orange over a grey primer, then a couple of coats of red. The firing heads, etc, will be painted soon.



My latest headache is how I'm going to get a good finish on the main fueltank in the nose of the car. Most of the fibreglass I've painted so far has been to represent steelwork, now I'm trying to paint styrene to represent fibreglass! The original tank is covered in the stuff, and should be a yellowy-brown colour with the fibreglass texture / weave showing. So far I've given it a coat of grey primer, and a single coat of one of the Tamiya sandy yellows as a starting point - but it's a question of how I work up to the desired colour. The 'sandy paste' used on the intercoolers is no good - completely wrong texture - and I'm not sure that attacking the fuel tank with micro balloons will help, either. I've thought about spraying further colours using a piece of aluminium mesh as a mask to create a 'weave' effect, but I think this will require experimentation first...



Also in the front of the chassis, here's a better view of the painted radiator exit duct, and the two small panels which close off either side of the steering rack. As usual, nothing's fixed in place yet - just a trial run:



Meanwhile, towards the back of the car I've added a couple of small closing panels to the ends of the main sill structures. As they'll be buried behind the side rads anyway, they're simply black styrene sheet, unpainted. The sills (and therefore also the main chassis frame) have now been bolted through the floor, and the nuts glued and locked in place inside the sills. An oil pipe exits from the sill on each side - these will be fixed in place later, with pipe-clip detailing, etc.



As usual, there's a few other things I've painted which I've forgotten to take photos of - I'll try to remember to add these in next time.

Sorry it's a bit 'all over the place'. I've got some time-off planned for the end of November, so I've now got a target to aim for: that will probably be when the front bulkhead, etc, comes together. It'll also be an opportunity to work on some of the remaining parts that will be easier to do when I've got more than a regular weekend or evenings - seatbelts, wiring, wheels and tyres, etc.

See you next time.

SB