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Ford GT40 Le Mans 1968 & 1969 (07696) 1:24 Carrera Revell Ford began taking an interest in endurance racing in the 60s after a falling-out with Enzo Ferrari during a potential take-over by Ford, and to improve their brand name awareness, which started in the UK in Slough with a Lola chassis, lacking in success initially. It was taken back in-house so to speak and carried on in the USA, using the genius behind the Lola GT6 that had shown promise, despite it failing to finish the race. They created the GT40, with the 40 stemming from the minimum height in inches at the time, using some of the Lola’s chassis and a Mustang engine in the Mk.I, which was far too rough and not at all ready for racing at that point. This led to another change in personnel, putting the famous and rebellious Carrol Shelby in charge, who with input from driver/mechanic Ken Miles undertook a series of significant modifications that gave it a great deal of power and success. The Mk.II was fitted with a larger 7.0L V8 engine that turned it into a beast that was mated with a four-speed gearbox, to be used by three racing teams to stunning effect. Those teams took 1,2,3 at Le Mans in 1966, leaving the previously successful Ferraris in their dust, which they continued to do for the next two years. As is usual with racing, improvements were made to the bodyshell, the carbs and other parts, although they were not without their problems. A technical failure took out every GT40 at Daytona in 1967, causing a brief return to prominence of the Ferraris, but they were back to their winning ways again for a total of three years, taking them through to 1969 which is a long time in racing. Its successor began life as the J-Car, but after killing driver Ken Miles in a testing accident due to materials deficiencies and aerodynamic issues, it was redeveloped as the Mk.IV, but was often left in the garage at race-time while the Mk.II was still winning, as the older car was a more reliable platform. By 1968 the Mk.II wasn't as competitive, and the Mk.IV was fielded, but success was elusive. An attempt was made to continue the name with the Mk.V but this was more of a sports car than a racing car. A few kit cars carried on the look over the years, but in 2002 a new model was released by Ford as a sports car using just the GT name in deference to the original, but its release was negatively affected by Jeremy Clarkson’s unfortunate experience of persistent unreliability of his example that he bought with his own money. 2015 saw a second generation launched as a street car, with an endurance racing team beginning in 2016 and carrying on until 2019 with a healthy number of victories. The Kit This is a reboxing of Revell’s original tooling from the end of the 80s, and time has been very kind to the moulds, which look pretty modern in terms of detail as well as quality of the pressing if I’m honest. It’s a good-looking car, and a good-looking model should result, with adequate detail to please most modellers. The kit arrives in one of Revell’s much-loved end-opening boxes with a fetching digital painting of the real thing on the front wearing its Gulf livery and moving fast. Inside are four sprues in cream styrene, two bodyshell parts in pure white, a large clear sprue, a linked pair of sprues containing chromed wheels, knock-off wheel nuts, eight translucent poly-caps, a single metal axle, and four flexible black tyres in two sizes. The decal sheet is relatively large, and the instruction booklet is printed in colour, with colour profiles covering the back pages to assist you with decaling. Construction begins with the floor pan, which has two rectangular parts removed from the rear, an intake added to the front, and the beginning of the front axle laid in the floor, to be partly covered by the interior later. The two front seats are moulded as one part, with a pair of decals supplied to create the distinctive brass eyelets that are present in each one to help cool the driver’s butt down a little. More decals are supplied for the seatbelts, although they may benefit from being applied first to a thin sheet of styrene or plastic to give them additional depth. The interior shell is painted before you progress further, with a detailed diagram showing the correct colours, then the seats, a red fire extinguisher in the front footwell and the rear bulkhead with rear-view window are added to the rear in front of the back wheel arches. The driver’s weird four-pedal box is inserted into the right footwell, and more of the front axle ironwork is glued into the front within a box-section cover moulded over it. The dashboard has a detailed painting and decaling guide, with plenty of decals included to give it the detail it deserves, then the steering wheel and column are installed to finish off the assembly, with another decal for the centre boss. The floor pan, interior and dash are all then joined and have the front dampers fitted between the two suspension arms, with another detailed painting guide to assist you. Door pockets are clipped into place on the sides of the assembly, then the chassis is put to one side. The four hubs are pre-chromed for your ease, although some folks prefer to strip it and do it again themselves, but these look pretty good, and the centres are painted in Gulf Orange before they have their knock-offs added, and the flexible black tyre is slipped over from the outside without glue. This is done four times, making up two pairs, two narrow for the front, and two wide for the rear. The brake discs are again painted with correct detail, and with the addition of two poly-caps and a short axle-pin within that secures the wheels to the brake assembly. This is done for both the front wheels, while the rear axle is handled differently. The two front wheels are offered up to their axle location points and secured in place by the steering arm, which is again shown with detail painting instructions. The full engine is not included in the kit, but a representation is provided that will be seen inside the car later, which is again detail-painted to give it the correct look. The first part represents the rear of the engine, and some small holes are to be filled here, with additional suspension and casting parts added, then braced with suspension arms and the rear brake discs, which are again detail painted. The metal axle is slipped through the assembly, and the rear wheels are mated to it using more of the poly-caps, after which it is installed in the rear of the vehicle with two bracing parts and a new rear floor pan section. Two radiator baths of differing sizes are fixed into the new section, and the forward section of the bay is overlaid with a shaped cover with upstands that hint at the engine beneath, with a frame laid over the detailed section. Preparation of the bodyshell begins with the forward section, which has the bonnet glued in, the light and indicator recesses painted up for later, and the filler cap added to the left wing, which is then promptly filled over for this variant. Turning the shell over, three holes in the roof can be opened up for the 1969 vehicle only, then the light clusters are populated with lenses and the clear covers, with repeaters on the sides of the wings, and another filler cap on the right wing that escapes the filler this time because it should be there. The windscreen with rear-view mirror and the side windows with their little cut-outs are all installed at this stage, along with a small bump on the left door, low down near the rear. The back of the bodyshell is completed by the addition of the rear bulkhead and lights, repeaters on the wing, another bump on the rear wing, plus the back windscreen with optional black surround decal that has silver rivets on it. The front bodyshell is mated to the chassis first, then the rear section is put on, taking care to thread the exhausts through the holes, and make a choice of a fine grille or a larger 9-hole “egg-box” grille over the engine. Markings There are two options from the decal sheet, 1968 or 1969 as you’d expect. On the surface they both look very similar apart from their racing number, but there are subtle differences between the two, so take care when applying them. From the box you can build one of the following: Ford GT40 Winner 24-Hours of Le Mans, 1968 (Pedro Rodriguiez, Lucien Bianchi) Ford GT40 Winner 24-Hours of Le Mans, 1969 (Jacklie Ickx, Jackie Oliver) Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The inclusion of gold-coloured eyelets for the seats also permits them to print decals of the gold Firestone logos and pin-stripes around the tyre rims. There are also silver decals for some interior panels, the drivers’ pedals, and the furniture on the seatbelts. The addition of the black ‘mascara’ around the light clusters and the orange centre-line stripe in pre-cut sections also simplifies painting substantially Conclusion While this isn’t a new tooling of the GT40, it’s a good one that offers detail where it will be seen, and finesse in the bodyshell, interior, all finished off with excellent clear parts. Highly recommended. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

This is my modification to a large scale die cast model of the Gulf Porsche 917, I did a WIP thread here Basically I started with a CMR (nee Minichamps) ready made model of the famous #20 car from 1970 Le Mans but wanted to add some extra detail. This is what I started with, And after stripping down, some scratch building and detailing I finished with this, It's not perfect, the weathering is a bit clumsy (no airbrush) but is inspired by both the movie images and pictures of the "real" car at Le Mans and is placing the car at late afternoon/early evening of the race after the first downpour and before the headlamp protectors come off. Anyway it's my homage to one of the most iconic race cars from, for me, the best era in endurance racing. Dave

Hi everyone, I introduced myself few days ago as a newbie. This is my seventh build in total. This is a Aoshima kit with Studio27 carbon fiber decal set and hobby design detail up kit. I always liked this car and this livery, which is painted with zero paints gulf Color set and 2k diamond gloss finish. Thanks all

Morning all! I've always rather liked the Gulf War Tornado ZA465- otherwise known as Foxy Killer and so it would have been absurd if I was to pass up the opportunity to model this fabulous example of British aviation. Kit: Revell 1:72 Tornado Gr.1 (From my LMS- Mike's Models) Extras: Print Scale- Tornado Gr.1 Gulf War nose art (From Hannants) -Scratchbuilt RBF tags made from paper and FOD covers made from tissue paper. Paints Used: Vallejo: Black, White, Medium Olive, Barley Grey, Red. The "Desert Pink" colour was created from a variety of Vallejo paints mixed together. AK Interactive Dust Wash used for weathering the wheels *Note: I can't guarantee that this model is entirely accurate: Thanks for having a look! Kind regards, Sam

So, as my C9 is coming close to being finished I've started to also build a Gulf Ford GT40 MK11 which, for me, is a lesson in how to try and paint a car properly. Model number 3 for me this one. The GT40 is also one of my all time favourite cars. I actually saw an original Gulf Mk1 on the back of a transport when I was boarding a cross channel ferry the other year ( on its way to the Le Mans Classic ) and spoke to the owner for a while. Absolutely beautiful car. I just wanted to drive the thing off into the sunset. Slight pangs of jealousy as I trundled off in the old Toyota. Anyway, as some of you may know I was having airbrushing issue and sacked my £20 starter airbrush ( the splatter monster ) and invested in something decent. So this is basically my first outing with a new AB and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. I also learned the art of keeping the damn car covered up as it's drying. In fact just keeping it covered most of the time. Anyway here she is. FTR there won't be any scratch-building or engine detailing with this Fujimi model as it basically doesn't have an engine to detail. I thought about an after market resin engine but I'm not up for that quite yet. Primer stage ( Zero Paints grey Primer ) Colouring stage ( colour matched Zero Paints Gulf Blue ) To be honest I think this blue is a little dark considering it's supposed to be colour matched. I guess the Mark 1 and the Porsche 917K are slightly darker ( the GT Heritage definitely is ) but the MK11 is a lot lighter to my eyes. On the fence about this really. Still though she looks nice. And what a difference this AB is making, the paint just goes on lovely. And under cover after a light coat of 2K before applying the decals. After first 2K coat And this afternoon I've been applying the decals. Kitchen lights and dodgy camera phone making it look a little shiny here, the car isn't that reflective in reality. And that's where I'm at, about a million times happier than I was with my C9 finish. The other major step for me is learning how to accurately mask the window so I can paint the black surrounding lines. My hand is just not steady enough to paint them freehand and I bought a template for the C9 so this is something I'm going to have to work out. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be most grateful? Thanks for looking in

Ok so I just picked out my Kitty Hawk Jag as my next project and am still marveling at how they squeeze that kit in to such a small box! I think I am going to do the Gul machine "Sadman" (XZ364) and wanted to get some advice on the desert colour and shading. First the colour - I have used Humbrol 250 in the past but not sure how accurate this is? Are there better alternatives to this?? Also as regards the shading what would i best use under that colour to 'weather' it effectively? Thanks Chris