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After getting the go-ahead (thanks guys!) I'll be knocking together the Slot.It 1/32 kit of the Porsche 962c as a fully-functional slot car.

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Slot.It has been bringing out its cracking range of Group C cars for the thick end of a decade now. Having started out selling high-end upgrade parts, they started out as a manufacturer with the Porsche 956 in low-drag Le Mans spec and progressed through the Porsche 956/962 family to make gorgeous models of the most of the iconic cars of the era: Sauber-Mercedes C9, the Jaguar XJR-6 family, Toyota 88c, Mazda 787 and Lancia LC2.

Although its focus is on delivering a satisfying slot car to committed club racers, Slot.It stands pretty much alone in being able to do so without compromising the quality of its modelling. Most Scalextric models stand comparison with the best diecasts in the market these days, but they are hopeless on the track. Conversely the specialist competition manufacturers build cars that tend to be 1/28 in width and 1/30 in length and about 1/36 in height, making some serious racing weaponry but nasty little things to look at.

Slot.It manages to avoid any overt compromise in looks or performance, although by sticking to 15mm rear wheels as standard it does lose scale accuracy on most of the later cars. New 16.5mm rear wheels redress this significantly and these are what I shall be fitting on this particular build.

I'm going to build it as the 1990 #7 car driven by Derek Bell, Hans Stuck and Frank Jelinski as it represents the end of a great era for Porsche and has two of my heroes, Bell and Stuck, in the same car. It's a lovely version of the Blaupunkt colours with additional Porsche branding, the decals for which I've got from Patto's Place in Australia.

By 1990 a lot of privateer Porsche teams were experimenting with different aerodynamic packages and carbon fibre tubs to try and keep pace with the arrival of Jaguar, Sauber-Mercedes, Toyota and Nissan. The car I'm modelling, however, retained the same basic look that had done Porsche so well at the Sarthe since the team's first 1-2-3 finish in 1982.

The 1990 edition at Le Mans was intended to be the 962's last hurrah, with Porsche giving works status to the Joest squad. Famously Joest had managed to win the event in 1984-85 with its celebrated 'NewMan' liveried 956 chassis number 117 - one of the few chassis to take two wins on the event, and in 1985 it did so against the best efforts of Porsche's own squad of 962s.

A team of four cars was entered of which three were brand new cars and two were built to a new specification for lighter weight. One of these was shunted by Jonathan Palmer in practice and took no further part. The two 'traditional' 962s trundled round to finish 8th and 14th. Predictably with the calibre of old hands at the wheel, the #7 car was the strongest Joest finisher in fourth place, some nine laps behind the winning Jaguar of Price Cobb, John Nielsen and Martin Brundle... although the all-British 962 of David Leslie, David Sears and Anthony Reid pipped the 'works' entry to the podium and finished as the best of the Porsches.

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I'm looking forward to this one, makes a change from my usual GB entries!

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I flirted very briefly with slot cars: bought a Renault Alpine but my mate moved and had to put his track in storage. The Slot It cars looked appealing for those of us coming to slot cars from a modelling background.

Looking forward to seeing this classic shape go together.

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There are some lovely Alpines out there Peter - was it the SCX one you had or something a little 'hotter'?

I loved the Group C era, so have been a sucker for Slot.It from the outset. I've probably owned everything that they've released at one time or another but never all at once! The thing is that there are so many liveries to choose from you never run short of pretty things to be playing with! I'll post a few pics of the current fleet if anyone's interested.

I was about 10 when Group C really got going and at university when it was killed off, and most seasons would bring two chances to see them in action at Silverstone and Brands Hatch rather than one Grand Prix. My parents and a load of friends hired a bus and did Le Mans together too, so I always associate it with good stuff going on, and there's something about the endeavour involved in endurance racing which, like rallying, appeals much more than a 90-minute Grand Prix.

In the past 18 months the complete kits like this have been culled from the Slot.It range and are becoming increasingly rare. What used to cost around £35 in a single, convenient box now costs almost £100 if you have to buy all the parts individually.

Scratchbuilding, kitbashing and repainting are very much mainstays of the slotting scene though. There are some great 'open' meets across the country for pretty well every discipline of the hobby from BRiSCA stock cars on a scale half-mile oval to full-on rallies and 24 hour team races. Also a whole cottage industry of resin shell builders out there... Scratchbuilder on this forum being responsible for most of them!

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Oooohh... 90 minutes to go!

I'm a bit torn, chaps and chappesses. I fancy doing this one 'weathered' but it's such a nice, clean livery it almost feels sacrilegious.

Can I hear any votes for minty fresh or doity, please???

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Easy choice, do it dirty as in the middle of the race or just finished.

A nice and clean livery just makes the weahtered look even better. Few things are as beatiful and has as much story to tell as a dirty and even repaired Le Mans car just after finishing the hard race.

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It's promising rain soon so I'm going to try and get all my paint on ra-ra-rapido! Here's the primer... Humbrol, for the use of. Goes on a treat.

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And a vote in favour of the dirty finish! Thanks Joergen!

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While the primer cured on the body I had a little fiddle with the chassis. Dunlop tyres off and Michelins on. Swapped out the BBS wheels from the original kit with a set of 6-spoke carbon jobbies from the Sauber.

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Time for more paint...

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I've been holding off painting very much over the winter, as rattlecans are easily put off their game by a fluctuating thermometer. Perhaps using Halfords paint on my Mosquito GB entry spoilt me a bit too, as a big can of auto paint doesn't take many prisoners compared to a little hobby aerosol.

In short: paint has been a trial.

I used Tamiya gloss white first, but this was hopeless. No adhesion at all even on my lovely even primer. It sort of slid down and pooled wherever it could...

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Then it snowed...

While the flurries blew around my ears I sanded off the worst of the mush and prepared for a quick blow-over with Humbrol gloss white. I had a window of about five minutes with no precipitation or ice and gave it a shot... much better. In fact passable. Still some flaws but these would largely be covered by the decals. So I let it cure overnight and spent Sunday masking and painting the red-orange sections.

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And then out came the decal sheet. Patto's decals are made with flexi-ink which is quite thick and you need to trim the film very closely.

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But they seemed to be OK for size. I just cut one block off the middle and rear sections of the top deck stripes to get them to fit...

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After a lot of stretching of the decals and fussing about to get them straight I left them overnight, then ladled on the Decal Soft. The blocks that I had previously removed were recycled on the vents in the engine cover to make sure that the design looked continuous...

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That's a splash of softener on the rear wheelarch, not a paint run... I promise! :winkgrin:

Of course after that I realised that my labours on getting the individual blocks of blue seated on the louvres was a waste of time. That's what comes of referring to a diecast model! The 1:1 car had Shell logos on there rather than continuing the body stripes, so a little bit more stripping needs to be done now before I can go on.

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I've been holding off painting very much over the winter, as rattlecans are easily put off their game by a fluctuating thermometer. Perhaps using Halfords paint on my Mosquito GB entry spoilt me a bit too, as a big can of auto paint doesn't take many prisoners compared to a little hobby aerosol.

In short: paint has been a trial.

I used Tamiya gloss white first, but this was hopeless. No adhesion at all even on my lovely even primer. It sort of slid down and pooled wherever it could...

CIMG0117_zpsebaff9f5.jpg

Hi

Why are you using a grey primer under white paint? Always use the lightest (white!) primer available under light colours as white, yellow and red as these colours don't cover very well if at all. Tamiya has a great white primer and with TS-26 on top it works great.

Flemming

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Hi Flemming, I find that a darker shade can give a bit of depth without the need for preshading. If it's done at all on slot cars, quite often it's 'post-shading' or putting thick black lines along the seams... I'm not a fan of that. I think the result is OK.

Warren... white paint is never fun in my experience!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's where we stand at present, with the GB entry alongside a suitable running mate that I've been working on in the meantime. The Rothmans car is the winning 956 high tail from the 1983 Silverstone 1000km.

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I've got to take a break from everything for four weeks, as I've been called on for a little bit of work overseas. Once I'm back there will be a few weeks to tidy her up, get the revised running gear in and get to the finish line.

In the meantime I shall happily carry on watching the rest of the builds!

Have fun...

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks Waren - I'm back now and looking forward to finishing the old girl off now. Next up: driver figure.

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  • 1 month later...
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