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Rothmans Porsche 956 in the pits ( adapted from the Tamiya 1/24 kit )


Borez

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OK, so I decided for my next project to have a go at the legendary 956. Namely though the Jacky Ickx/Derek Bell Rothmans sponsored No 1 car.

This one:

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I used to live near the Rothmans Factory in Spennymoor, Co. Durham as a kid and a couple of times in the 1980's they brought these cars down to the factory ( with the Bikes ) for their open days. They'd close off a bit of the industrial road and run the cars and bikes up and down showing them off. Of course as a youth I was totally in awe of these machines, the noise, the raw power, the smell. I can still hear and feel it like it was yesterday. I even had my own race tuned NS125 in the Rothmans livery which I'd ride around the town in my Rothmans racing jacket thinking I was king. I also raced ( not that successfully I will add ) the bike in a couple of amateur races so it's definitely going to be fun building one of the Porsches.

Now I know this has been done in threads before here, but I'm not going for a standard build, I'm going for this:

hYtk4SQ.png

Basically the bodywork off, up on jacks, pit in version of the car.

Thing is though the Tamiya kit is very basic so I'm going to have to scratch build a ton of it ( especially the front end frame work which basically doesn't exist in the kit )

I know that this super detail kit exists that was a collaboration between Scale Motorsport and Tamiya ( a more in depth look at the kit here ) and I've managed to track down one ( for a price ) if I want it but I just thought: you know what, where's the fun in that? So I've decided to see if I can scratch-build all the parts I need myself.

So I started to do so a month or so ago armed with zero knowledge of working with styrene :banghead:

In at the deep end again.

I however have the small photo etch parts kit that is commonly available to add some detail.

So armed with some styrene profiles and sheets, the Rothmans decals and the Tamiya Porche 956 Canon kit here's where I'm at:

The kit:

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All pretty basic stuff really.

First job was to lop off the front and doors from the main moulding:

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All good.

Then these awful looking moulded into the bodywork exhaust manifolds came off. I'll be replacing them with 1mm solder.

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Out came the Dremel for some hacking. Then some filler and sanding:

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Then I turned my attention to the front end frame and bulkhead build:

First some paper cutting templates

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Cut out in styrene and test fitted

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Then I cut the holes and formed some rivets by pressing on the reverse with my scribe

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Then made a rough bulk head piece

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And primed and painted up with some alclad airframe aluminium

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Added the tiny brake, clutch and water reservoirs to the bulkhead using various bits of styrene and a cut up plastic milk carton for the bottle caps ( needs a bit of cleaning up ) also need to add clear tubing and wiring to complete the piece:

j2GlheM.jpg

Made the front end brake duct inlet frame from styrene. Bit of a headache this one, took ages to get right at this scale and I hummed and harred for hours over an actually design from the original walk-around pictures which don't show enough detail. Plus how it was going to actually fit onto the car, again the walk-around pic revealed no secrets here.

I bought some clip on magnifying lenses for my glasses which are really helping with work at this scale. Ms Borez says that I look like a mad professor. :pipe:

I made and scrapped three others before I finally arrived at this design:

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Added the aluminium top frame and painted it up. I'll be adding some styrene hex bolts to the top for detail and obviously the brake ducting.

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The original piece on the car:

BZOqSVB.png

Next up is priming and painting the car undertray and to start work on the actually frame which shouldn't really give me any issues as I have aluminium tubing of this size left over from the C9 build. The front hook is one of the photo etch parts I have too.

This bit:

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Then I'll start fitting all of these pieces together before concentrating on the rest of the front end i.e. suspension and brakes.

And that's where I'm at right now. Pretty pleased with my bits so far, all going to plan.

Thanks for looking :)

Edited by Borez
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:popcorn:

What decals do you have? Do you know Studio 27 do (did?) a 'correct' sheet with the gold actually printed as metallic gold? ( I put correct in quotes as I haven't actually checked the sheet against pics of the actual car)

Keith

PS - cracking start so far!

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Nice to see an 'incomplete car' being tackled.

I'm currently scratching a 'workshop' C Type Jaguar which will be similar. There's a thread here somewhere although I haven't done much to it lately.

I'll be watching here to borrow a few ideas.

Great stuff.

Roy.

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:popcorn:

What decals do you have? Do you know Studio 27 do (did?) a 'correct' sheet with the gold actually printed as metallic gold? ( I put correct in quotes as I haven't actually checked the sheet against pics of the actual car)

Keith

PS - cracking start so far!

Oh now that is interesting. I have these decals, they seem like a decent set.

Edit: formatting.

Edited by Borez
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Nice to see an 'incomplete car' being tackled.

I'm currently scratching a 'workshop' C Type Jaguar which will be similar. There's a thread here somewhere although I haven't done much to it lately.

I'll be watching here to borrow a few ideas.

Great stuff.

Roy.

Do you have a link to your thread Roy?

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OK, so I'm waiting for some clear tubing, disc brakes, electrical wire and odds and sods before I get on with the front end of the car so I decided to tackle the tub whilst I'm waiting.

The undertray of the car is now painted too.

This is a job I've had planned out in my head for a good while now and it required some hacking with a dremel cutter ( bought some extra fine cutting disks ) and then some styrene work to fix said hacking.

Been a bit anxious over this to be honest as it could have gone horribly pair shaped.

This is basically what the Tamiya kit gives you:

s0xeixp.jpg

But I decided I didn't want that passenger seat. I mean, it's a race car not a taxi and I want the Motronic, fire extinguisher and electronics detail to be visible so...

Out it came:

HMjSer8.jpg

Wasn't too bothered if it was messy as I knew I was going to have to rebuild the shell back up with styrene anyway. It was more a case of where I was going to cut to get the seat out without the whole shebang falling apart.

Then rebuilt the shell with styrene

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And the finished tub shell with the racing seat for a test fit.

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I think once it's all sprayed up with some Alclad and the detail are added this is going to look rather nice. I have photo etch parts for the central beam, sills and cooler intake covers.

And no taxi seat.

Job done for now really. I can breath a sigh of relief :)

Thanks for looking.

Edited by Borez
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The reason for the passenger seat is that group C cars were by definition 2 seat sports cars. The rules stated they had to have provision for 2 occupants, whether or not a passenger would ever be carried lol

Ashley

I was joking about it being a taxi Ashley, I do know about the two seat Group C rule. I just want to see more detail really ;)

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I never really understood the rule myself. I mean Group C was designed from the start with prototype racing in mind, so why they insisted on them being 2 seaters is beyond me haha.

Tbf that's about the only rule I do know about Group C. I could bore a nun with Group B rules though haha.

Ashley

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The two seater rule harks back to the early days of sportscar racing. I know it was apparently still in place in the Group C days, but I don't know if the cars actually did carry the second seat. I only saw one actual Grp C race & didn't have a paddock pass so couldn't see inside the cars! However, all the restored cars I've seen in historic racing don't seem to have them fitted?

Whatever, good cut & shut work there Borez!

Keith

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Some progress on the build

A bit of priming for the engine parts:

k8X4cTi.jpg

Undertray is now fully painted:

MmnrUcN.jpg

Masking tape left some gunk marks on the underside though. I may return to it for another coat of Alclad at some point if I can't get it off. It's not bad ( kinda like scuff marks ) but you can see it.

Anyone have any ideas how I can get it off without ruining the paint?

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Test fit of the bulkhead

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With the front frame ( all fits together nicely so far )

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Clutch, brake and accelerator

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And some test fitting of the engine heat shield ( courtesy of Bertolli olive oil spread; tasty and practical! )

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Tub is already primed and ready to be sprayed in Alclad polished aluminium.

And that's it for now, waiting on some electrical wire, 0.18 and 0.45 braided line and hex bolts from the US and some 0.4mm clear tubing so I can start work on detailing the front assembly + the Zero paint arrived for the bodywork the other day ( brilliant white and Rothmans dark blue ) so I can make a start on that too.

Just taking my time with this build and enjoying it really. :)

Thanks for looking.

Edited by Borez
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Nice work, I like the Bertolli heat shield! I have some carefully hoarded foil from inside cigarette packets from a smoker I knew when I was still at work - it's carefully hoarded as smokers seem to be a dying breed (sorry, bad taste!) & I don't know any any more - but that foil was also perfect for the job!

With the masking tape gunk, could you try gentle rubbing with a cotton bud dipped in T-cut or similar? Only thing is it might leave an unwanted shine to the paint? I would suggest a cotton bud dipped in IPA, the Alclad should be resilient to it as it's laquer based, but there's no guarantee of that...maybe spray a test piece & see? (but I guess if you're going to get the airbrush dirty for that you may as well respray the affected area!)

keith

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Nice work, I like the Bertolli heat shield! I have some carefully hoarded foil from inside cigarette packets from a smoker I knew when I was still at work - it's carefully hoarded as smokers seem to be a dying breed (sorry, bad taste!) & I don't know any any more - but that foil was also perfect for the job!

With the masking tape gunk, could you try gentle rubbing with a cotton bud dipped in T-cut or similar? Only thing is it might leave an unwanted shine to the paint? I would suggest a cotton bud dipped in IPA, the Alclad should be resilient to it as it's laquer based, but there's no guarantee of that...maybe spray a test piece & see? (but I guess if you're going to get the airbrush dirty for that you may as well respray the affected area!)

keith

Thanks Keith, I'll give that a go on a test piece I already have and see.

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lookin good mate! Have you got a picture of the underside where the paint has been affected? As for IPA it does affect lacquers but only after a fair bit of exposure, if you use it to wipe away stuff then it shouldnt affect the lacquer paint

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lookin good mate! Have you got a picture of the underside where the paint has been affected? As for IPA it does affect lacquers but only after a fair bit of exposure, if you use it to wipe away stuff then it shouldnt affect the lacquer paint

It's basically all over the Alclad, you can see it here. I think I'll just give it another coat at some point, it'll be far easier than trying to rub it off. Interestingly it's only on the underside and not the top.

oCJMdPP.jpg

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