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Tamiya 1/12 Porsche 935 Turbo build


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Hi there. I wanted to share my build of this well known and rather fabulous kit. It's been with me since about 2004 and has moved home twice. I bought it on fleabay from someone in Hong Kong for about £100 - a decent chunk of cash at the time. I had got back into model making, but was concentrating on 1/35 Tamiya kits, so this was a departure. I'd also recently bought the re-release of Tamiya's 1/12 Datsun 240(Z)Safari, a kit I had previously but as a 13 year old many years previously. That model never made it to my first house after leaving home as my dad decided to have a massive clear out. All of my carefully preserved kits I had built as a kid were disposed of.

 

Anyway, the Porsche has been tormenting and tempting me for years and for a while I held off building it just incase I could manage to get my hands on one of the 500 Scale Motorsports super detail kits. The most recent one I saw was at auction for £750 and climbing, so eventually I gave up. I then considered selling the kit (it was completely untouched) as they cropped up on Flea Bay for in excess of £300.

 

After completing my most recent kit - a Tamiya 1/12 Renault F1 car (more of that elsewhere I hope) I decided that the Porsche's time had come and decided that I bought it to build (eventually), not sell.

 

So here goes. I bought some additional cables, wiring and other parts from Hiroboy and some rattle cans of white paint. Although I'm an avid airbrusher I've struggled with gloss white in the past, and this kit is big, so aerosols it was. I bought Tamiya's PS/1 and set to work, but couldn't figure out why the results were poor until I realised it was the wrong paint! Back to the net to order a few cans of TS/26 gloss white and I was away.

 

First job was to spray the body shell, bonnet, doors, wings and rear bumper. The TS/1 came into use for the chassis sections which wouldn't have been gloss white anyway, and for the inside surfaces of the other parts. The parts have had about 3 coats and have turned out rather nice in the main. I'll be applying polish later.

 

My first photos are attached and just cover these initial paint applications. Nothing else has been done yet. If anyone has any hints or tips for this build feel free to share. I hope to add a progress report each week or so, maybe more regularly depending on other things. Hope you like it!

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Martin1962
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These kits have always been pricey and of course rarity makes them pricey again. Tamiya did do a limited re-release of this kit with some photo etched parts but mine is an older one. Having said that, for the era the mouldings are good. Have a look at my Renault RE20 thread for more of the same.....

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I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together, They don't seem to get built now very often, I guess that is down to their cost and rarity. I have three of these kits in my "stash" which I have collected over the years. I do intend to build at least two of them though.

Good examples that are mint in box can attract very high prices.

If your decals are showing their age Wim at best balsa kits has a very nice replacement set, they are a little pricey but well worth the money in my eyes.

 

Keep up the good work. 

 

Keith.

 

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Here's my version, original run, completed in 1989. The days before PE was in use. I like race cars to be in as-raced condition, especially one that ran a six hour endurance race. So a low gloss finish with tire dirt, bug spatters and chips gets very close to tracked-used look.

I've found that test fitting and refining joints is preferable to shooting paint right out of box. Although Tamiyas are very good fit wise, this avoids nasty surprises. Also avoids handling finished paint during final assembly.

PA080.jpg

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That's a very nice looking 935 Codger. I'm looking forward to mine and have decided to build it in an 'as new' condition as far as possible. There was a lengthy blog about one a few years ago and it was mind-blowing.

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does anyone know what setting i need to change on my PC so i can view Codgers photos? I've lost the ability to view certain file types since the last forum upgrade.

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1 minute ago, spoly said:

does anyone know what setting i need to change on my PC so i can view Codgers photos? I've lost the ability to view certain file types since the last forum upgrade.

If you mean this one, I use PostImage.org if that's any help. If you mean the Pocher RR build and RFI, only the last few of the build and the whole RFI are visible as the entire build was wiped out by Photobucket...

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2 hours ago, Codger said:

If you mean this one, I use PostImage.org if that's any help. If you mean the Pocher RR build and RFI, only the last few of the build and the whole RFI are visible as the entire build was wiped out by Photobucket...

i mean recent images. and it's not just yours that i cannot view at the moment.

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On 02/07/2019 at 16:24, Codger said:

Here's my version, original run, completed in 1989. The days before PE was in use. I like race cars to be in as-raced condition, especially one that ran a six hour endurance race. So a low gloss finish with tire dirt, bug spatters and chips gets very close to tracked-used look.

I've found that test fitting and refining joints is preferable to shooting paint right out of box. Although Tamiyas are very good fit wise, this avoids nasty surprises. Also avoids handling finished paint during final assembly.

 

Have you got any pics of the interior?

Edited by Martin1962
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3 minutes ago, Martin1962 said:

Have you got any pics of the interior?

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Fire plumbing, zip ties and scuffs and nicks - race car usage.

Built three decades ago. I've improved a bit since then....

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very nice indeed. Do you remember the shade of white by any chance or has it faded over the years? Tamiya's instructions back then only referred to 'white' or 'black' etc, not paint codes, and of course back then it was pretty much all enamel I think.

 

I like the dashboard fuse box and that's something I want to replicate. I wish I could find a link to the one on the net I saw which was also inspirational.

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38 minutes ago, Martin1962 said:

very nice indeed. Do you remember the shade of white by any chance or has it faded over the years? Tamiya's instructions back then only referred to 'white' or 'black' etc, not paint codes, and of course back then it was pretty much all enamel I think.

 

I like the dashboard fuse box and that's something I want to replicate. I wish I could find a link to the one on the net I saw which was also inspirational.

The white used was Pactra enamel - a brand which is now exclusively used inside R/C clear bodies. There are much better choices from the major makers. I like Tamiya's racing white lacquer which is just off bright white and more accurate to my eye. Wimbledon White, used on my Cobra, is also an authentic vintage color - again, I'd avoid bright modern whites. And yes my 935 has yellowed a bit despite being in a glass case but I like that it adds to the vintage feel of the model. Even when new, old racers did not have concours paint jobs....

The fuse wiring is easy to do - just pick fine wires from telephone wiring to stay in the scale look.

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Well, not much progress to report. I've airbrushed the interior - matt black according to the instructions, but it looked poor so went over it with semi-gloss black and it now looks as I anticipated.

 

I must admit, some of the injection moulding isn't that great, which is not surprising bearing in mind the age of the thing. The chrome plated parts in particular are quite heavily done and have sink marks and flash along the edges which can't be removed unless I want to lose the chrome effect. This would mean repainting with some Alclad Chrome and the finish isn't quite the same.

 

Nonetheless the main front bulkhead is in - it didn't fit properly so had to be superglued - and I've replaced the 'thin rubber piping' with some thin electrical wire for the throttle and handbrake cables. It's no thinner, but bends better.

 

More soon.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi. There's been some movement and progress, but its been slow going. Evening commitments with Love Island and other things have got in the way, and weekends -well not much chance there either.

 

Anyway, the cockpit has had some work, having been sprayed matt black. My first disappointment (there have been a few) was the fit of the seat frame, which was poor. I chose to drill a small hole into the handbrake bracket and insert the cable rather than attach it to the tiny post. I also used some thin wire rather than the rubber tubing because it can be shaped better.

 

 

 

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I then turned my attention to the various suspension components. Some of these will remain chrome, but due to the flash had to be filed here and there, removing the finish. I decided to leave them alone because at the end of the day they won't be seen in enough detail for it to be a problem. So here are some of them in various stages of assembly, masking and painting

 

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While I was waiting for these to dry and not fall to bits I started on the engine and gearbox. These were stayed with Alcald duraluminium whatever the hell that's supposed to be, and then given a pinkish with diluted black acrylic. It didn't do what I wanted it to do so I then brushed pastel colours onto the piece. The next stage will be to pick out bolt heads and add some cabling fixings.

 

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Moving on, I did some more work on the brakes. Looking at some photos of 934 calipers I wanted to add a few things, so starting with the fronts I added a braided hose to each one to represent the main brake line. These were then fed through the brake duct aperture and then through two holes drilled into the floorpan to meet the brake master cylinders underneath the steering rack

 

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The tape is holding the lines in place while the superglue dries. I have some photo etched bits and pieces in a box that may be of use as small brackets so I'll see how that goes.

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That's all for now. Next task is to fix up the rest of the front undercarriage comprising roll bar and suspension arms etc, then to move on to the rear. I'll look at adding some more wiring into the braking system, and may include the brake pad securing springs as there is a huge hole on the caliper where it should go. Some v thin wire should do the trick. Having said that, it's never going to be seen so.............

 

From there I think it's the engine and gearbox. It's a very complex assembly with scope to add all sorts of cabling. I've got a selection of braided lines, thin wires and tubing together with some resin pipe junctions so it would be rude not to add some here and there.

 

Thanks for watching and commenting. Much appreciated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looks great so far! I remember these when I was a race/airfield marshall at the nearby Silverstone circuit in the day! Seeing these and the K3 version howling round flat out on the hanger straight, superb!

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  • 3 weeks later...

At last I've managed to get the photos sorted, so a progress update........

 

The engine is coming along. These are the air boxes. I wanted to try and replicate some kind of jubilee clips and after a lot of messing about ended up with this. Quite simply some very thinly cut masking tape with the end of a phot etched cable tie glued on

 

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Next is the main assembly with the cooling fan. I wanted to have a go at replicating the glass fibre effect so followed some advice on here and used some net curtain melted into place with liquid glue. Messy, but it is reasonably effective. A wash of Tamiya Smoke was applied over the top. You can also see the photo etched cable ties in place. Most of this will be hidden by the air boxes and buried in the engine bay anyway!

 

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And the most up to date photo of the engine/transmission below is the assembly with fan belts and air boxes attached. The fuel injection pump is attached but the leads are yet to go in. All in all this has been a very complex build so far, but the completion of the engine,transmission and suspension is nearly done. I'm going to add a few extra hoses and cables for good measure

 

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Finally, the fuel tank, which again was subjected to the net curtain method of fibre-glassing. Not yet painted and various parts yet to be added. Needs a bot of tidying up first.

 

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