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Tamiya Porsche 961


Spiny

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Didn't take long (by my standards at least) to get this one completed. As suggested by the restoration tag, this one is a restoration of a build first done about 30 years ago back when I was barely a teenager. The kit itself is a snap together (Snap-Loc in Tamiyaspeak), and I understand is based on a radio-controlled model. That would certainly explain the way that it only has about 20 pieces excluding the motor, and half of those are in the wheels and axles! So not a challenge then, perfect for a younger builder building up kits quickly.

 

The real thing ran in this livery at Le Mans in 1986, where it came 7th and won its class. Not that difficult to win its class when it was in the Experimental Class and so the only entrant :) It came back next year in the Rothmans livery and caught fire. For the build, this was done as a straight out-of-the-box build apart from adding a mesh to the rear to hide the red and blue cables to the motor.

 

Anyway, having bored everyone with the waffle, it's time to bore you all with photos instead...

 

First of all, this was what I started out with. As can be seen, it's showing the full effects of having been on an open shelf near a cornfield for about 10 years ago with dirt and yellowed plastic, not to mention badly applied and degraded decals.

 

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Having come across a replacement set of decals from the 2011 rerelease of the kit while in lockdown, I decided this was due a refurbishment. So here's a set of photos from around the car under a variety of lighting conditions.

 

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A bit annoying, but I had the side peg holes filled, sanded and smoothed and all was well until they sank a bit with the gloss on. At least they're not black circles as on the original build, but I would much rather they weren't there.

 

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The mesh at the rear appears to be doing its job of hiding the battery compartment, motor and cables behind it.

 

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Unfortunately reflections stopped me getting a good shot of the interior, but here's a top-down view of the car instead.

 

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And finally, here's a couple of shots of it with its road-going cousin which I built 3 years ago. Contrary to what the second picture implies, they do all sit flat - it's the white surface which is a bit uneven and the car does not tripod!

 

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Overall verdict? Well if you want a 1/24 Porsche 961 I don't think there's an alternative. There's no getting around that this is a very simple kit, and would take a LOT of work to get a good level of detail on it. But equally, the shape is pretty good, and it's capable of being built up into something which looks good on the shelf. Hope you like it, and thanks for looking.

 

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A great restoration job Spiny and set against the black background looks well cool 😎 Although it can't be seen in the pic's i know there's a pretty smart looking dashboard inside 👍 Well done mate well worth the effort good for another 30 years i reckon 🙂

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I enjoyed the build/restoration thread and the result speaks for itself, it's a very smart-looking car.  But it's amazing how crude it looks next to the 959 as a result of its RC/motorised kit origins.

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23 hours ago, Andy J said:

A great restoration job Spiny and set against the black background looks well cool 😎 Although it can't be seen in the pic's i know there's a pretty smart looking dashboard inside 👍 Well done mate well worth the effort good for another 30 years i reckon 🙂

Thanks, and I should have thought to include that in the original post, so here goes from mid0build...

 

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8 hours ago, johnlambert said:

I enjoyed the build/restoration thread and the result speaks for itself, it's a very smart-looking car.  But it's amazing how crude it looks next to the 959 as a result of its RC/motorised kit origins.

I know what you mean about it looking crude next to the 959, and it gets more so the more you look at it. I did wonder about putting those last two photos in as they do show the 961 up a bit, but felt as I'd said so often about how simple the kit was it wasn't going to make it seem any worse than I'd described it. Good job I didn't shown the 959 engine though :)

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