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Porsche 911T Police


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I haven't been very active at the model work bench for a while now, but a little has been done on and off, in silence. Around Christmas I decided I had to build a Porsche 911 police car, for some reason. Two of them figure very briefly in a book I just reread, maybe that's why. I have slowly and sporadically been working on it since then, but now it's time for a thread I think.

 

The Swedish police started using the 4-cylinder Porsche 912's in 1965, for the traffic groups (LTG) patrolling the back then fairly new motorways. After a few years it was decided the smaller 912 engines weren't quite up the work, and the switch to the 6-cylinder 911 started in 1970. The cars were the basic 911T model with carburettor engines and a number of them were put into service between 1970 and 1974, when they were decommissioned.

 

One of those 911's, a 1970 model, that survived the years in private hands after its days with the police, was fully restored back to full police specification some 20 years ago, and is in the Swedish Police Museum collection since. It's often taking part and being driven on various PR-events and even in the occasional classic car events.

 

First I planned to build my model as that car, but after having received some unpublished photos from the police museum I decided on a sister car, also from 1970, stationed at the LTG-group Jönköping (F-region) in Sweden 1970-74 with call sign F-263 on the roof. I'm building my model as in the time frame of 1970-72 with the old type local license plates, F40660, that were replaced in 1972-73.

 

I'm using Fujimi's 1/24 -69 911S kit as the base. It dates from the mid 80's and for its time it was probably quite good. It's not really bad today either, but some aspects are not up to the level we have been spoiled with in many new kits of today, to put it kindly. Some modifications are needed, apart from all the obvious police details, to create a 1970 911T and the steel wheels with hub caps and tyres will be sourced from a Fujimi 356C.

 

911_1.jpg

 

I have searched all useful references I could possibly find of the Swedish Police Porsches, both period photos of the 912's and 911's in active duty and of the restored 911T today. I have also received very kind help from a curator at the Swedish Police Museum, who have searched and provided some unpublished photos from their archive and taken some special detail photos of the restored car for me (not these below).

 

911_2.jpg

 

Opening the base kit reveals quite a lot of parts, with provisions for open engine cover and front boot. However I'm building this model fully closed up, but with a detailed interior.

 

911_3.jpg

 

I first mocked up the body shell with some early style 356 wheels, of the wrong type but same dimension, just to see if it would match up. It looked promising. The flash light on the roof is a bit oversized.

 

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I made a fairly quick job of cleaning up all parts I would probably use and assembling the engine and suspension. I haven't bothered with the parts on top of the engine/gearbox, as only the bottom will ever be seen. The rear suspension lacks definite locating points to the floor pan and has to be left loose until later.

 

911_6.jpg

 

The kit comes with the extra spotlights, and therefore their holes opened, in the front pumper. They were not present on the Police 911T's, so I made their covers from sheet styrene, taking care to get nice visible joint lines.

 

911_7.jpg

 

The bumper horns were a surprisingly bad fit and needed some work. At this point I still had the impression they would have been of the rubber fitted type on the police cars from this year, so I spent some time saving that feature on the rear and rebuilding it on the front.

 

911_8.jpg

 

The police 911's had the rear wiper option installed. The Fujimi kit comes with a number of extra parts so the wiper was found on the sprues, as was the correct rear grille.

 

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A trial fit of the rear end parts. The engine cover and rear bumper has been glued. Quite a bit of work was needed to get a nice fit of the engine cover. Just as I had finished the bumper horns above, I received excellent photos from the museum curator, clearly showing the rear end of the car I'm building in duty in 1971-72, with plain chrome bumper horns, so it was just to go back and remove all the work done with the rubbers...

 

911_10.jpg

 

A similar trial fit of the front end parts with the pumper glued in place. Again quite a bit of work was needed before the parts would fit well. The kit comes with different headlights for different versions. Those supposed to represent what I needed where particularly unconvincing, so I used a different combination of parts and reworked the rims and reflector bowls heavily with the Dremel.

 

911_11.jpg

 

Another lousy fit was the part for the rear seat buckets. There are no real locating points, no positive fit and vague drawings. It took a bit of shaving and trials with other interior parts before a good position could be found and glue applied.

 

911_12.jpg

 

With the rear bucket permanently fitted a good position for the rear suspension could also be found. This had to be done together with the engine and gearbox.

 

911_13.jpg

 

Here we are with the engine/gearbox and exhaust system dry fitted.

 

911_14.jpg

 

The side parts of the interior left large gaps open, so sheet styrene and Evergreen strips was added and shaped to get a tight fit. It would continue like this.

 

911_15.jpg

 

The floor is showing the naked steel panels, so I needed something added to look more like the floor mats. I made a template and cut panels from 0,25 sheet styrene that was glued to the floor.

 

911_16.jpg

 

The more I looked at the front seats, the more something needed to be done. The seats from a Fujimi 356 kit were much closer to the seats I need, good in shape and size, albeit with a bit thin back rests.

 

911_17.jpg

 

In order to place the rear shelf correctly the wall against the engine compartment had to be cut and reangled.

 

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The front wall and dashboard also needed work to fit well. A surprising amount of work was needed to get the interior to this point. Work on creating head rests for the front seats have also started here.

 

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To thicken the back rests I glued 0,5 sheet styrene and added filler. Evergreen strips were added at the bottom to get a good seat height.

 

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The head rests were finished using lead wire.

 

911_22.jpg

 

The back seats in the police cars were always folded down to make room for a lot of special equipment. To place the back rest in folded position correctly a lot of material had to be filed off.

 

911_23.jpg

 

Something like this should be useful to add all extra equpment on top of.

 

911_24.jpg

 

And here we are with the new front seats dry fitted.

 

911_25.jpg

 

There is a lot of special police equipment for the interior I had to create. I decided to do as much old school scratch building as possible, before I would retreat to any 3D CAD and printing. Here is the dreaded camera, whose film you did not want to be caught on...

 

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Sun visors, map reading lights, mirror and that camera.

 

911_27.jpg

 

For the dash board I first built the missing panel for heating and ventilation. Then I made the special police radio, of the back then brand new "System 70", and added some extra switches.

 

911_28.jpg

 

I then made parts for the rear of the seat backs and the rear floor. Stop signs, a set of brushes and shovel, a blanket, a box for batteries, ice scrapers, towels and a small tray. It's all scrap pieces of sheet and strip styrene, resin and wine bottle foil.

 

911_29.jpg

 

For the rear wall we have a set of pockets for tools, handcuffs, measure tape, folding ruler, CO2 and alcohol testers. Also we find two batons with fitting brackets and two small flash lights with their pockets.

 

911_30.jpg

 

For the folded rear seat I built the wood shelf with boxes for camera equipment, a large first aid kit, fire extinguisher, two large search lights and a box for track marking equipment.

 

911_31.jpg

 

The last piece of equipment on the left side is a small pocket for a tyre pressure gauge. There will be a lot of work painting all of this...

 

911_32.jpg

 

This is the correct wheels and hub caps, sourced from a Fujimi Porsche 356C kit. In theory they should fit the hubs/brakes in the 911 kit, as the 356C and early 911 shared the bolt pattern and the steel wheels. Not so in the Fujimi kits. The 356 bolt pattern measures quite correct, but the 911 parts are way too small.

 

Actually all the 356C brake and hub parts looked much better, and after some pondering on what to do I decided to use the 356 parts, mated to cut off pieces from the 911 brakes to fit them to the 911 suspension.

 

Here are the rear brakes/hubs.

 

911_33.jpg

 

And the finished front brakes/hubs.

 

911_34.jpg

 

The final trial fit as of today, with the chassis and suspension mated to the body shell and the hub parts fitted with blue tac. It's all a little bit wonky, but I think it looks promising.

 

911_35.jpg

 

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During the build I have also spent some time creating the art work for the decals I will print. The large sheet will be printed in white on clear decal sheet and the small sheet in colour on clear sheet.

 

911_38.jpg

 

This is where I am today. I still have to scratch two rear view mirrors for the front wings, mud flaps for the rear wheels and a set of seat belts. After that it's time to start painting. Hopefully starting a new build thread might add a little pressure to make some more progress....

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Excellent- I'm slowly 'working on' two of these, one of which will be on steel wheels with hubcaps, kindly gifted by @Marco F. - it'll be good to see how to build one properly :)

 

I'm having really bad fit problems with the one that'll be on steels, possibly because it was a pre-owned kit that the previous owner had made various 'modifications' to.

 

Started a new kit instead, but that has some bad mould flaws :doh:

 

Looking forward to seeing yours progress.

 

Keith

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10 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Excellent- I'm slowly 'working on' two of these, one of which will be on steel wheels with hubcaps, kindly gifted by @Marco F. - it'll be good to see how to build one properly :)

 

I'm having really bad fit problems with the one that'll be on steels, possibly because it was a pre-owned kit that the previous owner had made various 'modifications' to.

 

Started a new kit instead, but that has some bad mould flaws :doh:

 

Looking forward to seeing yours progress.

 

Keith

 

Thanks a lot Keith.

 

Well this kit has thrown some unexpeted challanges to make it come together well. A friend of mine also had similar issues with Fujimi 911's. I was surpriced as I built a special 356B Karmann "notchback" coupe for friend, who restored and owns an original, a number of years ago, using two Fujimi 356 kits as base, and that went together really well. I think the 911's are slightly older though, maybe Fujimi decided to improve.

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I was also surprised as I built a 911S as a rally car for a charity auction many years ago and don't recall any issues at all with it, and I used to keep notes of the builds back then and didn't write anything negative. Maybe the moulds are getting worn out?

 

Keith

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31 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

I was also surprised as I built a 911S as a rally car for a charity auction many years ago and don't recall any issues at all with it, and I used to keep notes of the builds back then and didn't write anything negative. Maybe the moulds are getting worn out?

 

Some aspects might be mould issues, the sample I'm working on here is of the very latest production run, bought just as I started the project. Other aspects might be that my expectations have grown as we have gotten spoiled with better newly designed kits...

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19 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

the sample I'm working on here is of the very latest production run

 

I noticed that from the box top, and that made me wonder if the moulds were wearing - but having said that the recent new one I started is in a much older boxing but has issues such as almost non existent drip rails, pieces missing from the windscreen trim etc. And I haven't even started trying to put it together yet!

 

Whatever, I'm sure that you'll produce a silk purse from the pig's ear of a kit! :)

 

Keith

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Good to have you back Jörgen! What a great subject and I do like all that detailing you did for the interior. I'm sure it will look really good with paint on. 

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Fantastic work,  those bits you have scratched for yhe Pllice fit look fantastic,  lovely car too, I note you and Keith discussing the kit issues but is this the best kit for a narrow bodied 911?

Great work 

Chris

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46 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

but is this the best kit for a narrow bodied 911?

 

It's the only one I know of for this era of 911 Chris. Jörgen might know of another kit? Only other 'early' narrow body 911's I know of are the recent G series impact bumper models from Revell. 

 

Keith

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31 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

It's the only one I know of for this era of 911 Chris. Jörgen might know of another kit? Only other 'early' narrow body 911's I know of are the recent G series impact bumper models from Revell. 

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, that's good to know, I am thinking of the early bumpered ones, my mate has a 67 912 and it looks lovely,  definitely the prettiest cars of that era. Would love a real one!!!

Chris

 

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I’m feeling your pain on this one Bengalensis, I’m currently working on a Fujimi 356B roadster, about 1/2 done. I’ve read that the Fujimi 911 kits are even more “challenging” fit-wise than the 356’s so, as much as I’d love to tackle an early 911, I’m not sure my skills are up to the task. So far you are doing a masterful job on this build.

 

On my 356 build, getting the engine + chassis + front and rear suspension assemblies to all assemble in an aligned and coherent fashion so that all four tires touch the road simultaneously is not coming easily. And this is my 2nd Fujimi 356 and I was assuming it would be easier 😫. Like some Ebbro kits I’ve built, I’m wondering if the trick is to cut, whittle, sand, drill-out and finesse to get parts to fit, dry-fit everything together (unpainted)and then when it looks right and sits right with everything aligned, hit all the contact points with Tamiya Extra-Thin…..and then mask & paint… 
 

It occurred to me that you are building this 911 police car like the AFV guys build tanks, bond everything together and then paint it. Wonder if that the secret to these Fujimi Porsche kits? If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading my vent. Stay calm & model- on!

John

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Thank you very much gentlemen for the kind praise and support. I hope I can continue making good progress and doing it justice, but work bench mood is going a bit up and down in the current situation in this part of the world...

 

12 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I note you and Keith discussing the kit issues but is this the best kit for a narrow bodied 911?

11 hours ago, keefr22 said:

It's the only one I know of for this era of 911 Chris. Jörgen might know of another kit? Only other 'early' narrow body 911's I know of are the recent G series impact bumper models from Revell. 

Just as Keith says, as far as I know in 1/24 this series of kits from Fujimi is the choice offered. They have issues, but they can be fixed and the shape and proportions looks very good to my eyes. Don't let it put you off to have a go, the earliest 911/912's are lovely cars begging to be modelled.

 

5 hours ago, nearsightedjohn said:

Like some Ebbro kits I’ve built, I’m wondering if the trick is to cut, whittle, sand, drill-out and finesse to get parts to fit, dry-fit everything together (unpainted)and then when it looks right and sits right with everything aligned, hit all the contact points with Tamiya Extra-Thin…..and then mask & paint… 
 

It occurred to me that you are building this 911 police car like the AFV guys build tanks, bond everything together and then paint it. Wonder if that the secret to these Fujimi Porsche kits? If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading my vent. Stay calm & model- on!

Something a little like that approach I think.

My build here goes like this: Every detail for the car is prepared and dry fitted before any painting starts. All of the interior on the last photos, except the rear wall and rear shelf, are only dry fitted at this point and is to be painted separately. The bumpers are fully fixed and adjusted to the body. The suspension is completely glued to the chassis, apart from the brake/hub units that I will fit during final assembly after paint. The engine/gearbox is built as a complete unit, except for the separate exhaust muffler. This way, at this stage, I have a complete body that the chassis clicks into repeatably, as does the engine into the chassis. The exact location of the wheel/brake/hub units can then be fine tuned for perfect alignment under the arches during final assembly. At least that is my plan...

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13 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Just as Keith says, as far as I know in 1/24 this series of kits from Fujimi is the choice offered. They have issues, but they can be fixed and the shape and proportions looks very good to my eyes. Don't let it put you off to have a go, the earliest 911/912's are lovely cars begging to be modelled.

Thanks Jörgen, might have to get one of these then, especially as I can't afford a real one😉 

Chris

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2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

especially as I can't afford a real one

 

You and me both! About a decade ago was offered a 912 by a guy in work who'd modified it for 'run what ya brung' drag racing. He wanted £5000 - probably worth 7 or 8 times that now! 

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2 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

but work bench mood is going a bit up and down in the current situation in this part of the world...

 

Not surprising, hope the tragedy ends soon and everyone can try to get back to some sort of normal life.

 

Stay safe

 

Keith

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46 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

You and me both! About a decade ago was offered a 912 by a guy in work who'd modified it for 'run what ya brung' drag racing. He wanted £5000 - probably worth 7 or 8 times that now!

It's mad isn't it, I wish I had bought a 79 Carerra SC back in 2002 had the money, but SWMBO dragged me kicking and screaming from the garage,  if only she had known how much they go for now!!!

Chris

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Of the remaining details to be created I decided that it is far easier to make the seat belts and the necessary inner B-pillars during the final assembly. The mud flaps were easily cut from thin plastic and test fitted here with blue tac.

 

911_39.jpg

 

The mirrors required more work. I never like repeated scratch building of the same part, and even less so scratching mirrored parts, but I still decided to first give it a try. Pieces of 0,5 and 0,25 mm sheet styrene and Evergreen rod were cut and shaped.

 

911_40.jpg

 

The pieces glued together and left to dry for a while.

 

911_41.jpg

 

Carefully CA-glued to 0,5 mm copper wire and dry fitted into holes drilled in the front wings it didn't look to bad.

 

911_42.jpg

 

911_43.jpg

 

Perhaps it's time to consider spraying some paint.

 

911_44.jpg

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Looks lovely to me too, you're doing a great job  , those mirrors look sweet  although I have always wondered why manufacturers added mirrors to the top of the wings interrupting that gorgeous shape, or was that a Police Mod ?

Chris

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On 07/03/2022 at 17:11, keefr22 said:

 

Looks rather better than that to me! 👍

 

Keith

 Me to and I will be blatantly copying your construction technique when I make the mirrors for my Caterham!  - Andy 

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