1/43 Solar Productions' Porsche 917K camera car - UPDATE

[klubman01]

This is my recently finished model of the Porsche 917K owned by Solar Productions, and used as a camera platform, during the post-race filming of Steve McQueen's pet project, the movie "Le Mans".

 

 

 

Solar Productions had the use of several Porsche 917's during post-race filming.  JWAE loaned them chassis 013 (damaged when David Piper crashed and, subsequently, had his lower right leg amputated as a result of his injuries).  Jo Siffert loaned chassis 024-2 from his personal collection, and Solar purchased this car, chassis 022.

 

022 was modified to full JWAE specifications, and the chassis further modified to allow movie cameras to be carried at both the front and rear.  The picture above was the inspiration for this model.

 

I first thought of this as a project many years ago when I purchased a 917 detail set by Vroom.

 

 

There were no instructions, or any indication as to which kit it was best suited, but all the parts were beautifully cast with the main area of improvement centred around the cockpit.  I later purchased a "part-started" Provence Moulage Porsche 917 kit on a well known internet auction site.  I stripped the paint from the body and chassis, and then set to work updating the body to JWAE standard.  This involved a replacement, vac-formed, cockpit roof vent, correcting the angle of the upper NACA ducts on the engine cover, and replacing the spoilers with the correct Le Mans style items.

 

 

The second phase of modifications was the camera and mount at the front.  I drilled/carved/sanded away the nose access panel to create the necessary space.  The mounting plate, and the closing panel behind it, and the oil cooler and its mesh guard were scratch built from plastic card, Milliput filler, and various odds and sods I had lying about.

 

 

The movie camera, and its mounting frame were constructed from Plastic card, rod and tube.  I added the small, partial, mounting lip for the standard nose panel from lengths of plastic card strip.

 

 

Next phase was the door.  The Vroom set included a separate door, so it seemed rude not to use it.  The body was again drilled/carved/sanded until the door opening was created.  I subsequently added a narrow strip around the inside of the opening.

 

 

The Vroom chassis could not be used with the PM body as the wheelbase was a bit short, mainly behind the cockpit bulkhead.  I elected to discard the rear of the Vroom chassis, and use the PM part, fixing them together to create a hybrid chassis. I retained the Vroom spare wheel and transmission cooling ducts to be fitted to the PM part of the chassis.

 

 

 

The inside of the body needed a lot of resin to be removed to allow the new chassis to fit.  The instrument panel needed to be adjusted to the correct angle, and also widened, to sit at the correct orientation within the windscreen opening.

 

All the parts were painted with Humbrol enamels, and the markings are by Le Mans Decals.  Wheels and tyres are by Remember.

 

 

All in all, a very satisfying build.

 

 

 

 

As a finishing touch, I added the figure of "Michael Delaney".  This is a Denizen metal figure, painted with enamels, shaded with oils, and with driving suit logos, etc. from my stock of decals.

 

 

 

As a postscript to the story, chassis 022 was subsequently purchased by Auto Usdau Racing.  In its first appearance under new ownership at Buenos Aries in 1971, it was still in its blue and orange scheme, and the driver's door had be been signed by Steve McQueen.  The message read "Finished - Thanks for sticking together - Steve McQueen".

 

 

I wonder if anyone thought to preserve the door before the car was repainted?

 

Thanks for looking,

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

What a fantastic build, absolutely awesome! Lovely attention to the details. A great tribute to an equally great film, and actor.

[Pete in Lincs]

Epic stuff. One of my favourite films (Mainly because of the sounds) and consequently one of my favourite cars. 

It looks great. It must have been awful trying to see where they were going with that huge camera in the way.

Was the door preserved? Probably not. It wasn't really a commercially successful film and Steve didn't die until 1980.

The value of artifacts associated with Actors usually only goes up after they die.

[klubman01]

56 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

What a fantastic build, absolutely awesome! Lovely attention to the details. A great tribute to an equally great film, and actor.

Thanks very much indeed! I am quite pleased with myself for this one. 

Yes, a great film that came at much personal cost to McQueen.

 

49 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Epic stuff. One of my favourite films (Mainly because of the sounds) and consequently one of my favourite cars. 

It looks great. It must have been awful trying to see where they were going with that huge camera in the way.

Was the door preserved? Probably not. It wasn't really a commercially successful film and Steve didn't die until 1980.

The value of artifacts associated with Actors usually only goes up after they die.

Many thanks indeed, Pete. 

Sadly, you are probably correct regarding the door.  The Buenos Aries race was in January 1971, and, IIRC, the film wasn't released until the middle of the year.  I was at Brands Hatch in April of that year for the BOAC 1000, and 022 was, by then, in its yellow and green finish.

Have to agree with you about the film.  The sound of a 917 at full chat is spine tingling!

Trevor

[Kitkent]

And so you should be pleased with this one Trevor. Definitely a lot of work has gone into this,and the Vroom parts are definitely of high quality. Everything’s perfect,the paint,the figure,I could go on! Chris.

[klubman01]

18 minutes ago, Kitkent said:

And so you should be pleased with this one Trevor. Definitely a lot of work has gone into this,and the Vroom parts are definitely of high quality. Everything’s perfect,the paint,the figure,I could go on! Chris.

Many thanks Chris.  I'm glad that you like it.

Further down the line, I have plans to make a model of the Ford GT40 that was also used as a camera platform.

Trevor

[Vesa Jussila]

One more miniature masterpiece from your garage. I really like this. There is never too many classic periods Le Mans cars in this forum.

[klubman01]

34 minutes ago, Vesa Jussila said:

One more miniature masterpiece from your garage. I really like this. There is never too many classic periods Le Mans cars in this forum.

Thanks for your kind words, they are very much appreciated.

Trevor

[Sabrejet]

Lovely job! I've done a few 'open door' conversions of 1/43 resin kits over the years so I know it can be a bit of a challenge.

 

And I suspect that Vroom set was based on a die-cast - it's obviously for something that had a pretty rudimentary set of underpinnings.

[klubman01]

33 minutes ago, Sabrejet said:

Lovely job! I've done a few 'open door' conversions of 1/43 resin kits over the years so I know it can be a bit of a challenge.

 

And I suspect that Vroom set was based on a die-cast - it's obviously for something that had a pretty rudimentary set of underpinnings.

Thanks very much.  It's the first "open door" I have attempted so I'm quite pleased with the result.

I think you are probably correct regarding the Vroom set.  Sadly, I've not seen another on sale since I bought mine over ten years ago, otherwise I would be tempted to do another "open door" 917.

Trevor

[Toftdale]

Absolutely gorgeous.   Making something as delicate as the camera and its mount at that scale is truly impressive - Andy 

[klubman01]

9 minutes ago, Toftdale said:

Absolutely gorgeous.   Making something as delicate as the camera and its mount at that scale is truly impressive - Andy 

Thanks Andy.  It was a bit fiddly to construct the camera and the mount, but I think it turned out OK.  The final stages of assembly were quite nerve wracking as I tried to avoid damaging the various bits sticking out.  Suffice to say, the camera and mount were the last pieces to be fixed in position.

Trevor

[keefr22]

Only just seen this Trevor - another excellent build off your bench, beautifully finished as per usual standard and with some great modifications and scratchbuilding!

 

Have to say though I don't think the camera gear does much for the aesthetics of the lovely 917....!!

 

Great work all round!

 

Keith

[Alpha Delta 210]

Awesome and imaginative build!

[dnl42]

Wow, you did an excellent job on that!

 

And a bit different! 

[klubman01]

5 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Only just seen this Trevor - another excellent build off your bench, beautifully finished as per usual standard and with some great modifications and scratchbuilding!

 

Have to say though I don't think the camera gear does much for the aesthetics of the lovely 917....!!

 

Great work all round!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith.  I'm really pleased with this one, and it was quite fun to build.

 

Have to agree with you about the looks.  Apparently, but not surprisingly, the handling of the real thing went to pot when charging around with all that extra mass on board.  I did read an interview with Derek Bell who said that the rear mounted, pivoting, camera rigs were the worst.  Made things quite "sporting" at racing speeds.

 

Thanks again,

Trevor

50 minutes ago, dnl42 said:

Wow, you did an excellent job on that!

 

And a bit different! 

Thanks very much.  Always nice to do something a little different!

Trevor

[klubman01]

UPDATE

On Sunday last, I took some of my models to the Lincoln IPMS annual show.  To my complete astonishment the judges decided that the Porsche was worthy of a trophy!

 

 

 

There were some very nice models on display, so I was "well chuffed" to get this trophy.

 

Got to meet a couple of fellow Brit Modellers. Lovely to meet you. So good to be able to put faces to names.

Trevor

[triumphfan]

21 minutes ago, klubman01 said:

Got to meet a couple of fellow Brit Modellers. Lovely to meet you. So good to be able to put faces to names.

Trevor

Hi Trevor,

it was good to meet up with you and see your models in real life. A worthy win for the camera car. Its just astonishing how much detail you were able to put into such a tiny model 👏

 

Atb, Steve.

 

 

[keefr22]

8 hours ago, klubman01 said:

To my complete astonishment the judges decided that the Porsche was worthy of a trophy!

 

I'm not astonished, I completely agree with them, well worthy of a trophy!

 

Congatulations, it'a a lovely model!!

 

Keith

[Kitkent]

It’s definitely very well deserved Trevor,nice to see a 1/43 getting an award too! Le Mans is one of the best films as well.

 Chris.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow what a cracking model,  one of the best looking racing cars.  Your model is absolutely stunning and I think your trophy is well deserved.   I am in awe of this and love your conversion.

Great work

Chris

[klubman01]

Thanks to everyone for their kind and gracious comments.

Trevor

[Bengalensis]

Very well earned trophy! it's a lovely model.

[klubman01]

10 hours ago, triumphfan said:

Hi Trevor,

it was good to meet up with you and see your models in real life. A worthy win for the camera car. Its just astonishing how much detail you were able to put into such a tiny model 👏

 

Atb, Steve.

 

 

Likewise Steve.

To be fair, 1/43 isn't wildly different to 1/48. and I've seen aircraft in that scale with some astonishing amounts of detail.  But, thank you anyway!

Trevor

[Flintstone]

Trevor,

I really like what you have done with this! The model looks great and your trophy well deserved.

 

If you are looking for further ideas, I think Solar also ran a 908 as a camera car in the 1970 race for the movie, It finished, but had to stop a lot to refuel and get new film!