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Trumpeter GT40- it's finally finished!


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Here's the latest update! The paint has finally cured enough to work on. I polished it out with Meguiar's ultimate compound and polish... a little too vigorously in places, as I had to touch up a couple of areas on the rear clamshell and front end where I burned through the enamel. Give me lacquer any day! Nothing against the Scale Finishes paint, but I'm used to lacquer now (and lots of clear coat) and polishing out single-stage enamel is a little challenging. The results are really nice, however... the gloss is accurate and doesn't look like a show car at all.

The BBK decals are pretty nice. They don't really like Micro Sol, and the decal over the roof is a little crinkly in places due to that. It's not really that noticeable, but it's there. The decals on the side (applied without solvent) are much better.

The build has reached the stage where everything's starting to come together, which means lots of unpleasant surprises. Every part you install interferes with the fit of two other parts, and all the careful test fitting and mocking up I did earlier seems to count for basically nothing. I know it would be worse if I hadn't done it, but it can be a little frustrating. I think I've got everything in order now, so we'll see how it goes from here.

The working steering is pretty much theoretical- the Icon tires really fill the wheelwells and don't have a lot of room to move. This is fine with me, and I think this is just due to the extra width of the aftermarket pieces.

Here are some pics of the model as it sits now. Next comes the detail in the front end. I think I'm in the home stretch!

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You're not. Unless you put a ton of test-fitting into getting the nose clip to; A. fit correctly, B. open in a scale way-you have a lot of work. Now made near impossible by finish paint.

To solve that, I (with difficulty) fastened the nose permanently and left the hatch as a lift off to see the drysump tank etc. I know you want your resin spare to show. You won't see any suspension or tires in front. Nor the holed panels you did in front of the doors. Many disappointments the way Trump engineered it.

I only saw one guy hinge the hatch on the web-it's very hard.

Edited by Cato
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1st of all Jason, the build looks awesome! Just beautiful.

* Try this for hinging the rear hatch. When you put the wire thru the tube to create the hinge......put a stripped off section of wire insulation in the tube for the wire to pass thru. What this will do is to create a "detent" for the rear hatch. The insulation will expand in the tube because of the wire passing thru it. The hatch will be able to be "posed" in any position desired.

Just a thought. :)

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I actually hinged the front hatch the way Eric did with the wire loop through the center of the hinge- I just have to install the pins (how hard can that be, right?) to have the hatch open in a prototypical manner. Since taking these pictures, I've fitted all the components to the front compartment (pics soon, I promise) and checked the front cover fitment and it's perfect. Of course, to attain perfection I had to shave down the inside of the hatch to clear the radiator shroud, trim the radiator mounts to lower it a little, mount the radiator shroud higher on the radiator to clear the spare and shave the oil tank mounts to get that to sit lower! The front cover will be removable or can be positioned tilted open- the Trumpeter mechanism doesn't work at all.

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You're not. Unless you put a ton of test-fitting into getting the nose clip to; A. fit correctly, B. open in a scale way-you have a lot of work. Now made near impossible by finish paint.

To solve that, I (with difficulty) fastened the nose permanently and left the hatch as a lift off to see the drysump tank etc. I know you want your resin spare to show. You won't see any suspension or tires in front. Nor the holed panels you did in front of the doors. Many disappointments the way Trump engineered it.

I only saw one guy hinge the hatch on the web-it's very hard.

And thanks for noticing the holed panels- I made them from aluminum printer's plate and used my new hole punches on them. I'd be mildly upset if I couldn't show them off!

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And thanks for noticing the holed panels- I made them from aluminum printer's plate and used my new hole punches on them. I'd be mildly upset if I couldn't show them off!

Nice job hinging the front clip Jay. You're sweating most of the details.

I had that same air pan (called a Turkey pan) on my 1:1 and it was .0625" thick ally. So I did the model with .005-the drip guard under the rear window too.

I did that door bulkhead similar to you-I used .005 aluminum. Now if only you did the highly visible trailing arms and and anti-roll bar from .075" coat hanger....

Again-shame on Trumpeter for cutting such corners.

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I learned something similar to your gauge solution from building the 1/12 Blower Bentley. My plan has been to print out the gauges backward on clear decal paper, put them on clear styrene, then spray over it with white. What was your process?

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I learned something similar to your gauge solution from building the 1/12 Blower Bentley. My plan has been to print out the gauges backward on clear decal paper, put them on clear styrene, then spray over it with white. What was your process?

Pretty simple, Skip. I drilled out the holes for the instruments, backed the holes with clear styrene, then cut the gauge decals from the sheet and glued them to the back of the styrene, after blacking out the silver trim around the edges of the instruments.

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So, I've got the fuel lines installed... what a nightmare! they turned out okay, but really tested my patience. Especially given that I forgot to account for the closer proximity of the relocated pumps to the chassis plate when assembling the lines, which resulted in the lines being waaay too long in areas. I had to disassemble my superglued fuel line/AN fitting connections, trim the lines, and reassemble them. I'll post up some pics tomorrow.

The next quandary is whether or not to add the red/orange Le Mans markings to the front of the car. #1015 raced at Le Mans with these markings, and has them now, but was not born with them and was raced before they were stuck on. I rather like the clean lines with just the stripes and numbers and am leaning strongly toward omitting the Le Mans slashes- it's not like I'm slavishly following the car as it raced at Le Mans, or as it is now for that matter.

Anyway, more pics (hopefully) tomorrow!

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So, time for another update. It's just about finished now... I think this might be the last update before going to "Under Glass". I got the fuel lines finished, but they're not perfect... there's a kink here and there and they had to be shortened after assembly started due to my mountng the fuel pumps on the bulkhead to make everything easier. (Do we have a smiley face for irony?) It looks pretty good, though, and this model is the first time I've used braided line, so I'll give myself a pass on this one. Here are the fuel lines after (the first) assembly ready to go...

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and here we are after installation.

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Wow, I thought I got those mold lines off better than that...

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but overall the fuel lines add a lot to the look of the engine bay.

I realized that I needed to scratchbuild a hold down strap for the spare tire up front, which I did using an old photoetched ring, some scrap aluminum, and jeweler's wire with the straps made from leftover material from the kit seatbelts.

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Installed with the tire. I really like this.

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So here are some gratuitous half-naked pics before the front and rear ends go on...

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the hinged bonnet was attached to the front clip, and lights and covers installed. The BBK decals laid down perfectly. I decided to skip the LeMans recognition markings after all, and really like the clean, conservative look of the car without them. Trumpeter's decision to mold the turn signal lights in clear RED was annoying, and I tried to orange them up with clear yellow. They're not that visible anyway if you don't back them with silver.

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And a few shots with the front end in place...

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I'm waiting for some .020 braided cable to replace the kit wire for the hood pins and engine cover cables. I'm also working on a couple other details before the rear cover's installed. Should be finishing this up really soon!

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I'm waiting for some .020 braided cable to replace the kit wire for the hood pins and engine cover cables. I'm also working on a couple other details before the rear cover's installed. Should be finishing this up really soon!

Very neat and meticulous. Nice fitment.

I just opened a paper twist tie and it has .018" solid wire-very in scale. It's not braided though but I don't think that's a disadvantage. It will work on parts of my Rolls.

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Very nice work! Just a couple of comments and I know this one is way to late, but you could have dumped the fuel pumps. The original Mark II's had Bendix submersible fuel pumps in the fuel bladders and were not visible. The cars that you see in current condition use that configuration because of the tendency of the submersibles to short out from time to time. The part on the fire wall was a pressure regulator. The major glitch in the engine compartment is the roll bar. The one from Trumpeter is way too large and really catches my eye, but I doubt anyone else would notice.

As I said, just a couple of comments, not on your build, which is really very nice, just what I am not happy about with the kit. Love what you did getting all the panels to fit together.

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Just a couple of comments and I know this one is way to late, but you could have dumped the fuel pumps. The original Mark II's had Bendix submersible fuel pumps in the fuel bladders and were not visible. The cars that you see in current condition use that configuration because of the tendency of the submersibles to short out from time to time.

My comments here are not meant to detract from Jay's excellent build or Pete's comments about the pumps. I do offer an alternative explanation about them for the sake of accuracy.

I know Pete has spent research time at Holman / Moody and viewed their car extensively. So I am not trying to cast doubt on his comments. Indeed, he has provided excellent info when I built my model.

But the fact is, in the '66 LeMans race, the first three cars, 1046, 1015 (Jay's model) and 1016 were Shelby entries. The next three finishers were H / M entries. Each team had the mandate to modify the cars as they saw fit.

It is certainly true about the submerged pumps being problematic. Therefore, it's my understanding that Shelby, who had used SW pumps regularly on big and small Comp Cobras, used them on his GT's. For ease of maintenance and redundancy in a 24 hour endurance race.

I have 2 B & W photos, taken at Shelby's in the day of the rear bulkhead of 2 GT's with 3 SW's mounted and a single line on the driver side running from the cell into the bulkhead, as I posted earlier. I have no reference how the H / M cars ran the '66 race, pump-wise.

And yes, the roll bar in Trump's kit of 1046 is 'wrong' because Stauffer installed it in the car for vintage racing, as it was set up for the Daytona 12 hour-it did not run one at LeMans.

I'm sure Jay may not care about these small details because he has built a wonderful model. We all have the license to build what makes us happy. But I think the pumps he did are appropriate to the identity of the car he chose.

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Here are two photos from Dave Friedman's book "Shelby GT40" (page 98) of MkII undergoing race prep for the '66 Le Man. I can't speak to how H/M ran their GT40s

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Edited by afx
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Current photos of chassis #1015 in the Shelby American museum show the pumps mounted on the bulkhead, but only on the left side. I did the external pumps on both sides because I wanted the extra "eye candy" in the engine bay. I'm not super concerned when it comes to replicating an exact car as it competed in a particular race... I liked the livery of #1015 pre-Le Mans and decided to go with that look. I can see what would drive a GT40 purist to distraction with this kit. I think it's possible to build a replica that really captures the essence of the GT40 with this kit and some well-chosen upgrades. Mine has moved to its spot in my mirrored display case (waiting for some .020 braided cable for a couple of final details) and I still have to do a double-take every time I see it. But replicating a very specific car is much more difficult- I think that the more you know about these cars, the more you feel obligated to translate that knowledge into your model. I'm a bit of a punter when it comes to these cars, although I have learned a lot in preparation for (and during) this build. I always like to take on a project where I come away from it knowing a little more than when I went in!

As I mentioned, this is pretty much finished. I'm waiting for some braided cable for the hood pins and engine cover retainers, and as soon as those are installed I'll take some final pictures.

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