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Porsche 356B Coupe, Revell, 1/16


Matt Bacon

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Revell's large-scale (but still not exactly BIG) Porsche in "easy-snap" (clip together) form:

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From this angle, you really can see that it's the half-way house between a Beetle and a 911, can't you?

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It's less detailed than a Fujimi EM series kit, but then it's cheaper than trying to find one of those particular hen's teeth. It's a bit simplified, especially in easy-snap Coupe form (the 356C cabrio is a "full detail" regular kit). And it ticks me off that Revell haven't included the two, maybe three small supplementary sprues that carry the engine and front bay detail and some crucial bits to get the doors to open in the coupe kit as well as the cabrio. They;d make up maybe 5% of the total quantity of plastic and they're already tooled, so why not? So I had to build a few significant bits for the engine, but I'm quite pleased with the result. The snap system doesn't force too many compromises (the interior is really quite good, even though you can't see much of it!), the decals are excellent and include everything down to the markings on the window glass. There are stickers, and I used the "GB" marking from that sheet because, well, it IS a sticker in real life. Paint is Tamiya TS Gloss Aluminium over TS 101, which is a new dense white base/sealer coat to cover coloured plastic (in this case red) and stop the colour bleeding through.As long as you make sure snap pins a cleaned of paint and give the holes and slots a clean out as well, everything goes together well, with one exception. It's a swine to get get the interior into the body: see the WIP thread for how I ended up doing it:

In summary, a nice kit that makes up into an impressive little/large model, but if you really want to go to town you're going to need both the Coupe and Cabrio kits and some scratch building...

best,

M.

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Man, that looks GREAT. I'm usually a picky SOB, but it looks to me like the kit designers got the lines and proportions pretty much spot-on (except for one fairly subtle thing that's not going to detract from it as far as most modelers go, and that really doesn't bother me even though I know it's there). Photographed in daylight, it would be hard to tell one of these from a real one, and your shots look more like studio photos of a 1:1 than a model car.

One thing these cars were known for when new was the exceptionally fine panel fit, the result of painstakingly leading every opening to achieve consistent gaps. The model does a remarkably good job with panel fit too.

Only criticism I have of the kit is that the tail appears to sit a little bit high on its suspension, which I assume has an easy fix.

Thanks for presenting such a nicely built model that shows off how good this kit apparently is.

Even though I wasn't all that hot on it previously, you've successfully convinced me that I need at least one.   B)

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Thanks so much, all... and @Ace-Garageguy if you think it  looks like the real thing, Bill, thgen that's good enough for me!

I'm a bit puzzled by the tail high stance, as well. It's engineered in, though, so it's a conscious choice by the designers, not just built in by me by accident! The thing about the snap fit-ness of this kit is that you know when the parts are fully in place, because only then do you get the "click" of "easy-click". Fixing it wouldn't be a problem for a determined modeller who knew it was there to start with, but it's more than a matter of shortening some shocks...

The drive-shafts, swing arms and torsion bar, brake disks and wheel carriers are engineered as a single [] unit, with columns that connect to the floor pan next to the brake disks (not drums even though they should be, as Bill points out). The driveshaft section is pinned between the upper and lower engine pieces, which also fix under the floor plan, so the geometry is set by the driveshaft section's position in the engine, the height of the columns at the outer ends, and the fixed ends of the swing arms attached to the pan by the torsion bar, which also clicks into place. So, to bring the wheels up a bit, I think you'd need to: cut the swing arms off the torsion bar, and pin them so they can swing; shorten the fatter part of the pillars at the wheel carriers so that they socket more deeply into the floor pan, reducing their overall height by 2-3 mm, flex (probably) or cut and refit the drive shafts at the engine to angle them up a bit, and, if it looks bad or bothers you on the "because God can see" principle, adjust the camber of the wheels which will now be tilted outboard at the bottom...

I wonder if they measured up on an unladen car with all the fuel and fluids drained or something...

best,

M.

 

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7 hours ago, Matt Bacon said:

...I wonder if they measured up on an unladen car with all the fuel and fluids drained or something...

My guess would be they measured a restored car that wasn't set up exactly right. These cars have torsion bars, as you know, and the rears have what's known as a "vernier" adjustment. In short, there are a different number of splines on the inboard end of the torsion bar than on the outboard end (with matching splined sockets on the frame and swing arm), so allowing an almost infinite amount of ride height adjustment. It's time consuming to get it dead on, and not uncommon to set up a freshly restored car a tad high in the expectation the bars will sag a little as the car is driven...which doesn't necessarily happen.

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The more I look at this, the more I like it! B) 

Overall, I'm not a big fan of snap kits as most of them appear too 'toyish' to me. This is looking pretty dang good for a snapper, and of course I'd have to detail the engine a bit more than what they give you.

And yes, those Fujimi EM series kits are no joke to put together as I restored one a while back if you remember. Just the same, you do get a real bang for your buck as while they can be pricey, putting one together is akin to building the real thing IMO.

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Thanks, folks... much appreciated!

Both the coupe and cabrio kits seem to be reasonably widely available now. Interestingly, this one is now sitting in an AMT "Deluxe" display case for 1/25 cars (it has fake chrome treadplate for a base), and although there's not a LOT of spare room, it fits as snugly as if the case was made for it. So if you're someone who only builds 1/25 because you don't have room for "Big Boyz" then this is a compact entry point to trying your hand at 1/16...

best,

M.

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