Spirit of America Porsche 956

[Nacho Z]

I thought I would share another build with all of you.  I am going to build the Spirit of America liveried Porsche 956.  I will be using the following items on this build:

• Tamiya Newman Porsche 956
• Studio 27 Spirit of America decals
• Studio 27 wheels
• Scale Motorsport PE set
• Eduard 6 point racing harness
• Various Detail Master and Pro Tech items

Now for a couple of notes.  I am no expert on these types of race cars.  I just happen to like them, I think they are absolutely gorgeous machines.  I do not expect my model to be an exact replica.  I will try to explain why I did what I did if I deviated from the prototype.  I appreciate all comments and suggestions that you may offer.  The truth is, like most of my WIP threads that I have done in the past, this model is already complete.  I still think this WIP could be beneficial to someone thinking of building a similar model.  

The following pics are of the car that I'm building.  I got them from the Internet.  I would give credit to the photographer if I knew who they were.

 

Here are a few pics of what I am starting with.

 

[cobraman]

Cool car. Decals may take awhile ! 😀

[TransAmMike]

Should be cool, but then again, most Porsches are. I find it interesting there is actually a Haynes shop manual for it???

[Anglia105E]

10 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Should be cool, but then again, most Porsches are. I find it interesting there is actually a Haynes shop manual for it???

Yes Mike, you would be surprised at some of the strange vehicles that have a Haynes shop manual for them........ Almost ANY vehicle in fact !

David

[jaymcminn]

13 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Should be cool, but then again, most Porsches are. I find it interesting there is actually a Haynes shop manual for it???

Haynes has been releasing "manuals" for years that are really more like commemorative books than actual shop manuals. I bought one as reference for my 1/12 Airfix Blower Bentley (the eternal back-burner project) and it has some nice pictures and history but little technical information. 

[Anglia105E]

2 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

Haynes has been releasing "manuals" for years that are really more like commemorative books than actual shop manuals. I bought one as reference for my 1/12 Airfix Blower Bentley (the eternal back-burner project) and it has some nice pictures and history but little technical information. 

I have the very same Bentley Blower Haynes manual, Jason..... and although it does help in some ways with the 1:24 scale build, I would agree that the manual is lacking in technical info.

David

[Nacho Z]

21 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Should be cool, but then again, most Porsches are. I find it interesting there is actually a Haynes shop manual for it???

 

11 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

Yes Mike, you would be surprised at some of the strange vehicles that have a Haynes shop manual for them........ Almost ANY vehicle in fact !

David

 

8 hours ago, jaymcminn said:

Haynes has been releasing "manuals" for years that are really more like commemorative books than actual shop manuals. I bought one as reference for my 1/12 Airfix Blower Bentley (the eternal back-burner project) and it has some nice pictures and history but little technical information. 

 

5 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

I have the very same Bentley Blower Haynes manual, Jason..... and although it does help in some ways with the 1:24 scale build, I would agree that the manual is lacking in technical info.

David

Yeah, guys, this Hayne's Manual was a mixed bag.  It states that it covers a number of years and the 956 & 962, so they are packing a lot of things into one book.  So on one hand you get a lot of general info about these cars but on the other hand you don't get a lot of specific info about any one car or item.  There were some good reference photos but probably nothing you couldn't find on the internet.  I do have a number of their books on different race cars.  Some are better than others.

[Nacho Z]

I started this model back in 2019 and ran into some problems with it.  It was set aside until this year when I decided to pull it back out and finish it.  In 2019 I had not yet started to airbrush so everything I did was done with rattle cans.  I did not know what the true shade of blue that was used on the nose.  You just can't tell from pictures on a computer screen.  I basically bought every hobby spray can color of blue that looked close.  I shot Tamiya White Primer on some spoons to test.

I often times take pictures of the unmolested body to note where certain details are located.  This is useful when replacing molded in detail with PE, for example.  Note the molded in vents on the lower portion of the main body.  These will be opened by sanding from the backside.

Because this model is meant to be entered in contests I had to deal with all of the sink marks on the inside of the rear cowl.  What a pain that was!

Here are the major exterior components ready for paint.  Anyone who has painted colored plastic knows that it can cause problems.  In my case it did.

 

[Nacho Z]

I made a set of PE door hinges.  These actually could be functional but I did not go that route.

As I pointed out in my last post, I had trouble with the yellow plastic.  I have read many times on this site, people arguing about whether or not the color from styrene can leach out.  I'm no chemist or styrene guru so I'll leave the arguments up to those guys.  What I do know and can prove is that yellow came through Tamiya White Primer.  It wasn't immediate.  There are several ways to remedy this and I chose the old standby, silver paint.

 

 

[iamsuperdan]

This is going to be a great one to follow. 

 

[Venom]

Looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds....

                                      ...and regarding the blue,

[Randy D]

John,   You had me hooked at Porsche :)

Randy

[Nacho Z]

18 hours ago, Venom said:

Looking forward to seeing how this one unfolds....

                                      ...and regarding the blue,

Josh, that one is Testors Extreme Lacquer Star Spangled Blue.  It was the only metallic paint out of the six.  It was one of my favorites but unfortunately  the 1:1 was not painted in a metallic, (at least the best I could tell).

[Nacho Z]

In between working on the body I would work on the interior and the drivetrain.  My updates will not necessarily be chronologically how I actually built the model.  So with that being said let's take a look at those gorgeous Studio 27 wheels!

The wheel centers are white metal.  I panted them gold.

This car ran Goodyears.  The Tamiya kit did not have Goodyear decals so I used some from my stash.

The valve stems are watch parts from a friends stash.  I had a heck of a time drilling out the rims for the valve stems.

The finished product.  I am very happy with how they turned out.

And here are the rotors.  There were no caliper decals and truth be told you wouldn't see them anyhow.  No flashy colors on the calipers either.  Actually, mine are a little too shiny.

 

[Venom]

4 hours ago, Nacho Z said:

Josh, that one is Testors Extreme Lacquer Star Spangled Blue.  It was the only metallic paint out of the six.  It was one of my favorites but unfortunately  the 1:1 was not painted in a metallic, (at least the best I could tell).

Aaah, I hadn’t even realized that one was a metallic. ... And dang those wheels and brakes are absolutely gorgeous!

[Nacho Z]

For tonight's update I will show show the work that I did on the interior.  As I stated in my first post, I am not an expert on these cars and I deviated from the 1:1.  If anyone can explain which one is correct, I would gladly listen.  I have seen pics of these cars with one and with two seats.  If I was a betting man I would bet the two seats are correct for a race version and one seat is correct for a restored or vintage style race version.  I like the one seat version and that is how I built my model.  This required a bit of plastic surgery which was a big deal for me because although I like scratch building things I don't really care to modify things, (if that makes sense).

Here is the original Tamiya part.

Removal of the passenger seat.

Making the blank space from sheet styrene.

Not perfect but not too bad either!

There are 29 separate PE pieces in this Eduard racing harness set.  I'm not a huge fan of these pre-decorated harnesses.  I have yet to have one that the paint did not flake off on some of the tight bends.

I am skipping a lot of work that I did on this model but I don't want to bore anyone with too many little details.  Here is the finished cockpit.  There are PE grills installed.  I used some spares to spruce up the interior.

I installed some tiny PE bits on the steering wheel.

I had a hard time capturing the completed dash.  I took this picture and brightened it so that some of the details would show up.  So, to the naked eye, the colors are much richer and not as washed out as in the picture.

That pretty well covers the interior.  There is detail on the other side of the bulkhead that I will show when I post updates on the drivetrain.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  They are always appreciated!

[Venom]

John, that interior looks absolutely awesome!

[Nacho Z]

9 hours ago, Venom said:

John, that interior looks absolutely awesome!

Josh, I appreciate it! 

[absmiami]

Well done  cockpit looks great …. And I like those valve stems …. 

[Nacho Z]

I made a post about this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans that is currently running.  This is a happy coincidence that I am posting a Le Mans build 😎.  Thanks to those of you who have commented so far.  I know these cars are not everyone's cup of tea.  On to tonight's update.  As I said in the last post, I am leaving out a lot of details and pictures that went into this model.  I don't want to overload you all with too much info.

As a reminder I am using Scale Motorsports' PE.  I did not use every single piece but I did use most of it.

I scratch built a coil, (there is none in the kit), but after it was built and painted, I realized it was too long and did not look "right" sitting in place.  I cheated and used a Detail Master item.

Here is the first picture that I took of the drivetrain.  I already have a lot of work in it.  In this picture you can see the coil I made.  It was just too long.

There are times when you do not have the correct parts to replicate something on the 1:1.  There should be banjo fittings on the fuel lines but I didn't have any so I used A/N fittings.  This caused the fuel lines to have to be curved when if fact the 1:1 are much more straight.  The wire routing is pretty close to the 1:1.

There is a bolt head in the zero on this penny.  Many of my none building friends have no idea how much work goes into a model such as this.  I often use a penny so that have an easy to understand reference.

And this is how I pick up and mount the bolt head.

And this is the part with the PE bolts heads installed.  Your eye will catch those small details when looking at the model.

The turbos.

 

[Nacho Z]

Continuing on with the drivetrain.  There doesn't appear to be much interest in this build, so I'll skip some of the details and hit the highlights.  I've scratched up some missing pieces.  There are prominent pipes running from the radiators/intercoolers(?) to the block.  (I'm a little embarrassed that I do not know the names and/or functions of all these pieces.)  Oddly, they are not in the Tamiya kit.

I plumbed the transaxle.

And I added engine plumbing with prototypically correct braided line or hoses.  All hoses have hose clamps.  Please note that the next two pics are NOT of the completed drivetrain.

A quick shot of the under tray.

How about a quick mock up of what I have done so far.  There will be more details added.

Next update I will talk about painting the body.  As always, comments, questions are critiques are welcome.

[iamsuperdan]

Dang. That's looking fantastic. Totally get what you said earlier. It may not be 100% accurate or "correct," but for most of us it sure looks right.

 

Those tiny bolt heads would drive me nuts. I manage to lose track of bigger parts, like side mirrors, so building with this kind of detail would require a complete revamp of my bench!

 

[IanH]

Keep the updates coming.... 

Impressive details. 

[Venom]

On 8/21/2021 at 4:48 PM, Nacho Z said:

....Many of my none building friends have no idea how much work goes into a model such as this.  I often use a penny so that have an easy to understand reference.

Yeah it’s funny, you can show someone pics of your model and when they look at it they’re like, “Oh, that’s cool”, but then when you explain how you painted every single thing and show them how tiny everything is, that’s when they are amazed, or maybe they just think we’re insane.

BTW John, your detail work so far is exceptional and very clean! ... But I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[jchrisf]

Wow!  This one is incredible.