jonno356SC

thanks guys. so you prefer to buy rather than scratch build?

Materials, techniques etc. Thanks in advace

Hi Jonathan. Thanks! It was pretty easy actually. First I removed the molded gauges and buttons from the plastic part using a very small chisel. Then i sanded it. Following this, I used my dremmel to acutally drill holes almost as large as the gauges themselves. you can see that here: (The toggle switches are starter button wereb purchased online.) To find the correct Porsche-era gauges, I went to North Hollywood Spedometer's website. (They do gauge restoratio and restored the clock on my 1:1 1964 Porsche 356 .) Luckly they had some excellent straight on shots of their work. I copied them over to my mac and I used photoshop to scale them to the size I wanted. I didnt print on decal paper, but rather high quality photo paper instead. I was looking for something with a bit of heft. While I did sand the paper a little after I cut the gauges out, it was still thick enough to pierce a pin through the centre. This gave me the centre pin for the needles. The needles were made using very thin styrene rod cut to lenth. A long one on one side of the pin head, a shorter one on the other. I used a VERY sharp #11 blade to cut the extra off and make a arrow-head point. The chrome bezels were made by cutting aluminum tubing in a mitre box and then sanding using sanding sticks to get the right thinkness. I used all the grades from corse to super-fine. I also used a metal polish at the end to give it a extra-sheen. I glued the gauge faces with needle installed onto the dash using CA glue. The extra length of pin (I left 2 cm for good measure) went into the holes I created with the dremmel. Finally, I used 5-min epoxy for the "glass". I found this time it dried funny, cracked or something. So I topped it off with Model Master's Top Clear Coat. Hope this explains it. Jon

That R8 looks great!

Hi all. Sorry for the radio silence. I have finished the dash in my 904. I basically removed the pre-molded gauges and knobs (which looked nothing like a Porsche dash) and scratch built it. What do you think? The first pic is a test. The 2nd shows faces in bezels as test fit. The 3rd shows the faces installed with pin head and styrene needles. 4th is final with epoxy "glass".

Thanks guys. CrazyJim, yes, that is from MicroMark. http://www.micromark.com/magnetic-tool-holder-20-inch,7096.html Enjoy!

hi guys, some progress here. tires weathered and stenciled. one racing harness assembled and installed (clean up still required). and drilled out dash and have installed toggle switches, starter button and will assemble new gagues asap.

I should note that my bench above is in my garage!

Here's mine!

Nick & Paul. Looks awesome. Love the mini mini. Nice work. Paul, your decal work is outstanding. Jeepers, I better get back to the bench, I am falling way behind. D'oh!

Erik, you continue to blow me away! This is a beautiful build. Curious, what is your source for all the nuts and bolts? Thanks

lovely.

cool idea about Group C. I'd do the Porsche 962. That makes 3 cars!

M3 Fan? Perhaps you can tell us more about your camera setup (body, lens etc)

Hi all, PaslticMom is right. Going outside is a good idea. BUT this works best if it's cloudy. Cloud gives you a more evenly lit subject, which helps create an even exposure. When there is too much sun hitting your model, some of it will look too bright, while other ares be too dark. (I work in advertising and I can tell you there is a reason we shoot beauty shots of cars in a studio with those massive soft box lighting rigs. EVEN LIGHT.) Now, that said, going outside can give you some intersting effects. And you can play with different surfaces, such as grass, asphalt as the setting. Here are a few examples I shot of a Fiat 500 I built last summer. I shot 200 ISO at 2.8 using a Canon 5Dii with a 24-70mm lens. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonfinkelstein/6026559307/in/set-72157626907301530/ As far as the camera settings are concenered, it will partly depend on what effect you're looking for. Foxer is right. Higher ISO means the camera is more senstive to light. Which means you can shoot at smaller apertures and avoid underexposure or blurs etc. But the higher the ISO, the more noisy the picture can be depending on your camera. For a non-professional camera, I wouldn't shoot higher than 800ISO or it's will start to look noisy. (you know, grainy etc). I think 200ISO makes perfect sense. Personally, I like shooting with a very short DOF. I find it makes the cars look a little more realistic. So for me, rather than shoot at f22, I prefer f2.8 to f1.2. You get tons of light into the cam with nice blurred background, called bokeh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh Of course, as stated above, if you want everything in focus, you'll need a higher f-stop. At less than a few feet from your subject, I doubt you will find a differernce between f10 and f22. f10 is much easier to shoot hand-held and will give you plenty of depth of field. f22-f32 is best for landscapes and shots where there is lots of distance and you want tons of detail Have fun. Try differnt techniques and see what happens. Don't like it? Erase it! Love digital. Hope this helps.

the suggestion was to find pics of gauges stratight on. Print on decal paper. drill out existing. luckily I have a 64 Porsche 356 which has virtually the same gauges. I will shoot mine, shrink the size in photoshop, print them out. Done! THANKS

thanks guys!

Great idea! I have photo decal paper!

Mark, love your pics!

My 9 year old son is enjoying the hobby so far. Here he is building his first tank.

Greetings all. Need some help. I am in the home stretch of a Porsche 904 build. But the gauges in the dash are pre-cast. I have not comleted a kit that didnt have decals.... SO my question is this. What is the best way to make them look realisitc? Paint what it there and overlay 5min epoxy? (the lack of detail in the casting concens me though) Punch out and scratch build. (Anyone have a great technique)? Sand the faces and replace with a decal (which won't be the right colours)? I did buy some stuff from Model Car Garage, but not sure it's the right thing to use. Here is a pic of the part, along with a few references of the real deal. I've also attached a pic of the work in progress. Any comments appreciated. THANKS Jon

I bought some decals from Model Garage. As well as some bezels. Not sure it's the right fit/thing. Stumped for now. It's supposed to look like this.

Made some progress. Got rear firewall on, with scractch build cross bar, votage regulator, and fuel pump. Need advice for the gauges. This kit has them modelled into the plastic. Not sure what to do with it. Do I paint it best i can and hit it with epoxy to make it look like glass? Do I drill them out and try to scratch build something? Need some help! Thanks

Hi all, Curious. I don't have huge experience with body decals. When do you cut them to match a door line etc? Do you apply the decal, add setting solution, wait until it dries then cut it? Do you cut it before you actually apply it? Thanks! Jon

I absolutely LOVE this build. Very creative and well thought out! Looking forward to following this one.