Search the Community

Starting my first build thread on this forum - the trainwreck called the Trumpeter Ford GT40. There are many inaccuracies with this kit if one wants to build the 1966 LeMans winner and I have read that it does not represent any particular GT40. I don't know how accurate that statement is, but in any case I like to do my own thing from time to time, so I will build this up as I would like it. Visually, it will resemble a MkIIb, but there will be differences under the skin. The first hurdle to overcome is stripping the chrome off of almost all the chromed parts. This was no easy task as the Trumpeter chrome is the most stubborn I have come across. I did find a way, however. Starting with the engine, I cut off all the nodules that are supposed to represent bolts and nuts, and stripped the paint off. Looking around for nuts and bolts to improve the model, I found that Meng makes styrene nuts and bolts and prices them very reasonable, so that is what I am going with. This is a great improvement over the as-molded kit. I have place 57 bolt heads so far and more are sure to come. I'm liking that price on those Meng bolts! The kit left out some necessary components, like the distributor, starter motor, and crankcase breather, so I will be adding these. Must have slipped their mind. The beginnings of a distributor and the breather I knocked out on the lathe. You're welcome to come along for this ride, but it won't be a short one.

1964 Le Mans Ford GT (no 40 yet) art print. Stumbled upon it on the Bay.

I’ve finally beaten this into some sort of submission, it’s the Magnifier nee Trumpeter US Sports Car issue. It has several well-known detail short comings, mainly in the chassis, engine, suspension areas but having built it I can see why the designers did it this way, for despite my detailing those areas are pretty much invisible on the completed model. The consensus is that the body shape is pretty much spot on but the separate panels don’t fit together very well, this was my experience too. So, despite spending quite a bit of time during assembly to try and get a snug fit they still refuse to close very well. My builds all reflect drivers or cars that I’ve seen race and although I never saw the Ford race in anger, I did see Mario drive both Formula 1 and IndyCar several times during the Seventies and Eighties so his number 6 car from Le Mans 1966 lets me include the model in the collection. Mario’s car was chassis number P/1031 and was one of three cars prepared by Holman Moody for Fords push to win Le Mans. The HM cars differed in details from the three prepared by Shelby Racing and are certainly different to the car in the kit which is a mish mash of MKII, MKIIB and restored cars along with a good pinch of Trumpeter imagination. The colour scheme is also a change to all those Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren finished models. Unfortunately, the car retired after 6 hours with a blown engine cutting short Mario’s first visit to La Sarthe. Anyway, here’s a couple of pictures of the real thing and one of Mario as a young gun, 26 years old fresh to Le Mans after success in USAC stock cars. The model is finished in an approximation of Ford Night Mist Blue using Halfords rattle can Nissan Indigo Blue, in retrospect it’s a bit light. The dayglo yellow race markings are again Halfords rattle can and do glow in the dark! The markings and paint masks are from Indycal and were fine but the roundels weren’t pure white and show grey printing lines in them under close examination. I used parts from a 3D printed 427 engine but again, the extra detail isn’t really visible. P/1031 had lines of rivets on the rear clip aft of the window and also on the front hatch, these were probably holding reinforcement plates on the inside, the rear ones were painted, the front ones were bare. I used Master rivets in pre drilled holes to replicate them. The kit seats were pretty basic so I covered them in black silk to replicate the parachute nylon on the originals and added RBMotion washers for the vent eyelets. On the whole I'm pretty happy with the final result, I would love a MKI model in 1/12 to do a Gulf car, are you listening Tamiya? LOL

So after many years of not building a scale car, and having this kit in storage since 2010, I decided to take a break from building Gundam robots (as I normally do) and build up this GT40. This is also because of the COVID-19 quarantine that I have a lot of time to work on this. I decided to super detail this build, working doors, bonnet, trunk, working on scratch-building an engine..., rebuilding the front and rear suspension, putting in a working trunk hinge with cables, bonnet hinge, tire compartment, etc., etc.. I know some of these details can be done with the KA-parts super detail kit, or by using the IMC/Union kit as a base... but I had this in storage and lack of money pushes me to further my skills. Just wanted to share. Huge thanks to all of you guys out there who are helping me build this era correct! Hopefully you all know who you are! VID_20200317_173358.mp4

Hello everyone, some of you might remember my 1/8 GT40 engine featured here some time ago. Now I've modified the data to create a 1/24 version made of 15 parts, using my own jewelry-grade 3d printer. Below you can see the result, the parts weren't sanded or anything, just cleaned, glued together and painted with a single layer of aluminium paint. If someone is really interested in having one I might build it on request, and if you'd like to have some of those Webers you can get them here: http://fein-design-modell.de/124-weber-vergaser/ http://www.scaleproduction.de/product_info.php?info=p2290_weber-vergaser--2stk--.html DCOEs are available too. Thanks for looking!

got this kit a month ago i started it next week i got a lot work done on it so far so here are some photos.

Can these be the movie camera rigs for the Ford versus Ferrari movie Go Like Hell?

Hello everyone, here is the second member of my Shelby gang: The 1969 Ford GT40 Mk1. Since no one has managed to make a decent 1/8 kit of this famous and beautiful racer I had to build him from scratch, as usual. I used the 1/18 Rodriguez Gulf car from Spark as template. As with my other cars I made the body from polyurethane block material, copied it via silicone mould and carved the cockpit out. The roof was made from glass-fibrereinforced epoxy and the small parts are cast off - 3d printed parts. It's curbside, nothing can be opened, the wheels turn and can be steered though. The engine is scratchbuilt too, but you can buy a kit that used my engine as prototype on www.fein-design-modell.de see here too http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/106153-18-scale-ultra-detail-gt40-engine/ If anyone who reads this has an idea where to get chassis plans of this car I'd be really, really thankful for a hint. I'd like to build a full model since I already got the engine done too, but I won't build stuff like the suspension without proper plans. Thank you for looking, comments and questions are welcome!

The 1:1 subject: Was this the real winner of the 1966 24 hours of Le Mans? If so, then this car, Ford GT40 Mk II Chassis 1015, could make a claim to be the most significant American racing car ever. The infamous story started with the dominance of the Ford GT 40s at the 1966 24 hours of Le Man. After several tries at Le Mans the previous two years, Ford finally appeared to have achieved its goal. Three GT40s remained well in the lead as the clock ticked down on the 1966 race. The controversy started after Ford gave orders for a photo finish of the 1-2-3 placeholders to cross the finish line close together. According to Charlie Agapiou, the chief mechanic for chassis 1015 (the car driven by Ken Miles and Dennis Hulme), the team believed they were a lap ahead, and thus did not need to cross the line first. However, the winning team of Chis Amon/Bruce McLaren has claimed to have been well ahead on the final laps, and that they were told to slow down by Ford executives to achieve a photo of all three cars crossing the line together. Their justification for being declared the winner is that had there been an all-out sprint to the finish, they would have easily won had they not been instructed to slow down. A second theory holds that Ford was most interested in claiming a 1-2-3 finish, and wanted to snuff out a possibility of Ken Miles' personal accomplishment of winning Sebring, Daytona, and Le Mans in the same year overshadowing the success of the GT40s at Le Mans. This achievement had never been accomplished, still hasn't, and likely never will be completed. Ken Miles had the best opportunity. Famously, Le Mans officials declared the black and silver No.2 car of Amon/McLaren the winner, citing the fact that since it had started further back in the field at the very beginning of the race, it had technically covered the most ground in the 24 hours (a matter of just about 60 feet overall). After the race, Miles was headed to winner's podium under the impression he had won. After being told by race officials that they had declared the Amon/McLaren car the winner, he was rightly furious. Ken Miles direct quote after the race:"I think I've been f#$%#$." In perhaps a very very thin silver lining, Miles did not have to deal with the insult and ignominy for long. He tragically died a few months later in a terrible accident while testing a Ford prototype at Riverside, California. Miles was a fantastically successful racer (vastly underrated in my opinion) and greatly contributed to the success of the Ford and Shelby racing teams. Today is the 50th anniversary of Ken Miles' death. The Model: This is a Revell rebox of the ubiquitous Fujimi GT 40. It even includes a photo-etched fret that has "FUJIMI" clearly printed on it. The Revell repop depicts the #2 1966 Sebring car driven by Dan Gurney. I have ended up with three copies of this model, the P1075 Gulf 68-69 winner, the black 1966 winner, and this car. The plastic frets are exactly the same in all three. I had been intimidated by my P1075 kit, as it is one of my very favorite racing cars of all time, and I was reluctant to make a mistake. Rest assured, this is a very simple model, and goes together easily. The color is a custom mix of craft store acrylics, mixed to resemble Ford Arcadian blue. I masked off the front red markings to resemble the markings used to differentiate the cars. Decals were custom made and printed onto white decal paper. I soaked the original wheels in bleach to clean off the chrome, primered them in black, and airbrushed them with Tamiya gold. I used Future for clearcoat, purposely avoiding a super glossy finish. This was not my best result, but overall was a fun car to build in honor of Ken Miles.

I can't stop looking at this. Just released a couple days ago, limited to 40 pieces. OH MY GOD! http://fein-design-modell.de/18-gt40-motor/