Porsche 918 - Gulf Colors

[Kmb0319]

Well, this was a fun project.  I like the Porsche 918 a lot, and from what I've seen of builds, it's a really nice kit, but I hadn't been compelled to purchase one.  Then, last month, I wanted to get something to build with minimal investment.  So, no special paint, and no wired distributor or special tires, etc.  KIT ONLY!  Without purchasing a distributor to wire it up, it pretty much ruled out a muscle car, but I wanted to have something that would build up into a nice model.  The Revell Porsche 918 was sitting on the HL shelf, and certainly had a parts count that would make it a fun project.  Besides, I had a beautiful set of Tamiya 20" BBS wheels and tires that I bought for a previous Ferrari kit and ended up not using... the biggest weakness of most of these Revell Germany sports car kits are the wheels and tires are too small, so I had a better option if needed.

Once I bought it, I had to figure out what to do with it... using paints I already had.  As I researched, I found a couple pictures of a 1:1 918 done up in Gulf Livery... while I kept looking, that one stood out.  I had a can of Tamiya French Blue I'd never used, and I had Testors Hemi Orange... they aren't a perfect match, but close enough.  I didn't have any Gulf decals, so I decided to do my own version.

I used the aformentioned paints for the body, and had a bottle of Testors flat light blue that I could add some edging to the interior trim with.  The rest of the interior is a combination of flat black and a Vallejo color called black/grey, and Testors graphite here and there for carbon fiber.  I sprayed the chassis with Tamiya gunmetal instead of black to simulate the same, but the front diffuser is graphite.  The one detail that was confounding me was the outline for the stripes once I had masked and painted them.  I fixed that two ways.  For the stripe over the top of the body, I found a set of Chevy SS stripes unused from my 70 Monte Carlo...  I carefully measured and snipped segments of the outer SS pin stripe to create the outline.  I didn't have enough for the sides, so I found some leftover white pinstriping from the decal sheet for my 1/16 Petty Charger kit.  Actually, the colors come off a little more Petty than Gulf... but it was a fun project.

Overall, great kit... but these were the worst Revell decals I've ever gotten.  Lots of tiny decals on this sheet, but they were awful to work with.  Usually Revell decals are great... these wouldn't come off the sheet, and then would stick to the hobby knife, your finger, anything but the surface they were meant for.  Even if I got them into their place, as I fiddled with them to get them lined up correctly, they dried up quickly and fluttered off.  The dash gauge decals go onto perfectly flat circles.. should have been easy, but refused to lay flat or stick... I had to eventually glue them down.  I'm sure I just got a bad sheet, but if you're working with this one, just be aware.  Hope you like it... comments always welcome.

Interior before installation:

And, done:

 

Edited August 22, 2017 by Kmb0319
Saving space

[jaymcminn]

Very cool. The color scheme is well chosen and the wheel/tire package is just aggressive enough. Thanks for the heads up on the decals... I'll keep that in mind when I start mine!

[D. Battista]

Nicely done...

[Scalper]

Looks great.  

[bbowser]

I like it!  Nicely done.

[vintagercr]

Very nice!

[da_ashman]

Great Job! The Wheels really set it off!

[TooOld]

Nice !!

[Snake45]

Very nice, and something you don't see every day. Model on!