DeTomaso Pantera Fujimi + Studio 27 PE detail

[bytownshaker]

The Ford Dealer I worked for serviced 3 different Pantera's. Only thought to take only a picture of one.

[beeRS]

The one sticking point for this build has been the windscreen. It's not the sheer thickness of the plastic - its the variation in thickness that makes the screen look so distorted once in place. It's a shame as Fujimi engineered the piece to fit flush into the aperture, so the outside surface is correct to the 1:1 car. It's the inner surface of the screen that is too curved. 

To fix this, I literally scraped plastic thickness away around the outer edge of the screen using a curved Xacto blade. Once scraped away, the entire screen was sanded progressively through grades ending with a micro polishing kit. It's one of those things that really shows up well in the flesh, but difficult to photograph. Anyway, here's the pics...

 

So, despite still being a thick plastic screen, it is at least a uniform thickness across it's surface now. I think, with this annoying job out of the way, I can finally crack on with this build.

[mrm]

Nice job on the windscreen. Wouldn’t it have been easier and better to just vacuform an new one? 
Either way, nice to see progress on this build. These cars were the ultimate mashup  between american hotrodding and italian exotics. 

[tooltime-fan]

On 5/6/2022 at 4:02 PM, dino246gt said:

This is looking great already, and I do love the Pantera.

At one time there was a transaxle  transkit for it, engines are plentiful.

I had planned to open it up and do the conversion, but now I can't seem to find that transaxle!

As for "glass" I'd make my own from clear plastic, no complex curves, and use epoxy to hold it in.

Keep posting your progress pictures for all of us Pantera fans to enjoy!

Great work in this basic kit, keep it Up.

 

Maybe you already know the transaxle by clearly scale 

https://www.modelbuilderswh.com/collections/detail-parts/products/zf-transaxle-clearly-scale-1-24th-1-25th-scale

 

Hope it ist ok to post this 

[beeRS]

On 7/23/2022 at 5:49 AM, mrm said:

Nice job on the windscreen. Wouldn’t it have been easier and better to just vacuform an new one? 
Either way, nice to see progress on this build. These cars were the ultimate mashup  between american hotrodding and italian exotics. 

I did think of that approach. It may have been easier. The original 'glass' in the Fujimi kit kind of fits perfectly into the window aperture - making it almost flush from the outer surface. I wanted to retain this flush effect. That would have been tricky with a vac formed part. I'm sure a modeler with skills beyond me could have done it.

On 7/23/2022 at 8:21 AM, tooltime-fan said:

Great work in this basic kit, keep it Up.

 

Maybe you already know the transaxle by clearly scale 

https://www.modelbuilderswh.com/collections/detail-parts/products/zf-transaxle-clearly-scale-1-24th-1-25th-scale

 

Hope it ist ok to post this 

Thanks for the link. I was not aware of that transaxle. I'm building this particular model without an opening engine compartment, but I may have been tempted before I painted this. I did find some other cool stuff on that link. Going to have to get some 3D printed Baronni wheels for another project now.

[Kenmojr]

I am a Corvette guy but the Pantera and Shelby Cobra roadster are two of my most favorite cars of all time.

Love what your doing with this kit. Never heard of this kit manufacturer before, but I've been out of the hobby 25-30 years.

[Bainford]

Somehow I have managed to miss this build. Glad to see it's back on the bench. Things are looking good so far. I'll be tuned in for the rest of the build.

I have the same kit on the back burner, been stalled for two years now, but hopefully It will be back in action soon. I'm building mine as a '72 with Lusso trim. I sorted the windscreen the same way as you did, but still have a small amount of distortion. I may take another shot at filing/sanding/polishing to improve it further. I glued strips of plastic from the inside of the window frame to hold the windscreen in place. I'll put up a pic when I'm back at the bench to illustrate.

[beeRS]

On 8/11/2022 at 4:20 PM, Bainford said:

Somehow I have managed to miss this build. Glad to see it's back on the bench. Things are looking good so far. I'll be tuned in for the rest of the build.

I have the same kit on the back burner, been stalled for two years now, but hopefully It will be back in action soon. I'm building mine as a '72 with Lusso trim. I sorted the windscreen the same way as you did, but still have a small amount of distortion. I may take another shot at filing/sanding/polishing to improve it further. I glued strips of plastic from the inside of the window frame to hold the windscreen in place. I'll put up a pic when I'm back at the bench to illustrate.

I'm glad to hear someone else took this approach with the windscreen. Mine is not perfect - far from it. But, a lot better than before. Good idea with the plastic strips to hold the screen in place. I'm relying on a tight fit with clear glue on the edges.

[beeRS]

Time for a long awaited update. The wheels have been stripped of their chrome using oven cleaner, and airbrushed with Mr MetalColor Aluminium. I really like this paint! I did think about changing the wheels for a more 'modded' look, but I rather like the 70's vibe of the GTS and the kit tyres have good sidewall detail.

I'm not going too mad detailing the interior. I flocked the carpet using Zero Designs black flock. I'm quite new to flocking. In the past I've always used matt paint. This is only the second time I've tried flock. The first time was on my 68 Dodge Dart and I used white glue which dried too fast. This time I've used clear enamel paint as an adhesive, and I'm much happier with the way it came out.

The seats fit in an odd way. They seem to lean too far forward. If I glue them straight to the floor, as intended by the instructions the seat base is horizontal and the seat back is almost vertical. To correct this, I used a small piece of plastic card as a wedge under the front of the seats.

The PE gear shift gate is from the Studio 27 fret, and the seatbelts are Detail Master. 

 

This Fujimi kit is an odd thing. In true curbside style, the top is fine, but there is no detail underneath to speak of. What detail there is, is just plain wrong! It's like someone at Fujimi just made it up. Have a look at the exhaust. It looks like the kit designers were able to research a car at standing height but never knelt down to look under the rear. The rear antiroll bar (sway bar?) is moulded as part of the exhaust. That's just odd!

The first Pantera kit I ever built was by Imia - that was extremely basic. It had a compartment for a battery and electric motor - very toy like! As a 10 year old kid, that didn't bother me. Although the Fujimi kit is miles better, the exhaust does kind of remind me of that old Imia kit. I won't worry about correcting it, for fear of falling down the rabbit hole of adding detail and never finishing.

The chrome looked too 'toy-like' so its been removed with oven cleaner and will be painted satin black with chrome tips.

The body masked and ready for the trim to be airbrushed satin black.

 

Thanks all for watching. I'll post more updates soon - I promise!

[Bainford]

Looking good. I took much the same approach with my interior. A lot of what's there is not really representative of the 1:1, so rather that get caught up in the weeds of reconstructing it, I just worked with what is there. Your flocking looks very nice and even.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yup, looking good. I'm intimately familiar with these cars in 1:1, after having specialized in maintenance, repair, and heavy resto work on them for decades.

The kit has some conspicuous "issues" (quoting Bainford "a lot of what's there is not really representative of the 1:1"), but your work is progressing towards a very fine model overall.  

[Justin Porter]

It's a subject that's definitely due for a modern kit but it's kind of hard to imagine what company would willingly stump for the tooling. Possibly Hasegawa along the same lines as their Stratos? 

All the same, absolutely delightful interior work! Glad that this one is going to be finished. 

[Brudda]

Cool color, nice job

[beeRS]

On 11/22/2022 at 1:33 PM, Bainford said:

Looking good. I took much the same approach with my interior. A lot of what's there is not really representative of the 1:1, so rather that get caught up in the weeds of reconstructing it, I just worked with what is there. Your flocking looks very nice and even.

Thanks Trevor. I could spend loads of time and effort correct the interior (I've been caught down that trap before), but that's time that would be lost for my next project.

On 11/22/2022 at 1:49 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yup, looking good. I'm intimately familiar with these cars in 1:1, after having specialized in maintenance, repair, and heavy resto work on them for decades.

The kit has some conspicuous "issues" (quoting Bainford "a lot of what's there is not really representative of the 1:1"), but your work is progressing towards a very fine model overall.  

Thanks Bill, I bet it was interesting working on 1:1 Panteras. 

On 11/22/2022 at 3:18 PM, Justin Porter said:

It's a subject that's definitely due for a modern kit but it's kind of hard to imagine what company would willingly stump for the tooling. Possibly Hasegawa along the same lines as their Stratos? 

All the same, absolutely delightful interior work! Glad that this one is going to be finished. 

Thanks Justin. I'd dearly love to see Hasegawa, Tamiya or Aoshima do an accurate one of these with full engine and suspension detail.

On 11/28/2022 at 2:39 PM, Brudda said:

Cool color, nice job

Thanks Bruce.

[beeRS]

This will be my final instalment of work in progress for the Pantera. I've blitzed through the last few stages without pausing for too much photography.

I sprayed the exhaust (and anti-roll bar) in black and tried chrome tape for the tail pipes. I was NOT happy with this.

 

So, I cut off the tips, ordered some 3.2mm (1/8") aluminium tube and made new exhaust tips.

 

I'm actually really glad I did this, as the aluminium tube came out better than expected once profiled and polished.

 

Whilst polishing, I did the mirror glass whilst still on the PE fret. That would be impossible once cut off.

 

Rear window masked and painted

 

Thin acetate sheet cut to size and glued in with white glue.

 

That's it!  The next pictures will be under glass. 

[beeRS]

This is complete now and Under Glass here 😁

[Ace-Garageguy]

GREAT looking model. Very nice indeed.

[vamach1]

I found your finished build in the under glass section.  I guess I should look closer.  😙  Very nice.  Every time I think about buying the Fujumi version I see the “glass” and decide I should build all the other older Pantera kits I have bought since the 1990s.

I did see this beautiful GTS at a show recently.

Edited May 2 by vamach1

[Funkychiken]

Bee, excellent build, I love this car, but the kits options aren't great & Fujimi's curbside is very expensive... But you've done a sterling job & the interior looks great.

The Flocking looks perfect!

[nickfzr61]

Nice build of one of my favorite early exotics. Shame about the glass. You handled it well. I did the same thing when I built my 1/12 scale Lauda 312T. After all the work I put into detailing it I couldn’t live with the kits thick windscreen so I sanded it down with a furniture polishing kit that goes up to 12000 grit and polished it.

[GoatGuy]

A great job Sonny!! I have an old Pantera kit but not the box so I don't know the manufacturer, but it did have a battery powered motor which I took out. I hope to open up the back and install a Ford Coyote engine given to me by Tim Hoagland, aka Codi. The results you got on the windshield are stellar. The kit I have has fender flares, looking like they were a bolt on option. The transaxle in the photo is from a Corvette kit and might be used, minus the drive shaft, not sure yet

Dave