Porsche 944 track-to-road conversion

[Pete75]

I've wanted to do a 944 for a while. The Hasegawa 1/24 kit caught my attention, although it is most commonly found in racing versions, whereas my inner 80s kid only sees the 944 in either in ether plain red or black. I had seen a finished model here at MCM where the builder had omitted the racing livery to create a track day car, and this struck me as a decent compromise; so when such a kit crossed my radar recently, I picked it up thinking I might to do something similar:

The kit was first issued in 1987, and everything about it suggests that’s exactly how old mine is! However, everything seems present and correct (enough) now I’ve bleached the somewhat yellowed decals with sunlight to get them more presentable. They’re still not perfect, but I was never going to be using most of them.

Whilst mulling over what I wanted my track day car to look like, I noticed that the sprues contained some extra parts that would’ve been included in the road car kit, including a steering wheel, two front seats and the top half of the rear seat. Interesting…

For reference, I downloaded the road kit instructions from Scalemates, plus some pictures of someone else’s build (below, right), and found that the only major difference in the kits is that the lower portion of the rear seats aren’t moulded into my racing cabin:

I only have a modest amount of firsthand scratch building experience, but I’ve watched a lot in these pages, plus I already have the materials, so this has become my latest project. Essentially, it is a reversal of what many 944 owners did with the real cars as they aged, and I’ll be aiming at the reference photos below. I’ve already progressed some, so updates to follow soon.

[Pete75]

Before chopping anything, I wanted to get the body sprayed while the weather still allows. I don’t have an airbrush or spray booth, so rattle cans in the front porch is my body shop! This one will be joining 3 other painted shells from other kits I’m planning to work on over the winter.

The kit is pretty cool, and comes with a detailed engine and pop-up lights. Body prep was fairly standard: a few mould lines & dimples to remove, but nothing bad. The sunroof lines needed opening up as they were only half present, presumably because the mould serves a dual road/race function. I used Dymo tape as a guide, but still took a couple of goes to get the curved corners right, hence the putty:

I had a couple of issues during the painting process. There was a false start after the first coat turned out to be the wrong colour. That was easily remedied, and a more appropriate choice for evoking Porsche Guards Red turned out to be Tamiya TS8 Italian Red – despite the name! A bigger problem was the unpleasant surprise that is “white line syndrome”, due to inadequate prep on the panel lines. I tend to go heavy on the scriber, so I really should remember to properly key the grooves with sandpaper, but alas. It was particularly prevalent in this instance because I used white primer onto white plastic, whereas grey primer might’ve shown up the oversight sooner. Another lesson learned.

I’ve previously developed my own fix for this issue, although I had to use it here rather more than I’d like. I had read that clear coat can serve as a primer – it does seem to work – so first I brush Vallejo acrylic varnish into the panel lines. The varnish is water soluble and easy to wipe off any excess but, after it’s dry, I run a 1000 grit sanding sponge over the line to make sure there are no raised bits. Then I mask off the rest of the body, leaving just the lines exposed, before spraying 2/3 coats of colour into them. Lastly, I sanded the whole body with the 1000 grit sponge and put another couple of coats of colour over the whole thing.

The net result is thicker paint than would be ideal, but the colour’s good and I’m happy enough. (The flash makes it look more orange than it really is). Finally, I put 3 coats of TS13 clear on everything and it can be left to cure while I start work on the interior.

 

[afx]

Nice looking project.  Hasegawa did offer a street version of the kit, I would assume that's why the stock parts are included. Italeri also offers a nice kit of the street version.

[beeRS]

This is a great kit, and you’re doing a fine job. Despite your problems, the red finish looks great and looks just like Guards Red to me. I prefer using pink primer for red cars, as I have had the exact same problem in the past. 
I used to own a 1:1 of these about 15 years ago. They hit rock bottom prices back then. At that time I picked up a few Hasegawa kits, and the Revell kit (which is the same tool as the Hasegawa). The Italeri kit is a different tool. Hasegawa also make a 968 Porsche (which is the later version of the 944), and many parts are interchangeable. I intend on building a 944, with 968 wheels as a replica of my 1:1 car some day. 
One thing I learned from the 944 community at the time, was that the non-sunroof cars were preferred as track cars. If you are building as a track car, then you have the best kit to begin with, but if you’re building a street version you can ‘pinch’ the rear seat from Hasegawa or Revell kit. 

[dino246gt]

5 hours ago, beeRS said:

This is a great kit, and you’re doing a fine job. Despite your problems, the red finish looks great and looks just like Guards Red to me. I prefer using pink primer for red cars, as I have had the exact same problem in the past. 
I used to own a 1:1 of these about 15 years ago. They hit rock bottom prices back then. At that time I picked up a few Hasegawa kits, and the Revell kit (which is the same tool as the Hasegawa). The Italeri kit is a different tool. Hasegawa also make a 968 Porsche (which is the later version of the 944), and many parts are interchangeable. I intend on building a 944, with 968 wheels as a replica of my 1:1 car some day. 
One thing I learned from the 944 community at the time, was that the non-sunroof cars were preferred as track cars. If you are building as a track car, then you have the best kit to begin with, but if you’re building a street version you can ‘pinch’ the rear seat from Hasegawa or Revell kit. 

I'm not building this BUT I really appreciate this kind of info from a fellow modeller! I sure if Peter doesn't already know all this, he appreciates it too! I encourage this kind of info from our great builders here and I thank you Sonny!

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by dino246gt

[Pete75]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:44 AM, afx said:

Nice looking project.  Hasegawa did offer a street version of the kit, I would assume that's why the stock parts are included. Italeri also offers a nice kit of the street version.

Thanks JC. I had seen the Italeri 944 Cabriolet but was unaware they did a hardtop. You would certainly be the guy to know!

9 hours ago, beeRS said:

This is a great kit, and you’re doing a fine job. Despite your problems, the red finish looks great and looks just like Guards Red to me. I prefer using pink primer for red cars, as I have had the exact same problem in the past.

Thanks for the info Sonny. Yep, I did actually look for some pink primer, but I couldn't find anyone stocking Tamiya rattle cans at a decent price. I haven't used it before; what do you think of it?

3 hours ago, dino246gt said:

I'm not building this BUT I really appreciate this kind of info from a fellow modeller! I sure if Peter doesn't already know all this, he appreciates it too! I encourage this kind of info from our great builders here and I thank you Sonny!

I sure do Dennis! Thanks for checking in.

[Pete75]

Made a start on the interior...

The top section of the 2+2-style rear seats is included as spare in the kit. This little extra is key to me attempting to add the rest of the seats at all, as it provides a valuable guide in addition to halving the work required. Being able to dry fit this will be key to working out everything else, so this was the first job. There are tabs on the underside which evidently should slot into the recessed lip to help locate/fix it in position, so holes for these needed to be drilled and filed. Additionally, I decided to delete some the extraneous mouldings in the boot space associated with the race interior:

Having the top of the seats located will be a big help when the major surgery begins. However, that’s best left until later, as the inevitable loss of overall structural integrity won’t help whilst cutting/sanding the rest of the raised mouldings out of the cabin. I marked out the various unwanted plates/panels, cables which don’t feature in the road car; there are also a multitude of rivet heads that aren’t really visible in the photos. I’ll use a chisel blade, multitool and sanding sticks to flatten everything.

Unwanted features removed, it’s time to start building back. The floor was a patchwork of different levels, so I used styrene to fill in and make it more uniform. The area forward of the front seats remains slightly raised, but it won’t be noticeable. Next, I’ll go over everything with Milliput, then sandpaper, and begin some scratch building.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Pete75

[WizPorsche944]

Cool looking project, let me know if you need any reference pictures ill go out to my garage and take some lol 

[Pete75]

1 hour ago, WizPorsche944 said:

Cool looking project, let me know if you need any reference pictures ill go out to my garage and take some lol 

Thanks Wizzie. Lucky you! I've amassed quite a few pics lot already, but feel free to share your pride and joy! ?

[Pete75]

Made a start on the scratch building. On the centre console, I added the appropriate arm cushion, plus a very basic ashtray. Also, I had a stab at making a car stereo using some photo-etch bits and pieces; I didn’t really want a blank panel there, and it’s more a more a matter of suggestion than accuracy:

The floor has now been filled with Milliput and sanded, plus I made a matching base frame for the passenger seat. In the boot, I fashioned the shape of the spare wheel - which will be eventually carpeted - using a tyre as a template to cut several styrene pieces, before gluing them together, then filling and sanding. From my reference photos it seems the amount that the spare wheel protrudes varied a lot, but I opted to put mine on the more prominent end of the spectrum for the sake of interest. Whilst researching this, I noticed another little feature I can add in due course: a retractable parcel (below).

Lastly, it was time to bite the bullet and cut out the section for the rear seats. It was the first time using the saw disc on my multitool, and my biggest surgical procedure to date... and I loved every second of it! After removing the bulk of the material, I refined and tidied the edges with a scalpel and files, and found the whole process to be surprisingly quick and drama free. Not often I can say that about modelling!

(Edit: the photo shows cabin sat on the wrong end of the chassis - seemed to fit at the time!)

Now I’m on to designing a structure for the seat. Doing some pencil chewing…

Edited October 7, 2023 by Pete75

[Pete75]

Made a good start on the backseat build. This is what I'm aiming at:

I drew up a mental plan, which I stayed essentially true to, although some of joints were improvised. I figured it would be easiest to create one bench, then just add the central cushion afterwards:

I started by making the top four rows of stitching out of a single piece of 1mm styrene (stuck onto a backing piece, for strength), and scoring the lines with a scriber. Next I softened and rounded everything with sandpaper; I also added subtle indentations (not really visible here) which I hope will contribute to the finished effect. The same process was used for the next two rows, although each was cut and angled separately.

As you can see from the underside (above), I felt my way through fixing the seat into the aperture. I built angled stacks of styrene pieces to set/reinforce the angle I wanted, and welded everything with glue. I soon discovered that the bottom of the bench was fouling the wheel arch tubs when lowered into the chassis, so, when the structure was solid enough, I used the multitool to grind off the corners.

The side gaps were patched up to provide a solid backing for the filler that will give the shape for the carpeted sections. For the front edge of the seats, I've made a cushioned lip from styrene tube; this too will be blended in with filler.

That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

[turbolag]

Any update on this project ?