Panoz Esperante GT1 1997

[Brendan]

Started working on the Scale Productions Panoz GT1. It is an older kit. Not real sure which version I want to do. I'm looking at after market decals. The kit decals are for the FIA version, the all white Blend 37 car. If I do this version, I want to do it as the Doc Bundy car which drove in the U.S., either that or the Visteon which is the all silver car.

The kit doesn't have a whole lot of detail in the interior to which I'm going to have to add some electric boxes. There's quite a few pinholes in the body which I'm in the process of filling. Will get some updated shots as soon as I get stuff painted. Here's some shots of what's in the kit. The black rear wing is one from a Tamiya kit that I'm thinking about using instead of the kit's wing.

This car was also known as the Batmobile as you can tell by the way the body looks.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Brendan

[Rick Bennett]

Looking forward to watching this one. Always had a soft spot for the Panoz, at least in the slot cars.

[Foxer]

What a wonderful looking body! I'm gonna love watching this one come to be!

[935k3]

Looking forward to this one. I always thought of this car as a modern version of the Cheetah.

[CaptainAhab]

Love the Panoz! This is gonna be great..keep em comin. And dale..good call on it being a modern Cheetah. Im with ya

[vizio93]

I can't wait to see more of this build Keep it up man !!!

[Brendan]

Got a little more work done on the car. Got the interior primed and waiting for paint. The body is waiting for primer. The weather got a little nasty here; a little too much rain.

Decided on using the Tamiya wing. Cut about 10mm off the end.

Went through my parts box and added a digital gauge to the dash/steering column. Seatbelts were made with cloth tape and blue paint.

Rims were primed and painted Tamiya's TS-14 and then sprayed with Alclad Polished Aluminum. They're a little too shiny for me so I'm thinking of spraying semi-gloss over the top.

[Blake Rogers]

Looking forward to this build as well love that body

[Brendan]

Got a little more done on the interior. Still need to add some more electric boxes.

Dashboard painted and added electrical connections that will run the wires when I get it installed in the chassis.

The tail pipes for the side of the car...the kit's pipes are on the right, but I'm considering replacing them with the ones on the left. (which are from the Profile 24 911GT3 Porsche that I had spares of. They looked more correct than the ones from the kit.) They were painted with different shades of Alclad.

This is the lead wire that I'm using as my electric wires. I sprayed them with primer and used the Tamiya's NATO Black and sprayed dull coat over them. Just make sure that if you use the stuff to wear gloves since it is lead. After painting, it's not a problem. I like using it because they can be bended and do adjustments when installing them in the model. The paint doesn't flake off. You can buy these wires through fly tying shops. (Fishing)

[Nick F40]

Thank god for you! Inspiration!

###### I need to get back building, but definetly watching this for sure

[Brendan]

I've run into some small issues with the body, but there's a lot of them. Mainly a lot more pinholes than I thought. I found that out when I primed. There's also a fit issue with the body and chassis that has popped up which is due to a small warping in the body. I did get the chassis and wheels done.

Wheels painted with Alclad Polished Aluminum and dulled with Future Acrylic Floor Polish. Brakes are fitted into the wheels as well.

Chassis completed; added electonic boxes and wiring. Small fit issue with the dashboard so I had to remount it due to body and glass issues.

[Draggon]

Wow!!

[vizio93]

Cool, the interior looks nice !!!

[Harry P.]

That looks fantastic so far! Your added detail really makes a big difference.

[Kanedge]

Great detailing work, nice job.

[CaptainAhab]

Lookin good. Loving this build

[Brendan]

Thanks for everyone's comments. I would have replied sooner but I was out of town for several days and had no access to a computer. So I haven't touched the kit for a while.

[Brendan]

Well after several weeks of paint issues, like having to strip it at least 3 times. It was having some fish eying problems. Was able to get the primer down and several coats of Tamiya Gloss While down. I've had issues in the past with older resin being extremely oily even after washing it. Took me quite a while to fill in all the pin holes. I didn't mix my two part filler properly so it took a long time for it to cure.

Body primed with Duplicolor White Primer

Several coats of Tamiya Gloss White (TS-26; airbrushed)

[sjordan2]

Beautiful work. What scale is the kit?

[Brendan]

The scale is in between a 1/24 and 1/25. I believe it was originally copied from a slot car body and reworked to make it more correct.

[Brendan]

Got some painting done. Painted the dive planes and front diffuser with Tamiya's TS-29 (airbrushed).

Got the side mirrors together with the mirror insert.

Wing end plates painted with TS-49 (airbrushed).

[Brendan]

Took me all day but I finally got on all the decals. Talk about your "pain in the butt"... The decals did not like the water at all. Figured out that if the water was really really hot that the decals liked it better and didn't seem to crack as much. Used a lot of Micro Sol and Micro Set to get the decals to lay down. Very brittle and you can see on one of the decals where a big hunk went missing. But I think it turned out okay. Ended up using Tamiya's TS-49 for the red, TS-44 for the blue and TS-35 for the green. This was to touch up the decals. Also used TS-30 silver to do the fine line border trim around the decal.

This is after clear coat and touchup of the decals with the paint. Fixed the big hole in the blue decal.

[highway]

Well after several weeks of paint issues, like having to strip it at least 3 times.

Brendan, what did you use for stripping the paint from the resin body? I don't have much resin experience but have a couple bodies I've wanted to use, but been afraid of messing up the paint. I've heard the purple pond doesn't like resin!

Also, very nice job, I like this project, don't know how I missed it for so long!

[dwc43]

Brendan, what did you use for stripping the paint from the resin body? I don't have much resin experience but have a couple bodies I've wanted to use, but been afraid of messing up the paint. I've heard the purple pond doesn't like resin!

Also, very nice job, I like this project, don't know how I missed it for so long!

I've used the purple pond one some small items before and it seemed to work o.k. I painted a resin tool box that I cut down to use in an ambulance and it did not lay down right and it sat in the pond for days. Wiped it off and washed it under water and it looks pretty good. Have not painted it yet, but I see no damage to it. Even the pin holes are still filled in. If we are not supposed to use it I need to know too. I just threw it in there and it seemed to be o.k.

[Brendan]

The product I use is called Scale Coat II. It doesn't harm the resin unless you leave it in there for several hours. Usually takes about 15 to 20 minutes for it to work. A warning about Castrol Super Clean is that it will easily destroy resin. It will usually make the resin very soft and rubbery.