Nissan NP35 GTP "IMSA"

[Brendan]

Started work on this kit from Studio 27. It is a very nicely casted model. Only downside is there is a lot of white metal and parts to be filled in for this version of the car. This car doesn't have a racing history. The actual car only raced once in Japan and was only tested here in the U.S. Car had a lot of promise except for its lack of horse power. The car was designed to be run with a 3.5L V-12 normally aspirated. In most opinions the car would have been better if had run with the twin-turboed V-6. Studio 27 has actually incorrectly named this car. It should be the P35.

The paint scheme I'm going to be doing will be an overall blue with white top and red and white chevrons on the side. Scale Finishes has helped me out by matchng the correct blue for me.

Body has been primed and sanded but I do see issues where I'll have to fill in areas since there are some small pin holes. And I need to add a little more filler to the back of the car. The white metal add ons to the rear fenders had a very large gap that I had to fill as well as the side intakes.

Chassis is pretty much complete. Not a whole lot to the interior. Although I did have to drill larger holes into the chassis to fit the wheels correctly.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Brendan

[Kanedge]

Cool, this should look good. I like the detail on the wheels and brakes.

[Brendan]

Got the putty on and resanded. So all the pin holes are gone now. I haven't had to use this much filler since I did the Jaguar GTP. One thing I don't like about this company is that you have to do so much modification to make it the right version. Still need to spray the white primer down so I can get a white color coat down. And that should happen in the next couple of days.

Also got the dashboard together. All the pieces here are all white metal. It would have been a little better if they would have cast it in resin.

Ended up using a little more putty on the back to get everything to be level.

[ScaleCentral]

Defintely different, but I do like it.

Nic

[Brendan]

Yes, the car is definitely different. The Mulsanne's Corner has a good interview with Johnny O'Connor who is talking about testing the car. Here's some links to Mulsanne's Corner. If you click on the pictures, they'll get you to more information.

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/nissanp35.html

O'Connor's Interview

http://www.mulsannescorner.com/nissanp35oconnell.html

[Brendan]

Got the white primer on the car. Rear wing will be painted Tamiya's TS-8.

Tamiya's TS-26 (airbrushed on). Waiting to be taped up to get the Scale Finishes Blue on. Wing end plates will be painted blue as well.

[Brendan]

Thanks to Scale Finishes, he was able to match the blue for me. Got the body taped up. Took me a little while to do.

Blue sprayed on and tape waiting to come off.

Had a little bleed through on the blue in a few spots but not too bad.

Wings painted with Tamiya TS-8 (airbrushed).

Next step is to clear and get on the decals. The decals should go rather quickly since I think there's only 8 to put on.

[ScaleCentral]

Looks good. All that body prep paid off and that blue is killer!

Nic

[Foxer]

Looking good .. this is one beautiful body!

[Kanedge]

Looks very nice, is the body airbrushed?

[Brendan]

Looks very nice, is the body airbrushed?

Yes, the body was airbrushed. I'm not a big fan of spray paints. You don't get the control like you do with an airbrush on how much paint you can put down.

[Brendan]

Started to get on the decals. Wasn't a whole lot of decals but they were a pain to put on. the issue I ran into is the decals were extremely thick and not wanting to settle around curves.

Had some small issues with the Nissan decal on the rear wing since the white started flaking off. It was like the ink didn't set properly to the film when they made them. Used some Tamiya Acrylic White to touch it up.

The side chevron decals took me about 3 hours to lay one down. Used a lot of decal solvent and setting solution to get it to lay down properly.

The one thing I was worried about happened But it's not very noticeable. When I painted the rear wings, they matched the red in the decal. But when I put the decal onto the model, it doesn't match any more. And I had already put the decals onto the wing before I noticed it. It's not a big difference, but it's enough to bug me.

All the decals on and awaiting a clear coat.

Still need to paint the headlight buckets and attach some small marker lights onto the roof. And then it should be done.

[Kanedge]

Looks good with the red on. I don't think the colour difference will be that noticeable, the two pieces aren't right next to each other.

But I know, it's something that would annoy me too.

[LAone]

wow, great looking build. the paint work looks great. once cleared, it's gonna shine nicely.

[RobH]

im watching.. im digging this build!

[Brendan]

Thanks for everyone's comments. The kit should be complete and in the Underglass Section in the next couple of days.

Rear wing together. Took me quite a long time to actually get it together since the smaller wing element needed to be moved from where the pins were. But it turned out nice in the end.

Body fits really nicely to the chassis. Tight fit with the front wheels though. Had to shave down the sides of the air intake a little to get it to fit to the body (paint buildup).

Thanks for following along. Probably will be starting on an Aston Martin Lola in the next couple of weeks. It should be fun.

[935k3]

Nice build. This car is so cool, it's a shame it never got to race.