C6-R in 24 hours?! Le Mans build 0f 6-16-07.

[Enzoenvy1]

Well, I will start off with stating that I simply cannot build OOB for anything - ever!!! I knew I could have the body and chassis prepped for the race, but I spent so much time fixing ###### that I simply had no time. In the end, I passed out around 4:30 last Sunday morning after 20 continuous hours of Corvette angst. I can honestly say that I did complete the model aside from decals and adding lights. If it were a just painted C6-R then I would have accomplished my task. But, it was a as is running Vette and I couldn't do it. But I learned so much about techniques that I would never trade the experience. So,..........here is the build of my #64 GT1 Le Mans Corvette C6-R.

Like I said, I was able to have the body primed. So last week I started by seeing what was good and bad with the Revell kit. Since this is my first ever Revell build (I am partial to Tamiya cause they are the best), I can't say if it is a bad kit. Most pieces fit really well, but the chassis pan was warped and the body had a lot of fill where it was not needed.

Like the real car, the front air dam is open and these pieces needed to be removed:

Here is the first cleanup of the ######. I broke the three inside slats on accident, but the purpose was needed. If you look at a real car, the three middle slats sit behind the mesh, and the 4 outer slats sit on the outside of the mesh. Here is the beginning:

The rear also has a cutout where a license plate would go on a street vette. On the race car it is not filled, but rather there is a mesh in its place:

So, that was removed and voila:

Next I looked at the rear diffusers and noticed that this is completely inaccurate for the C6-R. Revell only cast 7 diffusers wheras the real car has 15!!!

Here is the progress on the diffusers:

The lip of the diffusers had a curve to it, and that was also inaccurate:

So I filled the back and cut out the curve:

Now, 15 new diffusers had to be made:

Here are the first two, and the beginning of a head ache:

But, I made it work:

Some might think they are not all the right length, but I staggered the 5 main diffusers to be longer and the inners progressively shorter. Here is the finished product:

The dorr gaps were really crappy:

The spoiler mounts were completely inaccurate for the car as of race day in 05'. And Revell decided I only wanted one of them so I had to make new ones (more to come). So, I filled the holes in the body:

The green door light were simply dimples in the plastic. I wanted to put BMF in the holes and use green paint. So, I drilled out the holes to make the walls less round:

Here you can see how thick the doors were. The dremmel loved it!

So, I backed the part with Styrene and got this:

[Enzoenvy1]

Bumper after attempt 3:

Now, the rear NACA ducts were in one piece and not attached to the body which is wrong. So, I measured and cut them off. Then glued them to the body:

Ok, things were going well, but then came Saturday and the race and I was not ready for anything close to primer. Then I noticed that I needed to add Styrene to all the door sides, and the hood. Anyone who has done this knows it is kind of easy, but time consuming:

For fun and reasons unknown, I took pics of the clock to piss myself off. Here is where I was at:

Dash came in two parts that did not fir together at all. So, I added some putty and prayed it would dry in time:

Here is what Revell gives you for spoiler supports, it is the chrome one:

Here is what I had made, they were even curved for the angle of the spoilers surface:

Here is where they should be:

And the result:

Had to fill the spoilers sink holes:

Both doors and hood completely fitted:

[Enzoenvy1]

Here was everything that needed to be semi-gloss black:

The dash after sanding smooth and painted. I think it looks great:

Now, the front ######, again. I marked where the three slats needed to go:

Like I mentioned earlier, I had to recess the three middle ones so that the mesh could go in front of them. It took a really long time to do this, and I was mad:

Here is what they look like from the front:

And here is the test fit with the mesh. I am so happy I did this as it looks great!!!!:

Time is flying:

Now, finally the body is sanded and ready for primer:

Well, the chassis is about finished. Here are the diffusers after paint, and I am loving the look!:

Here are the windows trimmed out:

Oh My Gosh there is paint!!!!!! Well, after 3 primer coats and sanding. I stripped the chrome sprue with Easy Off, and that stuff was amazingly quick! Here are a couple of wheels in Tamiya Gloss Aluminum, and the body in Tamiya Camel Yellow:

The tires were hysterical and so smooth that they could not be real:

So I sanded them down with 400 grit to make them look more realistic:

Time was flying by:

Our apartment smelled like a paint shop!!! I was painting outside to, lol:

This was the 4th coat of paint and I was not touching it anymore.

Starting on the interior:

Brakes were supposed to be flat red, but the real car had Gold colored brakes:

Still flying:

I know, I know, not the way it should be, but I was not about to waste a ton of time on the interior:

[Enzoenvy1]

Brakes added:

Here is the paint after it dried for a couple of hours - smooth as glass already!!!:

SO, this is where I made to at 4:30 am. The race would have ended in 3 more hours at that point. If I could have stayed up, then I might have had it completed. But, the saving grace is that I had time to let the body dry all of the way. The next day was Dad's day so no more building. Monday I did the decals and that lone took about 2 hours. I have never decaled that much on a single car. I have never cleared with TS-13, but I felt I should to level out the decals. Here is what it looked like before I possibly ruined all of my work cause of the eating of TS-13:

Well, guess what happened?! :banghead: The clear worked flawlessly!!! lol I layed 3 mists and a couple semi-heavy coats to it. I can honestly say that I have never had such a successful paint job ever!!! I don't even need to polish or wax it, it is that shiney!:

Today I added the BMF'd lights, the spoiler, and it only needs a couple of touch ups here and there. Other than that, it is finished. I hope to post it tomorrow, but work will not allow until night, and I want this one in the sun. I hope you all like what I did. I really did try to make it in 24 hours, but this was a big challenge. Please comment and criticize if need be.

Jon

[Yad']

WOW................

That is one comprehensive build post. Good to see you tackling problem areas with focussed thought and diligence. A lot of this kind of detail needs to be brought to viewers attention as the more correct things look the more the uninitiated assume it was already there - believe me I know this from my own previous builds.

However...........[and please don't take this a a criticism].

84 pic's at an average of 250k within just 3 such intense posts will probably mean a lot of folk will give up waiting for it to load well before they get the jist of all the work you've put into this build?

I'm on an 8meg broadband download and it still stalled a couple of times!

Other than that................. well worth the wait to see this come together, you have my admiration for not just accepting what you see and for making it your very own - marvelous work.

Yad'

[ismaelg]

WOW! That's like seeing my life in a flash

That is looking good! Like I say "You haven't lived until you hear a C6-R in anger"

As you know, I'm doing the same thing as well but what you did in a day has taken me weeks. And I'm not even halfway done.

On a more serious note: For your own safety, I would recommend you to use a glove or a plastic bag when painting. Solvents in paint, (particularly in lacquers) penetrate the skin and get into the nerves system quite quickly. Not to mention breathing the vapors into your lungs...

Thanks,

[Peter Lombardo]

Great job, crazy fast build. I don't think I can stay awake for more the 3 hours at a time anymore, I sleep in short bursts these days, so I need longer to build anything. I have done two C5R's and have one more C5 and the C6 to build yet. Eventhough the Revell C6R builds to a beautiful race car, after the body mod's, I am still disappointed that they chose to simpify the chassis and engine detail. Oh well, beautiful build, you sure got it right. Ismael, I saw the same thing about the paint, you are right. I use an old plastic bag over my hand when I paint items that I hold in my hand. I am not afraid to get dirty, but people look at me funny when I have a rainbow on my hand.

[Matt T.]

Jon, that is fantastic! :shock: Thanks for sharing your comprehensive build photos. My hat's off to you. That is a beauty of a build!

[Zoom Zoom]

Looks great so far; obviously you now realize that an ambitious project like this isn't exactly 24 hour fare :wink: This one is best not rushed too much; final details take the longest.

The simpler the better when it comes to subjects that can be built during the race. My LeMans kit was simple enough that I wouldn't have spent any more hours than I did building it; whether over a day or a week or a month. GTMike400 did a Revell C5R OOB during the race last year, his first model ever and it looked great.

As for "rules", with the upgrades you did I would have allowed all the putty/modifications to be done prior to primer; so that you could have done the finished paint, assembly, and decals during the race. The main idea is to have fun while pushing your skills a bit during a finite amount of time.

[Enzoenvy1]

WOW................

That is one comprehensive build post. Good to see you tackling problem areas with focussed thought and diligence. A lot of this kind of detail needs to be brought to viewers attention as the more correct things look the more the uninitiated assume it was already there - believe me I know this from my own previous builds.

However...........[and please don't take this a a criticism].

84 pic's at an average of 250k within just 3 such intense posts will probably mean a lot of folk will give up waiting for it to load well before they get the jist of all the work you've put into this build?

I'm on an 8meg broadband download and it still stalled a couple of times!

Other than that................. well worth the wait to see this come together, you have my admiration for not just accepting what you see and for making it your very own - marvelous work.

Yad'

I never had thought about the bandwith, good point. I never have thought about slower connections. I am wireless at 54 Mbps and it loaded fast as can be. But I definitely see your point and will consider such highly demanding loads.

Thank you so much for the compliments as this was a huge undertaking. I might not want to do this again. lol

WOW! That's like seeing my life in a flash

That is looking good! Like I say "You haven't lived until you hear a C6-R in anger"

As you know, I'm doing the same thing as well but what you did in a day has taken me weeks. And I'm not even halfway done.

On a more serious note: For your own safety, I would recommend you to use a glove or a plastic bag when painting. Solvents in paint, (particularly in lacquers) penetrate the skin and get into the nerves system quite quickly. Not to mention breathing the vapors into your lungs...

Thanks,

I whole heartedly agree on the paint protection thing. My whole life I have been naive to paint as I feel that it will never matter. But as I get older - 29 tomorrow I need to start thinking about these things. I plan to do so, thanks again.

Glad you like it Ismael as I know you are a total Vette freak. I hope I did justice for your likings.

Great job, crazy fast build. I don't think I can stay awake for more the 3 hours at a time anymore, I sleep in short bursts these days, so I need longer to build anything. I have done two C5R's and have one more C5 and the C6 to build yet. Eventhough the Revell C6R builds to a beautiful race car, after the body mod's, I am still disappointed that they chose to simpify the chassis and engine detail. Oh well, beautiful build, you sure got it right. Ismael, I saw the same thing about the paint, you are right. I use an old plastic bag over my hand when I paint items that I hold in my hand. I am not afraid to get dirty, but people look at me funny when I have a rainbow on my hand.

I think that Revell made a good kit, but I highly agree that their level of detail is really lacking. But, it is only a skill level 2 build on the box. Maybe that is why?

Jon, that is fantastic! :shock: Thanks for sharing your comprehensive build photos. My hat's off to you. That is a beauty of a build!

Thank you very much, it was fun and tiring.

Looks great so far; obviously you now realize that an ambitious project like this isn't exactly 24 hour fare :wink: This one is best not rushed too much; final details take the longest.

The simpler the better when it comes to subjects that can be built during the race. My LeMans kit was simple enough that I wouldn't have spent any more hours than I did building it; whether over a day or a week or a month. GTMike400 did a Revell C5R OOB during the race last year, his first model ever and it looked great.

As for "rules", with the upgrades you did I would have allowed all the putty/modifications to be done prior to primer; so that you could have done the finished paint, assembly, and decals during the race. The main idea is to have fun while pushing your skills a bit during a finite amount of time.

I will choose something considerably less tasking next time. I thought I would have been ready but was not and that is why I did not succeed. But, I tried and tried I did. lol Next year will be better as I will find a build that is a closed body with no mods.

Like I said at AF, your build was beautiful!!!

[DarylH]

It's a friggin' book......and I love it!

An outstanding build tutorial so I thought perhaps I'd print it out to include in my kit for my future build.

Yikes!......45 pages!!

I'll book mark this post and hope it's still here whem I'm ready to tackle the project.

[Enzoenvy1]

It's a friggin' book......and I love it!

An outstanding build tutorial so I thought perhaps I'd print it out to include in my kit for my future build.

Yikes!......45 pages!!

I'll book mark this post and hope it's still here whem I'm ready to tackle the project.

Think about how I felt posting it, lol.

Thanks to you all, it is finished and posted.

Jon