Porsche 917K (x2) by gsdpic - FINISHED - Fujimi - 1/24th scale

[gsdpic]

Hello and welcome to my build log for one...or two...Porsche 917K race cars, as I take another break from the Sopwith Camel.  I swear one of these days it will be back to wood and something that floats.   Apologies for the long intro below.

 

The Car: The Porsche 917 was introduced in 1969 but the initial version was unstable at high speed.  With some continued development and aerodynamic changes, it went on to dominate sports car racing in 1970 and 1971, winning at LeMans both years.  

 

The 917 was used by multiple teams with a variety of sponsors and paint work.  Perhaps the most famous is the Gulf Oil sponsored cars with the classic light blue and orange livery.  John Wyer Automotive (JWA) ran three such cars in the 1970 LeMans race.  That race was plagued by rain and was a bit of a mash-up and all three of the JWA cars, and many others, failed to finish.  However, the race was won by a 917 from another team.

 

The 1970 LeMans race was also the basis for the movie LeMans with Steve McQueen.  That movie contains much footage of the actual race. The Steve McQueen character drives one of the JWA/Gulf Oil cars, so it featured prominently in the racing action in the movie.

 

The Kits: Fujimi has produced many, many versions of the Porsche 917 kits in 1/24th scale.  I believe that all of them likely have the same, or at least very similar, set of plastic parts, with different decals and possibly different instructions as there are some optional parts that appear on some cars and not others.  Some of them are molded in different colors of plastic as well.  I believe there are a dozen or more such kits, including a couple with the Gulf Oil livery.  At least one of the later versions of the kit also includes some photo etch parts.  The kit is a "curbside" kit with only enough engine detail to show what can be seen from above and below.  The rear hood is not designed to open.

 

In addition to all the Fujimi variations, there are also third party decals and photo etch parts available.

 

My Plans:  Hang on, this gets a little complicated.  When I first decided I wanted to build a 917, I was not thinking of the broader context, and just randomly bought one of the Fujimi models off of ebay.  This is the one I bought first.

Then, of course, I decided I really wanted to build one of the Gulf Oil versions.  No problem.  I ordered some "Gulf Blue" and "Gulf Orange" paint from Splash Paints and decided I could buy or make decals for the other markings.  I also found and bought some of the Studio 27 photo etch parts.

 

Then I noticed that the three JWA cars at Lemans in 1970 had slightly different paint schemes.   This image from the web of some die-cast models shows the different schemes

I liked the looks of the number 22 car.  Then I saw that number 22 was driven by David Hobbs and Mike Hailwood at LeMans.  About 15 or 20 years ago, when I followed Formula 1 racing, David Hobbs was a color commentator on the US F1 broadcasts, along with Steve Matchett (a former F1 mechanic).  They made the races much more interesting and entertaining.  So, as a fan of David Hobbs I felt I had to replicate the number 22 car.

 

Then things got more complicated.  Before I started working on that model, I saw a version of this car in silver, with Martini livery, and liked it as much or even more than the Gulf livery.

 

Martini is another well known sponsor of Porsche racing and perhaps even more iconic to the Porsche brand than Gulf.  So I could not resist looking for that kit on ebay.  I stumbled on one that had already been started.  But, ironically, the builder was converting it to the Gulf livery.  The body was already painted blue and it had third party Gulf decals as well as the Studio 27 photo etch parts.  In addition, the Martini model is one that includes the Fujimi photo etch parts. 

 

I won that auction, so I have 2 kits and 3 sets of photo etch parts and 3 sets of decals.  I plan to build one of these kits as the #22 car from LeMans 1970 and the other in silver, with the Martini livery.  I will likely strip the blue paint from the started kit (I already tested this on a small painted part) and then proceed to paint one with the Splash paints blue and orange and the other with some silver paint, possibly Tamiya X-11.  Here's a picture of the blue painted body and the few front suspension parts that have already been assembled.

 

I will likely build these two in parallel, and document both here in this log.

 

 

Edited February 1 by gsdpic

[gsdpic]

The instructions have you start with the wheels/tires, and so I did.

 

The wheels were molded in black plastic.  I sprayed them with a bit of Alclad Steel with no base coat just to try to make them a little more metallic looking.  The Martini kit provided 20 tiny decals to put on each of the 5 spokes of the four wheels.  That was a bit tedious but not too bad.  Sadly I did lose one of those decals so one of the spokes is painted instead of having a decal.  It looks ok, though the blue paint was quite a bit darker than the decal.  Below, the Martini rear and front wheel are on the right, the Gulf wheels on the left.  The center hub is a photo etch piece....the Gulf wheels use the Studio 27 photo etch while the Martini wheels have the more detailed photo etch parts from Fujimi.

 

The Firestone logo on the tires is interesting.  The kits included the usual dry-transfer tire logo decals but I have not had a lot of success with them.  But the Studio 27 photo etch included a metal, photo etched mask for painting the logo on the tires.  I used that, as shown in the second photo, along with the airbrush to paint on the Firestone logo.  The blue tape is wrapped around one of the tires and holding the mask.  It was a bit tricky and they are not all consistent, but it worked ok.  Sometimes when it really went wrong, I just wiped it off with a q-tip with IPA and tried again.

 

You might also notices that the tires are not the same.  One kit had slightly larger tires than the other, both front and back.  Frankly, I did not realize this until I was putting the tires on the wheels.  I am not certain that I kept the correct tire with the correct set of wheels but it should not matter.

 

I've also pretty much stripped the paint from the body parts that were painted blue in the Martini kit. 

[gsdpic]

Thanks all for the likes, or just for looking in.  And Happy New Year to all.

 

I've continued working on both models, and sort of working on two different parts of both.   I've been doing prep work on the bodies, as that will likely take many steps, potentially with a day or two between to let paint or clear coat fully cure.  I've also been continuing with the order shown in the instructions, which means working on the basic chassis a bit.   The pictures below show my work on the body for the Martini car.  The first one, I've stripped most of the blue paint and started filling some gaps with Tamiya putty.  The second, I've sanded the putty, and the third has been coated with the Splash Paints dark grey primer.

 

As noted, Fujimi used the same kit for different cars, so there is an extra window in the roof just above the main front windshield that was only used at Daytona.  They provide a solid piece to fill that in for other cars but that leaves an extra seam.  Likewise, some cars have more or different NACA ducts, so the kit provides fillers for some of them, but that also leaves extra seams.  So the putty below is attempting to fill in those seams.  I think the primer on this body is just about done, but there are one or two small rough spots that I will need to sand and recoat.  On the other body, I've applied putty but no primer yet.

[CDW]

Happily following along. Love the subject!

[gsdpic]

Thanks for the likes and comments, and for just looking in.

 

A quick update...I've now got both models in sync and have the front suspension done on them and the main tub mostly painted.  The lower, outside parts of the tubs will get the body color.   They still need a front radiator, then on to the dashboard and seats followed by the engine, transmission, and rear suspension.  I think I now have both bodies primed and ready for color coats though I will let them cure for another day or two.

I had an interesting exchange with Splash Paints.  In the past I purchased their "gulf blue" and "gulf orange" colors.  Then early this morning I received an email from them indicating they had released several new colors.  Among them were colors they called "917 Blue" and "917 Orange" that looked like they were for the Gulf livery on a 917.  I sent an email asking about the difference between the 917 Blue/Orange and the Gulf Blue/Orange.  I received a rather quick reply that the Gulf colors match the modern formula while the 917 colors match what was used in 1970.  The email indicated that the 1970 colors were both darker but looking at the samples on the web page, it appears to me that the 1970 orange is darker but the 1970 blue is lighter.  I also have splash paints red and white.  I think I'll use the colors I have and once I see them, maybe add a drop or two of white to the blue and a drop or two of red to the orange, if I feel the need.

 

 

[CDW]

2 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Thanks for the likes and comments, and for just looking in.

 

A quick update...I've now got both models in sync and have the front suspension done on them and the main tub mostly painted.  The lower, outside parts of the tubs will get the body color.   They still need a front radiator, then on to the dashboard and seats followed by the engine, transmission, and rear suspension.  I think I now have both bodies primed and ready for color coats though I will let them cure for another day or two.

I had an interesting exchange with Splash Paints.  In the past I purchased their "gulf blue" and "gulf orange" colors.  Then early this morning I received an email from them indicating they had released several new colors.  Among them were colors they called "917 Blue" and "917 Orange" that looked like they were for the Gulf livery on a 917.  I sent an email asking about the difference between the 917 Blue/Orange and the Gulf Blue/Orange.  I received a rather quick reply that the Gulf colors match the modern formula while the 917 colors match what was used in 1970.  The email indicated that the 1970 colors were both darker but looking at the samples on the web page, it appears to me that the 1970 orange is darker but the 1970 blue is lighter.  I also have splash paints red and white.  I think I'll use the colors I have and once I see them, maybe add a drop or two of white to the blue and a drop or two of red to the orange, if I feel the need.

 

 

Have you used Splash primer and activator? I wonder if the activator is required, as I don't see it offered any longer. My bottle of activator completely set up before I ever used it.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Well I will follow along on this topic for sure

one of my favourite race cars and I have three kits of it in the stash waiting.

My absolute favourite is the Heller due to this amazing box art painting

I will frame this box up one day

[gsdpic]

8 hours ago, CDW said:

Have you used Splash primer and activator? I wonder if the activator is required, as I don't see it offered any longer. My bottle of activator completely set up before I ever used it.

They have both 1k and 2k primer.   I assume the activitor is for the 2k stuff, which I stay away from.  I have, and use, their 1k primer.

 

Speaking of primer and splash paints....I tried using splash paint over the grey tamiya primer and that did not go well, the splash paint was too "hot" for the primer.

[gsdpic]

5 hours ago, Twokidsnosleep said:

Well I will follow along on this topic for sure

one of my favourite race cars and I have three kits of it in the stash waiting.

My absolute favourite is the Heller due to this amazing box art painting

I will frame this box up one day

Nice, I've seen that kit on ebay as well.   I don't have much experience with Heller kits.

[CDW]

25 minutes ago, gsdpic said:

They have both 1k and 2k primer.   I assume the activitor is for the 2k stuff, which I stay away from.  I have, and use, their 1k primer.

 

Speaking of primer and splash paints....I tried using splash paint over the grey tamiya primer and that did not go well, the splash paint was too "hot" for the primer.

 

I learned a lesson the hard way with Splash paints. It's imperative to mist on those first coats and not flood them on in any way because as you said, they are much too hot and will cause all kinds of problems, even on bare plastic. If first coat goes down lightly it will dry quickly and cause no issues.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Splash Miami blue with their 2K clear

These are like automotive paints and need good primer and very light coats. Same as Zero or Gravity Paints

[kgstakes]

That looks great good job

[Landlubber Mike]

Cool subject!  I've always liked the looks and color schemes of the 1970 LeMans blue cars.  Reminds me of being a kid - my dad had a slot car track and one of the cars we had was the blue and orange Porsche, my favorite of the cars to race on that track.

[gsdpic]

Just to follow up on the Splash Paint tangent....I do have experience with them.  Both of these were painted using Splash paints.

As for the Porsche 917s, I now have most of the interior details done.  The only remaining thing is to add the photo-etch seatbelts to one of them.  They are a bit of a pain to bend correctly and get in and I don't think I have the patience for the second one right now.  On the Martini car, I've also painted the lower outside part of the tub with the body color, Tamiya X-11....that's the one in back up on the paint jar, though it is hard to tell it is painted silver in this picture.  And yes, that is a small second seat.  I assume that was there solely to satisfy some regulation.

 

I could have spent a bit more time detailing these and there are  a few more (mostly tiny) photo etch parts I did not bother with.  Once the model is assembled I don't think the interior will be that visible.

Edited January 8 by gsdpic

[CDW]

Beautiful paint work on those models, Gary.

[gsdpic]

Another quick update....I've sprayed the body of the Martini car with Tamiya X-11 chrome silver thinned with Mr Color leveling thinner.  Of the two cars, this one is easier to paint but the decals will be a challenge.  The Gulf car will be trickier to paint but the decals should be easy.  I will likely alternate between working on finishing the chassis of the two cars and working on painting/decaling the bodies.  Once I am done with decals, I'll use Tamiya X-22 gloss clear coat.

[mtaylor]

Yes, that's basically a "dummy" seat.  As I recall, regs required a passenger seat and also the ability to store one suitcase of a certain size even though these cars were never meant to carry a passenger or suitcase.   So they made those as small and as lightweight as they builder could get away with and still meet the rules.

[gsdpic]

On 1/8/2024 at 5:44 PM, mtaylor said:

Yes, that's basically a "dummy" seat.  As I recall, regs required a passenger seat and also the ability to store one suitcase of a certain size even though these cars were never meant to carry a passenger or suitcase.   So they made those as small and as lightweight as they builder could get away with

and still meet the rules.

Yes, at least the GT classes required room for a standard suitcase.  There is a story, possibly apocryphal, of a team having to pound out bumps in the trunk of the Shelby Cobra to make room for the upper corners of the suitcase.  Thanks to all for the likes and other comments.

 

As mentioned earlier, this kit does not include a complete engine, just top and bottom panels that are visible through the body work.  These panels are fairly well detailed but have a minimum of parts.  Unfortunately the exhaust is molded into the bottom of the engine and not a separate part, making it a bit more difficult to paint cleanly.  Below is a picture of these assembled and painted parts.

 

The rear suspension and chassis is made up of quite a few delicate looking parts.  I've not started on that.  And, I've made minimum progress on the body decals and painting. 

 

 

[gsdpic]

Maybe a slightly more exciting update...the first decals are on the Martini car body!   These decals are definitely on the delicate side.  I've already torn several of them.  And there are a few spots where I'll need to try to mix up some dark blue paint to hide some of the flaws, and maybe some red paint touch up as well.  But overall it is going ok so far.  I've never had a situation like this where you have a layer of three decals.  But in front, there is the dark blue stripe, then a separate decal for the white circle, then a third decal for the number 3, all one on top of the other.

 

[gsdpic]

As always, thanks for the likes.

 

I've put a few more decals on, but I have some mixed feelings about this.   This car was the winner of the 1971 Sebring race.  If you look at pictures of the car from that race, you see things like black duct tape around the headlights, silver/gray duct tape over the seam between the hood and the body, and even the number on the side of the car is a bit funky as there appears to be a larger partial white circle over a smaller circle as if they put on a different number on the car.  All of those quirks are represented in the decals.   But the box art, as shown above, is more "idealized" without those features, and I prefer that look.  It is easy enough to leave off the black duct tape around the headlights decals, but leaving off the others may leave some gaps.  I've already left off the underneath white circle on the side and there are tiny gaps between the blue stripes and the other white circle.  Leaving off the other silver duct tape decal will leave gaps as well.  At this point I am not quite sure how to proceed; I am wondering how closely I can match the dark blue on the decal with paint.  I may need to experiment with that before I decide.

 

[CDW]

Mr. Color has a dark blue that may be a close match.

[gsdpic]

44 minutes ago, CDW said:

Mr. Color has a dark blue that may be a close match.

Thanks.  I tried about a 4 to 1 mix of Tamiya X-4 blue and X-1 Black and painted over some of the gaps and tears in that front decal and it looks good, so I think I can match it.

 

Further google image searching leads me to think that the box art is a picture of the restored version of this car.

 

[gsdpic]

A little change of pace.   But first, on the Martini car, I now have all the decals done on the starboard side of the car.  No pictures.  I'll take more when I complete the other side.

 

But I resumed paint work on the Gulf car.   I started with light gray primer followed by Splash paint's Pure White.  I was not diligent about coating the whole car, mostly worried about the areas where the white number circles are on the car.  I then cut circles from Tamiya masking paper and applied them.  I am hoping this will work well enough that I can skip the white circle decals, we'll see.

I then painted a couple coats of the Splash "Gulf Blue" paint.  I definitely feel like I should tone this down a bit by adding some of the white to the blue.  This modern Gulf Blue just looks a little bit too saturated blue for me.

I'll probably do that and do one more coat, then let it cure for a while.  Then I'll tape off most of the body and paint the orange teardrop shape on the top. 

 

 

[gsdpic]

Thanks as always for the likes and for looking in.

 

I put another lighter coat of blue on the Gulf body, about a 3:1 or 4:1 mixture of Gulf Blue and Pure White.  I then taped up the body to prepare for the orange area.

After spraying the orange, I added another stripe of tape just inside the previous tape in order to paint the thing black outline between the blue and orange areas.   I used a testors black enamel paint pen to add that stripe.  Then I did the always nerve-wracking task of removing the tape to see how things went.   Overall it looks good but there are a few areas where I need to clean up some blue paint that seeped into the white areas and a few places where the black seeped under the tape, primarily at the panel lines.  I hope I am able to clean up those bits without making things worse.

 

I also intend to paint the borders of the window openings black as well as the headlight areas.  I may try to delicately wet sand, primarily the border between the blue and white as there is a small ridge there, then add a few decals and then gloss clear coat with Tamiya X-22.

 

[gsdpic]

Thanks, as always, for the likes.

 

I've now finished the decals on both bodies and put a few coats of tamiya X-22 clear gloss coat, thinned with Mr Color Leveling Thinner, on both.  I'll go back to working on the chassis and rear suspension of both kits while the clear coat cures, then decide if I want to do more clear or do any polishing.  I put 3 or 4 coats on each, though the Gulf car looks glossier than the silver Martini car.

Edited January 18 by gsdpic

[gsdpic]

Well, I am now...almost...done with the chassis for the Gulf car.  I say "almost" because I realized while taking pictures I have not yet put the seatbelts on that car.  And, it looks like I should try to clean up one of the rear tires a bit.

 

Since the last picture of the chassis, I've done all the work on the rear suspension and rear structure.  There are quite a few little, delicate, fiddly bits to attach back there.  Plus, the engine top and bottom halves.   And yes there is some light blue overspray in places but it will not be visible on the finished model, I think.   Kind of like many of the photo etch parts which I have opted to not put on.

 

I'll work on the rear chassis bits for the Martini car, then I have a bunch of detailing of the bodies to do before attaching the body to the chassis.

[gsdpic]

Thanks all for taking a look and clicking the ol' like button.

 

I've now completed the chassis for the Martini car.   This time I took a few more intermediate pictures to try to show some of the steps of constructing the rear structure.  Also note that this is the one that I received painted blue and partially started.  You can see some remnants of the blue paint in these pictures.  Also, the plastic pin for the left front wheel had apparently been broken or lost and replaced but the front wheel did not quite fit right, so it is now attached with CA and does not rotate.  Oh well.

 

Here I've added the X shaped piece in the back, and one piece on each side with vertical pipes to support the upper structure:

And now I've added the upper structure with the spare tire, air intakes, and tail lights:

Added a couple more supports for the upper structure:

Added the rear fender liners and the top half of the engine:

And finally added the wheels:

This was easier the second time around, though still a bit fiddly.  The parts fit together fairly well, though in some cases the locator pins were a bit lacking, such as on those angled support between the lower and upper structure.  The end of the support with the point of the V shape did not have much of a pin to fit into the hole provided in the lower structure.  I just sort of lined it up, put on a drop of Tamiya extra thin cement, and held it there for a bit.   I hope that is enough to keep it in place....it is definitely something I don't want to touch or put any pressure on during the rest of the build.

 

I still need to do the seatbelts on the Gulf car, then it is on to detailing the bodies.

 

[gsdpic]

Thanks, as always, for the likes.  Getting close to the end now.  In fact, I have completed the Martini Racing car but still have work to do on the Gulf car.  Below are a few pictures of the former.

 

 

 

[gsdpic]

Thanks as always for the likes.

 

And here we have it, both models completed!   Overall I enjoyed this project and felt the kits were pretty decent though not quite up to Tamiya standards.   I have mixed feelings about the photo etch parts.  I don't enjoy working with them and many of them would have been (near) invisible on the finished model.  I probably used half or less.  Maybe if you were detailing a model and showing it with doors open and wheels off it would make more sense to use all the photo etch parts.   The decals with the Martini kit went ok, though I did tear a few of them.  The third party decals for the Gulf car seemed a bit stronger though there were no large decals to apply.  Unfortunately a couple of them bubbled up a bit when I applied the clear coat (Tamiya X-22 plus Mr Color Leveling Thinner).  One huge win was getting the black "paint marker" and using that around the edges of the windows and clear parts for the head lights.  That worked very well I think, and was fairly easy to do.  I feel like each kit I do, I improve a bit, so that is something.

 

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of the Gulf car then both cars together.  Enjoy!

 

[king derelict]

Beautiful work. These cars came out very nicely

Alan