1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 13- Seatbelts & bulkhead work

Time to do some more sub-assembly work & make the seatbelts in section 12 & 13.  

First job was to make the locking buckle that comes in 5 parts of small photo-etched metal.  I used a very fine set of sprue cutters to take the parts of the photo-etch frame & a light filing down where the remaining nub of metal still stood.  I found that the very thin superglue is the best for these kinds of parts & just built them up in order in the diagram.

The seatbelt straps are the usual kind Tamiya have with a plain sticky side & a fabric effect on the other.  Take your time & care when making the belts up as the straps are of different sizes & need to be folded in a particular way to look right. They will lose adhesion if you have to keep taking them apart & re-fixing them, so best to read the fitting guides well for each strap before you start.

I do find that even when carefully taken off the backing there are sometimes fine loose strands that need just a trim on the edges after making the belts.

Both seats were sprayed with Satin Black primer then, when dry, the belts were folded over & a small amount of superglue on the back of the seat holds them in place. The completed seats were left on one side for later fitting.

 Still some final bits of work are needed on the rear bulkhead/engine area as in section 11 & 14 where I need to fit the battery & circuit breakers from way back in blog post No.10.  I fitted the battery & circuit breakers to the bulkhead, then fitted the 2 painted cylinders (C28) & the vinyl tubing that bends to fit behind the bulkhead.

The 2 tanks & the large rubber tubing in section 14 then fitted in behind the already pre-fitted bulkhead.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 12- Fixing build & kit issues

Going to leave the chassis for a while to sort out faults with some parts & kit mould marks before I get to work on the rest of the build.

One major problem is the pipes for cooling the brakes & gearbox in section 8.  When I did a test fit I could see there was gap between to 2 halves, but only when they were glued together could I see how bad it was as shown in the picture below.

There may be other ways to repair this, but I put a couple of thin strips of plastic card into the hole to narrow the gap, then using thick gap filling superglue put some in to part fill the hole in.  When dry I put a bit more in to just above the good part of the pipe, then gave it a light sand to re-form the shape of the pipe.

Once I had the basic shape I used both medium & thin superglue where needed on the rest of the pipes to produce a smooth finish.  After sanding one of the thin glue stages I checked on how it was going by my usual technique of putting some paint on the pipe to show any areas that still required work. 

After 2 layers of the thin glue I had got the pipes to how I liked & then gave then a final coat of Matt Sea Grey (Humbrol 27).

The bonnet & roof sections (J10 & J12) have very large round mould marks that needed some filler, then thin superglue treatment to make a smoother appearance.

Now comes another case of bad fitting.  When doing a test fitting of the air intakes that feed to the ill fitting earlier pipes there was a very large gap between the body & pipe when fitted in the correct position. 

Using various thicknesses of plastic strip ranging from 0.5 X 4.5mm down to 0.25 X 0.5mm I started to carefully build up a piece to fit the gap.  Between each layer I did a test fit to see how it was going & what still needed to be done.

When I had got as close to the desired look possible with my skills I trimmed off all the excess pieces of card to give me the final filling piece.  As you can see the LHS & RHS are different showing how poor the fit is on the model.

The bridging pieces were then glued into place & a final coat of thin superglue & sanding to make a very nice smooth appearance.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 11- Wheels & front suspension

The completed front bracing was fitted & glued in place with no problems as it dried in the correct position previously.  The completed supports for the steering rack were glued in place & allowed to dry.

While this was drying time to work on the wheels & front suspension.

The brake discs were sprayed in matt aluminium on one side & the other was super-glued the metal discs. The wheels were painted in a Matt Aluminium, but when I did a test fit to me it just looked too shiny.

To dull the wheels I gave them a light airbrush coat of Matt Antique Bronze (Humbrol 171) just to give some contrast to the brake discs.

As usual with most models the rubber tyres come with a mould mark going down the middle which needs removing.  I use a very sharp scalpel blade to take the larger parts off, then using a coarse then fine sanding stick finish off the seam & the whole tread area gets a fine sand to give it a used look.

The finished tyres were just placed on the wheels for fitting later.

Back to the dried front section & the steering rack & rubber gaiters ( A5 & L2) went in place & the shift lever assembly glued to the floorpan.

The front suspension parts from section 15 were painted in the Satin Black used in previous parts & then highlights of Matt Aluminium to bring out the bolt heads.

The springs were sprayed in the matching Humbrol Dark Red as the rear springs.

The whole front suspension was fitted as in section 16 of the instructions & allowed to set,

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 10- Front support bracing

While the back of the Porsche dries I did some work on battery & circuit breakers from section 11 ready to fit later. The battery was done in Black, matt aluminium (Humbrol 56) & the battery caps in matt cream (Humbrol 103) just to give it a bit of a highlight.

When it comes to the front bracing of the car I looked at the instructions to see I did not like the way they wanted it to be done.  I thought it would be easier to fit as a complete unit ready to mount instead of trying to get it all to fit bit by bit. I glues parts A1, A2 & B1 together then to keep them in place at the top the old favourite of spare wire twisted at the top does the trick.

To make sure the shape stays the same at the bottom I used a couple of pegs to keep them in the locating holes while it dried. The whole frame was sprayed in satin black & allowed to dry.

When the whole frame was set I painted & glued in the master cylinders & the bottom of the reservoirs.

The floor of the Porsche had the rest of the bracing moulded in, so to match the rest of the car I painted these in a satin black. To add a bit of detail I used some "Ammo Of Mig" interior wash (A.MIG-1003) on the moulded floor grill just to give it a bit of highlight.

Next section to come is the wheels & front suspension...

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 9- Rear suspension

Now the engine is in & dried it will be very easy for me to fit the pre made rear suspension parts I did back in part 7.

The first parts to go in were the drive shafts, these were fitted into the transmission. Just a very small amount of glue used just to join the 2 together. While these set I made the 2 parts of the rear shock absorber ( C23 & C24) in section 17 & sprayed them satin black.  When they were dry I fitted these together with all the other small parts in section 17 of the instructions in place & then the red rear springs went on the shockers.

Now comes section 18. PLEASE, please take your time & not too much pressure when fitting these parts as the locking hooks can snap very easily.

I found it best to connect the lower support brace (part F11) to the sub assembled rear uprights, then push both parts through the hole in the chassis, turn the chassis over to push the hooks into the fixing points on the rear bulkhead to start as it gave me the right amount of rigidity to the whole unit but still have enough room for it to move when connecting the rest.  Next was to slide the small shaft for the rear shockers (C25) into the glued rear shockers on the chassis & slide the drive shafts into the holes in the uprights.

I then gently pushed the fixing bar C26 onto the rear uprights & then the remaining 2 hooks on parts H15. Please see picture below that shows one of the hooks on H15 must go below the fixing hook on bar C26 for the suspension to sit right.

All I then needed to do was glue the pin H20 through the link arm of part F6 & into the rear upright.

The rear suspension now works & ready for the wheels at a later stage.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 8- Rear subframe & engine mounting

I've a good long look at the instructions on how the sequence goes for fitting the rear subframe, mounting the engine & rear suspension to make my life easier, so after a bit of thinking I worked out a different way that works for me & the way I want to paint the model.

In section 8 I made the rear space frame making sure parts G10 & F5 will move as this helps with fitting later.  In section 9 personally I cannot see how the rear subframe sides will sit on it's own in a stable position for either mounting the engine or for when they fit the rear bulkhead.  So just to start I fitted the painted lower links to the chassis, then fitted the engine mount to fix it in place.  To go with the colours of the interior frame I painted some of the support beams in satin black.

Before fitting the engine I dry fitted just the rear bulkhead in place & then glued the 2 side supports A7 & A8 to the back. After allowing it to set overnight I took it out & sprayed the whole unit satin black.

I glued the completed rear bulkhead in position then found it easy to mount the engine into the rear first & only needed a small amount of glue on the bottom mount & the fixing point on the rear bulkhead. The pre assembled space frame was glued onto the top of the rear framework & attached to the rear of the chassis.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 7- Rear suspension preparation

Now to do the rear suspension on the Porsche.  First job was to make up the 2 drive shafts in section 10, but from experience I have never seen joints chromed so I removed it, built the shafts then painted them in gun metal grey.

The rear uprights from section 18 were built up, the main body sprayed in satin black, then the link rods & nuts highlighted in oily steel then Gun Metal Grey to give a more realistic effect.  The lower link arms & damper links were painted in natural steel ( 70.864).

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 6- Underfloor & suspension springs

Back to the lower part of the Porsche & to paint the under floor.  Had some different ideas on what colour to do for the whole car, but we had just seen a nice blue Aston at an race so decided to do it in a similar shade of blue.

Best match was a Halford's car spray, which now does go well on plastic kits. After masking off all floor area of the car that had been done before it was sprayed light coats of grey primer to give the paint a good base, giving it a light sand between coats to give a good base.

When fully dry after 24hrs I gave the under floor gradual light coats of the blue using very fine grade sanding sticks between spraying.  When done it had a final coat of clear lacquer to help with the finish.
















Time to spruce up the car's springs.  I could have left them black, but we have seen on race cars quite a few powder coated in red, yellow etc. I sprayed the springs in Humbrol matt primer, then a couple of coats of gloss Bright Red (Humbrol 19).  A good way to hold them while painting was to use a skewer to hold all the springs in place allowing me to turn them while spraying.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 5- Exhausts

Now to do the exhausts.  The pipes were done as per stage 7, but to make sure the pipes C16 to C21 set in the right position I dry fitted them in the mounting holes on the engine block till set.  All what was then needed was to sand & fill the complete system to remove any seams.

When it came to painting I followed Tamiya's instruction & sprayed them Black...  WRONG! just see below how they came out

Having seen race cars this is not how it should be.  Time to give them a sand to take off most the paint without removing any detail & re-do them. 

This time I gave them a base coat of Vallejo grey primer & allowed it to cure.  The front part of the pipes in a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Gun Metal Grey & Matt Black & the box section in just Gun Metal Grey.  The rear pipes were done in Vallejo Buff (976) as if coated in a heat protective layer & allowed this to dry for 48hrs.  All that was needed then was to scratch back some of this layer to show the grey base to simulate wear & tear.  To me these now look more real than before.

With the pipes set at the correct angle they glued into the engine block with no issues & there you have the complete unit ready to mount in the chassis.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 4- Finishing the engine

To give the engine a bit of a "used" look & to highlight some of the details I painted the oil cooler grill on the gearbox with Gun metal grey  (70.863) together with some dry brushing of the engine block with it. I painted the alternator, fuel filter unit, distributor & the belt/pulley in matt black.  The fan unit was first painted in Black metallic (71.073) Then the blades & the pulleys were painted Gun metal grey to make them stand out.

These were fitted to the engine together with the painted fuel pump (Part No. F3), the rear gearbox support & part C15. Using the clear tubing I cut the fuel pipes to the lengths given & using a thin superglue fixed them to the engine block.

I found that some of the clear tubing measurements are also a bit too short for my liking, so I advise to add 5-7mm to each & then test fit & cut as required. As you can see below a couple of mine show a nasty kink in the tubes, which in a real car wouldn't happen.

When it came to fit the ignition wires I had a suspicion that the tubing diameter was too thin to go on the engine block & when testing it out found this to be true.

 It was OK for the distributor but no way could I get it to go on the engine.  I keep silicon tubing used by carp fishermen that comes in different diameters for various projects & by using this to make a spark plug "cover" it got round the issue as small bits of tubing were glued to the engine block & then the tubing from the kit was glued inside these instead.

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 3- More engine block work

Back to stage 4 & fitted the cylinder heads to the engine block & the front mounting point (Part H4).  I checked beforehand that the fan belt would still go on at a later stage if I was to fit the mounting block.

Next was to make up the main gearbox housing bar the rear mounting plate (Part A6). After filling then sanding fixed it to the engine block leaving off the filter & starter motor. I made the air intake parts (H12 & E3). Fitted these to the top of the block.

The whole unit was then sprayed with a few light coats of Vallejo "Model Air" Aluminium (71.062). I then just gave it a light mist of "Model Air" Steel (71.065)

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 2- Engine block

Time to hit the powerplant on the Porsche.  The 2 engine halves were glued together & fitted the front of the engine, but went away from the instructions by adding the rear of the engine block ( part No. H1) to the engine. Did this to see if the join needed any sanding, & guess what? It did.

Using as coarse grade sanding pad I sanded the front & rear of the engine flat to the block then used plasto filler on the first fill/sand, then a medium superglue was put over the remaining filler.

I do this to allow the superglue to get into any little mirco pores in the filler & when dry/sanded I nearly always no join lines coming through & a glass like finish.

Another tip given was to put some paint over the sanded area & when turned under any light it will show up any area that still needs work.

This paint was then sanded off with a very fine grade sanding pad & washed/dried to remove any dirt or paint. 

1:12 Tamiya Porsche 910 :- 1-chassis prep

Before I started on the engine I thought it best to spray the whole of the chassis floor so it could dry fully while doing other parts.  I masked off the gaps on the underside & sprayed the whole area with Humbrol Matt Tank grey (no.67) & allowed it to dry.

When it comes to thinning paint I get asked  a lot what ratio of paint to thinners should I use, well I have an old trusted method from a fellow model maker when I first started using airbrushes over 30 years ago which is thin it to the consistency of skimmed milk as every companies paint needs a different amount of thinner. 

Humbrol works out at 1/2 the amount of thinners to paint i.e. 10mls of paint I use 5mls of thinners,  14mls of paint has 7mls of thinners etc...