| I have not yet finished the model, but have reached the stage where all of the main work except for the painting and final detailing has been completed. I have dealt with the build thus far in 3 distinct areas – the undertray/chassis, the bodyshell/tail and the engine/suspension. I have not provided measurements of the bodyshell here, as these are available from the templates I posted on the GPMA e-group files section at Yahoo! Groups : gpma Files | ||||||||||||
| Undertray/Chassis
Remove the rear wheel arches, rear body supports and front engine mount with a fine razor saw and fill the injection sink marks. Remove the two mounting lugs on each side used for the body mounting pins and fill with plasticard/filler. Plenty of filing and wet & dry sanding is needed to produce the surface needed before painting in black and aluminium. |
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| Body Shell
Separate the rear deck for conversion using a fine razor saw and knife. Sand/polish the glass to get rid of the moulding pips (they almost disappear) and drill the 4 vent holes needed in each side window. Remove the radiator grilles/supports and make two razor saw cuts down each side of the intake ramps to the forward panel line of the door to deepen the intakes - then bend the ramp down to the correct depth and mark the position inside the shell. Make sure that they are not bent down so far that the shell does not fit onto the undertray/cockpit once the radiators are in place! Once marked, glue plastic fillet stops to the inside of the shell and form the extension downwards of the door panels to the correct point, to which the intake ramp can then be gently bent down and glued. Open out the holes for the fuel fillers and make a fine cut at the front tow ring hook recess to take a separate tow ring. |
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| Bodyshell Side
Fill the incorrect panel lines, exhaust holes and vents. Rescribe new lines and create new exhaust holes in panels. Fill body mounting pin holes with the pins from the kit and then fill and file flat. File flat the raised area around the pins inside the shell for a smooth internal panel finish near the turbo location and cockpit. |
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Rear Deck
Except for the length and rear profile, the kit rear deck has the correct main dimensions, vents and wheel arch shape – all of the modifications are dimensioned and shown in detail in the templates. Extend the rear deck by gluing plasticard to the underside of the rear deck and then above with another piece of plastic card cut and shaped |
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| to correct length. The rear sides can then be extended to the correct length and shape before doing plenty of filling, shaping, sanding and polishing to get the right profile to the top of the rear deck. Underneath the deck, plasticard needs to be used to box in and match onto the chassis undertray; part of the wheel arches cut from the undertray can be reused to form new inner arches. Scratchbuild the rear panel, using 20 thou plasticard and square strip. The rear wing side plates are scratchbuilt from plasticard - the outline from the 956 kit makes a good starting point. Two straight slots U-shaped slots are carved into the top of the rear deck to locate the wing end plates; the bottom edges of the plates are bevelled to provide a nice snug fit into the slots, to give a good, solid joint once glued, with minimal filling needed. |  |
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