| Cockpit
Use the Tamiya 962 kit cockpit, but remove the radiator portion and replace with the radiators (or a copy of) the Hasegawa 962 radiators/dividers, which are the correct size, depth and configuration. Mate the cockpit to the 956 rear bulkhead; the 962 intercoolers are narrower than the 956, so snip off the turbos and reprofile the shape of the intercooler bodies. The turbos will need to be re-configured and then remounted later, once the exhausts are in place. The cockpit is built up using the kit components for the seat, extinguisher pressure bottles and electronics, with photo-etched buckles and ribbon straps, to await further wiring, detailing and installation of the dashboard and steering wheel. |
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| Engine
Using the 956 engine, add a 1mm sliver of plastic card to the lowest flat portion of the gearbox just rear of the driveshafts - this gets the back of the engine sitting at the right height when mated to the 962 chassis. Then reduce the height of the front mounting pin for the engine so that the gearbox driveshaft holes line up exactly in the fore-and-aft orientation and for the vertical, about 1mm below the centre of the holes in the chassis through which the driveshafts pass - this compensates for the reduced diameter 956 rear wheels, so that the finished model sits level. Otherwise, the 956 engine, transmission and rear suspension fits like a glove straight from the box, thus allowing the use of the |
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| correctly sized Speedline wheels and tyres straight from the 956 kit. It is essential to carry out a trial fit of the undertray, bodyshell and engine, transmission and suspension with tape and PVA glue to ensure that it sits correctly/square and looks right prior to the proper build! Some minor modifications are in order before it is all mounted permanently –the alternator needs to be re-positioned lower and the cavities to the forward part of the main suspension arm and bottle need to be plated over with plasticard. In addition, all the mounting points for the pipes and wiring to the intercoolers, radiators and bulkhead, and the gear change rod need to be drilled, as doing it with the engine in-situ is a pain to say the least Finally, the exhausts need to be scratchbuilt so that they run under the engine at the right places and fitted - I made mine from 4 pieces of aluminium tubing for each side - 3 to form the individual pipes joined to a larger diameter tube to form the collector pipe into the turbo, with wire inserted to prevent them collapsing under bending; the inner wire should be removed after bending the tube, as the tube also serves to provide a mounting hole for the turbos, which need modifying to the correct alignment and depth - the two pieces need to be closer together and the inlet pipe needs to be snipped off and that point then realigned to allow the fitting of a new correctly shaped pipe to the intercooler. Once happy, mount the engine, transmission and suspension as one piece permanently and the engine can then be built up. Carry out all of the pipe and wiring detailing to the engine before mounting the 956 suspension arm-to-bulkhead braces. For the braces, cut out the diagonal from the kit piece, use | ||||||||||
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| the two pieces and also insert two more (mine were made from rigid wire) to replicate the 962 braces. The 956 engine inlet tracts and boxes need to be modified, with the interconnecting pipe removed and the tracts/boxes mounted leaning in towards the centre of the engine. The boxes themselves are squarer in shape than on the 956 – filling and filing works well enough on the kit parts. I supplemented the rear suspension with elements of the Hasegawa kit suspension, namely the brake cooling ducts with scratchbuilt support plates, the triangular strengthening plate to the coil spring arms, and various scratchbuilt supplementary braces from wire rod. The rear body support framework was scratchbuilt using plasticard The front suspension uses the 962 kit parts entirely. The engine detail was then built up after a lot of studying of reference photographs using a wide variety of materials and adhesives – wire (rigid and malleable, insulated and stripped), aluminium tube, small electronic components, expanding jewellery bracelets with wire inserted as a stiffener for braided pipes, bendy drinking straws for ducting to the turbos and tiny craft beads for hose unions, all affixed with CA glue, resin glue or acrylic varnish as appropriate. The most useful engine reference pictures to me in the engine build up are below (with grateful acknowledgements to the GPMA members who took them in the first place and then provided widespread access to them) | ||||||||||
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