Trumpeter 1/12 Ford GT40 MkII

[Jo NZ]

Here are some early picturesThis is why you can't fit a spare tyre (lucky there isn't one in the kit!)At least I have oil in the dry sump tank...

More soon

[Jo NZ]

The steering rack is far too long and gives excessive toe-out. I cured it by cutting a section out of the centre of the rack and sleeving between the tie-rod boots with a piece of aluminium tube.
I wasn't worried about it working, and in retrospect I should have removed the tab on the front bulkhead.

[Jo NZ]

Here's how the seats turned out



A wider cockpit view. The roll over bar and it's support weren't fitted until the end of the '66 season so need to be deleted for Le Mans. The decals provide for a speedo - again not fitted for LM, it's space is used for the on/off switch. Yellow for the no 1 car, but the others varied...
The gearknob has been replaced with a round one.



The passenger door needs chamfering to allow it to close, mainly along the A pillar and on the front edge.






Trumpeter go to a lot of trouble with the oil and fuel hoses and fittings, but there's no distributor or leads. Wierd.





Some general views...




The windscreen needs a lot of work to make it fit...

[Jo NZ]

An update: the decals are on, but need a bit of fine tuning. The fluorescent red front wing panels are masked and sprayed - the bodywork is much too curved for the supplied decal , which like all the decals is stiff and a little brittle. I tried Microsol, which didn't touch it, and then Aero Master Aero sol, which wrinkled the decal and then...dried wrinkled. It also stained the paint, so the front bodywork got another rub down and respray. The only other challenge was on the roof - the stripe decals won't sit down over the roof vents, so that will mean a little local painting with white and re-edging with scrap black decal . The eyebrows over the doors will likewise need white and black added.
I had a drama with the respray of the front bodywork - I masked and sprayed the interior black, but it bled through next to the n/s sidelight, reacted with the masking tape and took the blue paint off. Luckily it's in a position where I can cover it with black tape - the lower lights had protectors taped over them from the start of the race until it got dark. That made the "model it as it started or finished the race" question easy to answer!







This was supposed to be built out of the box - but I can't resist the odd upgrade, so apart from the replacement tyres (from Icon Automotive Miniatures), I cut the slots in the spoiler and used M1 bolts for the fixings

[broadspeed]

very nicely done , love the details , and the gt40 is one of my fav, cars ever ,, so my compliments

[Twokidsnosleep]

Got one of these big guys on my bucket list also
Really nice work you have done, the extra details make the difference

[Jo NZ]

Well it's finally finished - and I'm not sorry. Being used to scratchbuilding, I thought that a modern kit would be a refreshing change, but as much as there is to delight in the kit there are just as many disappointments and frustrations. It will now go on display with the body panels fitting as well as they can. What's particularly galling is that it all looks like it fits together OK from the box - until you get paint near it. I had allowed for paint thickness, but obviously not enough. Also there isn't enough decal for the stripes over the spoiler. The aftermarket decals for this version copy the kit decals, so there will be the same problem with the black no.2 car. I used black and white plain decal for the spoiler stripe, and also added the stripes over the door eyebrows at the same time.
From a distance it looks good.

Here's the third attempt to fit the screen. it needs filing down to get it to fit, and if you just use tape to hold it in while the adhesive (I used Kristal Kleer) sets the roof sags and leaves the top of the screen proud.
Incidentally, to prevent the glue showing I painted the edge of the transparency, and the body location, black. (paint is a bit of a misnomer - actually I used a black Sharpie, with a fine-line pen for the fiddly bits)



And here it is finished - interesting how the paint colour varies depending on the light level

[JunkGTZ]

I was wondering what your solutions to some of the fitment issues were going to be, but having seen your other work knew you'd be dealing with it. It looks fabulous even if it was a difficult task to get it just right! I'm not sure I would have been able to deal with those sorts of things so neatly. Mine would have had big ugly screws and glue holding it together!

[MODEL A MODEL]

If I never told you before? you did a pretty nice job on this model!

[Jo NZ]

If I never told you before? you did a pretty nice job on this model!

Thanks! It was not a good experience, but at least it's a 1/12 GT40 (oh alright, Ford GT Mk II) in the cabinet and not in the trash (where it nearly ended up....several times)