58059 Porsche 959 original body building / painting project

[Fuijo 878]

On 9/30/2018 at 12:26 PM, Truck Norris said:

Next, masking to redo the roof domes and for the black trim around the lights. The manual doesn't direct you to do this, but Tamiya's photos show it.

At the same time I masked off for the round vents on the rear panel:

I wanted to just quote the lower pic in particular, but I can't figure it out.

Even with a computer and a vinyl cutter that's just ninja-masking. I can't think of any better way to put it.

And it's a whole lot harder when it's for someone else. Just awesome!

[Truck Norris 2237]

The result of todays work:

But you probably want to see this:

I usually don't have much trouble with stickers, but these just wouldn't play ball. The combination of 25 year old stickers and them being totally unresponsive to the heat gun wasn't an ideal one. They just would not shrink around the curves. I'd expected some wrinkles as even the official Tamiya shots show them. At least it's clear they are originals!

Edit: I've managed to smooth them out a little, looks better now:

I then made holes for the mirrors. There are dimples to indicate where to make them but if you use these the mirrors are in the wrong place compared to the manual illustrations and the official shots. I made them about 0.5mm lower and 1mm further forward so the mirrors sit flush with the base of the window.

All that was left to do then was fit the interior, exhaust and lights. Done!

I'll get proper photos of the finished car when I have the chassis, I'm just doing the body, David the owner is doing the chassis build.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

Really nice work, TN!

[Grotty Otty 868]

Just out of interest are the sticker's glue still sticky after 25 years or does it go off as such? Is it just they are a stiffer material than more modern sets? I struggle enough with modern ones! Amazing work, looking forward to seeing it on its chassis. 

[Fuijo 878]

That looks fabulous!

Yeah it's a bit of a shame about the stickers. But looking at your 2nd pic where you managed to smooth them out a little, it looks vastly better. Better than any other attempt I've seen so far, and

as you say, better than Tamiya's official shots; which must be satisfying.

 

So is this the most difficult shell you've ever worked on? Also if you've been keeping track of the time it took you, I'd love to know a ballpark figure. If only to make me feel a bit better

about the funny looks I get from people when I let it be known that a particular shell has taken me 15+ hours to complete for example. Makes me feel like the slow kid at school who can't keep up.

 

[Ann3x 220]

That's why it's worth painting the stripes.

My shell overall is not a patch on yours - lot's of mistakes - but with your skills, i think painted stripes would have been icing on the cake.

Still, some beautiful work.

[Fuijo 878]

1 hour ago, Ann3x said:

but with your skills, i think painted stripes would have been icing on the cake.

Speaking purely from my own point of view (ie. if I was going to paint one), I'm not sure I'd agree.

Getting perfect edges with that many colours, on that surface, on areas that size and with that many layers of paint is a really big ask. Even on a 40-odd Euro shell that could just be replaced at will.

I reckon the chances of doing it successfully, as in better than having just one or two really tiny creases in a sticker, on a comission job, on a vintage shell, are pretty close to zero.

Bear in mind how large and close-up his pics are.

[Ann3x 220]

3 minutes ago, Fuijo said:

Speaking purely from my own point of view (ie. if I was going to paint one), I'm not sure I'd agree.

Getting perfect edges with that many colours, on that surface, on areas that size and with that many layers of paint is a really big ask. Even on a 40-odd Euro shell that could just be replaced at will.

I reckon the chances of doing it successfully, as in better than having just one or two really tiny creases in a sticker, on a comission job, on a vintage shell, are pretty close to zero.

Bear in mind how large and close-up his pics are.

The original decals are also pretty rare nowadays.

I guess it's a toss up between overall look and the authenticity. To be authentic, ofc you use the decals but as you can see, even one of the best model detailers Ive seen has struggled with getting these decals flat. I count my self as a very average shell painter and you can see, even for my skills, pretty good painted stripes were possible.

[Truck Norris 2237]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

I prefer originality over perfection in this case, and I think David the owner does too. I'm going to take some proper shots of the car and then David can decide if he's happy with them or would prefer another solution.

I'd prefer to make stripes from vinyl rather than paint - the stuff I use is quite stretchy so would go round the curves fine and matte vinyl would replicate the matte appearance of the gold. Very simple to make too as I already traced the shapes to make the temporary tape stickers when determining the blue to white transition masking lines. No risk of screwing things up either. 

11 hours ago, Grotty Otty said:

Just out of interest are the sticker's glue still sticky after 25 years or does it go off as such? Is it just they are a stiffer material than more modern sets? I struggle enough with modern ones! Amazing work, looking forward to seeing it on its chassis. 

I'm not sure if it's age or just that adhesive technology is better now than it was then, but they certainly aren't as sticky as new stickers. A bit of heat helps though. They are flexible enough and quite thin - maybe thinner than modern ones, but whatever they are printed on just doesn't shrink when hit with heat in the way modern stickers do. With some practice it's possible to do compound curves perfectly. Tamiya's shot of the Focus 2002 printed on the actual manual has wrinkles in the blue curve sticker on the front bumper, mine doesn't  It not always successful though (don't look too closely at the other side!)

9 hours ago, Fuijo said:

So is this the most difficult shell you've ever worked on? Also if you've been keeping track of the time it took you, I'd love to know a ballpark figure. If only to make me feel a bit better about the funny looks I get from people when I let it be known that a particular shell has taken me 15+ hours to complete for example. Makes me feel like the slow kid at school who can't keep up.

Yes, definitely. You get no help with anything - no stickers for details, everything's painted. No window masks for those split side windows, no overspray film, nothing! I think it's only this and the Celica Gr.B that require painting on the inside and outside.

I've just scanned through the thread to refresh my memory and a rough estimate would be 50-55 hours.

[Fuijo 878]

10 hours ago, Truck Norris said:

Yes, definitely. You get no help with anything - no stickers for details, everything's painted. No window masks for those split side windows, no overspray film, nothing! I think it's only this and the Celica Gr.B that require painting on the inside and outside.

I've just scanned through the thread to refresh my memory and a rough estimate would be 50-55 hours.

Wow! Thanks.

That actually made me laugh out loud.

The complete disparity between those beautiful clear, easy to understand steps in the manual and the extreme difficulty in carrying out those steps.

 

I remember building my first Hornet in '86. Everything going well until I got to where it states use scissors or a modelling knife to cut out the body. Ok, so grab the household scissors - nasty

old blunt items from a kitchen drawer. Hmmm. That isn't working too well, lets try a knife. Oh! it wont even cut right through the plastic.

later on I came to appreciate these little challenges during a build. They make it more interesting and force you to think a little......... Up to a point.

But with this 959 shell it seems it might as well be Tamiya instructions for going to the moon.

Step 1. Build spacecraft using all parts from sprues A through Z.

Step 2. Fly to moon.

Simple!

[Truck Norris 2237]

David finished the chassis and I spent some time last weekend and this taking photos. As it's a special model I wanted to do my favourite trick which is reproducing the classic guidebook / catalogue shots.

First up I wanted to do the body off / body on shot that appeared as a full page in the 1987 catalogue. Here's what I'll try to recreate, obviously this has the Rothmans not the Racing stickers:

How did my version turn out? You're looking at it Complete with added on Tamiyabase watermark!

Hang on, Rothmans? Yes. It turned out David had a set of those as well, and as the Racing ones seemed to have a strange staining or other age related problem, it was decided to remove those and fit the Rothmans (which are older but don't exhibit the problem).

The great thing about old stickers that don't stick too well is they come off very easily! The Rothmans were fitted and I added a receiver, power switch and battery for the photos (servos already fitted).

One thing I noticed is that the body sits incredibly high on the chassis. Obviously as a Dakar car the real one does have high suspension but nothing like as high as the model. Looking at pics online I could see that people remove the spacers below the front body mount. I did this and it looked much better and the body was easier to fit and remove too. In the pics the suspension is squished a little at the front just to get it level.

Now some proper colour popping shots without the artificial aged look:

My favourite. Photoshop trickery as I only had the one chassis available:

[Superluminal 3750]

Outstanding work!

[wolfdogstinkus 1893]

3...….2...…..1...…...Re-released. 

They always get re-released when someone builds an original. 

[Fuijo 878]

3 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

They always get re-released when someone builds an original. 

Not with Rothmans livery they wont.

Beautiful car. Awesome job!

[Quandry 378]

Excellent job!  looks great

I love the photo work too!

[Pablo68 1049]

Fantastic work from start to finish.

[Ann3x 220]

13 hours ago, Truck Norris said:

One thing I noticed is that the body sits incredibly high on the chassis. Obviously as a Dakar car the real one does have high suspension but nothing like as high as the model. Looking at pics online I could see that people remove the spacers below the front body mount. I did this and it looked much better and the body was easier to fit and remove too. In the pics the suspension is squished a little at the front just to get it level.

One trick you might want to try is cutting down the aluminium body posts by ~10mm. This achieves an even bigger drop than removing spacers and also looks neater. I wouldnt run it with the lowered body (poor wheel arches!) but for display it looks far prettier.

[Baddon 860]

PURE ARTISTRY, love it, well done to you and David is a lucky man.

 

 

[Danzo 0]

Absolutely amazing dedication and expertise, outstanding job. Love it!

[JNSD1 288]

Somehow missed this - Off the charts mate. Seriously incredible. 

[Kamika007z 43]

I just had to log in and say how amazing this turned out. Thanks again for all that you do.

I'm really excited to see how a Celica Gr B would turn out ;)

Thanks again for sharing this with the community!! Keep up the amazing work!!

[Busdriver 6209]

On 9/18/2018 at 8:01 PM, Truck Norris said:

Yep, spray into a pot or the lid of the paint can from about 4 inches away. It goes everywhere though, so do it on a sheet of newspaper and wear gloves or put your hands in plastic bags. Also wrap paper or plastic around the paint can to stop it getting plastered.

You need to do it close to capture all the paint as the spray pattern of the nozzle is quite wide.

The paint is very thin when first decanted, the lighter colours are thinner than others, so you need to wait for it to thicken or it' like trying to paint with watercolours.

If you get a bendy straw you can push it up against the nozzle and then decant into a larger container. Let the paint settle for a while before you use it as it contains lots of bubbles from the propellant

[skinny kid playing 0]

Just read from start to finish. Inspirational to say the least. Love to learn when a master is wiling to instruct. Thanks for this!

[jameswrx 40]

Nice job.

I can even remember the stickers being a nightmare back in the 80’s.  They were very brittle and hard to shape (as you’ve found out) even when new.  The gold especially seemed to be hard work.

[jameswrx 40]

double post