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Post by Oldtimer on Aug 26, 2017 19:08:59 GMT -8
Porsche, as they contemplated entry into the North American Can Am Series (and then ultimately into the European Interserie), created prototypes of their 917, to determine how they might compete.
This is a picture of a prototype, that appears to blend the nose from the Longtail version of the endurance 917 and the evolving sprint turbo-charged 917 chassis.
I thought it might be an interesting project to try to create, in 1/18 scale, something similar. Mind you, my end product will not look exactly like the example, due to availability of parts, but I will try to get as close as I can. This project to put an AutoArt 917 LongTail nose on a Minichamps 917/10 chassis.
I hope many of you are familiar with the Porsche 917/10 Can Am/Interserie model. Both Minichamps and Exoto made them, although Exoto's were limited to those prepared by Penske and driven by Mark Donohue. Minichamps made several liveries and a couple of different versions of bodywork.
Here's what I started with.
Actually, they are pretty easy to modify, if you want to remove the front bodywork, it's just a couple of screws, and a jeweler's saw.
And with that, you have both a body and a chassis.
And then let's look at what an AutoArt Longtail front nose looks like mocked-up onto the chassis.
As is obvious from these pictures, the AutoArt nose is 3/8" narrower than the Minichamps chassis (not sure how this happens, and haven't researched it, but either the tub of the real 917/10 was wider than the endurance version, or there was a little bit of license taken by either AutoArt or Minichamps).
Regardless, this requires an additional surgical step to "widen" the nose of the AutoArt.
That will be the next installment.
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Post by afx on Aug 27, 2017 8:21:17 GMT -8
Interesting project looking forward to it.
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Post by robhart on Aug 27, 2017 12:41:24 GMT -8
I'm curious too see how you're going to widen the nose of the 917L. Not a job that I would relish.
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Post by Oldtimer on Aug 27, 2017 13:56:31 GMT -8
These will be slightly out of sequence, as I didn't take any photos during the surgery.
This first one is a comparison of the sectioned LongTail nose, compared to the 917/10 nose.
And then a couple of early test fit pics.
A buddy who is also trying to do one of these and I pm'd about how to make the windshield work, and I came up with an idea to move the blend line of the two pieces from the front of the doors (as seen in the above two pictures) more forward, using a portion of the 917/10 nose.
Here's where the cutting occurred. This allowed me to keep the hinges for the doors, and then use them as a point of reference for squareness to the rear bodywork.
And then some test fitting.
I am keeping the rounded portion of the LongTail windshield line, to blend with the more square cut, but obviously there will be a judicious use of JB Weld eventually.
So here is how I left it last night.
Break time, but stay tuned!
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Post by robhart on Aug 27, 2017 15:21:40 GMT -8
What is the body shell made of?
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Post by Oldtimer on Aug 27, 2017 16:02:56 GMT -8
What is the body shell made of? Diecast metal, which is the bane of trying to model in 1/18 scale. |
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Post by dustymojave on Sept 1, 2017 8:24:16 GMT -8
There's always the potential to take a mold off the die cast part and duplicate it in resin.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 1, 2017 8:53:53 GMT -8
There's always the potential to take a mold off the die cast part and duplicate it in resin. I haven't progressed to resin yet, however that is an interesting suggestion.
Still plotting how to even secure the pieces to the point that I can get them all in the proper plane so that when I do join them, they don't warp.
Stay tuned, this one is probably going to get worse before it's better.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 12, 2017 7:51:04 GMT -8
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Post by Oldtimer on Oct 5, 2017 7:41:27 GMT -8
I apologize for the span of time since I updated, but it seems like every time I try to make a change or improvement, something else pops up. Was playing around with some donor parts I acquired from AutoArt Spares last night, and wondered how fast this one would have been on the Mulsanne?  |
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Post by Patrick on Oct 5, 2017 9:32:26 GMT -8
Yes, diecast is a pain to work with, but sometimes it's the only way. I did a cut and paste job on a Polistil Ferrari 312 B3/74 F1. It came out pretty good since I had to use a hand drill grinder and hacksaw!   Patrick |
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Post by Oldtimer on Oct 5, 2017 11:07:31 GMT -8
Plus, it's really difficult to glue it back together!  Nice model, by the way. I'm not into open wheels, especially Formula 1, so can't comment beyond that. |
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Post by Oldtimer on Nov 1, 2017 12:26:12 GMT -8
Update on this one, after having left it alone for a few days(weeks?) while I collected some parts. Was playing around with it over the past couple of nights, and came up with this configuration, using the rear of a chassis from a LeMans Longtail 917.    Waiting on a LongTail body to see if I can finish the look. Once again, you can see that I had to cut the body down the middle, due to the 3/8" difference between the two source models. |
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Post by robhart on Nov 2, 2017 5:04:27 GMT -8
Well, you certainly don't back away from a challenge. I doubt if my skill level will ever reach a level where I'm comfortable with splitting a die cast body down the middle. Keep up the good work.
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Post by Oldtimer on Nov 2, 2017 5:11:41 GMT -8
Well, you certainly don't back away from a challenge. I doubt if my skill level will ever reach a level where I'm comfortable with splitting a die cast body down the middle. Keep up the good work. Well, you take beer in hand, and then go from there. 
Biggest challenge on this one, so far, has been to make sure my reference points for lining up the cut are as square as possible. It's a lot of measure once, twice, thrice, and then cut. So far, been pretty lucky.
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