DECORATIONS

Maybe you like rolling with the putty, plasticard, sandpaper and files to make that car you like so much and that has not made by anyone. O maybe tou don´t want to get in so much mess but you want make a change to the cars. In the latter case, nothing better than decorations. Except the most complicated, are usually pretty quick to make and often completely change the car.

In this section I will show own made decorations on existing models.

FORD RS200 MARLBORO

The Ford RS200 I think is one of the most successful car of the missing manufacturer EXIN, and using one of the models from the Altaya collections, in this case the version from Rally Míticos collection, I´m goint to make a decoration that I´ve always liked, the Marlboro one with which Zannini participated in the El Corte Inglés Rally, 1986, finishing second. In the next photo shows the car in the foreground.

After strip paint carefully from the bodywork, painted with three coats of white spray Duplicolor. After the first two, one pass with waterproof sandpaper to remove the bugs and dust and a third coat to leave the finish, the three without charge so much the body with paint to don´t lose details.

Masking carefully, painted red parts of the body with Tamiya X-7 red acrylic paint applied with the airbrush. As masking is quite complex I did in two steps, roof and hood first and then rear spoiler and front spoiler. I chose the normal red instead of fluorescent red for to get the minimal difference between the body red color and the waterslide decals red color.

Not to have hit well the masking tape, slipped a little paint underneath, right in the hood. A shame because the result was more than acceptable, even though the lines were not perfectly defined.

Once the red paint dry, with black Vallejo painted the body details, door handles, air intakes and interior of the headlights.

While the paint dryed completely, I mounted the mechanics of the car. The tires chosen were Braid from Team Slot painted with Humbrol silver enamel, while for the 4x4 transmission turned to the Spirit Peugeot 205 pulleys. I only had to cut the width of the axes to coincide with the original axes width.Four Cartrix tires did the rest.

The decals provided me the David of Todo Slot, are of very good quality and easy to place. The result put the decals I liked it. Two coats of "Bosque verde" wax varnish will be enought to protect the decals.

And taking advantage of the drying time of the decals and the paint went decorating the interior a little bit, few silver enamel brushstrokes, a little paint for the drivers, some safety belts made with duct tape, and little more, giving a radical change to the interior.

And once the car built was like this:

Finally I have the RS200 with the decor I always wanted. I love it.

Porsche 993 GT2, Le Mans 24 hours, 1996

The fourth generation of the Porsche 911, with internal code 993, was introduced in 1993 and represented a major change in the appearance of the model and bring forward some radical change that would give the look 911 in 1997 with the appearance of the series 996. A more fluid line, with headlights more inclined and less prominent, and the bumper perfectly integrated into the body were the most relevant changes. The inside was left with few changes from the previous model. Mechanically, the changes in the new series affected the brakes, suspension geometry and engine, with increased engine capacity to 3600 cc. was the last series to equip air-cooled engines.

While, in 1994 the FIA changed the rules of endurance racing for both prototypes (LMP1 and LMP2) and for GT cars, which created four categories, GT1 to GT4, depending on the preparation of cars. Porsche decided to modify the 993 to homologate it in GT2 category (also did the same with GT1) and build a racing-client car who allowed participate in endurance races with guarantees.

Based on the turbo model, with the intention to save weight lifted the front wheel drive. The 3.6 engine was fitted two smaller KKK turbos, one for each cylinder bank, thanks in part to the improved electronic engine management offered by a new switchboard, and an increase in the blowing pressure of the turbos to 0.9 BAR, the engine power output reached 430 hp. Moreover, from the 3.8 RS model (another of the developments on the 993 series) took the brakes, suspension geometry and aerodynamic changes.
Externally the car has very advanced aerodynamics, with a front spoiler that included an oil cooler, wheel arches, made of fiber, bolted to the body to facilitate replacement in the race, and a spectacular two-plane rear spoiler with two "ram-air" type air intakes on each side.

The model in question were manufactured 57 street version units and another 21 more developed, while about those who that were destinated to the competition were produced 110 units. One was acquired by the Konrad Motorspor team to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1996, having the Liqui Molly company of lubricants as main sponsor and Franz Konrad, Antonio Hermann and Wido Rossler as drivers. The car was entered in the GT1 class as they faced the Porsche 911 GT1 in addition to the army of Lister Storm, McLaren F1 GTR, Venturi 600, Dodge Viper, Ferrari F40 and even a curious Renault Spider V6. In the race, qualified for the start at the 34th position but not finished due to an accident. This is a picture of the car at 1/43 scale:

At 1/32 scale the model was reproduced by Scalextric in their stage of Tyco, very badly indeed, and more recently by ProSlot with a much more successful model. Their outward forms are quite good but poor in details while the interior was inadequate, with a drivers tray that even let in the light mechanics. At least the car´s handling on the track was very good. This is the car that will depart for the decoration:

Dismantle the car was easy, because as you can see in the picture below isn´t made up of many parts. More difficult was trying to remove the original paint of the car, and there was no way to remove it from the body, I tried to soak it burn alcohol, soak it in rubbing alcohol, rub with a rag soaked in acetone, leaving four hours sprayed with oven cleaner foam... and there was no way to remove the painting, only was able to remove a little the black pad printing and some logos, but the yellow paint was impossible to remove. So I decided to give him a few gentle strokes used fine sandpaper (grain 500) to eliminate the brightness of the original painting and to remove some burrs from the mold.

When decorate a car I don´t like to confine to paint and place the decals. Always can make small improvements to the model to get it closer to real car. They aren´t radical changes, only small details to improve the car. In this particular model, the differences were confined mainly to the front spoiler, the number of openings and and vents that had the real car weren´t the same as in the scale model.
To make the front as the original car opened the holes with the appropriate form and hit two component putty where needed, in the center of the spoiler and the hood to cover air intakes and the gas caps.

Slowly and carefully followed to opening the rest of the holes of the front with a mini drill a small file. In addition small pieces of plastic stuck where appropriate.

At the sides of the bumper opened other holes that the car had.

And once all the holes open with their correct form, I cloned a grid with polyurethane resin from a chassis that was in the drawer. Once cloned, I cut to fit to the holes where it will be placed.

As I did in the front bumper, opened a hole for the rear bumper grid,...

...hole where I adjusted other grid, also cloned from other in polyurethane resin.

With all the holes open and grids glued in place, I applied a coat of white Vallejo primer spray.

The primer showed few faults in the body, somewhat logical since the changes were few. With a little bit of putty and used sandpaper used I corrected them. After a pass of soft sand, and then apply another coat of white primer to match the tone of the body (Tamiya putty is gray...) before painting with the paint itself.
The painting as I do with cars that are whites was Dupli-color spray, work very well and covers well. As like with the primer, apply two coats, with a soft pass with sandpaper between them.

Once thoroughly dry the paint, I painted the little details of the bodywork (rear bumper air outlets, and window gums) with Vallejo black paint and a fine brush.

The decals to decorate the car are commercial, from DMC (reference DMC-32014). They are pretty good but I miss some logos, like the Porsche shield the hood, and one of the logos are not well scaled, such as "Michelin" dolls, are rather small.

As expected, the decals hadn´t any complication, are very resistant and were only somewhat more complicated to put the side lines due its length, but little else. A little bit of Microsol and Microset in some places, such as the joints of the doors and the car was ready for varnish.

Taking advantage of drying time of the decals before varnishing made the car roll cage with evergreen rods glued together with superglue and bicomponent glue in some places.

And also decorated the details of the bodywork, headlights and air intakes.

For the car made a complete interior as explained in section "Creating a complete interior for a slot car" in the techniques and tricks section, and you can see by clicking here.
The interior, once decorated, looks like this:

To my taste the result was only acceptable.., a bit bland. I wasn"t very inspired at that moment, with a poor decoration, the driver"s seat, a fire extinguisher made with a rod made of evergreen, the shift know made with a pin and some more.

To finish, needed to build the rear wing. The original from the scale model wasn"t like the real car one:

, so I made a new one with evergreen strips glued together:

once painted and the waterslide decals placed becomed:

Finally, put a couple of exhaust pipes to the chassis made with a evergreen rod who gave an oval shape, such as original car exhaust pipes. In the next photo you can see before paint them with gray enamel.

And finally, the car completely assembled looks as follows:

The result has left me a bit cold, especially because the color of the bodywork has been a bit yellow after applying the spray varnish (Vallejo). As happened with the Toyota Celica, the varnish has reacted with the white paint has yellowed an marred a bit the final result. Moreover, the car was correct.

Technically, the car doesn"t have any difficulty, but what I made clear when I made this vehicle is that decorations can not be taken as a minor job but that we should put as much interest as for more complex transformations to do a good job. Otherwise, this lack of interest is reflected in the final result, in this case, tending to mediocre.

Toyota Celica GT4 - Tour de Corse 1991, Marc Duez

The Toyota Celica GT4 was built as a model to compete with the Lancia Delta Integrale, which since 1987 dominated the World Rally Championship with iron hand. Derived from front-wheel drive Celica coupe which was added a turbo engine and four-wheel drive. Its debut was in the Rally of Corsica in 1988 and continued its participation in other races the same year showing both its potential and its fragility. Since 1990 the car´s reliability problems were resolved, resulting in victory for Björn Waldegaard in the Safari Rally and the drivers world championship to Carlos Sainz the same year. The following year was the last year in which he competed and was replaced in 1992 by the Celica 4WD, after a world title and 12 victories.

During its last year as official Toyota car, belgian Marc Duez competed with one of them at various rallies, some of them belonging to the 1991 world rally championship. In the Tour de Corse had a great performance with his co-driver Klaus Wicha being 4th at the end of the race. This is a photo of the car during the race:

In 1991, EXIN began the manufacture and sale of the Toyota Celica GT4 with Repsol colors (reference 8332), decorating of the car participatin in the World Rally Championship in 1990. Years after left to manufacture, was reissued the model for the Altaya "Rallyes Míticos" collection decorated like the first but with "mud effect". Reproduction of the car was quite good, as most of the EXIN model, and very well finished off.

I start from Altaya collection model to make the Marc Duez´s Toyota Celica decoration, sponsored by the oil company Fina. This is the model:

Unpaint it was simple after immersing the body in isopropyl alcohol and rub some.

Originally, the chassis was attached to the body by a screw at the rear while in the front body itself embraced the chassis without screws. To independent chassis and body completely, I cut the chassis part that was inserted into the body at the front and hit two evergreen rod pins with bicomponent glue to the chassis. Thus, the body went to join the chassis by three screws:

The body needs a few changes to reproduce the chosen decoration: opening a hole for the fuel cap,...

...expand the width of where it fits the car registration,...

...and open a hole in the roof to make the entry of air into the cabin.

I didn´t want to change the headlights to let them raised, I wasn´t sure that the result was good.
Having made those few changes, gave the body a Vallejo white primer coat to continue the work.

With the primer completely dry and the few flaws of the body covered with Tamiya putty I gently pass waterproof sandpaper to match the surface and applied the white paint of the bodywork, Duplicolor spray. Two coats of paint were enough to left the body ready for decoration.
Apart from the decals, car decoration is limited to paint the glass rubber and the bottom of the rear lights with Vallejo black. For the rubber on the glasses, first masked with Tamiya tape cuted into thin strips before paint with black Vallejo by brush:

Thus were the rubbers after removing the masking tape:

Decals were purchased to Calcas de rally . They are very good quality and very complete, with all the logos well defined and sized. Also are very well placed on the sheet to know its position in the body:

Their placement hadn´t any difficulty. As always there are large decals we must be little careful when placed, as in this case with the lateral stripes, for example. Moreover, the work was a breeze.

After letting dry the body after putting the decals, varnished it as I usually do with two coats of "Bosque Verde" wax varnish by brush and two more coats of acrylic varnish Vallejo spray.

While the paint dried, I finished the car interior, first roll cage:

Then the rest of the interior as I´ve done it before, painting the drivers, backets, dashboard and putting the seat belts and a fire extinguisher.
Moreover, although there aren´t pictures, I painted the headlights and front grills, cloned from others in resin, like the gas cap, cloned in resin and painted with gray enamel.

After letting the body dry started the problems. I don´t know clearly what the exact problem, I suspect that the spray varnish (Vallejo) hasn´t react well with white paint (enamel Duplicolor) and has yellowed greatly. It was a jug of cold water because I was very happy with the outcome of the paint and decals, but that´s what it is and I will not do anything about it.
The fact is that every once very dry and the car assembled looks as follows:

A Pity the problem with the varnish that has tarnished the work a little, otherwise satisfied with the result.

Porsche 959

In 1981, Porsche began the development of a model based on the 911 to do compete in the World Rally Championship in Group B. The multi-valve turbo engine, four-wheel drive chassis and composite materials were the way forward at that time.

A part of the competition, with the development of a new model Porsche intended to explore new boundaries for future street cars and improve a range that at that time were three cars, the 924/944, 911 and 928.

The technical complexity of the car, on the one hand, and the elimination of group B to participate in the WRC, on the other hand, delayed the development of the car for nearly six years. The prototype "Gruppe B" was presented at the 1986 Frankfurt show and marked the outlines the new model, a further developed aerodynamic but perfectly possible to identify the 911 model 911. This is a picture of the prototype:

As they worked on the prototype during the next two years, the bodywork was modified, being the most obvious openings for entry and exit of air for brake cooling and engine. In mid-1985 was presented the final prototype, called F-3, with the look that the car would have. The prototype is not preserved as it was destroyed in crash tests.

In 1987 left the assembly line the first of the 283 Porsche 959 that were built. Its 2851 c.c. engine (Typ 959/50) derived from the 935/78 Moby Dick one, with four valves per cylinder, Bosch Motronic injection and twin turbo the car moved smoothly through the 450 hp at 6500 rpm delivering. To transmit such power output (in 1987 was an exaggerated figure) to the ground, the cars where fitted with a 6 gear gearbox and 4-wheel-drive system regulated by the PSK system. Instead of a central Torsen differential, as was fitted in the Audi Quattro, the center differential of the 959 was a viscous coupling who could split the torque between the axles. Sensors measured the speed of each wheel slip, engine speed and angle of rotation of the direction to determine the degree of adherence of each wheel and thus vary the distribution of the power output from each axis. Under normal conditions, the breakdown was 40% to 60% to front and the rear axle, a deal reached 20/80 in acceleration conditions.
The car's suspension was also derived directly from the competition, with an outline of wishbone and coil springs, dual shock per wheel and leveling control, the car automatically height decreased with increasing speed to improve stability. With all this, the car became in its launch the production car's fastest at the time, with a top speed of 316 km/h and 3.9 seconds to accelerate from 0-100 km/h. Figures were soon beaten by his rival, the Ferrari F40.

In The following link you will find many photos of the car, some very interesting of the mechanical parts:

In relation to the 1/32 scale reproduction of the car, EXIN introduced its 959 model in 1988 with reference to 4083 in three different colors, black, red and white, and was manufactured in various versions until 1996. It was the first EXIN model to fit four wheel drive by pinions and not by belt as in other previous models. It was a very successful reproduction and well done, very close to the scale but a bit high and long, and with plenty of quality details, such as all incoming and outgoing air intakes very well reproduced. Because of their height and narrowness and the characteristics of the chassis, the car did not have good behavior on track.

Years later, the Altaya editorial recovered the EXIN mold to make a new version of the model for its "Duelos Míticos" collection , in this case reproduced over the body of a Porsche 959 the decoration of the 961 that participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1987. Although the 961 was the evolution of the 959 to compete in circuits, the differences between the two was more than evident resulting in a fairly porous reproduction.

I had time with the idea of polishing the few shortcomings of 959 EXIN and make the street version of the model. And while I prefer always racing cars in this case, as with the 911 SC, will make an exception.

The work of documentation before beginning the transformation is very important to plan the job. It lets us to know the measurements of the real car and then pass them at 1/32 scale to see if the model is good, to see photos of the car from different angles helps us determine what parts are well reproduced and what not.
Furthermore, to observe the starting model will help us see the changes that have to do, whether to remove burrs from the mold, if there's missing an opening in the body, or anything else. After studying the documentation carefully and the starting scale model two things became apparent:

• The scale model is higher and longer than it should be if it had complied with the original car's average at 1/32 scake. The length I will not touch, there is little difference. But if the height, which is that the model has an inch more height than it should have and affect the general appearance of the reproduction.
• When watching the sides of the car, giving the impression that the body was racked, as the distances between the wheels and body were different on both sides. Placed the body on a graph paper to prove it and half on both sides were correct, so did with the chassis, then Why when placed the chassis to the body wheels were a different distance on each side? I concluded that the problem is that what was wrong was the position in which the chassis was anchored to the body, as indeed it was.

Fortunately, I could solve both problems with a single job. I cut the supports of the body and placed a new shorter ones in the right position. Thus lowers the ride height by 1 milimeter, and placed the chassis back into position with respect to the body to all four wheels stay on the same lenght to the body.

This is a photo of the original scale car:

And this is the car lowering its height:

...to be continued...