Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar - rode hard and hung up wet

[89AKurt]

Tamiya Porsche 959 donor kit, with ModelingMaster resin transkit from Russia.  The WIP thread, showing what happened to the leftover parts.  I found the source on Facebook, ordered direct from the maker in Russia, so it was interesting to see it tracked to the border, and then waited a couple weeks for it to arrive.  I printed out all the decent pictures I could find online, and taped to a foam core board, a first for me; had to sort out the 1985 & 1986 races, then the 3 cars.  Discovered that there is a counterfeit that shows up at events such as Goodwood, the front hood is the giveaway, and lack of turbos.?  I damaged the front fender based on photos of Jacky Ickx's race, the other car has the other side with similar damage.  The third car DNF, and found out that one burnt to a crisp in an Egypt rally.  The Porsche museum car has Turbolader and Schmitthelm logos added, which were not on during the race!  Started April 22, 2018, finished Aug. 26 after 101 hours.

The quality is better than some mass produced kits, the photo-etch is finely done, even the glass is just like injection molded parts, the decals are perfectly done with all colors registered, but are very thick.  The Dunlop tires have very good sidewall and tread detail, but had gaps and a couple of bubbles on the back.  Some of the assemblies had fit issues, so that slowed down construction.  The pet peeve I have with both the Tamiya kit and this, no turbo plumbing from the air box to the intake manifold.  I made the two intercoolers for the road version (one picture here), but this rally car had one intercooler mounted high in the wing, so I *had to* re-engineer with rotating the turbo compressors and making all new piping, all with zero reference pictures.  Added some cargo, including 2 water bottles (it's the bloody Sahara!).  The instructions are the weakest part of the transkit, they used the Tamiya graphics, pasted crude computer drawn parts with almost invisible arrows to the general vicinity, and some parts were incorrect such as the hood pin parts that needed the top piece rotated 180°.  Some of the photo-etch parts were not even shown, and the RECARO seat decals were not shown.   I added a few photo-etch details such as hose clamps and screw/bolt heads.  Used sewing ribbon for the 5-point seatbelts.  Wired the engine, found a firing order label so IPMS rivet-counter judges will be happy; the distributor has only 5 "boots". ? All Testors paint airbrushed, but did brush paint some interior areas.  The "weathering" is flat clear, with different ratios and mixtures with Africa Korps tan and Leather brown.  Tried out tile grout and water, with acrylic paint, that was goober dry-brushed onto the bottom first before final painting, dusted the interior and engine with the tile grout too.  Scuffed the tires, flaps, and skid plates with rough emory cloth.  I really love doing this finish technique, because I suck with shiny perfect paint jobs. ? And a rally car really needs to look like it was rode hard and hung up wet!

Grinding through Mars the Sahara:

Scratch-built turbo plumbing, intercooler mount (American hot rod style, I'm sure Porsche had a complicated setup), added sheet plastic for screw mounting body to chassis.

No car washes in Africa.

 

['70 Grande]

Stunning... simply stunning!

[peekay]

Amazing job, so realistic!

[ThreeThree]

Looks awesome. Great job. Good photos as well. Love that you can see the refection in the mirror.

[Gramps46]

Really an excellent build.  Congratulations.

[TonyK]

Geez, you did a lot of research and then followed it up with a great build!

[Anglia105E]

One of the finest Porsche builds that I have seen in a long time, Kurt..... clearly you have worked hard to get the detail right, and lots of thinking outside the box also. Your weathering techniques have pulled off the ' rally ' look and congratulations on your extensive research.

David

[stitchdup]

wow!

[afx]

Turned out great Kurt. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by afx

[porschercr]

Looks great!

[Peter Lombardo]

Looks great, the weathering is a perfect touch to add realism.  Nice!

[89AKurt]

9 hours ago, '70 Grande said:

Stunning... simply stunning!

Thanks for the compliment!

7 hours ago, peekay said:

Amazing job, so realistic!

Thank you.  That's why I weather almost all my builds, bug splats if the paint is supposed to be shiny, it covers the dust specks. ?

6 hours ago, ThreeThree said:

Looks awesome. Great job. Good photos as well. Love that you can see the refection in the mirror.

Thank you, appreciate it.  I'm not happy with the pictures, still need to take the iPhone in to open up storage, so been using the Nikon with 300MM zoom lens, which has an extremely short depth of field.  Am planning on taking glamor shots outside, starting with Sedona.  I used AAA insurance sticker for the mirrors, instead of the dull photo-etch parts, glad you noticed that tiny detail!  Oh yea, welcome to the forum!

4 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Really an excellent build.  Congratulations.

Thank you!  Finishing is a feat unto itself, congrat me after the first contest. (fingers crossed)

3 hours ago, TonyK said:

Geez, you did a lot of research and then followed it up with a great build!

Since it's a replica, I was obligated to, a completely different frame of mind than kit bashing a fantasy.   Thank you.

3 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

One of the finest Porsche builds that I have seen in a long time, Kurt..... clearly you have worked hard to get the detail right, and lots of thinking outside the box also. Your weathering techniques have pulled off the ' rally ' look and congratulations on your extensive research.

David

Wow, thank you sir!?  I wanted to do it justice, considering I skipped eating for a week to pay for the transkit. ?  It's a sign that I have obsessive compulsive disorder, why some projects are still *in the box*.

3 hours ago, stitchdup said:

wow!

I know right? ?

2 hours ago, afx said:

Turned out great Kurt. 

Thanks for following, appreciate it.

1 hour ago, porschercr said:

Looks great!

Thank you too!

49 minutes ago, Peter Lombardo said:

Looks great, the weathering is a perfect touch to add realism.  Nice!

Thank you.  IMHO a rally model that is brand spanking new, and is really shiny, is fake looking.  I've worked several rallies (stage worker, video and photography), even the professionally prepared cars are not polished shiny, the sponsor graphics are dull stickers, and the paint is factory paint that isn't waxed (in general).  Private cars are usually beaters. ?

Here is an example of "beater", would be a fun project.  This team was leading the 2012 Prescott Rally, I witnessed them rolling it just before the end of the last stage!  The second place car stopped, got the tow strap out, and towed them across the finish line!  The leading team intentionally "forgot" to turn in their time card, giving the overall win to their rivals.  Look how dirty it is, and that's after only about 150 miles of stages.

[Roger U]

Really nice build. Great weathering.

[PappyD340]

Extremely nice model!!

[ATHU]

Looks absolutely phenomenal. superb work!!

[89AKurt]

6 hours ago, Roger U said:

Really nice build. Great weathering.

Thank you for dropping by!

5 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Extremely nice model!!

Thank you!

4 hours ago, ATHU said:

Looks absolutely phenomenal. superb work!!

Thank you!  Noticed your icon picture, I owned a '57 Chevy long time ago, repainted a similar color.

[Shambles]

Amazing!

[Merc-57]

Wowser, very VERY nice. Excellent work 

[89AKurt]

4 hours ago, Shambles said:

Amazing!

Thank you!

2 hours ago, Merc-57 said:

Wowser, very VERY nice. Excellent work 

? Moocho appreciated.

Saw this on Flickr, and I'm resisting thinking about it.....

 

[majel]

Very cool looking model, great job on the weathering.  Some day I've got to get the guts to try weathering a vehicle.  Outdoor shots on a trail in Prescott would really set it off!

[Foxer]

Beautiful weathering job on this!

[ChrisR]

Awesome!

[porschercr]

9 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

 

Saw this on Flickr, and I'm resisting thinking about it.....

 

Go for it Kurt... or you could do one of the other '80's liveries, Cannon, Coke, etc. As a phantom build.

[89AKurt]

11 hours ago, majel said:

Very cool looking model, great job on the weathering.  Some day I've got to get the guts to try weathering a vehicle.  Outdoor shots on a trail in Prescott would really set it off!

Thanks.  It's not hard at all, really.  I'm thinking of looking around Sedona, sandstone and volcanic rock looks similar to this photo:

South of Phoenix on the Gila Indian Rez looks like this:

I know the Laughlin area along the Colorado River looks like this:

5 hours ago, Foxer said:

Beautiful weathering job on this!

Thank you!

3 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Awesome!

Thank you too!

2 hours ago, porschercr said:

Go for it Kurt... or you could do one of the other '80's liveries, Cannon, Coke, etc. As a phantom build.

It's WAYYYYYY down on my priority list, if ever. ?

[Rider]

Great results Kurt, really fantastic looking weathering.