Need a model car made of a racing livery

[Maya]

I’m new to model cars and this forum. My boyfriend is into cars and he drives this Porsche with his racing livery. I would like to figure out how to have this car reproduced as a 1:43 model as a gift. Anyone know how I can go about doing this ? I’m willing to pay someone to make it and I’m also happy to learn how to do it myself, just looking for some guidance 

[Zippi]

Do A search for Tamiya model kits as they produce some of the porsche model kit.  Or , you could search for die cast models that would save you the time of building one or paying someone to build it for your.  I'm sure others will chim in that have more knowledge in this area than I do.

[Maya]

I’m thinking of buying a gt4 model and taking the paint off. I can repaint the car no problem, but how would I reproduce the logos and stickers that are on his car ? 
The well known brands I’m sure I could find decals somewhere, but he has a bunch from some small independent sponsors. Can you make decals at home ? 

[MrMiles]

20 minutes ago, Maya said:

I’m thinking of buying a gt4 model and taking the paint off. I can repaint the car no problem, but how would I reproduce the logos and stickers that are on his car ? 
The well known brands I’m sure I could find decals somewhere, but he has a bunch from some small independent sponsors. Can you make decals at home ? 

There is decal paper, usually water slide decals are used. You print on ink jet printer and cover with clear coat paint. 

It really needs a great printer and a very high quality image. Even then it might not look 100%  

Also normal printers can't print white ink so if that is needed you would need to use white ink jet paper and cut all the way to the edge. Also depending on the print, the ink will be still a little see through so many just use white decal paper over the clear 

 

I looked for a custom print maker for decals a while back and got no where. It seems its quite expensive to have a professional company do it

 

 

Also 1/43 is really small so many details wouldn't be seen when shrunk to that size for tge decals 

Edited July 19, 2021 by MrMiles

[EngineerBob]

Maya, kudos for wanting to build a model for your boyfriend. Hobby stores, Ebay, Amazon, etc carry 'waterslide decal paper' in 'clear' background or 'white' background and for inkjet or for laser printers. It is not difficult to make the decals and there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube. As MrMiles mentioned, there are some limitations in the two types of backgrounds that you have to work around. For instance, the dark color No. 11 on a white background on your pictured Porsche would turn out very well using clear decal paper but if you printed the white Porsche logo on the red background using clear paper it would literally be clear and invisible since home printers don't print white ink. And, if you were to use white decal paper the white letters would not be visible because they would be on a white background. A work around would be to draw and print the white logo on a red background using clear paper that closely matches the cars red color. You would have to print a few tests to get the scale and color correct. I first printed homemade decals only a few months ago and they were ok but I'm still trying to improve my results.

[peteski]

13 hours ago, Zippi said:

Do A search for Tamiya model kits as they produce some of the porsche model kit.  Or , you could search for die cast models that would save you the time of building one or paying someone to build it for your.  I'm sure others will chim in that have more knowledge in this area than I do.

Maya wants the model in 1:43 scale. Tamiya doesn't make them in that scale.  But 1:43 scale market is quite strong - lots of models and kits are out there.  I'm not into this type of models, but someone out there will probably know who makes either assembled morel or a kit of that Porsche.

[robdebie]

On 7/19/2021 at 2:12 PM, Maya said:

I’m thinking of buying a gt4 model and taking the paint off. I can repaint the car no problem, but how would I reproduce the logos and stickers that are on his car ? 
The well known brands I’m sure I could find decals somewhere, but he has a bunch from some small independent sponsors. Can you make decals at home ? 

If you're lucky, the full-size stickers were made by a company specializing in commercial vehicle stickering. If so, vector artwork of those stickers must exist. If you could lay your hands on that vector artwork, you can scale it down 43 times, and you have your decal artwork. Here's a list of custom decal printers, that can do the printing for you:

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm#other

If the artwork needs work before it can be printed, be aware that those manhours cost money.

Here's a custom decal sheet that I had printed recently, to give you an idea of what's possible.

Good luck with the project!

Rob

[Snake45]

Just for grins, I went looking for Porsche GT4 diecast 1/43 on the net. Found a large and confusing selection. 

So I tried eBay just to narrow it down. Found them at all prices from $35 up to over $200. Was hoping to find you an inexpensive white one (easiest to repaint), but all the less expensive ones were yellow. 

As far as building/painting one, it shouldn't be too much trouble to get the basic red/white/blue scheme on it, and the number 11. Tracking down all the little decals--or having them custom printed--is probably going to be a major headache. 

And that's before we even get into nonstandard wheels/tires and other racing mods. 

Good luck with your project. 

[Maya]

On 7/21/2021 at 7:26 AM, robdebie said:

If you're lucky, the full-size stickers were made by a company specializing in commercial vehicle stickering. If so, vector artwork of those stickers must exist. If you could lay your hands on that vector artwork, you can scale it down 43 times, and you have your decal artwork. Here's a list of custom decal printers, that can do the printing for you:

https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm#other

If the artwork needs work before it can be printed, be aware that those manhours cost money.

Here's a custom decal sheet that I had printed recently, to give you an idea of what's possible.

Good luck with the project!

Rob

This is great thank you !!