Porsche 911 Turbo '88

[70 Sting]

Good Evening,

Always liked the look of the 80s Porsches and being a Tamiya kit I thought, 'what the heck.' There aren't many parts, however that is offset by the horrendous amount of masking required. Painted with Tamiya LP-70 Gloss Aluminum and X-18 Semi Gloss Black. Clear coated with decanted TS-13 Gloss Clear.

What I learned:

1. First time I've masked an entire body... all I can say is, "The horror. The horror." I would say I'm 75% satisfied with the results.

2. Had a bit of a tough time with the decals. I think I applied them a little too far forward and also poked through the little semicircles above the black trim. I filled the holes/tears with panel liner and they look okay from a distance.

3. Need to be a little more patient when applying colour coats. I get a little trigger happy when applying the wet coats which leads to a bit of texture in the paint.

4. No way I was going to be able to paint all that clear red plastic on the rear taillight section, so I used orange, red and black Sharpie markers.

5. I used black panel liner on all the door, trunk and hood lines. I did this over the clear coat but should probably have applied it under the clear coat.

Thanks for looking!

[TransAmMike]

Well Harry, let me be the first to say WOW!!!!!!!!!??

[Ace-Garageguy]

I think it looks great, especially in light of the difficulties you called out.

Did you adjust the stance a little too?

Seems to me it sits better (ride height and relationship of tires-to-wheel openings) than a lot of these I've seen built.   

[John B.]

Beautiful paint - very nice!

[Erik Smith]

Beautiful! Wonderful photography too. 

[Nacho Z]

Good Lord, that is beautiful!!

[Oldcarfan27]

This may sound cliche', but where is the model?

I'm serious, I was scrolling down looking for it, before I realized that those pictures ARE the kit!

Or are you pulling our chain?

This is the first time I can say I couldn't tell the difference. 

[ea0863]

I see the photos of the 1:1 you are copying, but where are the pics of your build?!!!

[peteski]

The model is gorgeous, and yes the photos look like they are taken by a professional.  Admit it, you are professional photographer? 

I would love to see your photo setup - any chance of you posting some photos of it?

The other question I have is why you masked the entire body with Tamiya tape?  That to me seems unnecessary.   I usually use the tape just in the areas where I need the paint demarcation, and cover the larger areas with some other material.

[Tommy124]

Great job on this, it looks awesome! 

I did a restoration job on my Fujimi '88 turbo convertible not too long ago (see link below) and I fully agree on the masking... For the fine areas I have switched to using BMF some time ago and the rest I do with Tamiya tape. A lot of work to do really on these Porsche's but if you don't do it properly, it will not look right. Yours DOES look right!

 

[Jim B]

Stunning!

[Belugawrx]

Well done Harry !

Paint, finish and stance look great

Edited March 14, 2022 by Belugawrx
speling

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[Peter Lombardo]

Very well executed.  The silver paint is perfect for the era, very clean and precise. 

[iamsuperdan]

Excellent work!

[espo]

Beautiful looking paint and trim. I think I would have painted the trim first and masked that before painting the body. 

[drodg]

Stunning.   

[Mattilacken]

That’s perfection right there! Need to build one of those further on! 

[70 Sting]

First off, thank you very much fellas. ?

Secondly, photographing a model with this lighting setup is very flattering and hides imperfections you otherwise wouldn't see...unless you zoom in.

@Ace-Garageguy no adjustments were made to ride height, it's straight outta the box. Someone gifted me the Jaegermeister version of this kit, I assume it will build up the same way. There is similar masking and many, many decals required for that kit - so it's going to take a place at the back of the line.

@Oldcarfan27 @ea0863 @Mattilacken too funny ?

@peteski here is the setup:

The camera is a Canon 7D with 50mm lens. Exposure is 1/125 at f/13 100 ISO. The light source is a Canon 580 EX shot through a cheap 18" soft box mounted to a light stand. The flash is triggered with Pocket Wizards. The background is white seamless paper sitting on top of a Workmate bench.

That's the technical stuff, however, the same effect can be achieved with items from around the house or a trip to Michaels. The soft box can be replaced with a desk lamp placed above a couple sheets of tracing paper, a white pillowcase, shower curtain etc. to soften/diffuse the light. The key is to place the diffusion material relatively close to the model. Experiment by moving the lamp closer and farther away from the diffusion material to see the effect on the car. You will likely have to block light from the lamp from hitting the background -  try placing some black construction paper behind the light (opposite the camera). Also try rolling out more paper (moving the background farther away) to get that nice gradient effect.

A more basic point-and-shoot camera will work nicely, too. Just put the camera in Manual mode and adjust the shutter speed, aperture, ISO until it looks good on the screen. Bracket your exposures - try a few that look brighter and few that look darker as they may look different of a computer screen.

You can use a cellphone camera but it would be best if you can manually adjust the exposure. There are apps that allow manual control of the camera but you should be able to adjust it by tapping on the screen and adjusting the slider controls.

I hope I explained that well.

Regarding the use of Tamiya tape... because I'm a dumb@ss. I should have use plastic wrap, newspaper or regular painters tape. 

@Tommy124 that's a beautiful job and I like the colour scheme!

@espo what would be the advantage of painting the trim first?  Always looking for a better way.

Edited March 14, 2022 by 70 Sting

[ea0863]

Okay, now I need to know more about that awesome green car in the photo

[70 Sting]

13 minutes ago, ea0863 said:

Okay, now I need to know more about that awesome green car in the photo

@ea0863 Ah yes, the Stingaree. Here’s a post from a few months back.

[Hi-Po]

Outstanding build and photography!!  I agree that the photos make the impression that the car is real.  

[ea0863]

13 minutes ago, 70 Sting said:

@ea0863 Ah yes, the Stingaree. Here’s a post from a few months back.

Stingaree is way cool too! I'm new to this forum, so I had not seen it when you first posted it. Thank you.

[happy grumpy]

A wonderful rendition of my all time favorite Porsche . excellent photography.?

[radiohd10]

beautiful.  really nice job