MFH 1/12 Porsche 917k

[caterhamnut]

Hi here is a link to a restored 917 hope it helps
http://www.canepacollection.com/detail- ... 11181.html

Sorry Tomtom - missed this - brilliant link for engine colours, and shows that brown colour very well, thanks

[Tomtom12]

No probes some lovely pics don't know how accurate they are to an original car as this has been restored

[mvc]

Great engine work, a joy to watch! And I like your choice for the red and white livery -- that' s my favourite on the 917K. I'll be following!

Cheers,
Marcus

[caterhamnut]

Right- progress...I've chosen to go for the 'brown' look on the engine - most of the pictures show this - it is a sort of 'glaze' that I recognize on my old VW engine - like an un-polished casting, with oxidization, fuel varnish etc etc - I am sure that is not WHY it is that color, but best way to describe...

A few ref images:







- you can see the main crank case colour, the cam shaft 'top' of the engine (either side on this boxer-style engine) and also the slightly lighter top/side pieces that are below the air intake trumpets. The gearbox is a much darker paint finish - semi-gloss black/gun metal.

I had to mix the paint - a mix of iron, gun metal, bronze, black, white etc etc - until it looked about right.

[caterhamnut]

First layer was too metallic and 'bronze' - it was trial and error to be honest, and I'm still tweaking it with shading, more spray, buffing, pastels etc etc!

I really don't think there is a 'right' colour on these - every car looks different. All I know is that I haven't seen any 'polished' ali castings.







- the last photo shows the pieces between the inlet trumpets and the cylinder heads - a bit lighter than the main parts. These other bits needed to be dulled down a bit.



...a bit better.

I decided to leave the cylinder heads themselves unfinished - before use they are polished (fin edges) or dull ali colour. It gives a nice colour contrast as well - even though they will all be covered up ultimately!



I did apply a liberal black wash to darken them and define the fins a bit more.

More test fitting...



There is a lot of lining up to do at this point...12 cylinder heads glues into the main casing, then the cam cases need to fit on the other end at a later stage...top tip is to dry-fit the part that goes on top - sort of inlet manifold I guess - which fixes into each cylinder head - this will space and line them all up correctly.

[caterhamnut]

Needed to do a bit of filling on the end of the gearbox casing - when the two halves came together, they didn't mate very well with the rest of the gearbox that is part of the main engine case. I simple piece of plastic sheet sorted it very easily.





Colours still not final, but I am liking the slightly different hues of various components. Much of this is a dry fit at this point, as air-flow shrouds need to be fitted (that hide eveything!)

[caterhamnut]

Some pretty pictures...







Everything you see will be 'edited' - picking out nuts and bolts, replacing some with detail parts etc etc - weathering to pick out detail - this was all about getting the 'base' paint down.

[caterhamnut]

I'm pretty happy with this, but may darken certain areas with some Tamiya smoke or similar - I've used silver crayons, weathering powders etc to pick out edges - new to that black art, but going ok so far - I used some black Tamiya wash to pick out details, but wasn't happy with the way it 'bled' when dry.

[caterhamnut]

In what was quite a productive weekend, I also managed to trim, polish, prime, paint and assemble a lot of the engine ancillaries...it is so satisfying to see the engine grow

Lots and lots of finishing effects etc to do later...











Some of these parts are little models in themselves...5 bits in this little guy...



This MFH kit comes with some nicely cast 'resin' parts - that is parts that are unfinished GRP or resin on the real car (as opposed to the white resin bodywork) = these are tinted like the real engine, but IMO need a little darkening and some weathering to pick out the detail - none of them look 'clean' on the real cars...in the picture below you can see the fan housing (dry fit) is darker, where I have used a Tamiya weathering wash (brown) to tint it - it has worked really well I think - more to go, but a good start...

[sky1911]

Yeah, awesome stuff! My theory on the colour difference between upper and lower half might be right in the picture. Notice the dates? One half is from the 20.3.1970, the other from 2.4.1970.. 2 weeks difference, might explain a different batch. That aside, the fan housing looks spot on.

One thing I have been wondering - is there anyone who has both a LH Long tail (either version or both) and a KH short tail. Are the engines the exact same models or are there subtle differences?