1/12 GT 40 Mk II + KA Models Detailset

[daniel]

Ok, after disturbing ( ) Catos GT40 thread I think it's time to open my own.
Well it's not F1 but a model I think everybody is interested in, because its a GT 40 !!!

A lot has bee said about the kit and it's bad quality and you know what, you're right the kit is extremely chunky is many places but the overall body is very nice.
But the good think is that the KA Detailset fit's the model perfect...because it is a bad as the model

But there are very few parts from the KA models set that are an absolut must have, the seats are great...Well the are exactly the same but with some little mods they look different, about 5% of the PE parts are usefull and nice. The Metal drifeshafts are Ok and the steering wheel parts are nice.

ok..let's get building

daniel
-germany-

[daniel]

first was the engine...90% of the KA whitemetal parts are simply terrible so I build my own plus some other bits and pieces. I guess I will add more durign the build and I fear I will make the three "wheels" on the front of the engine again, they are a little fat, let's see

[daniel]

some small mods to the dash include an extension on top for a better look and easier painting.



the great seats. I had to drill a lot of holes
I did a few mods on the cockpit. I removed the fat plastic cable channel on top of the tanks, will remodel those from thin metalsheet. Also removed the connectors for the rollcage. This car had no cage.



A few of the 10 million sinkmarks have been filled and some metal details added.

[daniel]

OK back to the egnine and the exhaust a very prominenet part of the engine so that one has to look perfect.
I started to use the KA metal parts but the fit was more than terrible



After mayn tries and gallons of superglue I gave up



I used the kit parts and the fit perfect ! with some detailing the will look good.

Make sure to number each part after cutting it from the sprue or you will get lost...the exhaust is very complex. Honestly it's by far the most complicated exhaust I ever build..but read on

[daniel]

And here is the mayor problem....

The first problem is that you have to build the exhaust on the engine to make it fit perfect but removing it is superhard.
And I bet you will never remove the KA metal exhaust without moving it. The big (!!!) advantage of the plastic pipes is that they are flexible, so the can be bent and the exhaust removed for painting.

now let'S go to the second problem



I managed to get the exhaust off the engine but can't seperate both pipes. You have to break pipe No.8 of the exhaust to seperate both pieces for painting....

problem No.3 you have to remove part 8 of the exhaust again after painting to reassemble everything, but that is a another story

now does that sound complicated ?

[daniel]

Earlier I told you the kit is chunky...here's a good example.



This is how it looks before cleanup (I still belive it's a disasembled die-cast)

and a a lot nicer after cleanup

[daniel]

more goodies...now I have every detail-set that is available for this model

[daniel]

and here another "easy" task that turned into a nightmare



the pe for the dash needs a little force that lay flat
The dash is painted semigloss black and the top matt(microballoned)black

And the one thing that had to happend did happen of yourse...I spilled some glue
So I removed the glue and of came some microballons and all looked terrible



Next I will paint the top matt black, mask the pe part and shoot matt(microballoned)black again.

I also painted the exhaust...looks much better in reality but will do some more shading anyway.





I had to glue a lot of PE parts here...they have a selfadhesive backing but I want to be on the safe side and glue everything with superglue to the seat.
One thing that looks bad is that the PE parts are way to shiny. Maybe I will shot some matt over it. Bur I'm not sure if that looks good when rivets and seat have the same glossiness....hmmmm let's see ?!?

[daniel]

I did some mods to the chassis also, mainly in the front





As you can see I "closed" the whole front around the suspension, otherwise you could look "through" the...looked bad !
Turned out into a lot of work...was really hard to sand everything flat because of so many parts in the way.

[daniel]

And now for the nice part, the body and that amazing color...

Painting...a good handle is always important





the inner fender is black or dark blue...at least not lightblue. Masking wouldn't look good so I added a little edge like on the real car and resprayed that part.

aaaaaaaaaaaahh, ooooooh, doesn't that look coool





The decals (BBK) are nice but a little fat and I think the black outlines are a little fat. It look a little like a cartoon this way but I like it. also the orange parts are fluo orange which is not correct. Don't know if I will correct this...Ferrari red (2002) could look more correct but the orange looks really striking.

I also cut the decal an the roof around the air vents. No chance to lay that down flat. Will repsray that and and new black decal stripes...there is also some other touch up to do. But firts I will shoot some clear over the decals to protect them.

that's it for now...stay tuned

daniel
-germany-