FORD GT40 MKII 1/12TH TRUMPETER

[henryk001]

I relented to purchase this kit as i couldnt find anything around to build in 1/12th scale.
The only kit i could find was the discontinued Trumpeter one, a few still floating around the Web.
There are other diecast built models of varying quality out there but i wanted to build up a car to sit together with the ferrari 250 GTO ive built.
I also purchased the spare wheel,KA 00007 detail kit and Meng nuts and bolts in a attempt to bring out detail to replace missing detail and poor toylike aspects of this model, especially around the engine, gearbox.The rest of the kit looks great for detail and scaling. Its a challange im happy to embark on.
Started this kit last weekend.Theres Chrome, too much of it on so many parts ive had to bleach it off.
Im not doing a racing version or of any historical interest, just building a car id like to own one day. "If you dont have a dream how you going to make a dream come true"
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Here goes.
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The real thing, inlet manifold for Ford FE V8 to compare to.

The real thing, Ford T44 Gearbox to compare to.
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Other missing detail, no Distributor,no seperation lines for crankcase, cylinder head, no crancase breather, no starter motor etc. So ive already got some work to do before i really go into making this.
Less talk, more pictures.I trust this will help anyone out who may want to build the kit with extra detail.
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[url].
|https://thumbsnap.com/YZNZSxbV[/url].
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Cheers for now. Back to work

[henryk001]

AshVX220 said:

Settling in with some popcorn to watch this thread grow.

Out of interest, how do these kits compare to something like Pocher (which I always assumed were the really Gucci car kits)?

Hi Ash.
Very poor quality kit compared to Pocher. Looking at the GT40 kit only, it’s like they had a really good development engineer for the bodywork and detail parts, which is very good but left the engine, suspention development to a novice who just learnt to use cad/cam to deal with it. Like they couldn’t be bothered.Way to much chrome on most of the wrong parts.The Pocher stands on its own for detail, quality and there’s a company somewhere that does super detail kits for Pocher. I’ve built a Alfa Romeo car years ago,but realised it was too big to start building and collecting. If your a builder, the best detailed and reasonably priced kits are As far as im concearned Tamiya, there 1/24 scale kits are good as well.

[henryk001]

AshVX220 said:

Hi Henry,
thanks for the reply, I'm not a modeller any more. I used to years ago, but was never anywhere near the talent of the guys on these threads (yourself included). I'd just heard of Pocher as being really nice (but expensive) kits. Was your Ferrari kit as good as a Pocher, or was it the additions you made or bought that really brought it to life?
Either way, really looking forward to another cool build thread to follow.

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Hi! Ash.
Yes the Pocher kits are nice. The Ferrari kit, detailed parts are of the scale from Hiroboy in the UK had everything other than paint, glue and tools to make up the car.
Take a look on their website pick a car (full media kit) in 1.12th and you will see pictures of all the parts supplied with these kits.
The quality on materials are superb other than the white metal castings which as normal would need to be cleaned up.
Materials were .
Resin body, cast white metal parts, bonnet and boot, nickel silver wire, stainless tube, brass rod,turned alluminium,polished stainless parts, aluminium stampings for window fames tiny screws,rivets, plastic parts,loads of photo etched, leather, rubber etc,etc.

[henryk001]

So more detail work.Did a anodised look to hopefully reflect some missing parts im going to make
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Gearbox endcover nuts added
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The Crankcase Ford blue was painted quite roughly as the casting would be rough.
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Distributor made with a sprue, cable tubing , CA glue , fast activator and turned down.
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Cheers for now

[henryk001]

robemcdonald said:

That is mad! Brilliant, but mad.

I think mine is going to be shelved after this build.

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Hi Rob, Don’t shelve the kit. You know you want to build it. Let me turn my madness into a stroke of genius. The kit cost 1/3 compared to the Ferrari. Including all the extras I bought.
All I need to do now is invest some free time. There are spare parts left over from the Ferrari that can be modified I can use. Broken models I’ve kept over the years. It will never be a quality build compared to the MFH kit, but I’ve saved myself a “monkey”. Your skills alone would make a quality model I’m sure. Go for it, or sell it you will probably double your investment depending on when you purchased yours. Cheers for now

[henryk001]

Heres some more.
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Ive jumped a couple of sections to do the detail kit pulleys,coolant pipes, hoses to add and hose clips to make (12 off).
Its just miniature origami. Cheers for now.

[henryk001]

robemcdonald said:

My only criticism is that you use Revell cement. Should be Tamiya extra thin......
Just kidding. You’re flying through this one.

The revel cement is about 15 years old. It won’t glue, and I was going to throw it away but found that it does help with holding things in position and allowing the part to be manipulated before finally using extra thin which is pretty instant. I don’t know if I’m rushing this or not but it’s going a lot easier being all plastic than having to file and clean up so many metal parts in my previous build. Sorry to read about the cxxp you were getting on another forum. If that’s what they are about I’m not going there nor want to be associated to it. Cheers

[henryk001]

CanAm said:

Good thinking; the rivet counters won't be able to find anything to fault!

Yes phew!. I wonder what the reaction would be when I show my out of scale hose clips.
It’s a hobby,folly,craft or art.Like or don’t like. Each to ones own

[henryk001]

CanAm said:

I have to admit to being one of those dreaded "rivet counters" when it comes to the McLaren/Amon GT40.

It was raced again in different colours after its Le Mans win and in updated MkIIb trim in 1967. Ford later repainted it black and silver, but still in 1967 trim. The Trumpeter kit is an accurate model of this car, but not of the 1966 race winner! I have a painting (well print) of the car at the 1966 race with the same errors and it drives me mad.

I'm pleased to say that the car has recently been (very) accurately restored to its race-winning condition.

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Is this the web-site for the rebuilt car? .
http://gt40.rkmotorscharlotte.com/car/
Im using it as a reference for the tiny details to help me on my model.
I think its ok to be critical about the history of the particular car you have a interest in, so i wouldnt class you as a rivit counter. . Moreover as a true enthusiast. Cheers

[henryk001]

CanAm said:

That's the one!

One thing I only recently found out was that the 'monocoques' were dark blue, not black. Most of the period photos were black and white and you have to be very careful that photos you're using aren't of restored cars. Except this one!

Of course, as a 'What If' car, you could have had it in any finish you liked.

Edited by CanAm on Monday 25th March 18:36

Yes I like the idea of the blue, doing it in a dark blue and thinking about finishing the body in a dark metallic silver/grey. Talking about rivet counting, I recently surcomed to rivet counting flu. I found a site of a very good modeller who was building this kit to a very high quality, but noticed that he had added a oil filter assembly to the side of the crankcase when it should have been installed as a stand alone unit on the chassis.I haven’t mentioned it. “ oh no I’m turning to the dark side.

[henryk001]

Heres a bit of extra work using the supplied KA models PE hose clips but i dont like them very much. Im going to make them in the same way on the other coolant pipe as i did on the Ferrari.

Heat shrink expanded (yes not shrunk) over the pipes
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Found the screws nut assembly a bit to clunky for my liking
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Heat shrink for the other side
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Ka models white metal pulleys used
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Cheers for now.

[henryk001]

Some photos.
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Next project to add details is drive shaft flanges to the gearbox faces (M3 washer + Meng nuts and rubber boots) from a broken old model i kept for many years.
Cheers for now.

[henryk001]

Some Bling.
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Put the incomplete Ford engine and MFH Ferrari engine together to get a comparrison, to see if the extra effort in adding detail to the Trumpeter engine
is worth the effort.
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Ive gone this far, i may as well keep going i guess. Cheers for now

[henryk001]

robemcdonald said:

Show off! Looks pretty great.

Remember this is what it looks like “out of the box”


Worth the effort in my opinion.

Thanks for the picture Rob, just needed a opinion good or bad

[henryk001]

"Bundle of snakes". What a palava.
I read somewhere that the KA detail kits exhaust wernt usable, they were quite right to a certain degree as they were all out of shape, probably as they are white metal and would have bounced around in the box from Korea to wherever.I still think the Detail kit is really good. I spent 4 hours today comparing them to the plastic ones, with quite a lot of manipulating,filing. I decided to build them on the table 1st to see if they could be used and i really wanted to use them for the extra brazed detail.A small drop of CA, built up one by one Ive managed to get them to what i think will be a managable state to then do a little bit of fine tweaking.
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Broken down in parts again and cleaned up ready
Time for a beer or beers

[henryk001]

The KA Models detail kit provides 2 x turned solid stainless steel exhaust ends, so i polished them up even more and gave them some proper heat treatment.
Quite happy with the outcome.
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Ready to build up the exhaust system, once the rear cross member has been fitted.
Cheers

[henryk001]

Dinoboy said:

Does look very realistic.

Thanks for the comment, Looks like one of the banks is running weaker than the other (i kept the heat on a bit top long) . but thats usually the case with a real car anyway.One side always runs hotter than the other
Did some more hydrailics tonight,The pipes arnt from the kit, i used my own stock. Rubbish TV tonight and with manflu (probably why TV is rubbish) had to have a distraction,made up some drive shaft flanges with M3 washers and Meng nuts, robbed a couple of gaiters from a broken model, should look good with the white metal drive shafts in the KA models detail kit.
Some photos.

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[henryk001]

Hi!
Found that the interior paint and chassis was a blue colour as opposed to the outside bodywork, so im using grey primer and
a pearl blue to do the chassi/ interior. The pearl should help to reflect some light, im thinking about going the whole hog and finishing the car near as i can as the real car was rebuilt.For anyone whos interested,heres the website of the real thing. http://gt40.rkmotorscharlotte.com/car/. if you click on the gallary, the photos come up in colour

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Cut the ends off the anti-rollbar as they were way to big and finished of with stud nuts to cap the ends
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These pipes are testing my patience
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Cheers .

[henryk001]

CanAm said:

That's the one!

One thing I only recently found out was that the 'monocoques' were dark blue, not black. Most of the period photos were black and white and you have to be very careful that photos you're using aren't of restored cars. Except this one!

Of course, as a 'What If' car, you could have had it in any finish you liked.

Edited by CanAm on Monday 25th March 18:36

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What do you think of the blue ive used on the rear cross member, looks like ive relented to building it this way. Any critisism (good or bad) will be appreciated before i go too far with it. Cheers

[henryk001]

Im doing it in Grey primer and Tamiya pearl blue TS 89. Reason being smaller scales dont tend to promote the true colour due to lack of light reflection.
The pearl in the paint im using will hopefully counteract the issue. Im concearned that if i use the the true colour code it will end up being too dark on the model.Im sticking to the RK motors web-site for my build,the blue looks lighter to me on there. Might be right, might be wrong but hey anyway its close enough.

Edited by henryk001 on Friday 5th April 13:09