[P A D]

As I'm relatively new to diecast car collecting and am not really a petrol head, there are many cars and models out there that I am not aware of. This is one in question, which I came across while searching Google for information to assist me in upgrading my AA 917k. I did of course know the Minichamps brand but the Carrera GTS and their model of it were completely new to me. Bottom line, I had to have one. Prices for this model are on the higher end of my budget but I found one that was acceptable. Here's what it looked like out of the box.

No damage or scratches but some slight paint rash in one or two areas, that was removed by fine wet sanding, Tamiya rubbing compound and polish. The Porsche and Carrera scripts on the rear are very nicely done so care was needed to avoid damaging them.

Not the best of images but the dials are nicely represented.

This is a better exposure showing the dials and steering wheel. The latter is nicely moulded but will benefit from some sanding to remove the mould line on the rim and a repaint. The seats are flocked but look faded with uneven colour. On the down side there is a lot of unpainted plastic in there, notably the floor pan and dashboard mouldings. The windscreen, head lining and rear window are one clear moulding but the head lining area is unpainted and poorly fitting towards the rear. The door cards are not shown but they at least are painted

Again, a lot of unpainted plastic under the rear engine cover although the moulded inserts and cantilever opening struts are well done.

The engine is pretty accurate with distributors and separate plug and coil leads but no coils. I've seen these on other examples of this model located centrally on the lower panel in front of the engine but there are no obvious signs of broken mountings or glue residues where they would have been. On the down side the black areas of the engine are all unpainted with some parts poorly aligned. The air filters are nice mouldings with the mesh represented by a sticker which looks good from normal viewing distances but is starting to peel. It also lacks the starter motor, fuel and oil piping along with any fuel pump or oil filter, so some research is needed to suss all that out so it can be made and fitted.

The cover cantilevers work well but the struts are a little thick, but that's only to be expected when using plastic mouldings.

The front mounted fuel tank has the sensor wiring moulded in relief along with a pipe running from the filler along the rear edge.

The spare wheel is tucked under the fuel tank and was glued in place but was easy to remove and clean up the glue residue.

So all in all a very good model albeit lacking in some refinement which I can hopefully improve.


Breaking it down is pretty straight forward only requiring the removal of 4 screws from the floor pan, followed by screws in the dor hinges. Dog legs unfortunately. To remove the enging cover two small screws have to be removed at the base of the front struts, followed by a push fit metal pin for the rear one.

The interior moulding was well glued to the floorpan and took some time with a chisel blade to remove without breaking, as did the seats.

Most of the glue residue had been removed when this image was taken, but whoever put it together in the factory must have used the whole tube just on the seats!

As mentioned earlier, the seat flocking, whilst intact appears to be faded and patchy. I've seen images with royal blue seat covers so I'll give them a whisk of matt paint via the air brush.

These Porsche engines are really weird and look more like something you would fine in a washing machine rather than racing car!

It looks fairly accurate to me albeit missing some details and painting as well as being poorly assembled.

Not easy to see in this image, but the panel where the spare wheel rests is plastic and again unpainted.

Here you can see the upainted and poorly fitting head lining. It doesn't sit down on the locating pins and when pushed home springs up again. The problem is a lack of clearance at the rear edges next to the pillars, which will be easily rectified. Note also the unpainted insides of the wheel arches

And the engine cover. The inner faces of the metal are painted but the inserts with the wheel arches are bare plastic.

So on with the modifications. Here's how the rear suspension and drive shafts are set up as it comes. The drive shafts are one moulding with an insert which fits into a slot in the bottom of the differential. I wanted to remove the suspension to facilitate painting but after removing the fixing screws from the two tabs, it is still sealed in place in the rear cage of the chassis. I can't remove the wheels as the retaining screws are covered by the wheel hub insert which is far too tightly pushed home to get out without damaging the wheels. I decide the easiest way was to cut the drive shafts from the differential insert and separate the suspension into two components.

With one side separated from the other you get this.

To refit, I've added a brass pin to the drive shaft with a hole drilled in the gaitor on the diff insert into which it will fit. As is often the case one of the plastic pins broke when separating the plastic parts and I've had to replace it with styrene rod.

Here the differential insert with the gaitors has been glued into the diff and holes drill for the pins in the drive shafts to locate into. I'll remove the tyres to paint the suspension. They are a hard-ish compound but immersing for a minute or two in hot water will make them pliable enough to get off.

Here's what the interior and floorpan looks like after some spray work. Airbrush for the seats and rattle can for the rest.

The blue is a little on the dark side but it's what I had and I'm happy with it.

I replaced the stalk on the gear lever with a length of polished nickel silver rod glued between the gaitor and handle. The handbrake is original but repainted as are the foot pedals, which although a little on the thick side are accurate.

The sanding Mark's at the front of the floorpan are from removing some moulding pips which I felt interfered with the fit, but are not visible after reassembly so I didn't rub the smooth.

Looking better already methinks.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[stevenmweiner]

That's a really sharp looking car, and I'm impressed with your very thorough review and painstaking modifications!

 

[K1200lt]

@P A D , beautifully done. I wish I had such great skills to mod the models. Or atleast to repair them nicely.

 

[P A D]

Thank you Steven and K1200lt.

A couple of things I overlooked at the start. First a view of the underside. Not obvious here but at the rear there is s moulded representation of the shocks/springs. They are not accurate as they are moulded in relief vertically, when they should be at an angle and they don't reach down to connect to the lower wishbones, so are much simplified. No springs at the front though. Other than that it looks good with master cylinder detail and anti roll barat the front, which is missing at the rear.

The wheels and tyres are very good albeit there are no air valves in the rims. Also the central inserts which cover the retaining screws have been applied back to front. That is, the one on the rear wheel should be on the front and the one on the front on the rear. I've seen images of other models done the same way so they may all be like that rather than just an odd error or two. They are so tightly inserted that I doubt it is possible to remove them without damaging the wheels, so I'll live with them as is.

Here's the fuel tank and gear lever after modification. After scraping of thec moulded wiring I had to respray the tank which covered the black painted straps. I could have masked them but I'd decide to reinstate them with strips of PVC tape.

Here are the front and rear suspension parts after painting, along with the front lower wishbones and anti roll bar. I used Tamiya metallic grey for the uprights, silver for the discs, gold for the calipers and mainly gloss black for the struts. The gaiters were painted rubber black.

And the repainted engine components.

The rear cover plate of the differential was black as it came but I'm going with silver.

And the cylinder heads and carbs. I've decided to do it with the trumpets uncovered so I've had to scratch them up from Aluminium tube, styrene rod and cut down boot lace ferrules

I sprayed the bare plastic dashboard in matt black after masking off the dials with low tack tape. I still need to paint the switches and maybe add some.

The plastic parts inside the engine cover have also now been sprayed, matt for the inserts and gloss for the struts.

Here's the engine in place after reassembly and adding new plug leads. As there is so much black in the enging bay, I decided to go for red cable to add a bit of colour.

After adding the starter motor to the bell housing, the unit would not fit between the rear panels so I had to cut them back to gain clearance. I don't think they are on the real car and have only been added by Minichamps to add rigidity to the moulding. The detail at the top of the springs was added from styrene rod.

There's a removable cross beam above the starter motor that facilitates removal and insertion of the engine, which is held in place by screws underneath. I think the trumpets are a little tall but unless they foul the engine cover I'm keeping them.

And a quick mock up to check that it all goes back together OK after the mods I've made. Yep, it all fits.

The exhaust is just loosely located for the photo.

Sanded the tyre treads as well.

Here you can see the retaining screws for the engine.

And the new coils. The cables are not glued yet as I need to take it apart again to do make further additions to the engine bay.

Air valves have been added to the wheels from 0.6M bolts and hex nuts. You can see in this macro image where I've tried to remove the centre caps with a needle.

Some cars have black wheel nuts so I may repaint them???

Handsome little bugger isn't it?

Cheers,
Peter

 

[stevenmweiner]

You're very talented! 😃

 

[P A D]

Thanks again Steven.

Some further work on the engine. I found some small PE brackets on a spare fret from my model railway stash, that I was able to modify as supports for the throttle and linkages. Not perfect, but not bad.

And trial fit in the car.

The trial was to check if the engine cover would close OK. It wouldn't. 😡 No problem with the throttle assembly, but the added shocker detail prevented the cantilevers from folding forward, so they had to go. I still need to touch up the top of the shocker mounts. I also added the metal strap to the oil tank and found a spare thumb wheel from my drawing instrument spares to represent the filler cap. Still to be painted of course.

Here's the tank on it's own. The strap is PE strip with 0.5mm brass rod for the fastening.

I tidied up the plug leads with some " cable ties".

And after painting the throttle assembly.

I'm struggling with the hoses for the lubrication and fuel system, as although I have plenty of images of the engine bay, I don't have any that give a clear overview of where all the hoses go. In the end I may end up with a big of a "guesstimate".

Cheers,
Peter

 

[StratosWRC]

Good work with those PE pieces. I'm a big fan of using metal parts as much as possible in the engine bay

 

[P A D]

Thank you Stratos.
I got it finished earlier this week so here are the final additions. In the engine bay I've added a representation of the fuel lines and some of the oil feed hoses. I couldn't really get to grips with the oil system as I couldn't find images giving a clear overview picture of what was where.

Here you can see the fuel feed to the carbs coming up from the fuel filter lower down. I think the oil filter was to the right of the coils but I'm not sure about that. I had to remove the shocker details added over the springs as they impaired the movement of the cantilevers on the cover when closing and prevented it from sitting down.

The oil filler cap on the tank fouled the inside of the cover and also caused problems with closing. Note the chipped paint on the filler still to be touched up. I had to chisel some clearance into the plastic lining in the cover with a mini chisel (sharpened screwdriver) to solve it.

Not 100% of course but better I think.

Inside the cockpit the seats have been refitted, albeit without seat belts. As it's a road version I prefer to fit lap belts but don't have any suitable PE parts. I can do that later.

I've added the dash switches from brass rivets and tiny hex nuts as well as painting the steering wheel spokes in chrome ink and the rim with Tamiya acrylics, oversprayed with clear gloss varnish. If you look closely you can see I've added the tiny handle just forward of the gear shift. Anybody know what that was for?

You can see it easier in this image.

The bulk of the work has been on the interior and the engine bay with only the air valves on the wheels, some replacement arms on the wipers (0.4mm brass rod) and a small hex bolt to represent the screen washer jet in place of the painted silver dot.

I've not done anything on the underside other than spray the floor pan and add brake lines to the calipers. Again, I couldn't fine a good image of the piping on the master cylinders so I've ignored that.

The front brake line. Oh, and I've added a simple representation of the shocker and spring, barely visible.

And the rear.

I've stuck with the silver wheels nuts in the end.

It's not that visible but I've added the piping to the fluid reservoirs.

Not quite a fully opening model as the luggage flap at the rear is fixed. There is space to make the luggage area but the rear of the casting is quite thick and I didn't fancy trying to cut around the flap with the piercing saw.

Well that's another one done. A relatively easy upgrade when there's no metal bashing or re spraying to do. Hope you all enjoyed the write up.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[vulpex]

Absolutely love how you improved the engine!
This takes the model to another level…
Thanks for letting us join this project

 

[StratosWRC]

Alrighty well done. I would also recommend using a bit of blackwash on the silver engine bay parts to help bring out some of the dimension/curvature of those parts.

 

[P A D]

Many thanks Gents.
So far I haven't done any "weathering" on any of the engines, but it's a good point. I might give it a try.

I meant to add this image to the last post but overlooked it. Whoever the owner of the car is, he/she also has the Minichamps model. See the box in the footwell on the passenger side.

Cheers,
Peter