Just a quick update.
I just finished polishing and waxing the 917K. In person she’s got a mile deep shine, and the paint finish is about as smooth as I’ve ever achieved. Unfortunately, try as I might, my photographs just don’t come close to showing the finish as it looks up close and personal.
Maybe I should hire my brother whose an outstanding photographer to take another set for me.
joel
Looks impressive to me -
Looks great Joel.
That is some impressive work there Joel.
JA
One fantastic finish. Paint and decals look spot on - no, perfectly done.
Bro
Richard, David, Jesper, & Bro,
Thanks guys for stopping by and checking out my progress to date. Like I said, all things considered this is my best overall finished shell from prep, primer, color coats, decals, polish, and wax.
Gee, it only took nearly 5 years and 20 car builds to get to this point. Of course my next build will have a few steps back, as that seems to be always the case with Team Willstein.
joel
Looks flawless to me Joel!
cheers
Michael
Michael,
Thanks so much for your thumbs up on how the body is turning out. Coming from you and Richard, our MFH team, it is more then appreciated.
joel
Yes sir, lovely work indeed! I certainly can’t pick any flaws in that body, love it!.
Cheers, D
D,
Thanks so much for your thumbs up. It’s always appreciated, and makes my day.
joel
Been quite a while since I posted in the Porsche 917K build. Haven’t had much bench time of late with way to many medical issues between my wife and myself as each of us has been in the Hospital 3 times since my last update, with a few more visits to still come as my wife is now getting a right Shoulder.
Anyway, back to the Porsche. for now the build is on hold and the only build officially listed as a Shelf Queen.
I started to work on the interior and got to the point of gluing the cockpit tub to the lower chassis/body. But when I tried to dry fit the two body halves after the tub had dried, the warp and twisted issued that I thought I had fixed with the tabs and a few modifications was now worse. I’m not one to clamp and glue when I’m looking at a 1/4 inch opening that would also cause the rear suspension to be out of alignment, and thus the rear wheels might not both touch the asphalt. Just couldn’t get it to fit correctly or even closer. Now I know that the kits from the early 2000 run were mostly ok because I built one for my 1st race car several years ago.
Not the greatest of builds, but the upper and lower shells fit just fine.
So my new build plan was to buy another 917K kit, but none of my regular online vendors had any in stock. Then I turned to e-bay and found several kits, all from Japan, and going for insane prices. Screw that. No way am I going to pay anything close to those asking prices. So a few times per week I kept on checking my USA sources and a few over seas sites. then Spot out of Spain listed that they got a huge Fujimi shipment, and sure enough they got more then 5 kits with 42 modelers already having them in their carts, but checking daily none of them actually bought any of the kits. So I decided to bite the bullet, and started to order one selling for $36 plus shipping. when I checked the shipping via UPS ( I never use the USPS for overseas as the few times I did, my package was shipped all over the East Coast and took more then 7 weeks to get to me, and that’s before covid. and it was slightly damaged ). Well the shipping was $29.99. Again, no way I’m spending almost as much on shipping as the cost of the kit. So I’m back waiting for ScaleHobbyist.com to get a few in. So far it’s a no go, but the do carry Fujimi race cars.
Right now it’s a waiting game, so I’ve started the old Tamiya Mazda 787b.
joel
Bummer Joel - hope your family health issues will fall behind you both and ScaleHobbyist comes through.
Chin up - Richard
Tough about the 917 but not much you can do if it is badly warped. I am interested in the Mazda 787B. It is a MFH kit I would like to build sometime so seeing how your Tamiya goes together would be a good pointer. I even ordered the orange and green earlier when I got the paint for Ducati.
cheers
Michael
Richard,
It’s really turning into a struggle for both of us. Old age just seems for us to be everything just breaking down slowly but surely. Use to be getting healthy and staying healthy wasn’t all that difficult, but now it’s like a dream that just doesn’t come true.
We go for tests for one thing and for the last few years they keep on finding new things that require medical and in half the cases surgical procedures.
Now I’m even a test bed. I’ve got the newest super mini heart monitor implanted two weeks ago due to my EP beats issues. It’s the size of a triple A battery but flater. New medication quantities have at least gotten me out of the 30% range and back down to less then 1%, but there’s still several more heart issues to go.
My wife is still recovering from the hip replacement and now she’s getting a new shoulder, which is going to be a long and somewhat painful recovery. So I’m the Mr. Everything at home, and I’m struggling myself. No matter what I have to be there for her, and that’s my plan and goal.
joel
Michael,
The 917K will see the finish line even if I have to start completely over and just buy one from overseas. it’s my 2nd all time favorite Porsche, with the 908/3 being well seated in the #1 slot. I almost bit the bullet and bought the MFH 1/24 scale kit but with the conversion to dollars it was nearly $300 and way above my retirement budget, and failing eyesight doesn’t much help either.
As for the Mazda 787b, I’ve already ran into a issue that I can’t really resolve as I usually do. Since the kit is vintage 2004, the decals by Tamiya are also that old, and certainly not of today’s quality. They were somewhat yellowed which kind of surprised me as the kit was still sealed, so I decided to test a few decals I wouldn’t be using as I planned to figure out a way to pant most of the Green over Fluorescent Orange. but still there’s decals that I would need to use other then what comes with the Studio 27 set which isn’t a stand along AM set. Unfortunately, out of the 3 decals I tried on a painted test pc of plastic, 2 just came apart in mega pieces, so the decals were basically toast.
I couldn’t find a AM replacement set anywhere which surprised me, so the next step was ebay and see what I could find. Same crap from the Japanese thieves asking insane prices for the kit decals, one Cartograf set from the last release that would require a new mortgage on the house, one Chinese knock off, and that was that.
Now there’s another version of this car that Tamiya did in fact kit, and that’s the factory car which was all white with blue markings. So I searched for those decals and found a French company selling them through Esty which I never heard of at a decent price, and bought a set. Odds are I’ll never see them or they arrive beat to death. Shipping date is 5 wks from purchase date, and 10 days from there for delivery. Even if they printed as needed like Indy Cals, the time frame is nuts, and they clearly state no cancellations, but Pay Pal most likely can help. The Decals with shipping were just $27 so it’s not a bank breaker.
My plan is to take the body shell pcs through painting up to decal stage, then start the rest of the build.
So it sure looks like my limited modeling time hasn’t produced much it anything as yet.
joel
Joel, have you considered a “whiffer” paint scheme? A private, non-factory paint scheme? Similar to what was seen on Porche 956/962s in the 80s & 90s? Just a suggestion, Joel.
Joel,
Yep. That’s my next option if the decal sheet never arrives or is damaged. I could send it back but I pay the postage and that’s almost the cost of the decals.
I’ve found one other factory paint scheme, but it uses some fancy makings.
Going to open my build blog later today and cut and paste out the last few posts.
joel
If I could find a kit of the Mazda 787, I have thought about painting it red with Coca Cola Livery.
Hi Joel,
Sorry to hear about all those issues. I guess old decals are always a danger and Tamiya originals were never that good which is why they use Cartograf themselves these days. The blue and white scheme for the Mazda would be a good one. They were the factory colours and only did the orange / green combo as a one off for LeMans. I guess no surprise that everybody wants the winner. I am surprised there are few options for AM, it was a very popular kit in Japan.
I hope your French printed ones turn out OK. Did you get to see pictures of the quality of their work. I have seen some poorly printed schemes before.
cheers
Michael
Joel,
Egads!! I could never do that as it’s an Iconic sponsor for 962c’s and 935Ks. The more I think about it, I’d keep on looking for those decals. If I ever decided to go with a “what if” I’d use a Japanese known sponsor like Minolta, Canon, Panasonic, or something along those lines.
joel
