LMM 1/24th Panoz LMP 900 Sebring 2002

Hi Everyone
Well things have been crazy lately with some big family health problems and working long hours leaving not much time for modeling. I want to get back to the 310B as soon as I can lot of detailing takes me awhile to do I am slow. So I started this kit to brake things up and I need something to build that wouldn't take up a lot of time hopefully. The kit is a Le Mans Miniatures Panoz LMP900 Bomber Sebring 2002 resin kit it’s pretty straight forward all resin parts except for the two photo etch parts sheets. There is some flash to be cleaned up which is to be expected in a resin kit but everything seem very well made with the exception of the tires they are very uneven in spots and sanding them not going to fix them completely enough talking.
The Kit
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/kit.jpg
The air intakes for the radiators needed to be opened up.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/body-intakes_1.jpg
I opened them by drilling holes all over face of the resin then using my x-acto knife, and small files to clean them up
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/open-intakes.jpg
The roll bar needed some clean up work also
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/roll-bar_1.jpg
After clean up
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/open-roll-bar.jpg
I will continue to cleaning up the parts and hope to get some primer on them this week.
Enjoy comment welcome thanks for looking

Bummer about the health problems! It's amazing how something as simple and enjoyable as modelling, sometimes triggers the healing process. Keep up the progress, looks good so far. I empathize with the resin clean up, my renaissance trans-GT3Rsr is looking pretty pitty right about now...:grinno:

a Front engine Prototype, we Americans do everything wrong :D

sorry about the health problems with your family, hope everyone gets better

Thanks guy's really appreciate.
http://smileys.on-my-web.com/signer/links/801749001197334465-final.gif (http://smileys.on-my-web.com)

I test fitted the front diffuser and found a bad gap on one side.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/Test-fit.jpg
I broke out my heat gun not hair dryer heat gun 475 watts of heat Being extra careful
not to melt the part and burn my hand I heated it up and reshaped it here is the result.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/Fixed-Fit.jpg

Enjoy till next time

Brilliant job with the reshaping!

Interesting subject! I'll follow.

Welcome back Dave! Hope your family are well now.I'll be following your build.It sure is an interesting subject,I don't think I've ever seen one of these built before.

Great start, good to hear you can get moedelling again.

I can't help with photos.......i was busy..but. The one area LMM got wrong was trim color. It's red not dayglow red. The car was bomber tan and had a matte finish. If you go to www.gunnarracing.com (http://www.gunnarracing.com) under team and 962.com, and you can see the car/plane/jeep/crew. We had guns on the nose and inside the rad outlets. They were removed while on the track for saftey reasons. I was part of the team and it was one of the coolest weeks of my life!

I can't help with photos.......i was busy..but. The one area LMM got wrong was trim color. It's red not dayglow red. The car was bomber tan and had a matte finish.

Hi jmpsebring
I have been to the Gunnar site yes you are right about the red but unfortunately the Gestetner logo is part of the decal. I plan to have the paint shop I go to mix me a federal standard color to match the bomber.

model master olive drab fs34087 is close, but still too dark. I added some white and it was very close. As for the decals, I too will use the dayglow red for the same reason.

I'm following this one! That's probably the first LMM Panoz i see being built.
Wrongness on wheels with that front engine....but that's the cool thing about it :-)

great subject!

Well the long a waited update thanks for the comments also guy's

First up is the tires and rims side note these are the worst tires I have seen in a kit all out of shape and uneven IMHO they should have taken a better look at them before putting them in the box. So the rims where painted Alclad Dark Aluminium I have reference photos that show the car with three different sets of rims. That is why I chose dark Alum over just Alum I think it will go well with the body color also this is the first time using Alclad paint I really like it sprayed great through my brush also add RB Motion valve stem.
The tires where washed in warm soppy water then painted with Tamiya TS-28 after it cured for a few days I applied the decals after that I used General's compressed charcoal (picked it up a my local craft store) I rub it on my finger and then the decal to dirty it up a bit. Then I sealed it with Testors 1960 flat lacquer.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/wheels.jpg

Next is the break disc.
The disc where painted Metalizer exhaust for a carbon look
The center are X-32 Titanum silver and the top of the blots with a drop of X-31 Titanum gold.
The calipers where paint Alclad Pale Gold
There is still a photo etch piece that need to be added to the top of them which I will add later after I get all the others cleaned and primed.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/brake-disc.jpg

Next the body is all primed and ready for paint just have to get the paint I will do that in the next week in the mean time I work on the chassis.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/primed-body_02.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/primed-body_01.jpg

Enjoy thanks for looking
Dave

There was a set or two painted black and a few left silver. Gunnar racing was not a rich team and time was short. As soon as a set of wheels came off, we had to take them back for new tires. The black wheels were for presentation. Black was chosen to resemble the B-17 props turning. One thing that never made it on to the car were yellow reflective prop tips for the tires. They were precut and ready to go. It would have been so kool to see those tips at night change speed as they entered the hairpin. Brakes discs put us out before dark.

Some good work there Dave.Wheels look very nice,I like the way the Alclad sprays as well,it is nice paint to work with.The body is looking good as well.I like the look of the 'Metalizer' paint on the brakes.I take it this is Testors Metalizer?
Anyone know of a UK stockist of this paint? I've been trying to find one before and never could.

jmpsebring thanks for your in site it's really good stuff do you have any good photos that show the rear wing I would love to get a copy of them.

Thanks Steve
Yes it the Testors brand let know if you don't fine it I send you a bottle like I did before. I sprays really well too and is perfect look for carbon better then trying to mix two colors together.

I am on a roll now with another update.
First there is this little arrow piece the goes on each side of front diffuser well it is not included in the kit but they do give you a template to make the part. So I made the part from some extra brass photo etch piece.

Here is a few photos
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/template.jpg

The diffuser
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/example_01.jpg

The end result
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/example_02.jpg
Next I assembled the seatbelts first time I made PE belts and it went better then I thought.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/seat-belts.jpg

Thanks for looking

Looking good!!

I always have liked the Panoz LMP's.....I remember back in 03 at Sebring how loud the Panoz cars were...sheesh.

Great subject and great building Dave (as ever). Kind regards,
BIll

Thanks Guy for the comments
I was able to get the body paint and am working on finishing the chassis. I have to send the decal sheet back to LLM for replacement a few of them just fell apart in the water. So it going to be a few weeks before i get the decals on the car.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d79/DaveSans/Panoz%20LMP%20900/body.jpg

sweet! very nice coating, cant wait to see it with the decals...

Looking forward to more updates! Keep up the good work!