Audi R8C LeMans 1999 Provence Moulage 1:43

Hi everybody

Here’s a new build report from me. I should rather be working on my little Tameo Lotus 72 after a long time without any serious modeling ( due to other things I had to do ), but while it was sitting around untouched the old paint problem reoccurred :-( I decided I was fed up with that and finally throw my resin chassis away and use the metal one. That means though I had to order some new decals and I’m waiting for them now.
Anyway, just when I decided to restart it all once more, my latest ebay-prey arrived from England. It’s the 1:43 scale Provence Moulage kit of the Audi R8C.
In 1999 Audi tackled the Le Mans 24h for the first time. They entered two R8R open top cars that were built up in Ingolstadt and two R8C coupes built by RTN in England to find out which concept was the better option. Unfortunately the decided to carry on with the open cars. Unfortunately for me because I much rather like closed prototypes, but success at Le Mans showed Audi had a point :-) The development of the R8C wasn’t a complete waste though, because RTN carried on from there and developed the LeMans Bentleys, whose last evolution won LeMans outright in 2003 ( well… because Audi had to let them :-)
The kit looked quite nice and not like too much work so I had to give it a go.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/01kitbody.jpg


Unlike the BBR 911 GT1 I built before it looked like there were no major corrections to do and I could focus on adding some nice details. BBR did kits of both the R8C and R8R as well but I don’t really wanna know what they look like out of the box. The R8C is increasingly hard to find ( more or less only ebay ) and more popular than the R8R it seems. I have that one too and got it for a “whopping” 8€ :-)
There are not too many reference pictures of the R8C around, but I was able to take a few at Goodwood last year. Right before leaving I found out there was one on static display in the Audi pavillion and before they could kick me out I took some pictures I will add to the build report. Since it’s only a curbside 1:43 they should be enough.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/02realfrontview.jpg



The Provence Moulage kit was a positive surprise. The resin body was crisp with very fine graphics, looked quite symmetric and properly shaped.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/03kitbodyside.jpg



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/04kitbodyrear.jpg



Along with that you get the usual bits like turned aluminium wheels and rubber tyres, rear wing, a seat and no less than 4 (!?) mirrors…none of which really has the right shape :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/05bitsandpieces.jpg



Interior with ground plate:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/06kitcockpit.jpg


Vacform clear piece for windows and headlight covers


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/07kitclearpieces.jpg



A PE fret with the “usual” bits like diffuser, wing endplates and detail stuff:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/08kitPE.jpg



The decals ( the livery is not too wild…):



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/09decals.jpg



And the “instructions”. They are typically for these PM kits a coloured A4 copy with pictures of the built kits with some notes and a few very small pictures of the real thing. You should know what you’re up to with one of these kits :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/10instructionsheet.jpg



The funny thing is, that both built cars on that sheet have the rear wings mounted facing downwards to the rear. That would make for some interesting driving in reality :-)
I will do the No10 car, that was driven by Perry McCarthy ( and misters Wallace and Weaver ) who also famously was the first ( black ) “Stig” on Top Gear. I’d also highly recommend to read his biography “Flat Out – Flat broke ( Formula 1 the hard way )” which is hilarious reading!

I have already made some progress with this build and will soon post some pictures of that. Hopes are high this won’t be another endless build :-)

Thanks for looking!

It looks to be an interesting build! I'll be watching.

here we go again, Masterpiece in the works :popcorn:

here we go again, Masterpiece in the works :popcorn:
Exactly! :)

I love it when he says "shouldn't be too much work, just a quickie"...and then re-works the whole kit!
Modeling porn -yay! :D

Hi there

Here we go with some actual building progress.
Naturally I first worked on the body. As I mentioned before it was quite nice over all and I had to address only two “major” issues.
First up here’s a picture of the primered body after this first batch of mods i made:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/11primeredbody.jpg


No1 were the “side pods” or rather the radiator ducts in them. The holes were only about half as deep as necessary ( casting issue I’d say…) and there was only space for half a radiator each. To make things even easier the kit comes without any radiators…:-).
I carved away all the material from the insides, then built up the holes with sheet plastic and refilled the back sides with polyester putty. Here’s a close up:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/12primereddetailairducts.jpg


I also deepened and thinned the walls of the turbo ducts on top of the side pods.

The other issue was the opening for the windows ( or DLO as the car guys say :-). It was too narrow ( not high enough ). I lowered the lower edge by 0,8mm on the mill. That was helped by the fact that this edge runs horizontally.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/13primereddetailgreenhouse.jpg


Because of that I also had to move the NACA-duct on the nose forward, but it was too small anyway. Here it’s still not right but will be fixed.
I also thinned out the roll hoop because it hardly left enough space to look out of the car :-)

At the rear end the kit provides decals for the lights….. Couldn’t leave it like that.
I lowered the surface for some extra bits to be added and also thinned out the wall thickness of the bodywork’s trailing edge.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/14detailrealrearend.jpg



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/15primereddetailrearend.jpg


In the roof i milled these venting holes. The kit also provides stickers for these…..tststs.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/16primereddetailroofducts.jpg



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/17realroofducts.jpg


Then I rescribed and deepened all the shutlines. I was afraid they would disappear with all the layers of paint to come.
I also deepened the headlight housings. This one here looks a bit crooked but that will be fixed.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/18primereddetailheadlight.jpg



Finally I thinned out those fins behind the front wheels. The had to be more massive for casting again and I sanded them thin from the back side.

Here’s a picture of the diffuser after priming ( soldered from kit PE bits ) and those two planks that go under the sills as the ground plate in the open area behind the front wheels.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/19primereddetaildiffusor.jpg


That’s it for now. More filing and sanding to do and other details to come.
I didn’t photograph every single little step this time but I think you get the picture :-)

Thanks for looking!

Very nice prep work.

Essential too, I would say. I can't think why they went the decal route for those roof vents!?!? yuck! :lol:


the opening for the windows ( or DLO as the car guys say :-).
WTF does "DLO" stand for?!!?
(I wanna be a car guy too! ;) :rofl:)

It's the Day Light Opening....

Yes....i laughed too when i heard it first... :-)

It's the Day Light Opening....
Thanks! :rofl:

and are the headlights NTIs (Night Time Illuminators)? ;)

Huh, that is what I call determination. What do you use for panels? Which scriber?

For today i have a very brief "1-picture-update" for you guys.
There was room for improvement in the "PE-area" of this kit so i made a bunch of additional parts to soup the details up a bit ( or two...:-)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/20extraPE.jpg

There is for example a better detailed rear wing support, some coolers, brake discs and calipers and not to forget a less fat Audi logo.
You'll see what they all are once i mount them i think:-)
It’s often a lot of work to get them done but once I have the parts in my hand and can put them on the model they make me smile…

The top right sprue is wrong in the picture. Those are parts for a 1:24 Bentley, but i didn't notice before it was too late to take a new one...
So that's it for today.

Sjelic....i use various things for scribing, like the proverbial backside of a No.11 blade, SRC scribers, files and sand paper. I can't get it done with just one tool.

Cheers!

Sjelic....i use various things for scribing, like the proverbial backside of a No.11 blade, SRC scribers, files and sand paper. I can't get it done with just one tool.

Cheers!

That is the answer I wanted to hear, I thought that I was the problem :D

Great PE sets btw.

Uh....Can you do me a favour and list all the kits you'll be building next so I don't pick the same kit? I'm afraid you'll make me look bad!
This is simply superb!

Well Rob i think you’re one of those people who really don’t need any such list! Besides….it changes on a nearly daily basis:-) If I can stay away from starting new stuff I’ll be busy for the rest of the year with this Audi, the Tameo Lotus 72 and possibly the MP4/4.
During that time you can without a doubt easily build a whole pile of excellent models :-) Anyway…what are you building right now? Did I miss it?

Since I’m at it here’s a bit more building progress.
One weak point of all these 1:43 modern GT/LMP kits are the wheels. Borranis and the likes are well suited for the PE/turned aluminium rim pieces the manufacturers use but O.Z. rims just don’t work! Here are the originals for comparison:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/21realwheels.jpg


If you see those etched „stars“ on the kit sprue they just don’t have the right thickness. They might make a good fan or mixer though :-)
I was thinking for a while how to make proper parts and the lathe and mill were nearly up an running when i discovered an easier solution……cast the spokes off a friend’s Minichamps diecast!


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/22castspokesandrawrims.jpg

Now you could say….why not just stick those on the model!? But they weren’t that nice. The brake discs were “unpaintably” connected with the rims and besides there were no brake callipers….
The kit rims and brake “discs” ( blobs actually…) weren’t impressive either and the front rims had yet another problem ( apart from being too narrow for the rubbers ). Like in all those kits they were massive aluminium at the back with a small hole for the axle. Normally that’s fine because you don’t see that area but the R8C is one of a few cars that has open front wheelarches towards the car’s centreline, hence you see the back of the wheels ( see picture at the beginning of this update ). So I turned new aluminium rings for the fronts and opend the kit ones for the rear wheels. They could have stayed but I decided to use the same system for mounting all the wheels to not make things too complicated.
The cast Minichamps-spokes were too thick so I chucked them on the motor tool and thinned them from the back with files and sand paper. This is how the parts then looked:




http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/23rawwheelbits.jpg


The little aluminium things are for the wheel centres and you can see the etched brake discs and callipers after cleaning and ready for paint.
I put he pieces together with CA glue, primed them, sanded them, painted ZERO gloss black, sanded, painted Alclad Aluminium, added O.Z. decals and covered them with 2K-clear and now they look like this


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/24paintedrims.jpg


The tyres were stripped off a funny fine tread using the motor tool and sandpaper. Later on they will get Michelin decals and some clear on the sidewalls.
The rims are not perfect. The spokes are not all really centred and they have some dents and blemishes here and there. I could easily have spent another bunch of hours fiddling with them but I decided they’re o.k. for this model. If I really get bored I’ll give them another try on another kit :-)
They do have a proper volume which was my goal and they’ll need it because in the end they’ll actually carry the weight of the model. I hope they don’t bend over time!
So far for now. CU for more!

Oh Jay, I love your approach to the kits !!! And now, with the correct wheels (fantastic) will be a killer for sure :grinyes:

Robi

Good start, jaykay!

I always loved this car and look forward for your progress

You aced that jaykay!

Uh....Can you do me a favour and list all the kits you'll be building next so I don't pick the same kit? I'm afraid you'll make me look bad!
This is simply superb!

Rob we'll ever do the same kits and steal him the custom PE :D

Once a time, fantastic job Jay. Sometime is better I remember myself that YOU are the one that inspired me with PE over your MacLaren buildup. And once a time, fantastic result. Lately I purchased the "etching pool" you showed in the old work, with stirring and warmer: result is incredible, all troubles I got with thick plates (0.3-0.5) are fixed and quality is pro.

I didn't know this audi, very kind design: for the convex roof area and for the headlamp/fender edges design: this part looks much like a '60 Carrera6, or at least remind me those.

Tuned! I want to see how you'll do with those special custom parts :D

boy o boy, you make me speechless...again ! the etching is so cool and the new wheels do look great also. please conzinue with your 1/43 Lotus, really looking to this one.

daniel
-germany-

Fantastic work jaykay I really love what you done with the wheels the new centers really make a huge difference. I just start to clean up a Audi R8 LeMans 2001 Provence Moulage kit have the same brake disc and photo etch wheel centers. I really don't have the skill to make my own resin parts at this time maybe one day it's hard to just finish a kit. Keep up the good work.

Thanks fort he replies guys!
Here comes some more progress. It was time for paint!
I worked on this at the same time as I painted the wheels but it took quite a bit longer. Generally the paint scheme with black and silver is not too complicated but there’s enough room for problems :-)
After sanding the primer I decided to do black first and put on a good layer of Zero gloss black. That was a good decision because I was a bit shocked about the surface quality in some areas and the gloss black really showed that. So it was sanding again!
Then I masked the black areas on the sides. The kit comes with shaped black decal stripes to do the edges of those areas but the print was crap ( no proper edge ) and I decided to mask it myself. Masking was tricky even with very thin flexible tape because especially with the small radiuses around the 1:43 wheel houses the tape has a tendency to pull back and leave traces of glue which in the end makes for a rough paint edge….
Anyway, after masking I put on a layer of ZERO Porsche Carrera GT Silver. The paint is very thin and covers beautifully. It does have it’s tricky downsides though. Because it dries so fast it easily builds up a rough surface in tricky corners like the insides of the fenders where you get air turbulences and after that there’s no spraying over that and covering it up. I sprayed at about 10 psi and should probably go lower still.
On top of that the silver is mercilessly showing any surface imperfections…and there still were some :-( It’s not something to blame on it….I just had to learn that in future applications I have to prepare the surfaces even better ( like Alclad quality….) and can’t rely on the clear coat fixing things.
So here’s the body after black, silver and a layer of 2K-clear:




http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/25bodypaintedandfirstclearcoat.jpg


After sanding this it was time for decals. They were easy to work with but the printing wasn’t overly impressive. On some ( like the Unionjacks ) the different colours weren’t positioned properly and for example the driver names on the cockpit sides were way too big.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/26bodywithdecals.jpg


I didn’t wanna get into redoing decals though so i went on with them with the exception of a round decal on the left front fender that was supposed to represent a solar cell. That was a colourful blob and I will try to do something a bit metallic/reflective.
Around the lower window edge and the sidepod openings I added CF decals from Crazy Modeler and BBR. The ones in the sides were toned down somewhat using a mix of matt clear and matt black through the airbrush.
Then everything was covered with another layer of 2K-clear which was again sanded and finally polished.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/27bodypaintingfinished.jpg


At first you hardly see a difference before and after that final clear layer, but in between those pictures lies a lot of work :-)
After that I airbrushed the wheel houses, the headlights, front air intake and the lower rear end ZERO Jet Black. On top of the 2K-clear you don’t have to mask super tidy because right after application you can easily wipe away excess paint with Isopropyl alcohol.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/28bodypaintingfinishedrear.jpg


The carbonized surfaces in the sidepods were then covered with a very thin layer of matt clear. They do shine a bit more on the original but like this look very clean. Especially the ones in the “holes” were not reachable for sanding so glossy was no option. For that I would have had to make them separate parts to glue in after painting.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/29bodypaintingfinishedside.jpg


Like on the original the carbon areas don’t bang out now from a distance but show up when you get closer with your eyes.

Another picture from the front:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/30bodypaintingfinishedfront.jpg


Around the air intake sits a black sticker that makes the opening appear bigger and edgier than it really is. I have no idea what for!? Simulate they needed more cooling air than they really did? Optical sandbagging!??
It doesn’t really improve the looks IMHO but it was there on the car so it goes on the model…

Here’s a picture to show the „surface quality indicator“ capabilities of ZERO silver:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/31surfaceimperfections.jpg


Especially on the lower surfaces between the greenhouse and the fenders you see traces of sanding. These areas are always a bit tricky to sand on 1:43 LeMans prototypes. For future projects I now know the surface has to be even better and I can’t rely on the clear fixing things. Doing “spot repairs” with a brush like with normal colours is also not really possible.


You can do that normally and the black „blades“ behind the front wheels show that.
I think I mentioned during the body modifications that I waited to thin them out from behind until the last moment to not breaking them off during handling. Good idea…..but didn’t help a lot :-( At some point I stopped counting how often I broke them off during painting and sanding. At least one of them snapped after each layer of paint. Especially after the final clear layer that hurt! After that point the repairs get a bit patchy but they are doable.
If I were to build this again I’d replace the blades with styrene bits from the beginning. Metal could work as well but it might break off the resin body more easily causing much bigger problems in the process…!?

Well, the paintjob is not price worthy but it’s o.k. Looks like i have to add some extra silly detail bits to distract from that :-)

See you for that!

Really nice work the finished turned out great even if there are some minor flaws. I really appreciate your explanation of your work you got me thinking should I spray gloss black on my Audi R8 before the silver.

always a pleasure to read the updates.
I learn so much from your builds and threads.
So inspiring, and a joy to follow.

All I can say is Thanks, and thanks again.

@sileightsix: You're welcome :-)

G’day everybody for some more build progress!

While I worked on the paintjob I showed you last time I also slowly but surely worked away on the cockpit. I didn’t go too far with detailing things because most won’t be visible anyway after assembly. Nevertheless I did a bit… couldn’t resist :-)
First up this is the seat already finished and ready to be mounted:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/32seat.jpg


The kit resin piece was a very blocky affair and looked a lot like some fighter ejector seat :-) I shaved away a good deal of material around the back to make it look more like a weight saving bucket seat. The top end needed some shaping as well and I sanded away the moulded in seat belts and made holes for new belt hardware.
This was followed by a black base coat, CF decals and clear coat on the outside and a rough layer of matt black for the “fabric” inside. Then I installed the belt which is a leftover from my BBR 911 GT1, added decals and it was ready.

Here you have it in the finished cockpit:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/33seatincockpit.jpg


The only modifications I did to the cockpit were sanding away some moulded in cables on the rear wall before painting and adding the low “wall” to the right of the seat. I then painted the parts gloss black, added CF decals, covered them with matt clear, painted the top of the dashboard a rough matt black like the seat and added that rectangular PE piece next to the binnacle that got the same paint treatment.
Then I added new cables to the firewall and souped them up a bit with yellow and silver paint, more or less like on the original.

Here’s another view with the steering wheel visible.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/34cockpittop.jpg


It’s the kit piece just cleaned up a bit. I decided not to do anything to it although it is seriously oversized, but once the cockpit is in place this will hardly be noticeable. Whenever I build the open sister R8R I’ll have to do something about it though….:-)

After the exterior paint was done I also started adding details. The first pieces were the two “floor” parts on the undersides of the sidepods to minimize the possibility of breaking the parts behind the front wheels furthermore :-)


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/35sidepoddetailsadded.jpg


Before installation they went through the typical paint sequence of gloss black, CF decals and matt clear.
Inside the doors I then installed my custom etched radiators.
The fuel filler cap was next. It’s made from two layers of PE with a thin layer of ZERO Jet Black to not lose the fine details. Looks better than the decal that came in the kit…


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/36fuelfillercap.jpg


The final pieces for this update were some NACA-duct covers on the rear deck. It seems like the team found out at the LeMans test session they didn’t need that much cooling ( probably for the rear brakes ) and closed them for the race. The ducts don’t exist on the model so I etched the parts, gave them the same paint treatment as the rest of the body and just glued them in place.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/37NACAductcovers.jpg


It would look better if they were sitting flush with the rest of the surface but I decided this will have to do :-)

So much for today. Hope you liked it!

Slurp!

Your skill always impresses and amazes.
You manage to make 1/43 look like a 1/12 :thumbsup:

Hey guys! It took a bit longer than expected, but here’s a new update!
The reason for that were the clear parts I had to work with. They are not the biggest fun to start with because you can easily mess them up….which I sure did!
When I was casting the rims and messing around with resin I said to myself…” you should cast those clear vacform pieces, so if you ruin them you have the master to do new ones.”
The casting worked a treat on the BBR window pieces…..but not on the Provence ones. The resin and clear plastic liked each other so much, they decided to become one:-(
So there was my reason to make new parts….dohhhh!

For a start here’s a shot of the real windscreen:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/38realwindscreen.jpg


… and next up here’s the result of my efforts on the model.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/39windscreeninstalled.jpg


After shaping the clear plastic came the lengthy process of trimming and fitting, sanding, polishing and finally waxing. The result is o.k. but could be improved somewhat.
I painted the black ceramic frame from the inside and then fitted the piece to the body with 0,5mm brass rivets. I could have tried to use glue and hide the glue marks under the black paint but that was too likely to turn into a mess so I didn’t. At the top end I added the sun visor decal from the kit.

At the same time i also worked on the headlights. The originals look like that:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/40realheadlight.jpg


Gio, you are right! They look a lot like a Carrera 6. Never occured to me!
In the kit came some of those nasty self sticking lenses….which weren’t gonna go on my Audi :-)
I decided to try something more detailed and made 3mm diameter reflectors from aluminium on the lathe. Those were then combined with some metal and clear plastic bits.
In the next picture you can see the kit lenses on the left, the parts for two headlights in the middle and one assembled to the right.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/41headlightbuildup.jpg

In the back there’s one already mounted. When building the body I added PE parts in the headlight housings that had a hole pattern which I now used as a drill template. Otherwise it would have been near impossible to get the holes placed nicely.

Next up is the left headlight cluster finished. After mounting the lights ( note that the upper one is angled towards the outside as per the original :-) I covered them up with newly made clear covers. These were fixed with “plastic rivets” ( 0,3mm styrene thread made from sprues over a candle and the ends heated so they form a head ). Glue would have been a no-go here.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/42headlightinstalled.jpg


The headlights are not 100% like the Originals but fairly close in that scale. You have to look quite close anyway:-)
The trickiest part with details like that usually is not to make the parts but getting them glued together without messing them up completely…

So much for today. More to come soon…i hope :-)

Brilliant :)

Fantastic job on the headlights !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robi :)

Hello jaykay,
superb job on the lights, Congrats, very accurate and well done!!!
That's what MODELING is all about.

You said:
"The headlights are not 100% like the Originals but fairly close in that scale. You have to look quite close anyway:-)
The trickiest part with details like that usually is not to make the parts but getting them glued together without messing them up completely…"

Now thats exactly my point of view. It's the individuel way of bringing things as close to reality as possible and that should be done in everyone's stylish way of modeling! You can't copy reality in scale 100%, you have to kind of transform it into scale. What i mean is that certain things have to look good in the depending scale.
Of course, one of the major points in our hobby are the skills of transforming our ideas into the demanded subject.

Again, teriffic work (and SKILLS!)!

Bye
Jochen

amazing details. Great job. :)

Hard on the heels of the last one here’s another update.
I’m a bit quicker now because I can finally attach bits that have been lying around finished.
First up were the brakes. The custom etched pieces were airbrushed with shades of Alclad.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/43brakesmounted.jpg


They do look a bit small i think and the front ones might actually be bigger than the rears on the real car, but I don’t have the proper reference material to tell. To be honest though they are hardly visible after mounting the wheels anyway…:-)



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/44axlesandbodyfasteners.jpg


To mount the wheels i turned stub axles from aluminium and milled hex nuts on the ends. There’s a centre hole on each with a tiny bit of tubing ( injection needle ) added. Max diameter of the centre lock nuts is 1,2mm and the hex nuts are hardly visible without magnifiers…but they are there, and it’s much the same for the etched body fasteners :-)



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/45wheelsmounted.jpg


The Michelin-Logos on the tires are from the kit and they were fixed with Tameo "Extra Strong" decal softener. A thin coat of matt clear made the remains of glossy carrier film disappear.
I also mounted the tiny red openers in both doors.

Finally for today, a view from the front with the installed Audi-Logo.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/46AudiLogoinstalled.jpg


Thanks again for all the praise! It’s my encouragement to get better and avoid more mistakes on the next project ( and there are enough to get rid of really! :-)

Excellent work! I keep forgetting that this is a 1/43 model! :eek:

Fantastic job !!!!

Excellent work! I keep forgetting that this is a 1/43 model! :eek:

Yessssss :biggrin:

Wheels assembly and locking nuts are simply TOUCHING !

Robi

You have taken this basic kit and transformed it into something really outstanding.

Ahhh, perfection! Great job as usual!

Here we go with another update…. in fact the last one :-)

The area left to show is the rear end. First the lights. The kit again supplied decals for those…..no way! :-) Instead of trying to get a good paintjob with clear red and orange on some transparent part I used something different this time. At work I came across some bits of orange and red transparent film which naturally was more evenly tinted than any paint finish I could do. I glued little pieces of that onto aluminium “reflectors” using clear paint. Next time I’ll try to photoetch the metal bits. Should be possible to get some sort of lens graphic into this. On top of that I glued the photoetched and painted frames.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/47rearlightsbuildup.jpg


On the model they look like this:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/48rearend.jpg


Apart from the lights i added some etched and painted mesh, the exhaust pipes made from 2mm aluminium tubing and painted with Alclad, the supports for those which i had to file by hand from nickle silver sprue bits because i forgot to etch them, the red painted tow hook ring from the kit, the air pressure connector for the internal lifting system made from my PE parts and a brass rivet and the diffusor which was painted and “carbon fibered”.

After that it was time for the rear wing. I realized just now that I forgot to take pictures during its build so you’ll just have to believe me :-)
The resin wing needed some re-shaping so the profile would actually fit to the indentations in the end plates. I then added the integrated gurneyflap with a 0,8mm strip of metal and two parts for the wing support. This was followed by the standard procedure of painting, decaling, sanding and polishing.



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/49rearwing.jpg


The wing support is all built up with my etched parts. The kit parts were overly simplified. I superglued all parts together, painted them gloss black and sanded and polished a bit where possible. Unfortunately the width doesn’t exactly fit the wing and body anymore after assembly and painting and I should have changed the bottom end of the vertical parts ( compared to the kit parts ) to be able to better mount them to the body
You don’t really see it in the pictures but I’m not very happy about the outcome. I’ll leave it like this for now but next time I etch something I’ll do an improved version and replace the support…gotta have to after all the work I did so far :-)



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/50backendwithrearwing.jpg


So now there wer only a couple of small bits and pieces left over. At the front I mounted the little flip-ups next to the headlights after painting, sanding and polishing them.
For the wiper I had made some funky etched parts but they turned out to be a bit overly ambitious. They were so thin they disintegrated when I tried to work on them. That happens when you do 1:24 bits on a computer screen at the same time. You can easily loose the relation to their real sizes :-) In the end I modified the flat and chunky kit wiper and that looks o.k. as well.


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/51flip-upsmirrorsandwiper.jpg


The final parts ( apart from the antenna :-) were the mirrors. As I mentioned at the beginning the kit came with 4 resin mirrors, none of which looked a lot like the real ones…
So I scratched them. With painting and finishing the little bummers took almost 2 days to make but I couldn’t leave them unattended :-)
So apart from the little issue with the rear wing the R8C is finished! That’s fine because I’ve had enough of the model for the moment but I have to say I like the car more and more. It’s now among my favourite LeMans cars!


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b288/jaykay640/R8C/52finishedsideview.jpg


Thanks for your interest and comments again! You can find some more finished pictures here:


http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=5826719#post5826719

I did not know this version of the Audi R8.
Congratulations good job also seen the scale.
ciao

its truly amazing the level of detail that its put here! INCREDIBLE, Keep it up!