Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 18, Body On

Mistake number two... 

One of the last steps for the engine bay was a couple of struts that connect from the top of the suspension to some part of the frame near the front of the engine. I couldn't tell were they were supposed to attach. I finally realized that I had left out a pair of frame elements that were supposed to attach down under and to each side of the front of the engine. These were way back in the instructions. There no way to get them in now, and I am sure not taking all this apart to get the engine out again at this point.

In my defense it isn't hard to miss something on this model. There are a large number of parts, which is good, and so they put quite a lot on each page to keep the instructions from being 100 pages. It's also mostly in Chinese.

Anyway, it's on to the rear body section.

Oh, here one funny thing about the decals. This kit is unlicensed. It does not say "Ford" or "GT40" anyplace on it. For the word Ford that should appear on the body just behind the front wheel the decal sheet include the four letters to spell Ford as separate elements, not even near each other on the sheet. The instructions show where to put these 4 letters, but still don't show the letters in order to avoid printing Ford.

At any rate, I am leaving off the lower body silver stripe as I described in my previous post, and the letters are all black, so I won't be using them.

The decals provided work very well, even over curved areas with the use of decal setting solutions.

Some PE gives it a nice look. I still have to put the air foil on.

Fitting the rear body section on was a headache. It would have been hard enough as is, but I found I had the extra problem of the "trunk" containers in the back being significantly too high - at least 3 or 4mm. The body section would not go on and sit down.

I had to break things apart, clean off the glue, and reassemble the bins lower. I had done everything right, but these are after market PE. The indicated mounting points for the brackets that hold these bins in place were just to lower causing the bins to sit too high.

That fixed, it looks pretty good.

Still many details, and all the glass, to put in place.

The rear body section can open and close, but this is the bast fit I could get (note the gap on the far side of this image). I am pretty sure it's not hitting anything under there. It just seems like the body section's shape is a little off. It I had tested this before painting it all up I could probably have fixed this.

It's not terrible. But I could just seal it all up. A tiny bit of glue would easily hold it down. Do I want to permanently hide all that detail in there like the engine in a Wingnut Wings? We'll see.

See all the posts on this project here.