Name me another conceptcar that is still regularly displayed after 20 years.
I bought the Maisto 1/18 diecast of this car and have been working since december on this model.
I had hoped it would be completed by now, but somehow my projects take a lot of time. Anyway I have almost completed the main rebuild. Last bits are the wing mirrors, head light clusters and wheel stance. Then it's time for painting, decaling and final assembly. As for now the latest status is as written below.
The model
It's a cheap model and it shows its age. Most parts are clicked, therefore have huge lugs that click in large holes. The plastic parts are soft and lack detail. The detail that has been added is too coarse. The leather grain of the interior is off scale and resembles an interior of elephant hide. Chrome parts are overdone and the body hasn't been polished before painting. Many imperfections are visible through the paint. I even thought mine had zinc rot but they were just blobs of metal. Gaps around the doors are huge. The spoiler is difficult to erect and relies on friction between the large plastic struts and body.
Good points are general shape of the model, many fantastic details as the large dome, wheels, tyres with correct GT90 pattern. Even the inscription GT90 in the pedals has been done, although barely visible thanks to the bad quality plastic. The engine is well detailed although the wiring is wrong. On the "license plate" the signatures of the people who worked on it are visible.
Rework
Rework consists of stripping the whole car and build it from the ground up. Anything that I can improve I rework. New parts I bought for this car are a seatbelt kit, carbon decals, photoetched mesh and 2mm headlights. The rest of the modding is done by using standard polystyrene sheets, rods and other stuff I have lying around like small magnets, byoux pins and aluminium plate. I've decided to repaint the car in pearl white instead of plain white.
I tried to find triangulated mesh because that's what is used on the GT90. When zoomed in you can see mesh that consists of rows of small triangles. I found such mesh but the scale was all wrong. The mesh that comes close is standard fine diamond mesh so I'll be using that.
Interior
The "elephant skin" and carbon texture was sanded down. The seats are a pain because they are made of rubber.
Sanding down was difficult and it is uncertain if I can find a paint that sticks and dries properly. I've bought several primers for testing. If it fails I will have to made resin castings of the seats. Big holes were filled and redrilled. Arm rests were openend. Detail was added to the seats, floor, shift mechanism and pedals. Lots of "see through" cavities were closed.
Dome
All clear parts were sanded down and polished.
Paint was removed as the stud that holds the rearview mirror. All parts were realigned to have the smallest gaps possible.
This meant transferring the door windows to the doors. Originally they are mounted on the doorcards and then placed on the doors.
An internal frame was constructed of styrene. On this the modified mirror can be mounted.
For comparison the original legs of the mirror.
Engine
I lack information about the engine. It will be remain in almost standard form. Only things I changed are the spark plug wiring and oil cap.
The inlet cover is fairly accurate and requires only carbon decaling. (all painting and decaling will be done in stage 2).
Gearbox
Because all holes will be open and have mesh, detailing of the back end was necessary. I scratch built a gearbox endplate and oil cooler. Oil lines will be added later.
Spoiler
One of the more difficult tasks was the rear spoiler. On the model it's just plastic struts that clamp in place. I cut these of the spoiler. I tried to mimic the original by building 2 bulkheads that hold the pivot point of 2 large swing arms. The swing arms were made out of aluminium. The up position will be locked in place by small magnets.
I couldn't resist opening the spoiler arms. On the real car they are closed which looks very bulky. But I suppose it was a last minute job since the spoiler design has many flaws and is outright dangerous. Because a swing arm design is used, in the transition phase the spoiler generates positive lift, only in full up it is nose down and generates negative lift. If anyone would erect the spoiler at speed, it would lift the back end off the ground.
Baseplate
The baseplate was modified to close the wheel arches.
I hate look through cavities, so the front wheelarches were extended and the rear arch was closed with an intercooler facia.
In real life the intercooler is further away from the wheel and tilted, but there are mounting studs in the way to mimic this on the model.
Wheels
The wheels on the model are fairly accurate, but the brakes lack calipers. So these were added. The tyres look a bit "under inflated" so I will put rubber bands inside at final assembly.
Bodywork and external parts
The diecast body needed a lot of rework. Many edges and blobs were removed. Casting errors in the form of cavities and dents were filled.
Gaps around the doors were filled in. The cooling air tunnel in the nose was filled in with styrene plates, including radiator plate.
The holes at the rear are open on the diecast model, but the casting is way too thick. The upper edge is almost half an edge thick! I used a Dremel to cut it back.
On the real car in the top surface of the door sills a triangular shaped grille can be seen. I still have no idea what they do. The closed doors block them for 99% from air flow, just a small grey edge can be seen on pics of the real car. Anyway obviously my model must have these grilles so holes were cut and plastic card was used to create them.
Extra intake holes were created in the shoulder area. Normally the piece of plastic has an engraved mesh appearance. I sanded it away, drilled the holes an reworked the part so it would fit as tight as possible.
At the rear extra edges were glued in to recess the tail lights.
I removed the stud from the taillights since they show up as a dark spot. I have to experiment further to enhance the tail lights. They have an integrated indicator light and a dark central area that holds the leds.
The rear window spoiler (it has an open slot to get hot air out of the engine bay) is mounted with studs on the body. Very ungainly when looked from the aft. The holes in the body were filled and the studs cut off.
I bought 2 bags of ferrules on Ebay for use as exhaust tips. Quite impressive how good they will look.
That's it for now. Remaining prep work are the wing mirrors and wheel stance. I might pull the wheels more to the outside (put spacers behing) and adjust the springs for a proper ride height.
