Solido 1/18 Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick

[wetsellery]

Hi all,

I wanted a big scale model of this iconic Porsche for a long time, but only a handful of manufacturers make a kit or model of this car. As far as I know there's the 1/12 model from Truescale and the 1/12 kit from MFH. Both are very nice but too expensive for me. Then there's the 1/24 kit from Tamiya, but that's too small.

 I was very happy when I saw that Solido made this car, for €45 I think it's great value for money.

Foto's from CK-modelcars were I bought the model :

It's a nice model but it lacks some detail (especially in the interior) and has some inaccuracies. I don't want to repaint the body because the 1/18 decals are very expensive and the only set that's available is not made for this model, meaning that the decals are not the correct size for some parts of the body.

When I started this build, I planned on doing some minor upgrades, but gradually I got carried away and it became a long term project with lots of scratchbuilding.

Please join me in what I call "my fight with Moby" :

These were the first steps I took. As we move along, many of my basic modifications were changed again and again :

The last 2 photos show the wheelcovers that look more like clogwheels from a clock. I used a bolt and nut to hold the wheelcovers and removed the teeth with my lathe, I also made the cover a lot thinner. After a coat of primer and Tamiya X7, the covers were attached to the repainted wheels. :





The cockpit will get most of the work. I removed a big piece of plastic to make room for the drivers feet :



But I ran into these big blocks. They are part of the front suspension and have to be removed to make room for the extended floorboard. Out came the Dremel :

Had to go all the way thru the bottom to clear enough space :



First Idea was to improve this part :



Drilled some holes to remove the part between the tubes :

But then I decided to (open the can of worms) make the tubes from scratch, that will allow me to add the missing tubes. The roll cage needs some mods too. The upper tubes in this picture don't look like this on the real car :



This plastic tube is also part of the roll cage on the real car. It will be sanded down and replaced with alu tubing :



The front tubes of the roll cage are supposed to be the same size (like the one on the right). I have no idea why Solido made them like this. Will be fixed with alu tubing :




These tubes on the floorboard will be removed :



This was my first attempt to modify the area behind the seats. Reference photos of this area are hard to find :



Then I found the WIP by Scratchbuilt. He made this car in 1/8 scale from scratch, his build log has some very nice pics :







The big hump is being reshaped :



And slowly the firewall is taking shape :






Sincerely


Pascal

[mustang1989]

Apr 16, 2023 10:20:11 GMT -5 wetsellery said:

Hi all,

I wanted a big scale model of this iconic Porsche for a long time, but only a handful of manufacturers make a kit or model of this car. As far as I know there's the 1/12 model from Truescale and the 1/12 kit from MFH. Both are very nice but too expensive for me. Then there's the 1/24 kit from Tamiya, but that's too small.

 I was very happy when I saw that Solido made this car, for €45 I think it's great value for money.

Foto's from CK-modelcars were I bought the model :

It's a nice model but it lacks some detail (especially in the interior) and has some inaccuracies. I don't want to repaint the body because the 1/18 decals are very expensive and the only set that's available is not made for this model, meaning that the decals are not the correct size for some parts of the body.

When I started this build, I planned on doing some minor upgrades, but gradually I got carried away and it became a long term project with lots of scratchbuilding.

Please join me in what I call "my fight with Moby" :

These were the first steps I took. As we move along, many of my basic modifications were changed again and again :

The last 2 photos show the wheelcovers that look more like clogwheels from a clock. I used a bolt and nut to hold the wheelcovers and removed the teeth with my lathe, I also made the cover a lot thinner. After a coat of primer and Tamiya X7, the covers were attached to the repainted wheels. :

Sincerely


Pascal

THAT..............is a ton of work involved to get that fantastic result Pascal!! You sure know your way around these builds of yours buddy. WOW!!!! 

Glad to have you back in the forums Pascal. 

[wetsellery]

Thx Joe,


After a lot of work the modified rear of the cockpit is starting to look like the 1/1 car :



A lot of angles on the firewall, those were hard to get right. The "wet" spots are Tamiya Ultra Thin glue that's drying :



Very dirty from all the sanding, but I'm getting there :



Added the cooling tubes on both sides of the interior, these are not on the Solido model :



Solido added a lot of details to the floorboard of the cockpit. But these are not present on the real car. Removing them meant a lot of sanding :

Before :



After :



Started to make the tubes. I used alu wire from a flower shop. The yellow coating will be removed when all the tubes are ready to be installed.

Dryfit :



Some careful sanding was needed to get the tubes to cross over eachother :



The diagonal tubes running from the front to the back will later hold the gearshifter :





To get a strong bond the tubes will be glued with J&B cold weld, but that's for later.

Sincerely

Pascal

[garydavis]

Wow Pascal...you are doing a fantastic job on this car. The attention to detail and making things correct is excellent.

[mustang1989]

[maverick]

Wow...Serious skill set being displayed here!! Impressive work Pascal!

[Prop Duster]

So, Im left with a big for you

[noname]

That is intense. You are brave!

[406 Silverado]

Apr 16, 2023 10:58:14 GMT -5 wetsellery said:

Thx Joe,


After a lot of work the modified rear of the cockpit is starting to look like the 1/1 car :

Got any more progress on this beast Pascal? Looking forward to seeing more greatness....

[wetsellery]

Update :

When Murphy strikes, he strikes hard !



If you put a primed piece of plastic (in this case the interior in an oven, you get a nice hard painted finish.


BUT, if your oven turns out to be a grill (heating tubes bottom and top side), you get a completely deformed piece of plastic :









I asked Solido if I could buy a replacement part, guess what the answer was...


It's a shame that so many diecast companies refuse to help their customers. I can buy nearly every single sprue from Tamiya, even if they have to ship it from Japan.


Ah well, If there's 1 thing that I have, it's patience. So I will painstakingly rebuild the interior from scratch and use a couple of deformed parts that can be salvaged.


Before it gets better, it needs to get worse. After some breaking and cutting apart, this is what I have to start with :



Stay tuned, things will get better soon...


So, after this total disaster...


I've worked a lot of hours, this is the result sofar :






Strange how this photo makes it all look bent and crooked :










Started making the fire extinguishers :



Used some self-adhesive bandage to wrap around the seat :



When the bandage will be painted black it will look just like the rough surface on the seat of the real car :



Sincerely


Pascal