F40 GTE LM1995 conversion

Inspired by new release of MFH F40 GTE I've decided to make my own conversion, but in 1/24 scale. Idea is to kit bash Fujimi F40LM and Tamiya F40. I plan to use full chassis and cockpit from Tamiya kit and mate it with body, wheels and brakes from Fujimi kit. It will not be 100% correct and perfect, but I will try to address as many differences with real car, as I am able to. Here are some photos of the work so far. Mock up of Tamiya chassis. The design of this 38 years old kit is typical Tamiya. Fit is good and amount of detail is pretty decent. Race car has bigger turbo intercoolers. Not sure if I will be able to make them or will live with incorrect smaller ones, yet.
Fujimi body does not fit as is over that chassis. However with some modifications and added material, I think I will be able to make it work.
For some reason Fujimi did not include channels behind rear windows. It's open space and looks strange. Current thinking is to get those cut from Tamiya body and transplanted onto Fujimi's. Hopefully I will be able to do it. Also plan to cut off street car's muffler and scratch make straight tail pipes.
Next things to do are modifications to front end of the chassis to get rid of street car's structures, adoption of Fujimi's breaks and wheels to Tamiya's chassis, some mods of Fujimi's rear end lower body to accept radiators from Tamiya. scratch making of racing diffuser and many other smaller mods.

Deeper I get into this project, more "ambitious" it gets. Cut out rear engine cover. Also decided to make front clamshell detached. So, done even more cuts.
Next was time to mix some Tamiya 2 parts putty and try to improve door fit. First photo shows small patches of putty I've applied. Second photo shows my first crude attempt to replicated exhaust pipes using donor 956 floor as a guide. Need to improve my putty forming skills for the future.

It did not actually take 7 years to complete decals on this model, even though I am still not done with CF ones. There were just 7 years this build was on hiatus as well. Happy to finally return to it and make some good progress. As I've said pretty much all sponsor decals are applied and mostly CF decals left to finish. However CF decals application is the step when I often lose interest. Hopefully it will not go to hiatus for 7 more years :)

While I finally have time for model building over holidays, I bring back from hiatus another one. It is still stuck in the phase of applying CF decals. However I made good progress and almost ready to move past CF. Few aero bits and bottom of the floor as shown on photos took over 11 hours to complete. Basically CF decals take forever for me. I've used many, but Tamiya CF decals become my preferred choice. Easy to work with and respond to micro-set and micro-sol well. Hair dryer is a must, though, to help decals conform to complex shapes.

Plan A of mating 926C front and rear with 956 middle body did not really work. 962C front does not meet well with 956 body. Quite a gap between 956 front wind shield window and 962C front clamshell.

Plan B is to transplant 956 doors into 962C body seems to be more realistic. Starting with left doors, I've cut out doors from bodies and modified 956 doors and cut out in 962C to fit. Fit is not perfect and more work will be needed to improve it. But it is possible to fit 956 doors into 962C body. Apparently doors in 962C kit are smaller and bigger 956 door could be trimmed a bit to fit into slightly enlarged opening in 962C body. That will be my chosen way forward. I wonder if regga did the same for his build. Unfortunately he did not specify how he got new doors and front clamshell for his 962C conversion.

Finished second door as well. However looking at the fit I got in the end, I am not sure I've chosen the right direction. Fit is not good. Might have been better to stick with plan A and somehow mate 962C front with 956 middle body. Not sure now.

Next modification is to get engine spacer and engine from 956 into 962C chassis. I've decided to keep gearbox from 962C as is. So, had to cut off gearbox from 956 powertrain and modify it to fit. Fit is not perfect, but will do for my conversion.

After a hiatus of about 9 years, I am returning back to this build. I have been looking for ways to correct doors, as I could not live with their compromised shapes. Recently looked more closely into what were the differences between 962C and 956 cars. Also got inspired by way Studio27 solved door shape issue in their trans-kits and by work of the guy behind clay-models. In the end I've decided to use internals and middle body from 956 donor. Pictures are of modifications of internal parts so far. New plan is to have parts of 956 cockpit transplanted onto 962C cockpit, have 956 engine transplanted over as well and then have middle body from 956 mated with front and rear covers from 962C.