June 17 - 18 is the LeMans 24-hr race. Some guys in an online club I belong to (www.gpma.org) are doing a 24-hr model build of a LeMans (or at least endurance-racing) subject. I'm going to participate, wanted to pass it along, I think it's a neat idea.

Rules are simple. No prior prep except sanding. Build starts when the race starts, ends when the race ends. No limit on class of car, or the era (so you could do a GT40, Porsche 917, or something newer like a Jaguar XJR or Nissan R89).

Take pictures of your progress, and post them to the web intermittently. Hide the beer and liquor bottles. :-)

I'm doing a Panoz - the "Army" car from the Sebring 50th Anniversary race. Not specifically LeMans, but the right genre. I've been looking for an excuse to build the car, and this is just the right thing to make me set aside the super-detailing on the Ferrari 312T3 for a nice break...

Mike Hanson
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Well guys I gave it a shot, but I didn't get it done. My Fisher 312P project was going well, but I made a mistake in not using a Tamiya rattle can. The combination of not letting the Veriprime cure long enough combined with the automotive lacquers and thinners resulted in a dull finish. With a week of so, could have waited until it all cured and polished it out and it would have looked great. Since I didn't have the time, I stripped it all off and tried using Tamiya white primer and Floquil gloss. Same result so I put it down to the automotive solvents attacking the un-cured primers. Proving once again that you can't change the laws of physics.

At least I recorded the whole race and I can sit back and enjoy before I go after the 312P again.

Earl Petrikin
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Well, I'm a DNF for the 24-hour build, though I might be able to finish in 36.  In retrospect the Panoz was probably not the best choice for this event.  The decaling is killing me - The entire tub is carbon fiber, but LMM molded in a lot of the electronics and boxes in the cockpit, so I had to cut the CF decal to fit properly.  Yeah, I probably could have just painted it, but it's an expensive kit so I wanted to do it right.

The body came out very good, with only a slight orange-peel on the clearcoat, which I hope I can rub out.

Other than the sponsor decals on the body, I just have some assembly left, the brakes/wheels, and the rear wing.

The first pics from one of the clubs are up - this is from Atlanta's ACME club: http://tinyurl.com/hlq3u

Mike Hanson

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I opened the box of my Gunze Sangyo Jaguar E-Type.

Mike Stanley