Tamiya 1/24 Kremer 935 K4

These pages describe the work I'm performing on a Tamiya 1/24 Porsche 935-78, converting it into a Kremer 935 K4. It mainly serves to show my fellow GPMA list members what I'm doing. It's my first extensive car body modification, so I might trip here and there :-)

From 935-78 to 935 K4

I bought the Tamiya 935-78 without a real plan what to do with it. Although it is a hugely impressive race car, I did not like the rounded smooth lines much, and neither did it look aggressive with its long low tail. Also, I had seen enough cars with Martini striping, and the 935-78's type of 'flaming' stripes did not appeal to me at all. I knew there was a possibility to build the Momo-sponsered Joest replica, using Fred Cady decals. Decals for the Joest replica 935-78 raced by Fitzpatrick in JDavid colors are also reported to exist. The next option would be to modify the model into one of the more radical redesigned replicas. After a long study of all the replicas, I decided to go for the Kremer 935 K4 in Jägermeister colors. It was going to be an extensive conversion for sure, I guess that some 50% of the bodywork would need to be rebuilt. But the real car looked just too good, and its angular looks make it much more aggressive than the 935-78. The decal problem is something for later .

While converting the model into a K4, I found one more interesting scheme that's worth mentioning. The 935-78 originally had full-width doors and (I think) a bigger wing. The race governing body did not accept Porsche's interpretation of the rules completely, and demanded some changes. Anyway, the car before these changes looks very nice, in its overall white paint job. If I had to build a Moby Dick, I would probably do it like this.

Another part of the motivation to build the Jägermeister K4 is the old Esci Jagermeister 'RSR934' kit. I vividly remember that kit from my youth, an orange Porsche with tape crosses over the headlights. Never bought it though back then (I mainly built aircraft models), but I obtained one a few years ago. I've put the bodyshell next to the K4 under construction, and the evolution is very impressive! Perhaps they will make a nice couple one day.

One word of warning: I'm no super-tidy Japanese modeler! What you see below is rather rough cutting, puttying and sanding work. Most of the modifications are done iteratively, because I don't exactly know what shape things should have. Only when I think the correct shape has been achieved, it will be tidied up. I am looking forward to those first layers of primer!

More 935-78 models

I long thought the Tamiya model was the only available 935-78. But there are (were) quite a few more in 1/24 scale. Because of the constant confusion regarding various Porsche 935 models, I set up a Porsche 911 RSR Turbo / 934 / 935 kit list that quickly grew to an amazing 100+ entries, including 25+ 935-78 models.

References

A first attempt at listing useful references:

• Auto Hebdo (French autosport magazine) issue #273 (approximately 2 July 1981), with four nice and very useful K4 photos of the Nurnberg race held on 28 June 1981

K4 histories

The Jägermeister car that I want to portray is K4-001. The race histories of both cars are based on Porsche chassis numbers listings on the Classic Cars site, checked, corrected and extended with more data, particularly with the fantastic Racing Sports Cars Photo Archive. The K4 is not always easy to distinguish from other radical 935's. For example, the mold of the K4 nose was also used for Akin's 935-84. One unique recognition point is that the K4 has (turbo) inlets in the rear pillar.

I received a interesting e-mail from Mike Hagen that I have to show here:

The K4 was a Kremer copy of the Moby Dick car with major improvements. The Porsche factory was building 956's and did not want to build 935. They had a few orders for the 935, so they gave the drawings, the Moby Dick car and parts on commision to Kremer to fabicate two 935s. These were 935K4 001 (left hand steering) and 935K4 02 (right hand steering).

Akin's car was built by Klym and was one of the very last 935s built anywhere. The front and doors were splashed off of the 935K4 001 car molds with a different rear end.

Door restoration

Amazingly, Tamiya moulded the body with only partial doors, as you can see here! First I glued a curved backing plate against the inside of the door.

Next was a 1 mm thick piece of card to make the outer door contour (see next photo). I measured the length on a Tamiya 1/12 935, and came up with an 18.5 mm extension. With this extension it still fits over the Tamiya chassis (tightly though).

Front fender widening

I glued card to the sides and the top of the original fender, then applied Milliput, and lastly removed most of the old fender. For the other side I will change this order, because hacking out the original fender was rather difficult. Note the small spacer glued on the side of the original running board. The 'exhaust area' is considerably larger than on the original 935-78.

The fender fin is made from card. Lots of Milliput to give the front end of the fender a square shape. The rear louvres of the front fender were filled.

A front top view showing the differences between the modified and original fenders. Headlight covers haven't been tackled so far.

Another view that shows the length differences.

Later the left fender was modified too. Here most of the fender was cut away before the new fender sides were glued on, saving lots of cumbersome sanding later.

Front air intake, part 1

The air intake was widened by sanding, after which pieces of card were glued to the inside to make smooth surfaces. Looking back, the kit's air intake appears to have been asymmetric, but I don't have a second one to check it.

The view from the inside shows Milliput around the air intake. This was added before the sanding started. Also visible is the shortened lip to bring the radiator more forward.

Hood

Vaguely visible: Milliput to fill three filler openings in the hood (not yet sanded). The small step in the upper lip of the air intake was filled. After consulting new documents, it seems I was a bit too quick here. The openings are covered by lids, that should be engraved.

Another modification is the chamfering of the inside edges of the fenders, shown here only on the cars right hand side. I guess they are at a 40 degree angle. The plastic is reduced to a very thin section, and I added Milliput to the inside. The chamfering eats away part of the forward louvres. These will move outboard later.

Splitter removal

The Kremer K4 does not have a separate splitter under the nose bodywork. Rather the bodywork itself has a small forward extension. Since the 935-78 lip projects from under the body, it had to go. I removed it completely, so the body now has a more or less flat lower side.