[GRUNZ]

The Car: AMG Evo raced by Haupt Racing Bilstein
As some of you might know, Mercedes has released an update of the AMG GT3 a couple of years with some major changes in the front grill and the rear vents.

The model
While there are plenty of manufacturers that have released the AMG GT3 in 1/32 slotcar version, there are still no version available for the Evo version.
Scalextric (and I think Carrera) is (are) the only manufacture(s) that have upgraded their mold to capture the new Evo version.
However, as for May 2022, there are still no models available in the stores.

The plan
I knew for a while that Fola (Slotfabrik) had a transkit available for the 1/24 Tamiya AMG Kit.
These are designed by him and 3D printed in resin.
But I am not aware of any transkit available in 1/32.
Thus, I asked Fola if he could "shrink" his 1/24 design to fit a 1/32 scale body.
He agreed and asked for the general dimensions of the host body.
I think I have at least one sample of the 1/32 AMG GT3 version from most of the manufacturers available in the market (the only one I am missing at this stage is SCX - but Gary Skipp has mentioned that these are nice models so I might get one) and built the whitekits from NSR and Scaleauto.
I like the NSR AMG so I decided to go for this whitekit as the starting point and gave Fola the dimensions of the NSR body.

The parts
Fola printed the parts and sent them still attached to their printing supports.
Main reason is that, the first time he sent me these parts, their arrived all distorted from excessive heat during transport.
The idea is that the supports should limit or avoid the distortion if they are again left under the sun for too long.
Anyway, the second time they arrived in good conditions and have been sitting on my too do list for a while now.
The transkit consists of the front and rear part and headlights.

Test fit
Despite the fact that the original transkit was designed for another kit, the parts fit not too badly with the NSR body.

The chassis needs some attention as you can see. Just need to cut the extra parts around the rear diffuser.

After the surgery, the chassis fits well (at least the rear).

To be continued...

 

[GRUNZ]

The front
The rear was pretty easy because in the NSR body kit the rear bit is a separate part.
But the front, on the other hand, is one single piece with the rest of the mold.
I had to choices: either cutting the NSR part following the body panels, or cutting also the parts from the kit to make it fit with the panel parts.

As you can see from the pics above, the kit part includes some of the area on top of the head light buckets.
In the end I went for a third approach, where I would leave all the front bonnet part on the body intact, and sand down the top part of the grill in the kit part to make it fit under the body hood.
I decided to cut the top of the headlights part in the kit and use the one from the NSR body.

After some sanding and several test fits the overall result is not too shabby

To be continued...

 

[GRUNZ]

Putting it all together
Now the most scary part: glue the parts to the body.
I wanted something flexible but at the same time should not require hours to glue.
I decided to use Zap Goo. I want to use the glue also as a filler that I can sand later on as the parts are not a 100% match.

The front lights area will require some attention to make the profile seamless.

I forgot to weight the original body before gluing the resin parts. But so far 12.3 gr is not too bad.

The next step will be to fill in any holes and sand down the extra glue (I hope that Zap goo is sand-able) to be ready for painting.
To be continued...

 

[MANIMMAL]

Very cool, and imo a great choice of livery. I look forward to seeing the outcome of many more hours of labour.

 

[tamar.nelwan]

Hello Gio
First of all, big thumbs up for taking on this project
This is exactly the kind of stuff I love to read...and do...but very few post. Keep it up.
Over the resent years you have expanded you modeling and racing skills, looks like the next step will be how to do masters fo silicone moulds, resin casting and GRP lamination.
As then you will be able to do copies of your one offs.

As for the the process of doing the conversion, a few remarks:
Weight
SLA resin is less dense than injection moulded plastic and with min. wall thickness for SLA prints about the same as for injection moulding..big chance the body with its 3DP parts will be lighter than the stock NSR body.
Dimensions
As you have noticed only trail and error will tell you how well the rescaled Transkit for the 1/24 Tamiya kit matches the shape of the 1/32 NSR body.
By the looks of it it seems like a reasonable fit, but on close inspection you can see where NRS applied its "artistic" liberties on their AMG GT3.
You must have given the width of the NSR body as reference for the print. But the NSR is noticeably widened at both wheel arches. So although the overall width is a match....
...all the body shapes within that width do not. Most noticeable in the shape and size of the front and rear light surrounds.

Make copies
It will be very interesting to see how well the SLA resin printed nose and rear bumper will endure the bumps and crashes of Digital slot racing. But my advise would be to finish the exterior body shape and then do a 2 part silicon cast (inner and outer shape) of the nose and rear of the car. This way you would be able to replicate all the hard work in sanding and shaping of the transit and produce perfectly fitting copies.
You would not even have to make those copies yourself. There are some excellent experts to be found in the Southern Hemisphere that could do that for you.

Reinforcing the AMG
If you plan to race the conversion my advise would be to get yourself some Aramide/Kevlar/ Mylar weave and use these to reinforce the joint between the SLA parts and the NSR body.
Make sure you do large enough overlaps and use a flexible glue so the strands/weave remains flexible and can bend with the body under impact.

SCX AMG conversion
As you mentioned in your first post, SCX has recently joined the AMG ranks with a car based on the 2015 AMG GT3 presentation model. So that's even more out of date than the NSR Scaleauto and Scalex versions. But its nicely moulded, crisper detail than the NSR,is a bit wider than the Scalex and has less parts than the Scaleauto. Picked one up when I took Gary on our grand tour of the Dutch slotshops. Looks like a perfect project to finally unbox the Elegoo 3D printer I acquired in December...and start using it.
Will make the trail and error process of finding the correct dimension for the SCX AMG a lot easier.

Like I wrote earlier...this is exactly the kind of stuff I love to read...and do...but very few post. So yours are most welcome...Keep it up.

With kind regards
Tamar

 

[frp1700]

Love the work Gio, and I'll stand by Tamar, please do make it a master, throw it in silicone and bring us a GRP Evo AMG
Great work!!!

 

[GRUNZ]

Tamar and Tim
thanks a lot for your nice words of encouragement.
Tamar, lots of the stuff I do has been inspired by you and the work you post here.
You hit the nail in the head with the comment about how the resin parts are going to survive in a digital race.
To be honest, I do not think that they are going to fare that well.
The resin parts are very brittle. I am not sure what Fola had in mind with the transikit for the 1/24 tamiya kit, maybe good enough to build a static kit?
I would like to explore the possibility of doing my own cast and making some replicas in GRP but I do not know from where to start.
I can ask John here to make me a silicon cast but the GRP process is completely a mystery to me: maybe I should visit Gouda for a 1 on 1 workshop on GRP molding ;-)

The other thing that I should start considering more seriously is buying a 3d printer and join the 3dp messiness...

 

[tamar.nelwan]

I may have given you inspiration, but the other 99% of transpiration required to turn an idea into something physical...you can take all credit for.

And yes, like most of the AMG GT3 decal sheets Fola has done, 99% of the transkits were sold to static model builders wanting to upgrade their Tamiya kit.
The remaining 1% being bought by his competitors (Who also sell laminated 1/24 bodies) using Fola's transit to make a master for their "own" AMG Evo laminated kit 😇

For now I would focus on just getting the shapes right and matching those of the 3DP transkit to those of the NSR body.
You've made a good start...but there will be lots of hours between now and what you will be satisfied with.
Only then do you need to start thinking about how to make a silicone cast and how to make copies and in which way.
And by that time...if you need some help or advice...give me a call...and there's always Slotforum.

With kind regards
Tamar

 

[frp1700]

I would like to explore the possibility of doing my own cast and making some replicas in GRP but I do not know from where to start.
I can ask John here to make me a silicon cast but the GRP process is completely a mystery to me: maybe I should visit Gouda for a 1 on 1 workshop on GRP molding ;-)

Gio, with me diving into GRP laminating pretty soon for part 2 of the Ford GT project, I'll just throw the pics and story of how I go about (with the kind help and advice of Tamar) onto SF - maybe start a new thread on that.

Pretty sure you'll be able to pick up a whole lot of useful info from that process too.
What I've learned from making 1:1 automotive GRP and carbon design parts in my tuner/boyracer days, it's not rocket science in any way. Getting a good (silicone) mould from your initial master is the hardest bit - Tamar, please do correct me if I'm wrong...

The actual laminating is just getting the good products, being prepared, cutting a whole lot of small enough patches of fibreglass weave and mixing your resin correctly - laminating itself is, although potentially a messy affair, pretty straightforward. Anyway I'll need some of Tamar's advice on where to reinforce the GRP body with strands of carbon/kevlar to get a flexible but strong shell...

I'll be following this build with great interest!

 

[LMP]

Brilliant project Gio. Well done

laminating itself is, although potentially a messy affair, pretty straightforward.

It’s straightforward if you’re doing a GT car 😜

 

[GRUNZ]

Thanks Tim. I will be waiting for your progress reports on the laminating project so that I can get an idea of what involves.
This morning I have added some styrene bits to close some of the gaps and I will leave the glue cure for 24h before doing anything else on it.

 

[GRUNZ]

Brilliant project Gio. Well done



It’s straightforward if you’re doing a GT car 😜

Thanks Gary.

 

[Chappy]

Well done Gio. As Tamar said very well, I agree and have watched your talents
grow in leaps and bounds.
Excellent work sir.
Cheers
Bob

 

[GRUNZ]

Thank you Bob. Very kind of you.

 

[GDSLOT]

Excellent work Gio!! Nothing like a good updated AMG for the race track!

The front grill looks nice and with some reinforcement(and lots of luck) might survive the perils of slot racing, but as Tamar says, maybe casting the whole front would save lots of work.

Keep the good work mate

 

[GRUNZ]

thanks David. I am keen to make a laminate version of this so that it will survive crashes.