1:24 Porsche 934 Turbo RSR 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (Tamiya) (with 3D-printed resin parts)

The stripped cockpit of a 1976 circuit car

Porsche built the 934 for Group 4 on the basis of the production turbocharged 911, and from 1976 private teams raced it in endurance events in Europe and overseas. The cockpit of such a car is the opposite of a road one: the trim is gone, what is left is bare metal, a tube cage, one bucket seat, a fire system and a panel of switches.

Such an interior is a rewarding task for a printed set. Exactly the elements that are hardest to do in this scale – the straps of the multi-point belts with their buckles, the labels beside the switches, the dials of the additional gauges and the warning lettering – are printed straight in color and have a thickness of their own. A strap therefore does not look like a painted stripe but like a belt lying on the seat shell, and the buckle above it really stands proud.

Unlike photo-etch it does away with painting and bending metal, and unlike painted plastic it does away with picking out tiny labels with a brush. The bulky shapes that a flat surface cannot carry are supplied by the set as resin parts, which are cut from their gate and glued separately.

The bare metal of the cockpit also makes the work easier. The large continuous surfaces have no trim for a cut-out to fit around, so the artwork settles easily and without shaping. Extra care is needed only around the tubes of the cage, where the decal has to be cut up and laid on in sections so that it beds down around each tube. Do not reach for a softener or setter, as they would attack the printed resin. The car itself in the form of a plastic kit has to be owned separately; this item completes its interior.