Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Sideways BMW M6 GT3 White kit
#1

Sideways BMW M6 GT3 white kit
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit00.jpg]
Announced in dec 2015 in a Christmas greeting on FB, restarted twice with 3 different 3D designers, the long awaited Bavarian GT3 racer from French company Sideways International has finally become available to the slotrace community. As has become custom with many manufacturers, the first available iteration of the BMW M6 GT3 has been released is in the form of a white kit.
Meaning that it is up to you slotracers to transform the kit below left...into the slot car on the right.
Time for a first hand review.
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit01.jpg]
Unfortunaltely its taking me a bit longer than usual, lots of photo's to make of very small detail parts.
And all that with an smartphone...one in ten has the right focus...its a long process.
But as the kits are being delivered right now I thought it would be best to post the most important bits, a kind of preview of a later more complete edited post.


Test fitting the white kit.
Sideways use the standard pin and peg method to assemble their slot car bodies. So the first thing you need to do is take out a rat tail file and check and enlarge all the holes in the detail parts.
They're a bit too tight, specially the painted parts. Enlarge the holes so that the parts will slide over the plastic body pins easily.
You'll be doing a lot of Test fitting, you don't want the pins to break off the first time you remove the part.
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04b_details.png]

Take Stock
Check if all the parts are included in your kit. In my set the chrome lenses for the foglight were missing, and as you can see in the picture left below..I got two left side top intakes.
This only became visible once I started test fitting, it looks like they fit, but you can see that there's a gap between the body and the intake if you mount them the wrong way.
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04c_intakes.png]

Check your chassis
Once you done your checks and first test fitting I noticed that my chassis was slightly warped, not much but enough to prevent the body from sitting flat and square on the chassis..so....
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04a_testfit1.png]

Time to give the chassis a bath... I added the rear chassis grub screws to prevent the chassis from sagging in the hot water. Its important to keep this part straight and level. 
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04_chassis.jpg]

Check for Flash and burrs
Like a model kit all the seperate parts have been cut manually from trees with multiple injection moulded parts.
So just like on a modelkit each part can have excess material that needs to be trimmed to make them fit properly.
On my kit this was most noticeable on the bottom of the from and rear bumper. So check yours and trim where needed to make the body sit square and straight on your now perfectly flat chassis.
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit05_bumpers.png]

Wheel Inserts
Last but not least, the wheel inserts. As with the Huracan these are real gems, good proportions and sharp en defined details.
Too bad that Sideways had cut/broken all the inserts brutally from the sprue, as now all inserts had a dink in the outer rim, making them look like you've hit a curb in the parking lot [Image: mad.gif] 
Like on the Huracan, the M6 inserts are very deep and are meant to slide in the wheels. For the front wheels they fit perfectly, but for the rear wheels the fit is too tight.
Even if you try to push them in with brute force..you won't get them flush with the rim..and you'll also never be able to get them out again.
So a good tip here is to sand  the outside surface of the rear inserts to reduce their diameter.
Secondly increase the inner diameter of the Insert tube  to 3,8  - 4,0mm. I started with a 3,6 mm drill bit and increased by 0,1mm steps till the insert slides over the centre wheel hub.
Ok that's it for now, happy building guys
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04d_inserts.png]




to be continued

With kind regards
Tamar


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
               
[+] 6 members Like Tamar's post
Quote
#2

Thank you for making the effort to do this.

I love puttering with gears
Quote
#3

Some of us are way more demanding  

Part 2 Tamar [Image: whip2.gif] hurry up lad [Image: whip.gif]
Quote
#4

Ouch...easy with the wip guys...working on it Sweating
Quote
#5

Sideways BMW M6 GT3 white kit, Part 2
Ok so here's part two of the review. 
There are many reasons why people go for a white kit, some just don't want to wait for the painted cars,
some just want to paint them in a different livery or color scheme and some prefer a white kit as it gives them the opportunity to assemble the body...
...in the best way possible...there's a term for that in motorsport, its called "blueprinting" 
Blueprinting a white kit is about assembling the whole car, body and chassis, straight & true, making all parts fit as designed by the manufacturer.
The aim in this process is to avoid any tension building up in the body. To keep it as rigid as needed an as flexible as possible. 

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit05d_front-bumper.png]
Front Bumper
The body of the Sideways M6 GT3 is designed to rest flat and square on the front and rear of the chassis, the neater you mount the front and rear bumper to the main body, the better. 
On my kit there was a tiny bit of injection flash on the edges of the front bumper mounting tabs (1). These prevented the front bumper from seating properly to the bonnet (2). 

Not a big deal as the flash can be easily trimmed/scraped away with a sharp blade. After test fitting I also noticed that the slots where the bumper center tabs slide in the hood (3) were a bit tight,
using a key file to open these up closed the gap between bumper and the bonnet but not completely. 
I noticed there were two raised injector pin marks next to the slots ( 4 an injector pin mark can form at places where the hot plastic enters the mould during the injection process)
After a quick clean up with a sanding pad I was able to mount the the front bumper correctly positioned and tension free to the body.

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit05c_rear-bumper.png]
Rear Bumper
More or less the same story applies to mounting the rear bumper, enlarging the mounting holes and slots in the body (1).
Opening up the small hooks (2) into which the bumper side tabs slide (3) will improve the alignement and fit of the rear bumper

Time for an other test fit, if done properly body should sit perfectly straight and flat on the chassis. 
The bumpers should stay attached in position without applying force or tension and with minimal gaps between body and bumpers. 

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04a_testfit2.png]

to be continued

With kind regards
Tamar
[+] 6 members Like Tamar's post
Quote
#6

Hi Tamar

Tidy!

Could I put a request in for the following, if not already done: -

How you paint the Lexan interior (if you are going that way)
How you wire up the lighting, or at least power it (although I imagine it might not be applicable to the Slot.it C chip/standard lighting kit I need to install...)

Cheers

I love puttering with gears
Quote
#7

Hello Jeremy

Not been able to order the vacformed interior & windows for the M6 (yet)
For connecting lights to the Oxigen B & C chips I'll see if I can do a separate post in the Oxigen sub forum.

With kind regards
Tamar
[+] 1 member Likes Tamar's post
Quote
#8

Sideways BMW M6 GT3 Inserts part 2
As mentioned in my earlier post, ...those lovely M6 wheel inserts do not fit properly in the Sideways rear rims.
Worst case scenario..they will be seized solid half way in the rim.

And as some may have noticed.. if you try to push them out via the axle hole..90% chance that you will break the centre from the spokes.

So here's an update on how you can make them fit nicely.

The problem with the sideways inserts is that they are very deep and that the sleeve that slides over the axle hub is too narrow.
In my first post I mentioned that you could drill out the insert sleeve...but to do so you need drill bits ranging from 3,6 -3,8mmø with 0,1 mm increase.
But there's an easier way...as you don't need the full depth of the insert to mount them into the wheels. Here's what you can do.
  • Gently slide the insert halfway into the rim so that + 6mm of the insert sticks out.
    I mounted the rim on my Hudy, but if you don't have a tyre truer you can also just mount the rim on the rear axle.

  • Spin the rim and center the insert

  • Take a scalpel or file and reduce the diameter of the insert sticking out to 13,85 mmm

  • Cut the insert to ≠ 4,5 mm width.

  • Clean up/ remove burrs on the backside of the insert.
[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04e_inserts02.png][Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04f_inserts03.png]
 
You should now be able to slide the insert into the rim until the insert flange is flush with the outside of the rim.

How to dismount  inserts from the rim
If you want to remove the insert from the rim..do not try to push it out trough the axle opening.
Best procedure is to stick you fingernail or a small flat screwdriver between the rim and the insert flange.
Then carefully wriggle the insert flange a tiny bit up and work your way around the rim like you would do with the lid of a paint can.

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit04g_inserts04.png]
Here's what the finished product can look like (Dunlop tyre decals not included ).
I spray painted the inserts gloss black and dry brushed the spokes with some light gunmetal to add some highlights. 

Top of the wheel nut was painted titanium silver.
Painted the brake discs with some light gun metal, just a very thin coat, not covering the discs completely to maintain some texture. 

Then gave the centre of the discs a wash with some bronze acrylic paint.

with kind regards
Tamar
[+] 5 members Like Tamar's post
Quote
#9

Hi Tamar, I've finally made it over to this Forum.
As usual top work Sir  Thumbup
Mine arrived yesterday but i've yet to take it out of the box, I may wait until the lexan interior and rubber rear wing are available?

Cheers.
Nik.
[+] 1 member Likes Nik Kerswill's post
Quote
#10

Hello Nik, welcome to Slotracer online.
Vacformed interior should be available by now (Art nr SWM6/E) as will be the one piece flexible spoiler (Art nr SWM6/C1)

Sideways M6 GT3 Interior 
In many ways the interior is exemplary of how Sideways has designed and manufactured the whole of the Sideways BMW M6 GT3.
Its tray type interior is designed for competition, light weight with some nice moulded detail incorporated in the tray, they've painted it white and the dash is a nice matte black.
There's a well detailed complete roll cage, a separate moulded Instrument cluster, seat, steering wheel and driver.

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit07_interior01.png]
In some area there's incredible attention to detail like the M sport logo on the driver and the decalled instrument panel.
Yet there's no seatbelt detail, a helmet that's more fitting a playmobile figure and last but not least...what have they done to the seating position of the M6 Driver !!!!
It looks like 12 year old has just nicked my M6 for a joyride, but needed to slide the chair all the way forward to reach the pedals.
But ok these are cosmetic details that at least can be easily corrected/repositioned...should it bother you.

[Image: SW_m6gt3-w_kit07_interior02.png]

But, when it comes to the badly assembled and warped roll cage, this also has a knock on effect on the car's handling. 

Because as you can see in the pictures above , the warped roll cage wasn't seated properly and as such too high. The left upper rear corner touching the roof.
A minor detail, but it keeps the interior tray from fitting properly and tension free in the body.
So I took the rear of the roll cage apart and re assembled it the best I could.


with kind regards
Tamar
[+] 1 member Likes Tamar's post
Quote


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread / Author Replies Views Last Post

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)