[Tamar]

Ok after the decal side step...time to get back on topic.
Some of you are way ahead on me and ready for final assembly, so here are some of my findings on the detail parts that you will be mounting to your painted bodies.


Attention to detail
For what is a basically simple kit (compared to the Sideways Huracan) I encountered so many little niggling items that needed just that extra bit of attention to make them fit "properly".
Like the fender grilles, excess flash (see red arrow) and increased thickness due to thick paint will prevent them from seeing properly and leave an ugly gap (see mid picture).
So same procedure as described before, remove flash and excess paint and they will fit (see outer right picture below)





The exhaust tips...same story, excess injection moulded flash masks the true shape of the exhaust orifice in the body, take out your rat tail file to clean that up.
And do pay attention on how you mount the exhaust tips, the parts look symmetrical....but they're not.
They will fit both ways, but onely one way is correct, which is with the longer curved/twisted part facing backwards.
You really need to push the exhaust tips all the way over the body pins (after you've opened up the holes a bit) and mount them flush with the inside of the body.
When seated properly the exhaust tips will stick out from the body orifices



Getting this right is not just to improve looks, as you can see in the image below right, if not seated properly the body supports will not rest the chassis, the exhaust tips will.
A little more attention to detail here will improve how straight & square your M6 GT3 body will rest on the chassis.


Now here's a bit of attention to detail that I really loved. The sideways M6 GT3 mirrors come with...actual mirrors
Ok make that mirror foil, but it was a nice surprise, best thing about the foil..you can easily peel it of the mirror housing...if you need to (spray) paint them.
Even better news, I recently ordered the SWM6/b1 tear proof set (as I needed a replacement for the two left hand NACA ducts on my white kit)  which includes two mirrors with the same mirror foil.


Light lenses & clusters
Some of the nicest and detailed head & taillights I've ever seen on a 1/32 slot car. 
Wel sculpted and chromed tail light reflectors, nice and thin lenses, as a BMW fan I can almost see those chromed Angel eyes running lights glowing in the dark.  
And should you chose to equip you M6 with working headlights, just leave the chromed detail parts out, a simple push at the back with an Allen key and they'll pop right out.
So way to go Sideways, for the lights a 10, if not a 10+ 


Small tip for mounting the headlights, on an other forum some one suggested to mount them to the body before mounting the front bumper..as acces is limited afterwards.
Not neccesary at all, you can perfectly mount them after painting, I would strongly advice you to do so as masking the headlights will be complicated.
 All you need to do is (again) open up the holes in the tabs that go over the body pins...
...and clip a tiny bit of the body pins (they are a bit long)

1. Slide the headlights at an angle over the two pins on the bumper
   
2. Push the headlights clusters down over the pin on the body
   

I would suggest you mount the Light lenses after you mounted the headlight clusters




To be continued 


With kind regards
Tamar

[Tamar]

Windows
As is common with Sideways their windows come with nicely prepainted window frames.To mount the windshield and rear windows you need to follow a specific procedure that requires both a delicate touch and some applied force.
As show in this youtube video posted by "Mr Shapeways"? For the windshield you need to insert the upper part of the windshield up from the inside,
slot the tab in the body roof opening and then push the bottom of the windshield in place over the pins under the bonnet.

The windshield comes with the nicely detailed wipers already mounted, some excess flash here which can be tricky to remove without risk of scratching the glass...
...but a bit of making tape and a set of side clippers did the job.

Rear Window
As shown in the video the rear window is mounted from the outside, start with mounting the bottom side, sliding the windowtabs in the body slots is easy, but then. comes the trickier part.
The only way you can mount/slide the top window tab in the body slot is by bending the roof up and pushing the window down. This delicate and force part I mentioned earlier.
Its do-able, I've done it a dozen times now during my test fitting....but. I did trim the top edge window tab a bit so it required less roof bending/ tension to pop in.

 
But...as where the bottom of the rear window fits nice and snug and follows the body, the top end of the rear window does not.
At first I thought I had done something wrong or I had a bad part...but after doing some web surfing, each and every picture I've found of the Sideways M6 GT3 (including their own install youtube video)
shows the same problem. All the top corners of all the rear windows I've seen mounted, stick out above the roofline. 

 
Again as with all the other nagging issues, it's fixable. You can glue in the rear window in the body surround's, but this will add more tension to your body...
..and there's always the risk the window corners will come loose in a crash or a (digital) rear-ender.
You could apply some strong gaffer tape on the inside of the body to pull/keep the top window corners down, but you would still be fixing something you should not have to fix in the first place.
Of all the little items that needed care on the M6 GT3 white kit...this for me was the most annoying.
This is not a quality control issue, this is a design, or at least a production flaw!  

I managed to cure the problem without adding tension (litteraly) but would not advice my solution to de done by those who are building their first white kit...
..as it requires firmly taping down the rear window corners in place...and curing the body with the rear-window for 30 min in a 75˚C hot air oven:o 


Side windows
At least no fitting or mounting issues here, the one piece side windows fit like glove  But while where dotting the I's and crossing the t's... some paint tips.
Below is a good reference picture on how the side windows and their window frames should fit on a M6 GT3 body



To match the body to those nicely prepainted window-frames, it looks much nicer if you also need to paint the recessed part of the body visible behind the side-windows.
And while you at it, depending on the  livery/car you want to make, in some cases (as like with Schnitzer car pictured above) the satin black extends  beyond end below the kit window.


There's a very subtle line on the white kit body (as visible in the top image) that depicts the edge of the area needed to be painted black.
For those that have sanded that away I've marked the area in the bottom picture. 

Below you can see the result, its purely a cosmetic thing, but  I.m.o. the extra black increases the window visually which improves the somewhat "Roof chopped" appearance of the Sideways M6 GT3.


Radiator detail?
Last item on the list of parts to discuss, and most likely also the last part you will mount to your kit body...this rather large, over designed but still badly fitting Radiator support detail.
All I can say is why? With all the decisions Sideways made to adjust the dimensions, go lightweight and use the minimum of material..and then they add this lump?
Its quite a complex shape to produce, so they needed to split it up in 2 parts, which were in my case glued together with a extensive gap, its heavy and you'll hardly see most of it once mounted.
The time and costs to produce this part, would have been spend better on a more detailed interior, with a properly positioned driver.



This determines my rather lengthy review of the Sideway M6 GT3 time to round things up with a final conclusion.

Right from the first publicity shots it was clear that this kit had lots of potential,  I do have to conclude that the M6 GT3 white kit does have its fair share of "issues".
From the proportions chosen by the 3D designer, the production tolerances in the injection moulding process, to the quality control of the shipped white kits.....
[i]Given their track record with the Gr5 series and the wonderfull (more complicated) Huracan GT3, it could have been so much better. [/i]

I can only hope that the feedback posted here will be incorporated in future Sideways projects like the Ford GT and the Ferrari 488

Still, I believe that the general slotter will be more than happy that at least there now is a competitive race-able BMW M6 GT3 out there...
Regardless of the body issues, the mechanical side of the Sideways chassis usually produces good and competitive results.
And that is still the main "raison d'être" for the Sideways M6 GT3, its a slotrace white kit, not a model kit.

With kind regards
Tamar

[Tamar]

As an add on the my review

Pimp my interior...2D
I think we can all agree that, besides the nice dash decal, the Sideways M6 GT3 interior is rather plain and simple.
So I'd already done some detail drawings for the decal set, like seatbelts and a new Dash panel ( as I did not want my car stuck in "Reverse" all the time)

So I continued drawing, adding the steering wheel, centre console, let's just say I got a bit carried away.



And then I though, "what else can I do in 2D to Pimp my interior", without modifying/ scratch building the lot?
So I added some floor and doorpanel detail, gave the driver some legs and added wiring and a proper fire exstinguisher.
This will most likely need to become a separate decal sheet, but at least those of you that do like to pimp their interiors ....in the future... for the Sideways M6 GT3..
You can just put a sticker on it  




Pimp your M6 GT3..3D
Some introduction required here, gents meet Rasmus Sandø Larsen, as the name suggest, a Danish slotracer who besides making nice slot cars is also active with 3D printing.
I've invited him to post some of his work here as his Playstation M6 GT3 is a real beauty. Nice paint job, well applied Slotfabrik decals and some nice detailed wheels...
...but what really drew my attention on his post on the Facebook Slotcars and 3D printing group  were these nice flexible wing supports he printed from a filament material called Ninjaflex.


The thing is Sideways' flexible wing is a great product that will make many very happy, but its a one piece part, both wing and the supports are cast as one.
And while I'm very happy with the fit and dimensions of the supports...I am afraid the wing itself is too flexible for my taste.
I'm afraid that once paint and decals are applied they will flake and or peel off  as the wing gets bend in a crash.
So here's were Ramsus's flexible supports would be an ideal compromise as he's modelled them to the same dimensions as the Sideways part, meaning they will fit to the stock "hard plastic" wing.

So I got in touch with him and he's shared his STL file on the FB page, so anyone with a filament 3D printer can print it. I'll most likely will ask him to print a batch that I'll send over to Steven Verelst..
...so you can order it via his SV Workz webshop.


After chatting with Rasmus I thought, what else could we use this (Ninja)Flex material for, come up with several ideas some good some not so practical to 3D print.
But this one (pictured above) did work out quite well, one of the trade marks of any modern racecar interior, the safety nets.
We got some other stuff to try and test print, seat's anyone ?, or flexible safety belts?


With kind regards
Tamar

[JasonB]

Great work, as always Tamar.