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In 1963, the entire world became aware of Aston Martin automobiles, many of us for the first time, when Sean Connery as James Bond drove a specially equipped silver DB5 to super-stardom in the movie “Goldfinger”. Stunningly beautiful bodywork combined with exceptional performance and comfort has kept Aston Martin alive to this day, even though ownership of the company has changed hands several times since then. They have never been true sports cars in the classic sense; rather they are European touring cars in the Grand Manner: fast, comfortable, efficient and always something very special. |
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The DB4GT was a limited edition GT car with a shorter wheelbase, lighter weight, stiffer chassis and more power than the normal road going DB4. Inevitably, DB4GT’s were raced, but the improvements were still not enough against the Ferrari SWB, GTO and other more serious GT racers. |
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I am not an expert on the variations of the DB4 & 5
models; the DB5 bodies have the correct DB4GT headlights fairings
so the rest of the conversion is just detailing as far as I am
concerned. Some excellent
1/32 scale Aston DB5 models have been produced by several manufacturers,
including the Scalextric Bond car from “Goldfinger” (no, I don’t
have one). Revell, Airfix
and Scalextric all had DB5 road cars available; the Airfix shelf
model is still in production. A
racer based on the Airfix kit had been under way for some time
as a shelf model and was back on the bench again, triggered by
NINCO’s beautiful wire wheels, when I suddenly realized that the
NINCO Ferrari 250 TR chassis fit the shortened Aston body exactly
after the Ferrari lower body panels had been removed. The axles need to be trimmed so the tires are under the fenders
and mounting posts installed inside the body but that’s it. I do not have a Scalex DB5 but the Revell
body is almost identical to the Airfix so either of them will work
for this conversion. |
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Begin the body modifications by removing
the extra material through the center of the doors and roof. Put a strip of masking tape at the forward
edge of the proposed cut, measure over ¼” to match the NINCO Ferrari
250 chassis and put a second strip of tape in place parallel to
the first. The tape protects the pieces to be kept rather
than those to be discarded. In
this particular instance, the forward cut on the roof was the first
one made to avoid stress on the windscreen posts but one broke
during the process anyway. The forward cuts on the doors were next, cutting
the nose free of the rest of the body. Remove
the ¼” strips from the roof and doors, then carefully sand the
joint edges smooth and flat. I
find that getting one edge ready, including backing strips of 0.020”
styrene, then fitting the other body half to it gives the best
results. Careful joint preparation leads to less body
filler and much stronger joints so take your time here. When the joints are ready, glue the door joints,
let set, then come back to glue the roof in to place. Old-fashioned spring clothespins work great
for clamping the joints while the glue sets. Fill,
sand and prime these joints and remove any mold marks before continuing. |
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Minor changes also need be made to
the hood scoop and air vent below the grille. “Original
Aston Martin DB4/5/6” by Robert Edwards has photos of an example
still raced in vintage events and I have included others here for
reference. The GT hood
scoop is larger and extends further forward on the hood than the
DB5 kit scoop. There is also a large oval opening below the
grille and small oval brake ducts under the turn signals on each
front fender. I hope the
photos show the real cars well enough to point you in the right
direction. The hood is cut from a second body to minimize the joint gap; originally
designed to hinge forward, the hinges were removed after it became
evident that the radiator prevented the hood from opening fully. The hood scoop can be dealt with by adding
strips of 0.020” sheet styrene to each side and the top of the
existing scoop, extending it forward to the leading hood edge. Shape
the surface of the scoop and blend it into the hood at the rear
with sandpaper. Open up
the body under the scoop opening so you can shape it accurately
with a half round file. The GT scoop is taller and more rounded than
the original. If you have
a parts box scoop that looks right, by all means use it, but I
have no specific suggestions. |
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The scoop below the grille is larger
than standard and slightly more “D” shaped; something that did
not turn out very well on the model. Many,
if not all, of the cars have a lip around the scoop which is simply
a narrow 0.010” styrene strip wrapped around and glued inside the
opening. You’ll note that the vent lip protrudes from
the body so check your references if matching a specific racer. After the glue sets, scrape or file the inner
edges of the vent to reduce the thickness of the plastic visually
to look more like sheet metal. Brake
vents are made by carefully crushing brass or aluminum tubing in
a vise or flat-jawed pliers to the right oval shape. This
is tricky but the only real problem is keeping the top and bottom
edges parallel. If using
brass, heat to cherry red to remove the temper first; it’ll change
shape much more easily. Open
holes in the lower pan, glue in the brake scoops and blend into
the body with filler. A small vertical scoop is attached to the
body just behind the right front wheel opening – make it from styrene
strip filed to shape. Fill the fuel filler doors in the roof and replace with two flush mounted quick release caps on the horizontal portion of each rear fender just ahead of the deck lid. The windscreen and rear glass can be used by removing the side windows although the screen is too narrow to fit the body. I chose to leave the grille off my model because it looks more aggressive and a number of vintage Astons run this way. The DB5 grille is not correct for the DB4 in any case although the differences would matter only to a rabid Astonophile. For those who are interested, the
shortened Airfix chassis, suspension and interior parts are used
in the shelf model with a new sheet plastic firewall. While
the rear seat in most GT’s was replaced by a carpeted luggage shelf
as the trunk was occupied by a 30 gallon |
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The engine is based on the Revell 1/24 scale Jaguar XKE block and cam covers – the full-size car is full of engine under the hood and the XKE parts, despite the scale, look right. Headers are made from ancient Aurora 1/25 Ferrari 250 GTO exhausts and Replicas & Miniatures Company of Maryland provided the resin Weber sidedraft carburetors mounted on a styrene tubing manifold. A 1/24 turned aluminum distributor by Detail Master (DM 3201) was installed and ignition wires added. AMT’s generic 1/32 NASCAR kit radiator fills the space ahead of the engine and the same kit provided the front cover, pulley assembly and fan. The oil cooler mounted low on the radiator is also by Replicas & Miniatures intended for the 1/24 Corvette GS. Exhaust tips are aluminum tubing cut at an angle. NINCO wire wheels are painted aluminum and fitted with disc brake parts made as shown in another section of this website. |
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!!NEWS FLASH!! I screwed up: checking references once again I discovered that all of the DB4GT engines had dual ignition. Two distributors were driven off the back of the cam covers, one on each side. It’s too late to change mine but yours can still be right. Mark took me to task for using Zagato number plates from the Slot Classic kit on this model. In my defense I can only say that they were laying on the bench right in front of me and were perfect for the DB4GT so I took the easy way out as this not a model of a specific car anyway. This is a fairly easy conversion to a machine with a lot more attitude than the road going DB5’s – however beautiful the others may be, this one sports a broken nose and wears football cleats in the house! |
fuel
tank and spare wheel, some few were equipped with a child sized
rear seat like this one.