Body and Soul: NSR Porsche 911

In this section I intend to show how simple things can result in quite complex achievements.

The slot car I'm presenting was bought as a plain white kit. After some painting and tuning, it resulted in one of my most enjoyable slot cars ever.

To start where it also started, here are the looks on the paintjob:

I was feeling out of ideas when I had this body at the "paintshop", but I had the Castrol decal sheet at hand and a brand new can of Tamiya "Park Green" TS-35 spray and decided to give them a shot. A simple work with Tamiya masking tape, using some spares to create a "tear" effect at the rear resulted in a simple yet very good looking Porsche. The rear wing was painted with the "Fluorescent Red" Tamiya spray paint and got a West logo on it. Only downside was that poor attempt to create a green screen on the top of the windshield. I used Vallejo Acrylics transparent green but I guess I missed the correct dilution. I used the red color equivalent to paint the rear lights and it worked fine.

This model was later used in and endurance race where it ingloriously fought a pack of NSR Corvettes. However, it still earned some praise, both on the paintwork and laptimes. So, I decided to give it a free tune-up. Cracking the nut open, here it is:

As you can see, both chassis, motor pod and guide arm are the stock parts you get from the white kit. It's better seen on the underside:

All the original screws holding body to chassis and motor pod to chassis were replaced by the metric screws available from NSR.

Free from any regulation restrictions, I gave it the mighty Slot.It Boxer2 motor. The power is transmitted to the axle by a 12 teeth nylon pinion attacking a NSR anglewinder crown, which results in a very smooth transmission. A lightweight Sloting Plus axle stopper was at hand and I used it to limit side-to-side travel on the rear axis. I kept the stock brass bushings and steel axle, they run so incredibly smooth that there's no use in changing them. I also kept the standard 17 wheels from the kit.

As I've previously mentioned, I do most of my running on Carrera tracks. Here, providing grip for this car can be a tricky thing. It is very nervous when full throttle is applied when very sticky are fitted. I found that some appropriately oiled MSC G1 19x10mm tires were a good compromise in terms of laptime and driving enjoyment.

The front axle was the biggest change from the original kit. I replaced it by a hollow Slot.It axle, with plastic Slot.It 16 wheels and "zero grip" 17x10 tires. A few spacers were used to get the adequate width and the M3 screws were used to set the appropriate height.

The arm guide had its travel greatly reduced using a thin Sloting Plus screw, which fits nicely on the arm and won't get stuck on the chassis. I replaced the original guide by a screw blade from NSR too.

So, how did this got to surprise me? Well, after running it intensely on Carrera tracks, I took it once to a Ninco track, with the setup straight from how it was for Carrera. I can tell you, I got ROCKED by the blistering performance on the Ninco track! The MSC tires worked perfectly here, as well as the chassis and guide setup. Looks like I got myself a great "hybrid" car, able to run quite respectfully on both kind of tracks...

That is it for today, stay tuned for more...

The Paintshop: A tale of 2 Moslers

Next feature of the "Paintshop", here are a couple NSR Mosler bodies I've painted in very known liveries, the "Castrol" and "Marlboro" themes. I find that these look great on any car body, actually, but the great looks on the Mosler body match them amazingly:

I must confess I loved the results on both as well I enjoyed painting them. I've decided to present both bodies at the same time as they not only show the application of the washing technique, previously presented, as they were painted in different ways.

The Marlboro livery was painted using the Tamiya TS-36 "Fluorescent Red" spray. I find this paint very similar to the Marlboro color, which makes me believe that naming it "Fluorescent Red" was a nice way to go around licencing... Using tape mask from Tamiya again, the basic design is easily achieved.

The Castrol livery was a different process. After applying Citadel White Primer (actually, the Marlboro body was also treated this way previously), the flowing green and red sections were painted freehand. I used Vallejo Acrylics "light green" and "vermillion" and I found them to match the original Castrol colors very nicely. It was a bit of a trouble to get nice and flowing lines in freehand guise, but eventually I think I managed a good scheme and result.

The drawing of the black lines through washing was quite easy on these bodies. The cavities and details are very sharp in NSR bodies, making them great for this technique. Additional details were added throughout, to liven up the looks (I'm kind of a detail freak, maybe due to my past on miniature painting).

This is it, a post on fresh bodies, using a few of the simplest advanced painting techniques that I can achieve so far. Stay tuned for more...

The Paintshop - NSR Fiat Punto Abarth

Back to the "Paintshop" section, here's a recent work on a Fiat Punto Abarth from NSR...

I had no ideas on what color scheme I should use here, so I just ended up painting 3 stripes resembling the Italian flag (it's the same order actually...). At first I thought it was a shame I ran out of white primer, but the grey primer I used here actually ended up looking good. Plus, grey is not stranger to an Abarth car.

The stripes were brush painted using the always helpful Tamiya masking tape. The side mirror housings and wing were painted without help of tape, so it ended up with some flaws...

Here are the grid details. The top was a simple drybrushing with Tamiya Chrome Silver. The lower one was also painted by drybrushing, starting with the white (all surface) then applying either red or green on top, fitting to the lining on the hood. The green section looks a bit brighter than the rest, due to the white base it was painted on. I was about to correct it with some darker tone, but looking at it again, I thought a little contrast would look good. Strange though, the red tone actually didn't bright up that much as the green...

Also, this was the first time I tested the Vallejo brilliant varnish. I think I have applied too much, you can see the reflex on the hood. Now I'm getting more used to it and the results are better.

'Till next time...

NSR Mosler MT900 - Anglewinder

Today I'll present the car that I contested the last year's GT Open, the NSR Mosler. Much has been said about the extraordinary performances of this model on Ninco tracks, but on Carrera, things get more balanced and it faced serious competition from the Ninco Mosler, the Spirit Peugeot 406 Silhouette (also a great racer for Ninco tracks), and a couple of well prepared Ninco GTs too.

This is the looks on my Mosler, which I bought way back in 2007. I bought it for Xmas, and eventually raced it almost a year later.

A racing car should also look cool...

I purchased this car in sidewinder guise, with the astonishing (and brutal) 25.000 rpm Shark motor. The car was much too violent to drive in Carrera tracks in this configuration. This photo shows the original chassis and motor configuration:


The OpenGT regulations required that all cars should present an anglewinder configuration. So, I changed the whole car, only kept the bodywork and NSR wheels from the original car. Here's how it ended up:

Notice that the photo presents the NSR Evo 21.500 rpm motor, which is the one that the car bears today, but the OpenGT was run with Ninco NC6 motors, to comply with the regulations (the NSR motor makes the car one to two tenths of second faster).

As you can see, the car received the all-new Evo-2 chassis, which lower the centre of gravity in comparison to the original chassis. Also, the harder material makes it more rigid, but still suffers from some undesired flex. The front wheels were a nightmare to set, but in the end I used 17'' Slot.It wheels with the 17x10 mm "Z0" tires. Setting the blade guide was also troublesome, and my best configuration was the Slot.It guide for wooden tracks, trimed to fit the Carrera slot depth.

The chassis front detail - the great looking rims come from the Racer Sideways Riley

NSR has its own gear dimensions, and no other slot car brand produces gears that fit this car. Still, the odd 7,5 mm pinions fit really well on the special NSR anglewinder crowns, and the first thing that strikes you when you take the car to the track, it's the great smoothness of the whole system! The car runs smoothly and best yet, silently! I used to joke with the other guys: "Hey people! I'm taking my car to the track, ok?" - just in case they didn't hear it! Also, I used to tell that this must be the only slot car that complied to the European Euro-4 standards for noise and emissions from vehicles!

Grip came from the usual Slot.It P1 compound, smaller 19x10 mm tires. NSR fits the "air system" wheels at the rear, which I find unsuitable - I actually prefer the solid front wheels:

The rear (left) and front (right) wheels that NSR fits to their cars.

I really appreciate the NSR mechanical parts, but it's a shame that they're not "true" 3/32'' standard - there's almost no compatibility with other Slot.It parts. But the larger M3 screws are great, I never had to change one as they are much more resistant than the M2s that most brands fit. I even had to trim the screw that holds the crown in place, as it hit the chassis while rotating - and trimming it worked! Try doing that with an M2...


In the end, the car proved its worth, although most people antecipated it as being THE car to beat in the OpenGT, it failed to live to that expectation. A very competent racer indeed, which may be a killer in Ninco tracks. This configuration was tested on a rally track (Ninco "tarmac" only) and it scored laptimes faster than some rally-preped cars! Imagine it if set up for Ninco!


Have a nice weekend... see you soon ;)