1/43 Jenny Holzer & A R Penck BMW art cars
Two more hard-to-find BMW art cars
It has become my quest to obtain or create all of the BMW-commissioned art cars in 1/43 scale. I’ve previously documented most of the available models past and present. You can see the first articles here and the second here. The latest additions to the collection are the 1/43 Jenny Holzer & A R Penck BMW art cars.
Chrome and white at LeMans
The Jenny Holzer BMW V12 LMR practiced at LeMans in 1999. It has been made in 1/43 by Minichamps some time ago, though that one is hard to find now. Not to worry because Tron Models has recently released a kit of the car. If you prefer, the decal sheet is available alone, ostensibly to convert an Onyx diecast into the art car. Onyx did release a plain white version of the car, so that will cut out much of the conversion time. Tron also offers a repainted Onyx model to also save a good deal of decal stripping and/or paint stripping on an Onyx race version.
Like many other collectors, I have the Minichamps 1999 LeMans-winning version. Also like many others, mine featured wing decals that had dislodged from the wing. I chose to use this model for conversion.
The decals came off fairly easily using tape to pull the unneeded decals off and begin adding the Tron supplied chrome pinstripes and verbiage. The verbiage appears as clever sayings meant to offer advice for your life. That’s the art part. Not many seem to agree that it is art, though…..
In any case, the pinstripes needed a little cutting and fitting to work. The verbiage went on pretty well. I chromed the wing’s top surface first using Bare Metal foil. The 3 strakes in the center of the wing caused the foil to slightly rip at that part. I used a Molotow 1 point chrome marker to fill in the gaps. The touch-up is simply invisible.
The entire conversion was completed in fairly quick order. Well worth the effort for an art car that was on the lower part of my to-do list.
The A.R. Penck BMW Z1 art car
Much more arty is the 1991 BMW Z1 decorated by artist A R Penck. Mr. Penck is famous for his stick figure art which translates well to a small model car. This is another BMW art car that is somewhat “out there” and less favored by the car crowd.
I had earlier obtained a Minichamps dealer-issue BMW Z1 in red. After adding the decals I was unable to clear coat the decals because i did not want to totally disassemble the diecast model. I jumped at the chance to build the kit and thus apply the clear coat paint to the decals.
This one is a hard-to-find model by FPM of Germany. The model itself was created by Alezan and is long out of production. The kit decal sheet was created for FPM to create an art car kit. The model itself is a straightforward build of a street car and is pretty easy to accomplish. The body and mirrors are red and everything else is black.
Some time ago I was able to obtain some rare aftermarket Penck decals. These are much bolder and closer to the real car than the kit decals. The boldness appears better to the eye as well.
I chromed the wheel inserts and mirror faces with the aforementioned Molotow chrome marker. You might have guessed that I really like those chrome pens! I added aftermarket BMW roundel logos to the wheels, hood and trunk.
Conclusion
I am happy to have added the 1/43 Jenny Holzer & A R Penck BMW art cars to my collection. That brings the total to 9 of the 10 possible 1/43 models created of the 19 full-scale cars created to date.
You can order the Tron model and/or decals from Grand Prix Models.
See more model articles here.
