Thought i would post a few pics of these mid 1960s 1/32 Monogram static kits before I rejoin the world of slot car scratchbuilding. The motors and wheel hubs are rather nice as they seem to be pantographed down from the fairly accurate masters used in their 1/24 kits. The 1940 Willys was the third in this series.







cheers,
Bob

...cast from a multi-piece 1/32 Aurora 37 Packard Ambulance kit. Old Ambulances and Hearses were commonly used as cheap Surf Wagons back in the early-1960s.


Resin casting of modified 1/32 Revell 1934 Ford kit.


Resin casting of undersized Auto Hobbies Maserati Tipo 151 Coupe.


Flared 1/32 Cox Cheetah resin cast.


cheers,
Bob

A few new acquisitions. Some of the boxes on the left are 1/32 Aurora Hot Rod kits which are hard to find and quite expensive when they do show up on the market. I also like concept cars and the Hawk Monte Carlo on the upper right is of 1962 vintage and conceived by artist Bill Campbell who within a year was designing the Weird-Oh kits. The '66 kits are the Renwal Revival series designed by Virgil Exner. I have all 7 in the series including the hard to find Jordan Playboy and the Bugatti which didn't come with the box.



cheers,
Bob

I have acquired a rare old 1/24 scale Aurora 1934 Ford Stock and Street Rod kit from 1964. Again it is something out of my past that seemed an unobtainable dream at the time. The kit itself is woefully inaccurate but has a lot of character which is hopefully a cure for my rivet counting, scale accuracy at all costs, neurotic anal retentive streak that has dogged my slot car projects for the last few decades. I was fine when I gave in to the "flat and wide society" AKA the 1966-1970 vacuum formed Professional Slot Car World. I literally built hundreds of cars and can still solder together from memory 3-4 chassis in a day if pressed. Thingies...harrummph...no problem.

(added June 21, 2011)



Club Special, Zagato, Peters Sussex and Seagar-Thomas, Tom Wysom, various Micks, Macs, Davids, Bigskybanker as well as My Fellow Canadian's discussions and debates on maybe or maybe not getting it right have been overwhelming positive but have partially paralyzed my model racing car endeavours as I am a latent scale perfectionist/artist of the worst kind. Add to that other interests such as painting, sculpting, boat modelling and solo acoustic guitar (where did that come from? ) and well...quite frankly nothing has been completed.

But...I am enjoying the hobby more than ever. A few projects may see the light of day as my approach to them are coming more into focus.

cheers,
Bob

Model kit conversions have been the focus of the last 10 months. I've been stockpiling bits but now it's time to put them to use. There has been no time whatsoever to scratchbuild metal chassis as filling, sanding, priming as well as mould making and resin casting has ground the slot car toy/fun factory to a halt. The Strombecker Cheetah is looking better to my eye after setting it aside for a year...so it may reach completion soon.

1/32 kits suitable for conversion are not as plentiful as the larger scales but interesting subjects can be found. I've veered sharply away from those flattened vacuum formed vintage scratchbuilt 1960s racers and have taken an interest in Hot Rods, Custom Cars and Racing Stockers (Saloons?) and Jalopies. The vintage Aurora kits are terribly expensive but rationalized buying them as I loved the box art as well.

I'm not a collector but ended up slowly putting together a collection of the seven Virgil Exner designed 1/24 scale 1966 Renwal Renewal kits including the rarest of the rare...a sealed in box Jordan Playboy. Again the box art is superb and the concept vehicles have a wonderful design pedigree.

The Cox restos in earlier blogs have been in a holding pattern as the early 1/24 Monogram slots cars piqued my interest. It started with an early 1958 Ford Thunderbird. The 1936 Ford as well as 2 very long Mercedes SSKs soon followed. Also acquired a second 1/32 Cox Cheetah complete with front valence. There will be pictures posted soon of my first resincast experiments which include the Cox Cheetah, Auto Hobbies Maserati Tipo 151 coupe, 1934 Ford Streamlined Lakester, 1937 LaSalle Ambulance, Ford Model A pickup Hot Rod. I'm not in the body business and don't plan on it anytime soon as there is little time to work on my own projects as is.

cheers,
Bob

I recently picked up a Revell Aston Martin. I want to do a bit of non-magnet club racing with it but...


...while the motor and body are solid...the rest of the running gear consists of splined axles, wobbly gear and rear bearings, press on wheels, loose fitting motor and guide flag.


The original aluminum frame isn't well designed nor sturdy but will have to work as a floating body mount once the old motor mounts and guide flag tongue are lopped off.

Decided to clean up the body and spend a little time on paint detailing the interior.

After a little sweat...the body was disassembled and the yellowed layer of Clear Glosscoat was stripped off with oven cleaner...


...Paint was also stripped from the interior...


A few of the decals left a haze in the plastic which was sanded out starting with 600 grit sandpaper...


...and sanded with progressively finer paper with 2000 grit for the final sanding. It was polished with Flitz Polish...then the 3 stage Novus Polishing set.


cheers,
Bob

The AMT 1/32 1960 Thunderbird has great potential as 1959 NASCAR Thunderbird Stock Car. They are virtually the same with a few cosmetic differences.


The grill background will have to be hogged out and replaced with fine horizontal bars while the rear quarterpanel trim can be sanded off. A chrome spear will be added to lower side bulge detail...and voila...a 1959 T-Bird!




The AMT 1/32 1940 Ford Tudor Sedan will also make a nice old NASCAR Jalopy. This is a Palmer Plastics version which is cloned from the original AMT model. I have two of them and unfortunately neither have the grill insert...so we will just have to improvise.


cheers,
Bob

I managed to finally acquire a black 1/32 and red 1/24 Cox Cheetah last month. They're in very good condition and will look good with a little cleaning and care.

Typically, the black one is missing it's front valance but I'll pick one up eventually with a little luck.


The 1/24 Cheetah is the Team Modified version with the threaded rear hubs (sitting next to the exhaust pipe) and black sponge tires instead of the deep dish American mags with the grey sponge in this pic.


cheers,
Bob

I've been on a binge...acquiring all sorts of old slot car bits and will sort them out and photograph them this coming weekend. A couple of Cox Cheetahs, Testor Marauder, a 1/32 AMT 59 Thunderbird and 40 Ford Tudor static kit among other items...



...also discovered that Luf Linkert's absolutely fabulous Targa Burnaby track is in my neighbourhood...whoodathunk! Not to worry Ron (manitouguy) I'll call you soon..my place is still a MESS!

Bob