[merkit the grof]

Whilst we are all in lockdown, everybody is building like never before.

Here are the cars I am working on at the moment.

First a little bit of history: SSCR has a scratchbuild saloon class with fairly restrictive rules.

The first car I built was this one (Hong Kong toy with an RS chassis)

Having raced it for a couple of years I got bored and built this one (French toy with an RS chassis)

Sadly, the little Renault's handling isn't brilliant, so during the lock down I decided (like everyone else on the forum it seems) to built another car following the same recipe (Toy car and RS chassis).

This one is a German made Dux body

I first painted it green but the can was about 25 years old, and I made a mess. No fear I thought, more primer, light orange this time (newer can too) but the can was spitting little black blobs into the orange (no idea why). Got fed up and painted it black, it looked grim, so I added a bit of colour to lighten it up.

Not brilliant, but that will do for club racing

More to follow

Joel

 

[David Lawson]

During my self isolation I have passed some of my time so far giving my Ninco track two coats of ultra smooth Sandtex grey.

For a bit of fun I had a go at building a simple lolly stick chassis and was surprised how well it goes.

I've also done a couple of repaints of the NSR generic test cars

I'm currently thinking about my build for a proxy in 2021 but there's nothing to photograph yet.

David

 

[merkit the grof]

Nice work David, the track looks so much better in that colour. The Beneton looks stunning, seeing all the pictures of the great NSR repaints makes me want to buy one.

Joel

 

[anddelanyno20]

Here's a Mercedes w154 originaly built with the gtm chassis.but now on a mack chassis new wheels as originals were to small.will eventually run in early bird class will post more as plenty of time to do all the jobs I never get to do

 

[David Lawson]

This is something I started thinking about yesterday.

Using a Lotus 24 body that I carved about fifteen years ago I am pondering a build using the Policar motor pod. In the background in the picture is a Rob Walker blue Lotus 24 that I have half built using a Penelope Pitlane chassis. In the middle a spare resin shell and the Team Lotus, Trevor Taylor car in the foreground is a shell I painted years ago but never used.

It is at a very rough stage at the moment using a cut and shut Policar front chassis piece to fit my shell's 90" wheelbase, I will give it a test run today and if it goes as well as I expect it will with the Policar components I will neaten it all up.

Out of curiosity I offered it up to the new Scalextric Lotus 25 ready to run.

It will easily fit into the Scalextric shell but I expect that Andi has already designed a 3D printed chassis for this conversion...

David

 

[merkit the grof]

Lockdown part 2

Nornmally, this time of year I would be getting ready for the Double Trouble meeting at the Rockinham club

Here is the car I prepared for Saturday's 1/24th F1 race

Body is by a Japanese company called Kogure, (also available as a plastic kit under various brands).

It was broken in half and the windscreen was mangled, (wheels were in the paint shop at the time of the picture)

The chassis is a very nice vintage scratchbuilt piece made out of copper, the motor is a Rikoflash MK2 (would probably need changing for something tamer before racing)

More to follow

Joel

 

[David Lawson]

I fitted a new Policar pod and tested the Lotus 24 this afternoon and the car performed very well even though it is on brand new un-scrubbed and very skinny tyres so I will continue with the build using a new body .

I will update this as and when I've made some progress.

David

 

[anddelanyno20]

Yeah don't remind me I was looking forward to Sunday,looks like your sheds coming on David,looking good

 

[David Lawson]

Alan - How very dare you.... it's a summerhouse not a shed.

David

 

[anddelanyno20]

All we need now then is a summer

 

[Autoavia]

I don't usually post any of my projects as there are others on here who are far better than me but as this is an SSRC thread I thought I should add my bit.

I can't work on one car all the time so I just pick things out of the heap and have a meddle for a while but they will all get there eventually.

Not exactly scratchbuilds but these are the two I have done most work on in the last few days :-

1/24 Cox Chaparral 2A

The chassis has been done for ages

I have been racing it at our vintage evenings with a bare body so it was about time I got the body looking presentable.
The wheel arches had been cut so I used square plastic rod and bits of plastic melted in Liquid Poly Cement to repair the edges and reprofiled them. Photo shows inside of a front arch. The inside isn't pretty but it is strong so I will probably leave as it is

The rear body post snapped out with part of the rear deck so I reattached it all with Shoe Goo for strength and made up a piece to strengthen it on the inside. the black marks are pencil.

The body had loads of little nicks and dents to fill. Milliput didn't seem to work well so I found a filler which is new to me called Perfect Plastic Putty made by Deluxe Materials. I ordered from their website on Thursday and the package arrived yesterday!
I found it a bit messy to apply but it is easy to sand which will be today's job :-

I have got most of the other bits screen side intakes etc. Once the body is sanded I will sort out the fit for the front lights.

I have a Monogram 1/32 Kingcobra with an MRRC/Monogram body which has been my race car for vintage nights at club and Double Trouble but I dropped it and smashed the body. I bought another body but decided it needed a new colour scheme. I found a version with open rear arches that I wanted to model but it doesn't have the intakes over the rear arches so I bit the bullet and cut them off. Started filling the holes yesterday with thin plasticard sheet inside the arch supporting bits of plastic rod and sprue melted in Liqui Poly - a bit messy but I am sure it is stronger than filler. Once I have reshaped it I can probably get rid of most of the sheet to give a bit more room inside the arches.

When it sets I will sand it down and fill the imperfections.

That's about it. Not very exciting but at least I have moved things on a bit.

 

[David Lawson]

It's good to see some of your work here Tony - your slot cars are as important as anyone else so don't be shy in posting them.

When I fill a small hole in bodywork rather than back it with a piece of plastic sheet I just tape over the hole inside the shell with masking tape and fill the hole, once it's gone off remove the tape.

David

 

[Autoavia]

Thanks David. Soon after I had glued the sheet into the arches I realised that I had made life hard for myself and tape would have done the job without taking up room in the arches. Never mind there is always a next time.

 

[merkit the grof]

Nice stuff guys.

Keeping with the "things I would have raced at Double Trouble" theme, here is a variation on my regular 1/24th car.

I usually run a Lola T70 Tamyia body fitted with a Dynamic chassis. This year in order to improve my race results I have prepared a vacform body (make unknown)

I have made a little bit of progress on the VW

and the 158

Joel

 

[anddelanyno20]

Was going to run this tomorrow but will have to hope that double trouble is rescheduled for later in the year John dilworth body russkit chassis with 26d grafted in the back

 

[anddelanyno20]

Tony don't run yourself down mate. all any of us can do is our best.as long as we do that it's worth showing as that's how we get better so keep em coming mate

 

[Autoavia]

Thanks Alan but I just don't feel that comfortable putting my stuff out there. I don't mind if other people don't like what I do but it just doesn't feel right to put them on the forum. My parents always reckoned you should stay in the background and not draw attention to yourself (and yes I know I don't do that when I feel strongly about something) so that has tended to be the way I am with a lot of things. I rarely bring anything to club unless it is a runner or I need advice.

Coincidentally I was also looking at a vacform Lola T70 for Double Trouble but stopped building anything for the meeting when it became obvious that it was going to be cancelled.

I will just have to have another rummage in my 1/24 vacforms and see what else I fancy making. I can always use last year's cars if I don't get anything done.

 

[SpeedyNH]

yay a 26D!

 

[Autoavia]

Hello Speedy NH

Yep Between us SSRC members and North London members who race with us on vintage evenings have a good number of 26Ds from bog standard to fairly hot winds.

Most of us have also acquired Mabuchi FT270s which surfaced recently. An unwanted motor in their day but highly prized for vintage racing as they don't play any of the 26D tricks like melted endbells when you run them for a decent race length.

We have regular vintage evenings and run any 3 of the classes below each time we race.

1/32 hardbody sports/GT intended for fairly standard Revell, Monogram and other makers cars to a similar spec as they were when first released in the 60's.

1/32 open Sports/GT for vintage hard (plastic, fibreglass, wood or vacform) body with all parts Pre 1972 inc motors. Period proprietary or handbuilt chassis or you can build a new chassis in the style of a period vintage chassis.

1/24 open Sports/GT to same rules as 1/32 class

1/24 Hardbody with 36D motor with similar rules to /132 hard body class

1/24 Formula One/GP cars any era up to 1972 with vacform or hard body

We have also introduced 1/24 small and large American Iron classes.

The larger class is mainly NASCAR and other big US sedans although Merkit the Grof lent me an American big rig tractor unit one evening which was fun to drive but the handling was what would now be described as challenging.

The small class is mainly modified Sportsmans and custom model T Fords and similar.

Plastic kit bodies are fine for hard body classes but no resin bodies.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a massive interest in Vintage racing in the UK. SSRC hold a vintage evening every 2 weeks in the Summer and Monthly in the Winter but I don't think there is another club over here that holds regular Vintage races.

If anyone is interested in joining our vintage evenings once we are allowed to open the club again either as a one off visit or as a regular you would be very welcome. Just contact myself or Merkit the Grof to let us know that you will be coming. The calendar will be on the club website.

http://www.southendslotclub.co.uk/

 

[SpeedyNH]

i really like that motor!