[bastumannen]

Hi again! I started this project last year, with the body from an Airfix kit. Some of you might remember my first thread about this (here). I personally thought that that body left a lot to be desired regarding the general shape of the car. So I bought a tube of Humbrol filler and started fiddling with the shape. Luckily things like width and length were accurate from the kit, so the main thing was to try to get the shape right. Well, that was not as easy as I had thought, mainly because the windscreen, sidewindows and the pillars between, were way wrong, shape wise. Apart from that I changed the front rear and sides of the car. The shape of this car is very complex I realised, t's not easy getting those compund curves right. So it's easy to complain about the shapes of cars that come out from the manufacturers, but it's another trying to get it perfect yourself. Then again they should have way better resourses at hand. I got tired of trying to perfect this car several times, but I still took it up again until one day when I'd just had enough. It won't be perfect but it's close enough. So I finally painted the car. I used Humbrol enamel paints as I usually do, and the red needed a tiny bit of yellow in it to get a slightly warmer red tone. I did four thin red coats with my brushes, (wishing I had an airbrush...) and sanded carefully between each coat. I'm currently looking for a good acrylic clearcote to seal the decals. I've also put lights in it, but I'll have to get some bigger capasitors. There are many more things to tell about the construction, of it all but I thought I'd just give you all some teaser pics. More to come later...

Toby

 

[BEEJAY7]

Looks great Toby.

By coincidence I started mine earlier this evening!.

Regards

Alan

 

[bastumannen]

Hey that's cool! What a coincidence

Which one will you make? I was originally going to make the #34 from Boac 500 at Brands Hatch, but I couldn't find the decals for it, so I went for this instead since Patto's place had the decals. I was acctually a little dissapointed with the printing quality of them (sort of large pixels, and low resolution), and there were two decals missing for this car too, plus some were wrongly sized (sorry about the moaning). But the gold was super nice. He's got a new hi quality option now as well so I guess they'd be fine!
Are you scratch building the chassis too? It's tight fitting a sidewinder in there but with some narrowing of the (Fly) tyres it's possible.
It's a beautiful car and it's so incredibly low too, so it performs very well on the track. It's quite a bit lower than a gt40...
Good luck with it and keep us posted

Toby

 

[howmet tx]

That looks absolutely gorgeous Toby! Congratulations! Pretty tight clearances round the wheels- looks just right! I'm interested in what changes were necessary to the Airfix kit, as I still have mine in the projects box- I wasn't too worried about the general body shape, until now...
Keep 'em coming!

 

[bastumannen]

Thanks for the kind words, John! Are you really sure that you're ready for the whole list?

I have some shots of the car in various stages of filling frenzy, so I'll try to maka a visual explanation. I just installed Windows XP on my cpu yesterday so I'll have to install all the nessesary programs to present the pics. At the moment I can't even access my CD drive... (Bloody SCSI card doesn't work with XP ). I'll admit that I used about 2/3's of that fillertube from Humbrol

. My girlfriend thought I was going nuts with this car, and she fears I'll spend the same amounts of time on other cars in the future

.
Thanks a lot for the article too, John. I love the history of this car, albeit sad, it leaves a very strong impression. And I love all those pics and the driving description. For pics of this #7 car from Nurburgring I looked here. No pics from behind though, so I'm not sure weather this had a gold rear end or red with the gold stripe going down the middle. One of the pics there show a car (#31) on a trailer, and that to me looks like it's got a white back. So I'm all ears if anyone knows more of this.

Toby

 

[BEEJAY7]

Toby

Mine will probably be the same model as yours but I'm sure it will end up a different shade of red. It really depends what I can find in the paint box.

I will also be using Patto's Decals. Mine seem fine.

Chassis will be scratchbuilt PCB and slot.it inline motor bracket(as per my World Proxy car). It is a tight fit but it will just work. Being an inline there won't be a great deal of space for an interior,I will need to use a thin Lexan one, so it won't be as grand as your car.

I cut the Airfix chassis into four with my Dremmel, Front section, rear section and two side sections, and I've allowed to set overnight, it even has built in Side protection beams!.

I'll try and take some photo's tonight. it is much easier than trying to explain.

Motor will be whatever I can find in my spares box, Slot.it axles and gear, either an MRRC or TSRF Guide, (might have to be a trailing guide) and Fly Lola wheels and tyres.

Regards

Alan

 

[howmet tx]

Yes, I'm serious Toby! ALL the details, please! I fancy myself as a bit of a filler fanatic myself. I use the two part styrene filler sold in hardware shops- it seems really strong and stable, and sets in 5 mins. Works up easily into a very nice paintable finish too. Don't like paying big prices for small tubes! This stuff comes in a big tin! Keeps me happy.
As far as I know all the cars had that solid gold rear panel- no views I know show a stripey backside.
My car (over two years in build already, so don't expect any photos soon) is to have a brass sidewinder chassis, Slot-it V12 and some old, unidentifiable wheels which are a bit underscale, but give me just enough clearance for the running gear and a nice low stance on the track.
It IS a beautiful car, ain't it? You could drive past a GT40 in that without the other guy seeing you. And just go under everything else!
Great interview with Len Terry in Motor Sport this month, by the way.

 

[philsmith]

I did one of these a couple of years ago, this one has the original Airfix slimline and I managed to graft the Fly wheels onto the steering unit.
Definately one of my favourite cars

BTW. I just used some blue decal cut to shape for the BOAC decal, but now one of the Fly decal cars has these on it's sheet, can't remember which one though.

 

[JohnP]

Well, I'll own up to an un-built kit waiting in the attic too! Superb job Toby and I love the photographs, especially the second - shows those sweeping curves beautifully

 

[Russell Sheldon]

Fantastic looking car, Toby!

I don't know about the #7 Gardner - Attwood car that raced at the 'Ring in 1968, but the #34 McLaren - Spence 1968 BOAC 500 had the stripe extended down the tail:

Kind regards,

Russell

 

[bastumannen]

Thanx again for the kind words guys!

Nice one, there too Phil! It sure is a favourite of mine too. Those Fly Lola wheels acctually look great once painted red, I thought I had to find some 5 spoke wheels to finish the car of, but yours look great. So I might just steel that idea

What's under the hood by the way?

John, you'll have to hold on a little more for the detaild description. I'll try to create a little how to picture tutorial... Good idea about the two component filler! I like the idea of filler in bulk form, not so sure my girlfriend does...

. Is that what you used on the resized Vanquish too? I loved your work on that by the way

. Do you have pics of some other works of filling frenzie?

Alan, I'm looking forward to seeing some pics of your work too. Always nice to see different aproaches to building the same car. Sounds like it'll be a nice performer too. I've got a bit of an awkward body to chassis solution, but it works and it also enables me to have those tight tolleranses around the wheels. My car is also a bit heavy for my taste at the moment (about 110 grams) since I'm using a rather thick brass torsion bar chassis. But I might let the dremel do some work there... It's still very quick though, with a sidewinder Rabbit and Fly gears and wheels. Just like the real car it leaves the GT40's in the dust, hopefully this version will be more reliable, though

.

Toby

 

[howmet tx]

Toby- this sounds like a REALLY good idea! If a whole bunch of us work on the same model and compare approaches, ideas and results, it could be fascinating. As long as it's not too judgemental or competitive!
I have a picture of a half finished Chaparral conversion that I've posted before- I'll see if I can dig it up. LOADS of filler...

 

[BEEJAY7]

Great idea Howmett,

all we need now is to get John to build one as well, it would do him good to get away with this fixation he has with traction goop.

I got the basic chassis finished last night, but I'm trying to find the best way of fixing it to the car!. There aint a lot of room in there!.

Motor is Slot.it V12, but the 24K version and I managed to get a TSRF Guide to fit under the body with a bit of brutal surgery.

Best wheels I've found are Fly GT 40 ones, they are just about the correct diameter and width, the rear ones will need turning down slightly. They are also 5 spoke with a spinner, and well they are Ford!.

I'll take some pics when I've got the body fixed and found a way to get an interior into the car. Being an inline space is at a premium. I think the driver will have to squeeze between the motor can and the window and I may have to use card sheet for the rest.

Regards

Alan

 

[JohnP]

Gah, that stuff is addictive. I'll go check the attic then - no promises tho'

Anyway, could still use sponge tyres

 

[howmet tx]

Oh my sainted aunt what have I let myself in for now. The Eagle will have to go on the back burner again. And the M7A. And the 2D.
Oh well.

 

[bastumannen]

Great Idea! Looks like we're in for some fun here!

Sorry about re arranging your schedule tx

But one has to prioritise... I've got the cpu sorted now so I might get some more pics in there... And I just installed photoshop so I can do some pictorials on how reshaped my body (of the car that is...).

 

[JohnP]

OK, found that puppy - box had be opened too so this must have got further than most of my other projects

Looks like a go then - maybe

 

[bastumannen]

Ok, here we go howmet! I tried to make it all more understandable with the text in the pictures. I'm sorry about not having any fixed measurements, but this stared in november last year, so I can't remember it all... But these things are the things I changed on the body.The hardest thing to get right was the front with all those flowing curves coming together, and the headlight lenses. You might get confused when reading "sanding the windscreen" but it's not as bad as you might think. After you've got the desired shape you have to sand with really fine sandpaper, and then polish with toothpaste and a cloth for a while until it's shiney again

.
The panel lines were first drawn onto the car using a 0.3 pencil, and then carved out using the same pen without the lead inside, and with sharp knives and small files.
The filler is the lighter shade of grey in the pics.

and some more of the almost finnished car:

toby

 

[howmet tx]

That's a great effort Toby. I now realise where the flaws are in that Airfix shell. I hadn't looked at it that closely before- I find it quite handsome as is, but well worth all the work you've done too.
Here's the 2D I started, the Top Slot shell is the LeMans version- I decided to make the earlier Sebring version when the headlight covers fell off irretrievably round the back of my circuit somewhere. It's a pretty simple job compared to your P68- all I did was cut off the roof scoop, fill the hole with plasticard and cut slots for the inlet trumpets (saved from a MRRonogram Chaparral 2). Then I cut extra side windows, and filled the front headlight recesses. The toughest bit was filling the rear brake intakes and filing the whole of the rear wheel wells smooth again. I'm still waiting to find the right wheels before I go any further with it.

 

[bastumannen]

Nine work howmet! I really like the fact that you totally made up for the missing headlight cover. This is way more special than the top slot body and it certainly looks the part

. I'm really looking forward to seeing that one finished too! I guess it will have one of your superb home crafted chassis too.

And John.P, nice to see that you'll be joining us here. Do you have any plans for the chassis and running gear yet?

By the way aren't the fly GT40 ones six spoke too, like the Lola wheels? I haven't seen any nice five spoke wheels, with the same spoke shape as these ones. The Porsche ones from Fly are 5-spoke, but not the right shape. If anyone has an idea I'm all ears!

Toby