Cato

The 100 was hot for it's day and it's still cool. My fave AH is the 3000. Anybody (Tamiya?) wanna do one for us in 1/12?---I know-there's no business case for one. They should see what Stump is doing for their 240Z.

Is that an XK-120? Very cool.

Yes I have. Spent a lot of time at NY National Speedway and saw them all, Burgin, Hall, Manzo, the 'Cape Codders', Dom Santucci, Ramchargers, even JJ. Miss those days and the track. Didn't know you could buy cogged belts that are in perfect 1/8 scale. Beautiful machine work.

Tip: Those red spray tubes on WD 40 and other spray cans make excellent battery cell caps in this scale. Just slice 'em 1.5mm high and glue down with cyano. Again-they're unseen with dash and body in place.

Fabulous scale and fidelity Comp. Great to see a Vertex again. Can I ask how you do the PN stamps on the blower belt-or will you have to kill me?

That's a dead pedal (footrest) when not shifting. Here's the real thing with hydraulic lines in place. The masters are at the other end of each pedal: The Optima is a modern battery-a favorite for vintage racing. I scratched on old style Exide'. Your Missus will want NO part of riding in this rocket-remember, it's 40" high... You will sadly see none of this when the model's done...

Please stop building your fabulous 240Z and start the GT-we can both learn lots from your work.

The bleepin' French sanctioning body (FIA) required that the prototypes carry a volume for 'luggage' as a road car would have a trunk. You have to ask those dopes what they were thinking...

Glad something I posted helps somebody. You're being modest Syd-I've seen your assembly and paint work on the 'large model forum'. I chose the colors to remind of the '60's metallics and the dull whites (almost very light tans) of the day. The MK II's were raced just as the paint came out of the guns-no polishing or buffing. I tried to recreate that. Only thing that took effort was using sanding cloths to 12,000 grit to get the stripe edges flat. The window and light glass will really set off your paint with the black edges and rivets. I will very lightly weather the car with streaking and rubber/brake dust build-up as many of the MK II's show in all the race shots I've collected. So you're doing a 'BH' GT and I'm doing an imaginary car as I would love to have raced in the day-not an 'over-restored' car as George's is. (I know it's virtually priceless...) I intentionally omitted the FIA suitcases-I know I would have only raced the US tracks and series. Also you can build more detail, like the aluminum covers of the gearbox which can only be seen without the tin boxes. Please post continued progress on your car. I'm tremendously interested to see other solutions and presentations to the problems the kit presents. I can always learn and improve my work. I'd like to share and compare ideas. I'm disappointed that there just does not seem to be a lot of guys building (or showing their work) this Trump kit. Would love to see all the solutions and 'philosophies' of how to go at it. Of course, the scratch-built work of Propeller's 1/8 car on the 'large forum' makes me want to step on mine-but what an inspiration.

More work so far:

Nice clean build Syd. It's a shame how much good detail gets hidden when built-which is why Trump omitted it. The visible details they did provide are toy-like. Only the body is perfect.

Len, My intent here is to share what I've learned and learn what others share. Further, my modeling skills are no where near the standards achieved by many that post here. So I offer no pretense to be a consummate authority on any subject. I've touched originals and replicas and have loved (and studied them) them since they were born. In my post, I clearly make the distinction that chassis 1015 and the original prototype each had blue chassis. I did not imply that all cars had blue chassis. I would never dispute that many cars were built with black chassis-they were folded steel and needed some form of paint protection. From a modeling standpoint, I chose the blue (at least one car had it) for more visual interest in scale. You too are apparently a 'student of the game' and I welcome the opportunity to learn from you. I would never contest well-documented facts. We can each interpret those facts as we wish.

Wip-so far. Feel free to throw eggs.

None taken and thanks for the kind words It's an ERA replica which I built myself with Toploader and Sideoiler-550HP worth. Yes it's very close only "better".

We should swap references someday. :)I too have seen many black chassis cars. For the purposes of the model I chose the blue because detail is already too hard to see. I should amend my statement to say that all MK II A's left Abbey with blue chassis. The Osprey book 'GT40' by John S. Allen cites on page 58 "...Shelby team car 1015 has been restored to the condition it was in when it almost won LeMans. The dayglo red identity panels on the front body had been added ... (it)was painted pale blue. (Referring to the bodywork). Owned by Brian Mimaki, here is that restored car showing the outboard chassis members which hold the gas tank bladders. The same book shows the prototype GT in color in the day, which had the blue chassis.(PG. 35)

My wheel is 1 3/8" from hub mount face to rivets on wood outer face. MotoLita made 16" (used on all originals) and 15" version. I chose a 15 for additional hand to cowl clearance. PS Help on getting larger than thumbnails into posts appreciated.

Tim, Great work. Excellent for a street rod or early muscle car-less dish for a Cobra.

Glad to help guys. I've been a GT fanatic since those glory days and almost built an ERA GT instead of my Cobra. Sorry for the crappy snaps I posted, I'm new to this forum but not 'forums'. If you've any questions I might help with, post here and I'll try or point you to a good spot. An excellent resource for study is the Exoto 1/10 models of 1015 and 1046. I have 1015 and for a 'diecast' it's spectacular and they got 95% of the car correct. Go on their site and look it over. In my own build I decided that since I can't get any of the three winning '66 cars 'correct', I would build a track 'mule' or team test type car. All the cars had different fuel pumps, some hose routing and sway bar configurations. I chose a '60's -style color (TS-58)and airbrushed Wimbledon white stripes-can't use the supplied decals so no numbers. Tips; All the steel chassis when constructed were painted blue-X-4 is near perfect match. Tires; I aggressively ran them on a disc sander to make them near slicks and soften the hard shoulder as supplied. The press-on logos are a nightmare. When in place carefully trim/scrape the clear film around each letter. The white is way too bright-I hand painted flat buff/tan over them (I have these same tires on the Cobra)then a mist of German gray for brake dust then Dullcote. Weather the wheels in similar fashion. Mist them x-31, Titan gold first. On and on... I will try to shoot some of the model so far and post-meanwhile I'm bleeding the brakes and replacing the fuel lines on the Cobra.

The amazing thing is that every shape on the bodywork and glass is virtually perfect and the wheels are very close. Dash, exhaust, coolers too. Seats, tires, brakes and front plumbing either need to be remade or left as compromised and the model displayed closed.

Syd and Len; I'm about half way through Trump's GT and if accuracy is your goal, by now you know you have to scratch half the car. Trump 'suggests' much of the Stauffer restoration of 1046. There are differences as the car was raced in'66. The key is to get all the research you can find. Google GT-40 1015, 1046, 1016 and you can compile many chassis, interior and engine shots. I too scratched a distributor and wires with coil. The coil bolts to the front of left cylinder head. Restored or vintage raced cars have colored wires-in '66 they were 7mm black as was the dist and coil. The block should be black and the heads and exhaust ports a gun metal. The intake is a slightly lighter cast aluminum finish. EVERYTHING-even on brand new GT's was dull, fingermarked and slightly oily. Weathering like the aircraft guys works well for an 'as raced' model. The supplied linkage is just a suggestion-reference will let you scratch finer detail and springs. The plug detail and the peaks on the exhaust ports are all wrong. Here's some better reference-my own 427 in my Cobra. The forward pair of plugs is angled 45 deg to the rear and the rear pair is angled 45 to the front. The port shape is flat across the top with a raised rib on these medium riser heads (as raced). This is a later snap with cast valve covers and different wires. This is the routing for a Cobra-GT's had them run from the dist to in front of each head and along the lower edge of the valve covers. I made my model wires from very thin solder but made a plug loom for the top of each valve cover (like my 1:1) for a visual detail. The upper tube is aluminum coolant pipe and goes from there forward into the tunnel between the seats to the nose radiator. The little pipe has no real counterpart as all the dry sump connections are to the pan on the left side-and not provided in the kit. Virtually none of this is visible as you build the car around it. Just do what you can see and prefit everything so you know what's hidden. The suspension and brakes are a complete joke and the fittings and connections are all very clumsy. No brake lines either-this is all highly visible and worth doing. You guys will do much better with reference. There are many good GT picture books (search Amazon) but unfortunately this adds cost to an already too expensive kit. Hope this helps.