Art Anderson

According to my books on the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were several brick factories involved, given the sheer size of the project, and the relative speed at which the track was paved. Fortunately, delivery of all that brick was fairly easy--most don't know that until the 1950's, the Peoria & Eastern Railroad (part of the New York Central System btw) tracks ran alongside Crawfordsville Road from the west, down to the intersection of that road with West 16th Street & Georgetown road (now a newly built roundabout). That made it possible for freight car loads of bricks to be unloaded right at the original main gate of the track. A few specifications for IMS: The track is exactly as laid out in 1909--only the racing surface, and the concrete walls have changed over time, along with entrance and egress to and from the pits (the pits were open to the racing surface from 1909 until they were walled off from the front stretch in time for the 1957 500. The track is 2 1/2 miles around, as most know, with the front and back straightaways each 5/8 miles long, each turn is 1/4 mile, the north and south short "chutes" (straightaways) each 1/8 mile in length. The straights are, as they have always been, 55 feet wide, each turn is 60 feet wide. With the exception of where underpasses have been built over the years, all the bricks are still there! They are, however, buried under more than a foot of asphalt, the first layer having been put down in the four turns for 1933--the front and back straights were the original brick through the 1961 race. Today, if you stand along the fence behind the pits, south of the timing and scoring pylon, watch and listen as an Indy car comes down the front stretch, you will not really hear the cars coming (turbochargers make wonderful mufflers!), but when any race car crosses that "yard of bricks", it will startle you, as sounding very much like a cannon going off! All the bricks, save for where they were removed for the 5 underpasses built to handle infield traffic (in earlier days, spectator's cars drove OVER the brick surface with there being gates in the wall on the front stretch and the south short chute!), pedestrians crossed over the track on foot bridges. one on the front stretch, one on the backstretch (I've walked over the old front stretch bridge many times years ago). Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only superspeedway that is completely enclosed by a major city: It was laid out, in 1909 on a 500 acre farm purchased from a Lemuel Trotter, who apparently wanted to retire, get out of farming, by a partnership of Carl Fisher and James Allison (he of Allison Engineering fame, Fisher the entrepreneur behind Prest-O-Lite, later the linchpin of Union Carbide, who also wound up owning AMT/Ertl for a time!) Carl Fisher is also known as the developer of Miami Beach FL, along with being the spearhead of the first transcontinental US highway, the Lincoln Highway. Down through the past 106 years, IMS has had just three owners: First was Carl Fisher & James Allison and a couple of their partners, then in the 1920's, the legendary WW-I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker (who himself had been a race car driver prior to WW-I--his 1915 Duesenberg Indianapolis race car is one of the star exhibits in the Speedway Museum!--and then in 1945, the track was bought from Rickenbacker (who was then the President of Eastern Airlines) by Anton Hulman Jr, of Terre Haute IN, and owner of Hulman & Sons Grocery Wholesalers, their star product being "Clabber Girl Baking Powder"--known throughout rural eastern USA for decades. Today, the Speedway is still owned by the Hulman Companies. IMS also holds the all-time record for being the largest stadium every built anywhere in the World. Speedway management never publicized the number of seats, so Curt Cavin, sportswriter for the Indianapolis Star set out, back in 2009 to count every one of them: Slightly over 257,000 seats! Prior to the addition of the Grand Prix track, along with a couple of holes of the Brickyard Crossing golf course, the spectator berms in the infield along the back stretch, and the elimination of the infamous 1st turn "Snakepit", it was regularly estimated that race day crowds approached a half-million spectators (many in the infield never really saw much racing--more like the bottoms of their beer bottles!) Most people are unaware today, that from 1935-the late 1950's, Indianapolis also paid World Driving Championship points. European cars have competed at Indianapolis from the very beginning in 1911--three early winning cars were from Europe: 1913 Peugeot (which engine was the inspiration for every Miller and Offenhauser engine for another 60 some years!), 1914 Delage, and 1915's winning car, a 1914 Mercedes. For 1919, Speedway management had the Premier Automobile Company build several copies of the 1914-1916 Delage winning cars in order to ensure a complete, and reliably competitive field. (While listed as a complete race, the 1916 "500" was reduced to 300 miles, the Speedway worried that there would not be enough durable cars for a full 500 miles, due to the disappearance of cars from France, Italy and Germany during WW-I). While there was no "ban" on motorsports, officially during our participation in WW-I (1917-18), racing was suspended at Indianapolis, and the infield turned into an airfield for the then fledgling US Army Air Service--the ancestor of USAF). Of course, with the onset of US involvement in WW-II, the Speedway was closed for the duration, BUT there was one 500 mile race! Legendary 3-time Indy winner Wilbur Shaw, then working for Firestone, drove a solo 500 mile race, at racing speeds, in 1944, to prove that Firestone's newly developed synthetic rubber passenger car tires would pass muster--they did! That experience inspired Shaw to go on a crusade, as the war wound down in 1945, to search for someone to take over the Speedway (Rickenbacker was by then too busy with Eastern Airlines, to be interested in continuing the 500), and was steered to meeting Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr--who turned out to be VERY interested. Hulman, BTW, was one of the founders of Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA), amassing a nice collection of now extremely rare antique cars, Hulman Old Wheels Museum, now part of the IMS Hall of Fame collection. Anyway, enough of my drivel! Next year, on May 29, 2016, if the Good Lord wills it, and the crick don't rise, there will be the 100th Indianapolis International 500 Mile Sweepstakes. What will the Speedway's second century bring? Art

Under the running board:

Now that the radiator and hood fit problems have been resolved, it's on to the gas headlights! Prior to 1912, all automobile lighting was either by kerosene (yellowish, but very dim light) or acetylene gas--very bright, but a complicated system!). In the US, the biggest purveyor of acetylene gas lighting systems was Prest-O-Lite, located in what is now the Town of Speedway Indiana! It was Carl Fisher's Prest-O-Lite company, and the fortune that generated, which provided the capital for constructing the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway! But, I digress here (with all due respect to tomorrow's 99th running of the 500). The ICM kit comes with a plated acetylene generator, but not much more in this regard. There should be a small petcock (look to the left of the middle of the top of the gas generator--I added that, with a bit of 20-gauge sterling silver wire, squashed flat on the end with a pair of smooth jaw pliers. I then enhanced the rather faint "gold" color that ICM put on the "brass" parts, with a brushed on coat of Tamiya X-26 Clear Yellow--they all now look like polished brass, for sure! Next came the moisture trap/condenser, which is in pic #2, on the underside of the left running board. That was done by first making a disc in sheet styrene, sanded to a correct-appearing thickness, and then the condenser section made from the "elbow" corner of a bit of plastic sprue! I added the square plug detail with a tiny bit of .040" square Evergreen, to replicate what you'd put a monkey wrench to, in order to open, and drain the condenser! I next added the hoses, from Generator to Condenser, and from Condenser to the frame rail, with 20-gauge sterling silver wire from Michael's (I highly recommend this wire, regardless of it's EXPENSIVE cost, due to it's malleability, plus it's ability to withstand soldering!). The condenser was painted Testors 1147 Gloss Black, with the rubber tubing (that's what the sterling silver wire was used for!) painted ModelMaster #2009, a dead ringer for old-fashioned red rubber. Now, enough of the drivel, how about a couple of pics?

Tommy, look for any cleaner that has the name "trisodium phosphate" on the label as an ingredient! This is also often called simply TSP, and is a tremendous detergent, often used for general cleaning, such as mopping floors, etc. TSP will dissolve any greases, oils or silicones and remove them from any surface--and it absolutely will not harm polyurethane resin. Art

Hard to believe, I know! But, consider this: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was opened in 1909, an oiled dirt track surface. After a disastrous debut due to the breakup of the surface, the track was paved with 3.5 million brick pavers in time for racing in 1910. The first "International 500 Mile Sweepstakes" race was held on May 30, 1911, and with the exception of 6 years during both World Wars (1917-18, and 1942-45) has been held every year since 1911. I am pretty sure that no other closed-course racing event has ever matched this record of continuity. Art

Amen to that, Luc! Art

Jon Cole put up a couple of very good pics of '54 Hornet interiors. FWIW, I believe they were all two-toned, as in those. Art

Missing Link Models has the SMP '11 Prototype Chevrolet in production as a resin kit. I bought one at NNL East, and must say, Kevin Lutz and the gang at Detroit Resin Auto Group (D. R. A. G.) have set a very high standard with this one--one really has to look carefully to see that it is a resin casting, not an injection-molded styrene model kit! Art

No, GM Truck & Coach (who produced Chevrolet and GMC pickups) did not start making crew cabs until about 1973-74. FWIW, International Harvester was the first pickup manufacturer to catalog a crew cab, in the early-mid 1960's. Any Chevy crew cab built prior to the '73-'87 series pickups would have been done as an aftermarket unit--the early ones were built mainly by Proctor-Keefe in Detroit--then a major conversion company for all manner of truck cabs. Art

I don't think that windshield is too tall--Dort was about the size of a Model T--and like just about every other car on the market at the time, drivers and passengers sat bolt upright--as if they were in straight-back chairs, along with men wearing rather tall, crowned felt hats wherever they went. Art

You might try again--sometimes there are glitches in the system. Art

For starters, you won't find a junk JoHan '59 Chevy, as JoHan never made that kit. As for the windshield frame, if you are building this up as a Cadillac 6-Window sedan, you can mate the JoHan roof that you have to the Revell-Monogram '59 Cadillac Eldorado hardtop in your picture. Feel free to PM me, I can guide you as to how I did the same thing, only with the Revell '59 Chevy. Art

I darkened the brass radiator on my '13 Roadster with Tamiya X-26 Clear Yellow. Worked fine. If you check my thread in the "On The Workbench" forum here on MCM http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98224 that is my build of the ICM '13 Model T (same kit as your Touring, only the body will be different. While I have done a ton of added detailing on mine, I also have noted some pitfalls to be careful about. Feel free to PM me at any time should you run into any problems. Art

In the case of the JoHan Cadillac VS Monogram's model--I went to use the roof of the JoHan kit to create my '59 Chevy Biscayne 2dr sedan--and the Caddy roof was exacly 1/8" too narrow--I even confirmed that by measuring the roof of my 1:1 '59 Biscayne sedan. It was an easy thing to solve though--I merely spit the JoHan roof panel down the middle, then added a strip of .125" Evergreen styrene--that took care of the problem. In looking at your comparo pics, you can clearly see the difference in the roof widths--even the windshield frames of the two kits. Art

MCG is very much in business--they were at NNL East, showed test shots of a number of new PE detail sets there. Art

I used that Modelhaus flat roof unit to make a '59 Impala Sport Sedan (4dr hardtop), and simply retained the kit windshield glass and framing, just cut the windshield off the flat roof resin part to mate it up to the plastic unit from the Chevy kit. Worked very well, and that way, you can use the Revell kit's windshield glass. The only glass that will have to be made is that wrap-around rear window, and I want to believe that comes with the resin part that Modelhaus does. Art

Finally, after a bit of a battle, the radiator now fits exactly where it needed to, will all the parts back on the front of the engine, where they needed to be--and the HOOD FITS as it should! Next up will be the Prest-O-Lite acetylene headlight system, then final assembly.

I think this dealer brochure image of the '32 Ford Deluxe (3-window) Coupe indicates that any spare tire cover was an option, not standard equipment for 1932--note the bare spare tire out back! Art

FWIW, for the 1959-60 model years, styling started out as warmed over, "gorped up" 1958 designs. that started in 1955, given the 3-year time frame for styling at GM, three years before the actual cars would have been introduced in the fall of 1958. However, Chrysler threw a big wrench in the works when a group of GM stylists on their lunch break saw the then new for 1957 Forward Look Chrysler cars in the late summer of 1956. A "Palace Revolution" took place at GM Styling, with all their work on styling clay mockups being scrapped, in effect starting all over, a year late, and on a smaller budget. So, the entire 1959 GM car lineup was styled around a common body shell (from firewall to the base of the rear window--that was the traditional body shell in those days!), essentially a "B-body", which was used by Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and even Cadillac. Of course, the sheetmetal styling from bumper to bumper was unique to each division, as were chassis and drivelines, and wheelbases varied as well, but the the most visible part of the common body shells are there--with the exception of the Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Sedan Limousine, all of GM's cars that year share exactly the same roof lines, even the glass is the same from one to another! Now, on model cars, there may well be differences in dimensions, particularly with JoHan's '59-'60 Cadillacs which are a full 1/8" too narrow (3 scale inches), while the same company's '59 Olds "flat roof" 4 window sports sedan roof is right on the money. For the most part, AMT and SMP did their '59-'60 GM full sized car models correctly in this regard, as certainly the Revell Monogram kits are quite accurate. Art

No matter the subject matter--any book or magazine can provide answers, and inspiration for us modelers. 'Nuff said!

After all these years, and still no '32 Ford B-400? No '32 Chevy Roadster (much better looking body than the Cabriolet which MPC did)? What about a '30-'31 Model A Roadster? '28-'29 Model A Coupe anyone? Still surprised that NOBODY has ever done a truly correct '39 Ford of any body style! How about a 4-banger engine setup for any of these vintage rod rides? Uh, the old AMT and even the old Revell setups are very long in the tooth--and truthfully, the rodders who were part of what Tom Brokaw wrote as "The Greatest Generation" pretty much ignored the Ford flathead V8, up to the time they went off to war in 1942-44, their minds were locked into 4-cylinder engines, and anything that could be done to make them into stormers. I'm still wondering why we've never seen a '41 Chevrolet coupe as well. For that matter, every model company has resisted doing an accurate '33-'34 Ford Tudor Sedan, and for that matter, the very sleek Victoria in that Model 40 series as well! And, still after all these years of many outstanding fat fendered cars as model kits--no '39-40 Merc's? In short, there's still some very fertile ground, 1/25 scale styrene-wise, for the farmers at Revell and Moebius to break the sod on! Art

Roman Bronze is a metallic color, offered as an "all-over" single color, or as part of a 2-tone paintjob (either as the body color with a second color for the roof, or vice-versa (numerous Hudson dealers would also paint the lower portion of the body sides in whichever color was used on the roof, probably to help move an otherwise fairly slow-selling car. As for Hudson's 1954 interior colors, I believe they were pretty much the same as for 1953--however, a Google Image Search for "1954 Hudson" should turn up some pictures showing at least some of the interiors. Something to bear in mind, when searching for, looking at images though: I did a quick search earlier, and the only interior shots I could find were mainly convertibles with a few Hollywood hardtops tossed in--no good shots of a Club Coupe, 4dr sedan, or 2dr Club Sedan showed up--what I have found, in chatting with a Hudson enthusiast is that there were 4 interior color combinations for closed body styles: Brown, Grey, Blue and Green--very nearly monotone schemes, with the instrument panel painted to match. All steering wheels were white though. PM me if you have any more questions? Art

IIRC, Joe Henning did many, if not most of those so-called "Breakdown Sketches" in both R&C, and Rod & Custom Models--he was a model builder back in the day. Art

The thin, narrower chrome spear you are wanting for the Custom version are molded into the body. It was figured, early-on in this project that those thin chrome spears would make a perfect alignment ridge for mounting the XLT's wider, plated chrome trim. Art

Didn't Joe Henning also do some "Sketchpad's" for R&C back in the 1960's? Art