Art Laski

I was trying hard to finish this build in time for the GSL last weekend, so I haven't made any posts. I did manage to finish it last Friday in my hotel room. Well, almost finished. There are a few things left I'd still like to do. I want to see if I can get a more accurate wheel set up, and I also need to male the fuel buckeyes on the left side of the tub. Here are some shots I manage to take during the push. When I got the kit, it didn't have any brake discs in it, so I turned a set on my lathe. (It's about all I can do with it ) To complete the setup, I made a mold off of the spindle to cast additional brake calipers. I cut the turbo off and added a Detail Master flange, and also so I can paint it separately. Here's the intake and exhaust all painted up.

Good looking combo!

The plugs look awesome, John!

Thanks, Joe!

Keep fighting, Brother!

Thanks, JC! Made a wheel that matches the reference shot a little better than the kit wheel. I started with a wheel from another 70's AMT kit. I tried to make a wheel center cut on a Cricut scrapbook machine, but that didn't work out. So I decided to use some printing plate aluminum my buddy Brad gave me just last weekend. Inspired by how my friend Randy D. uses his files to make parts to perfection, I thought I would give it a try on this. Not perfection, but as good as I could have hoped for. Polished it up and added some photoetch "bolts". I also made a shifter mechanism.

Another winner, Eric!

Thanks for looking, guys! I got some more done on the interior. The belt kit I got from Scott at futurattraction.com. It has some really small parts, but makes a real nice latch! Thanks for looking!

Awesome work, John!

Looking good, Brad! I'm looking forward to seeing this Saturday!

Looking good, Brad! I'm looking forward to seeing this Saturday!

Here are some shots of it after clear and some polishing.

Thanks for the comments, fellas! Randy, several years ago one of my local model club members reverse engineered some Gunze thinner and made some big batches of it. I used that to thin Tamiya clear blue acrylic about 1:1 and sprayed it very lightly, misting actually. Lacquer thinner may work well also. Thinning it helps get a flatter finish. On plastic parts, I sprayed it over Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer. On the wingnuts, I just polished the white metal and sprayed right over it. The side panels are some printing plate tin from Brad that I polished up then sprayed over as well.

I finally got some paint on this beauty. I elected to forgo the red stripe decals and paint it instead. After some talks with Jimmy "RASS", I picked up some One-Shot sign painters enamel. I used the Donn Yost method I usually use with my Testors enamels and mixed it 2:1 with lacquer thinner. I have to say, the stuff worked great. I laid it in real thin so as to not bleed under the tape, but I'm real interested to see how it would do on a full body. It seems like it would really produce a nice finish without a clear coat. My base coat is a little grainy, so that's how it looks in the pictures, but once I get clear on it, it's going to really pop. Here's a shot of the blue anodized parts for the car. Thanks for looking!

Those wheels look awesome! Nice work, John!

Tim, I see most of your posts through the email notifications, but I didn't realize how long it had been since I checked in until I saw all these great parts you've made. Keep up the great work! -Art

Fantastic build from start to finish! It turned out awesome. -Art

I drilled the hole for the intake tube. I accidentally drilled it out too large (had too big a drill), so I filled it back in with styrene tube, then drilled that out to the correct size. It actually turned out nice that way. It’s hard to see on the reference shots of the car at Indy in ’70, but reference shots on the restored car show a fuel filler cap very similar to a sprint car tail tank. I think adding them will add some interest. I had previously made some castings of the filler cap from the Monogram sprint cars and they look to be a perfect match.

Thanks for looking, guys! Curt, I am trying to make it for DSC. It's been slow up to this point, but it should start to gain momentum soon. We'll see!

You have my support, Randy, just as you have supported me. Best of luck with this venture!

Looks killer!

Thanks, John! Got a little done on the interior. I made a new dash that will allow it to come back a little in the cockpit and meet up with the frame. I added some frame tubes as per the references. Some aluminum panels were made that will later be “anodized” blue. I tried to make some side upholstery panels, but they were an abomination, so I gave up on that. I have an idea that I think will work better. I did make a seat roll at the bottom, though, and that worked well. I also realized that, although it was accurate to the reference photo, the inside vertical tubes in the cockpit had to go. It created an impractically small opening.

Sweet, John!

I found this picture of the interior on Facebook, which has a lot of detail, some which differs slightly from the kit. I think adding it will definitely add some interest to the model. From another pic, I could see that the upholstery had horizontal stitches as well as vertical, so I added some. This was hard to do because it looked pretty cool, but I removed the side upholstery to go with a more accurate modification. More to come. Thanks for looking!

Starting to close up the bottom of the nose, so I had to paint the radiator, then mask it off before I glued it in. I added some pull tabs to the masking tape so I can get it off later.