Darin Bastedo

The radiators lacked any way to plumb them to the engine so I added that detail. I also added some material to the assemble so that the radiator meets up with the body work the way it does on the 1:1 I modified the the exterior side with photoetched radiator screen detail and i'll replace cross brace with some plastic rod. Once the part is glued in the gaps and tolerances will be very tight like on the 1:1 The finished Radiator now looks like an integral part rather than an add on.

I actually have every AMT Indy Car kit they've made. The PC6 doesn't appear to be based off any of the previous tools, which is a good thing as the detail which is included is fairly accurate. When I say missing detail or location points, I mean things like including a turbocharger wastegate but not having it attached to the intake system at all. It's like they had planned to have a part to connect it but just never tooled one. There are other examples too. for instance some parts seem like they put a great deal of effort into making them look real and high detailed while others seem to be less refined. this would be less obvious if they weren't part of the same assembly. For instance the rear hub/halfshaft is a highly detailed one piece casting with very fine engraving for the universal joint and CV joint, but the rear shock absorber looks like a piece of rotini.

Good reference photos of the car itself are pretty rare, but luckily very little other than the basic tub and bodywork are bespoke to this car. For the engine if you search for Ford Cosworth DFX you will find photos of that, If you look for Hewland LG500 it brings up the trans-axle. etc. You do have to fill in the blanks a bit. but a knowledge of the basic car helps. One thing that keeps me going on this is my first Indy Car race was the Kent Oil 150 at Watkins Glen in 1979. The handsome gent standing by the rear tire is a 13 year old me. I was so enthralled with the car, that I didn't even notice the hideous outfit of the lady in the foreground.

I'm embarking on a project that will really test my skills as a builder. I had foolishly attempted this when the kit first came out 37 years ago. It's the AMT 1979 Penske PC6 Indy car. On the box it clearly states for ages 10 and up, so I thought that being 13 at the time I should be able to build this no trouble right? Ha Ha Ha AMT you got me...yeah. A ten year old Andy Granitelli couldn't build this kit. Before I get into what's bad about this kit, let me tell you the good part. The kit is full detail and includes a very detailed ford dfx Cosworth turbocharged V8, the basic kit scales out well, and the parts included allow you to build a reasonable facsimile of the car pictured on the box top. Now for the bad news. The design and execution of the kit are horrible. The assembly process is unnecessarily complex, and given the construction of the real car, poorly planned out. For those unfamiliar with Indy cars of the late seventies, they don't have an actual chassis. The car consists of a monocoque tub to which the front suspension mounts to and mounted of the rear of the tub is and engine and transmission, that acts as a stressed member of the chassis to which the rear suspension mounts as well as the rear wing. The issue with the kit is that everything depends on the tub, engine, and transmission being assemble squarely and securely. That said had I designed this I would have made the engine block and transmission assembly a two piece affair like AMT's late 80's Indy car series. Instead this kit has a two piece Trans-axle, and five piece engine block with no locator pins or anyway to ensure the block is square, so very careful assembly is essential. To make things worse, even though the kit I have is first run, there is a lot of flash and none of the parts fit together without adjustment. It's almost as if it is a box full of Indy car parts and you need to engineer them all to fit together. The exhaust system alone has 8 pieces, and no positive positioning of the parts but because the turbocharger is part of the trans-axle part, the alignment is dependent on the fit and alignment of the engine block, tub and trans-axle. See where I'm going with this? this kit is very susceptible to tolerance stacking. Here is the Ford / Cosworth DFX V8 and Hewland LG500 transaxle. I cut the turbo housing off the transmission casting, and glued it to the completed exhaust system. I pinned the mounting points for the exhaust to give it positive location and to make mocking up and final assembly easier. I'm also scratch building the cooling system since other than the twin radiators none was provided. The detail on the the Hewland LG500 4-speed was pretty weak and inaccurate I sanded it off, reshaped the basic casting and I'm adding correct surface detail. Normally I wouldn't sweat it but on the finished model the trans-axle is prominently visible. A great deal of effort (about 6 days of work has gone into assembling and correcting the fit of the cowl and the front wing to the main tub. i added a lip to the front edge of the cowl to keep it lined up with the nose piece, and still keep it removable. I also cut open the scoops and the fuel filler.

I don't know about that AMT had some great stuff around that same time, like the Datsun 280Z Turbo, 1969 Camaro etc.

I'm Currently building this kit. I have a stack of the different variants of this kit, and I was wondering does anybody know the behind the scenes story of the development of this kit? The kit has all of the basic components of a Penske PC6, the lack of positive locating pins and lack of significant parts would lead me to believe that development was halted somewhere in the test shot phase, For example it has radiators but no, radiator hoses. It has a waste gate that is not attached in ant way to the intake system, the exhaust headers have to me modified to actually fit together meet up with the turbo charger . The two piece (split down the middle) cowl has to be modified and reinforced to glue together on both ends and to hold it's shape so it will fit on the main tub. I'm not complaining mind you, but it just seems to me that perhaps they had an ambitious plan for a super detailed model and the budget got cut when it was only part done. Anybody know the story?

I agree the Revell / Monogram C4s are the best out there. The best thing is you can build almost any variant of the C4 by mixing and matching parts from different kits. Almost all the various wheel styles are available; 1985-87 Turbine style (1985 Corvette, 1986 indy pace car roadster, 1987 Corvette roadster) 1988-89 Cusinart wheel (1989 Corvette ZR-1) 1991 Turbines (1991 Roadster, ZR-1, 1993 40th anniversary) 1995 Corvette 5 spoke, (1995 Grand sport, Indy Pace car and ZR-1) Every type of engine; L98, LT4 ,LT5 (ZR-1) and a Callaway twin turbo Automatic and 6- speed ZF Transmissions all sorts of different seats and dashboards, and Model car Garage has the set MCG 2158 photoetch that has all the badging you need as well

I think it is interesting how many of the subjects on my list have come to pass.

Actually there is no woodwork on this car at all. The body is all metal, painted to look like wood.

So the Hemisfear is green, but I can also imagine it could look equally good in blue or red or almost any other color you could think of. It might just work. actually there were a total of five Hemisfears made. http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a5db05b3127ccee965a5ecefb300000030O02IbNXLZs1cg9vPgw/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00900566095620150524134433255.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Why aren't every kit that we build on our shelves perfect? Did we not have time to perfectly research out builds? did we not have time to correct the flaws? Why isn't the paint perfect? you should have stripped it and repainted it until you got it perfect. Why didn't you replace the 2 speed wiper motor with the single speed? at what point do we say "good enough" and simply call it finished. The reason our builds are not perfect is because humans aren't perfect. The reason kits aren't perfect is because you have imperfect humans working for a corporation and that corporation has limitations both on time and money. At some point both have to say "good enough".

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” ― Vincent van Gogh My inspiration comes from my pure love of the subject. I love the play of light off of the painted surface, I love how altering the stance of the chassis, can change the whole attitude of the build. I love how you can recreate the look of a full size subject in miniature. There is no place I don't get inspiration.

Not to mention, I see using the chassis I don't use to upgrade one of the many amt 29s I have

From what I understand the Diablo is going to be the Diablo GT which as far as i know has not been kitted before.

The interesting thing about this paint job is it was done to hide a blotchy candy paint job underneath.

Ok I've put a kidney on ebay...where do I send the money!

You cannot compare photos of a 20' car and 200mm model kit and expect accurate results. The lens distortion effect are not the same in both pictures. just look at the apparent position of the driver's side vent window. Are we to assume from this photo that Moebius made the driver's door too short? Look at how much shorter the drivers side of the car appears in the model rather than the shot of the real car. The depth of field in the model shot is much shorter making the forward part of the model appear much longer than it is, I will wait for the actual plastic to reach my hands and base my review on actual measurements.

Do you think the body would drop onto the full detail kit?

No not really COPO stands for Central Office Production Order. It was program that was set up to order a car in such a way that it was not normally available. The most famous ones were the ZL-1 Camaros and the 427 Camaros that Yenko ordered, but the typical COPO would be ordering a impala with a cadillac only color or for fleet sales etc. There were literally thousands of cars that were ordered through the COPO program that nobody heard of or cared about. One of my favorites was a 396 Impala wagon with a deluxe interior but a base level exterior for the man who lived around the corner from me growing up. My father almost bought that car from him in 1977 only to end up buying my grandfather's caprice.

This reminds me why I don't participate in this and other model forums any more. They've all become so negative. The kit reveiws almost always degrade into "why can't kit's be perfect with today's technology" posts when the people involved have zero Idea what the limitations are to the designers in question. In this case, It's a bunch of so-called adults who feel superior to someone else ganging up on someone else. So you guys don't like his model kit, obviously some else did or they wouldn't have bid on it. You guys claim it's all about how "misleading" the auction is, yet it has crisp clear photos of exactly what you are getting. It's not like the bidder is going to be surprised when he opens the box. That said most of the comments are you guys simply trashing his build. Does the guy overstate his abilities? Yes I guess he does, but what harm does that cause? I've seen a lot of sub-standard models on here and even featured in some magazines. A certain other model car publication has a fascination with one modeler who builds some of the most toy-like builds I've seen, but do we call him out and trash him? No we don't. Have some class guys, remember these are just little plastic cars. cut the guy some slack,

He posted clear pictures, clear enough for the 'experts" here to pick it apart, the buyer knew what they were getting and bid appropriately. $48 bucks is not a lot for a built model of any real quality. I highly doubt anyone here was tempted to bid on it so the whole "buyer beware" point is moot. If I decided to sell one of my built kits would that be giving you guys licence to rip me a new one? why be so negative against a guy who is trying to make a few (very few) bucks.

Really Guys, what is with the tearing down of this guy? So your toys are better than his. His estimation of his skill is high than perhaps it should be. Has this guy personally done anything to you? Has this auction harmed you in some way? This is bullying plain and simple.

My concern about ego is not fear that those who were inducted would get a big head, but that there are those who often see themselves as more influential than they are, and that their ego would bruise if not recognized. look at how many people complain about the judging at contests and how the same people always win, and how they should change the judging etc. All this over a ribbon, certificate or cheap $2 trophy.

I think the reason is the current "Hall of Fame" is from the The International Model Car Builders' Museum. I think that is the main thrust.

I question the need for a hall of fame. Is this not a hobby? Do we do this to be recognized? I did this hobby for 15 years before I discovered model car magazines. The only contests I entered were at the local hobby shops and at the Syracuse Motorama, and I did that mostly just for fun. The only trophies that I have kept over the years are one for best paint, as I was really proud of that one. (I had struggled with paint for years up to that point.) and one from my model clubs meeting. Basically each month we'd bring our recent completions and during the meeting vote for the one we liked the best. They chose mine, and that was a real honor. Beyond that awards and recognition is so far down on the list that it doesn't register most days. Turning this hobby into a popularity contest I think takes some of the fun out of it. How many times have we seen people in the forums self destruct over ego? Would people get hurt if someone who had been at this less time who they perceived as a lesser builder got in the Hall of fame and they didn't? Will my enjoyment of the hobby be increased if someday that list includes my name? Will it get me dates? Will it bring in big dollar endorsements? No it simply means that a small percentage of modelers, who represent the car model hobby, which is a niche with in Model building, which is a niche within the hobby world, voted me in. This is not to discount the achievements of those on the list, but just to put things into a real world perspective. Take that list to a crowded street and ask people who the people in the list are, and you will draw blank stares. We are the only ones who do care. So how about this. If someone on this board inspires you let them know now. Comment on their builds shake their hand at a show, let them know they are special now, not decades from now when they are either dead or have "finished their careers". Given that there are only so many inducted in a year, the odds are that almost all of us will never be on that list. But the words "cool build" will always raise my spirits for the day, and that for me is enough.