Scale-Master

"And, finally, Mr. Scale-Master, you had early pictures of my engine with the "now inaccurate" gaskets. You let me post these humiliating pictures. You set me up for failure!" Sorry Steve, from the beginning you knew I was doing a different version than you, and like I said, we all know what happened at the German GP relating to those gaskets. In the future I'll try to provide some reference for the models I am not building, just for you... If it were me, I'd consider leaving them the way they are, I understand the way the car was shown in the museum was using those gaskets. Most people will never know. If you can live with that.

I thought everyone knew the Ishino gaskets were used only during the German GP,(and we all know what happened...). But since Steve is using the Marlboro graphics, not the McLaren, (the version I am doing BTW), he should correct this. Otherwise, great job Steve!

The engine parts were painted prior to assembly. The FORD lettering on the cam covers was molded pretty weakly on this Academy knock off of the Tamiya kit, but I tried to do what I could with it... The kit provides spark plug wires, I added a wire for the coil (not sure why they don’t include that) and I added the injector lines made from monofilament line.

Yes it is 1/20th, but not the Tamiya, is it's the Academy copy.

I have been intending to build this car for decades and decided to just do it after agreeing to build this kit at the same time as a friend who is building the Tamiya kit (as the JPS). The decals and templates are from an IPMS Convention magazine (1994 at Omaha). The first thing I did was replace the rear wing end plates since they are slightly larger and a different shape from the Andretti JPS car. They were scratched from sheet plastic. The black one is the kit JPS part. I made the mounting tabs longer for ease of holding them for painting. The front wings were molded to the tub and were unevenly warped on my kit; (think lots of dihedral). I cut them off and set them up with pins for reassembly. This will be an added benefit for executing the two tone scheme too. The skirts molded to the side pod outer panels were also modified for this version. You can see the difference between the virgin bagged part and the modified one. The skirt is shorter and the pod has a radius on the front bottom. The roll bar was modified to be taller since Nilsson was taller than Andretti. Those should be the only parts modifications needed and the rest of the building, except for the body color and decal changes, should be essentially the same as the JPS version…

I too am partial to the '55 Chevy in the first post, partly due to being related to the driver as listed on that painting (and decal).

I created the art and printed the decals. Painted the body Tamiya TS-49 over TS-25. Had to replace the front tires and a couple pieces of PE that had been lost. Tires were machined from rubber vacuum hose; decals were made to replace the PE cowl vents. I mounted it to a base to protect it from being handled. Faux cracked asphalt made from card stock and the base of the box it came from was brush painted to look like wood grain. It is 1/87th scale white metal kit produced by High tech Modell.

And by the way..., It's spelled Hugger Orange, not Huggar. You should only use Huggar Orange on Cameros.

The orange on my (real) Koni's are a darker orange than the Chevy Orange on my (real) Chevy engine...

More progress on the interior… Here’s the trusty scale to give an idea of the size of this one… The front tires were missing from the kit, so I machined replacements from rubber vacuum line. (On the left is a kit supplied rear, on the right is one of the replaced fronts.) The wheels are dual layer PE with machined spindles and rims, knock offs will be added after they are installed on the car. Body was painted with Tamiya red I have printed the decals and hope to apply them tonight...

White metal kit that builds another livery, (I will make the decals to do a car Shelby drove). Here is the body casting after clean up. I painted a pink base coat to make the red color a bit brighter due to its diminutive size. Here is the interior so far…

The second of a pair (1972 and 1973 LeMans winners), this one is the 1972 LeMans Winner. Built from another old Provence Moulage 1/43rd resin kit.

Thanks, yes 1/43. The decals on these old kits are somewhat challenging...

Provence Moulage resin kit.

Those parts look great Steve! Don't listen to Mr. Taylor, I don't think he knows what he's looking at... or more likely his tongue is firmly planted in his cheek.

Thanks. Yes, it is the 1/43rd PM. The tires split between the time they were put on the rims and put on the car. Brings back memories... That was the least of its issues. And Mr. Taylor, it is French, not finish...

Old resin kit.

I have to respectfully disagree. As an owner of a real one, that revamped annual version kit is not even good enough for a simple curbside.

That is one very clean build. "no polishing required" - Good one!

Well Done Phil! As usual!

Thanks very much everyone! It is a figment of my imagination. The story is as fabricated as the model... Although the designation does fit within the time line of GM Experimental Projects (XP). I could not find any documentation of what XP-881 was, only that it appears that it would have been assigned to a project in the latter half of 1969, between XP-800, the Chevy Astro and XP-802, a mid engine Corvette. The scripts are chromed, (the SS and the 396 even have the correct white inlays) they don't show well in the photos, but are visible if you look.

Built in 1969 as a possible interim design for the Camaro between what we know as the first and second generation Camaros, it utilized the first generation platform and much of the bodywork from 1969 and as such would have been consider the last of the first generation Camaros. The 1970 Camaro roof and rear section was added to make a fastback design sharing styling cues from the (at the time) delayed 1970 Camaro. Chevrolet produced a similar clash of generations before in 1961 and 1962 with the Corvette. Badged as an Super Sport it was powered by the 375 HP 396 Big Block from '69, backed with a Muncie 4 speed trans. The chambered exhaust was used to help promote the performance aspect of the first fastback Camaro, a cowl induction hood was used for the same reason. It had the Rally Sport grille from '69, although it was blacked out for aggressive look, and to tie it into the blacked out tail light panel offered only on Big Block cars; clearly an attempt to differentiate it from a 1969 Camaro at a glance. No stripe packages were applied to draw attention to the new design. The interior made use of the very popular 1969 Indy Pace Camaro's orange hounds tooth seat surfaces toned down with gray (carpet and headliner) and black. Wheels were unique to the XP-881, but looked very similar to the production wheels for the 1970 Z/28. It was listed as a 1970 model since the 1969 Camaro was already in production and was only considered as an in case of emergency mock up, and not likely to be produced, but the XP-881 Camaro was a fully functioning driver. Reports of it being seen in public during shows in late 1969 are sparse and wholly unsubstantiated. The model was built from mostly the Revell 1969 Indy Pace Camaro kit with the roof and rear end parts being donated by an older AMT 1970 Camaro. The engine was wired and plumbed, the wheels were modified from the AMT units and finished with machined aluminum beauty rings and plastic hex stock lug nuts. All of the body work was done by cutting with a scriber and a PE saw and cementing the parts together with CA, no body filler was was used. Paint is Tamiya Mica Silver.

Now that would be a challenge Jairus, the two platforms are so different in size. Maybe if you used a 1/24 scale Mustang II and a 1/25 scale '73 Mustang...? The cool part is you can make whatever you want... Have you sketched that out yet?

The dash received some gauge decals I made, the hounds tooth inserts are from the Revell kit's (Scale-Master Art) sheet. The rear of the interior bucket was extended to fit the new rear window. The carpet is a gunmetal gray to tie it into the body color.

"I like the idea you're using, but I think it would've worked better with the '67-8's more rounded, smooth lines, rather than the '69 more linear, sharper lines. It'll be interesting to see how this one turns out." Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I have to disagree. First of all, using an existing design (1969) combined with a future design (1970) severely negates the likelihood of a '67-'68 Camaro body being used after the '69 Camaro was being produced. It simply would not be a step forward for one of the most popular cars in GM's line up to use an earlier year's design and therefore is not an option in this excersize. In addition, the front fenders of the '67-'68 Camaro's are still way too "peaky" to properly balance with the soft shape of the '70. And an added benefit of using a '69 is the shape of the wheel wells are closer to the shape of the '70's. Using a '67-'68 front clip would look much more unbalanced due to that fact. The chassis is pretty much done on the bottom side. The bell housing has intentional overspray to replicate the way factory motors were assembled.