Scale-Master

You got that right Andrew.

FWIW, today is the three year anniversary of when I started this project. I designed and 3D printed a license plate for it; even started painting it, but I didn't care for the way it looked mostly because it was too thick and had no back side detail. So I made another one from scratch. I've used similar processes to this to make other plates. I started with some 0.005 sheet brass. I cut this blank and drilled some holes. And then I cut a plastic "rim" from .005 sheet plastic and attached it with clear gloss paint.

Looks like I got lucky; after some searching I found a pair of Precision Miniatures Ferrari Lusso knock-offs I can donate to replace the missing ones.

The kit comes with these nice preassembled wheels and tires. Unfortunately two are missing the knock-offs…

I machined these knobs to mount the Wink mirror to the brackets.

You'll have to take up the year issue with Vroom, but yes it will be the yellow #24. Ironically the black #124 250 TR I recently built was referred to as both a '57 and a '58 depending on the source.

The windows were vacuum formed as one piece. I cut the rear window off and was able to make the sides and windshield fit as one piece. The four headlight covers are molded in the piece on the right. The headlight covers are less than a quarter inch at the largest point, the driving lights are less than a tenth of an inch.

Turns out this resin actually is quite nice to work with; not as brittle as it first seemed. It is relatively hard, but it takes scribing well. I had to remove a good amount of material from the insides of the right window area to get the windows the fit properly. All the panel lines, louvers and trim were scribed in. The little fissures were sanded out with no need for filler. I also drilled holes for the wipers and the filler caps. One of the caps is missing from the kit parts, but I have an extra from the TR250 I just finished that will fit perfectly. The B pillar was so thin on the left side that the louvers became open when I cleaned them up. I put a piece of thin Tamiya tape on the inside to close them.

At least with stainless and aluminum tight tolerances can be held. The mirrors hold all these parts together by friction. I added the pebble texture. And a decal I made too…

Originally I made the mirror faces for the fender units out of chrome Mylar, but being as large as they are, I later thought they needed more depth... So I made new ones from stainless steel while I was making the Wink panels. (Mylar is literally 1000 times easier to work with.) But the results are an improvement. Sometimes the reflection is hard for the camera to capture too. The mirror housings are painted the same color as the body will be.

This is a Vroom brand 1/43rd resin kit. The body is pretty thin and feels a bit delicate and somewhat brittle. Overall it's a good casting with moderate to mild surface texture and has that aromatic smell that some people hate. (It sparks fond memories for me.) The flash in the windows is not even paper thin on the left, but heavier on the right side so that will have to be addressed when fitting the glass. There is also a fissure along the right front fender by the louvers, (most likely from a worn or cracked mold). It may sand out, but it could need filler to retain the shape of the nicely rendered body. There were several skinned over holes on the bottom of the body. Rather than risk them being an issue later I "popped" them, shaved out the edges and filled the holes with CA. A coat of primer just on the bottom shows those issues are close to fully fixed and I will move onto cleaning up the top sides of the body. It also shows another one of those fissures in the right side rocker…

I made the mounting brackets from aluminum. I've found in real life these things work best when they are firmly mounted to a rigid part of the car. They should be mounted as high and forward as possible, but not too close to the (semi-flexible Lexan in this case) windshield. As great as these are for rear and side views they do clip a bit of the top off what can be seen out the front. (You get used to it… Like having sun visors permanently down.) I cut deep grooves into the roll bar for strength, and a welded-in look.

This inset sets the angles for the mirror panels. It's made up of six pieces.

I left PM before the GT350 was to the point of production casting. I cast a lot of the Mustang convertibles though... I think Paul Fisher (of Fisher Model & Pattern) had a hand in fine tuning some of the Shelby parts. And since Lloyd had the real car in his driveway one would expect it to look good.

First part of a new subassembly… A few hours of machine work; slow going using 1/32 inch end mill. Now for some hand finish work.

Thanks Rusty. This is certainly one for Memory Road...

Thanks Guys! I appreciate the compliments! The tail lights got the same treatment as the headlights except I made the bulbs from thin clear tubing that was sealed on the ends with clear gloss. Since the lenses are molded in clear I used Tamiya lacquers to tint them. I added details to the housings as well to accept the wiring/plugs.

Thank you Rich. My pleasure to share, especially if others can learn from it. It sure sparked a lot of memories for me.

This is an older 1/43rd scale white metal kit that I cast back in 1980/81 when I worked at Precision Miniatures. It is built out of the box but I used a non-kit set of decals to make a different livery. Aftermarket Scale-Master Decals were also used for the seat piping and chrome trim on the windshield. WIP Thread:

The last details to be added were the chrome decal stripes around the base of the windshield (Scale-Master Decals produced by Warbird) and the two prong knock-offs for the wheels. Finished Project Thread:

I made a circular punch and cut out a Mylar disc for the rearview mirror face. The tail lights are plated white metal painted with Tamiya Clear Red. The windshield fits OK, but there is very little material in contact with the body. I used RC560 canopy glue to secure it and create a small fillet.

It's up on its wheels and leveled. Paint has been cut & waxed. The dash and steering wheel/column are installed too. Wind (and the static it creates) doesn't play well with black paint…

I used the kit reflectors and lenses for the headlights, but I drilled out the reflectors and added halogen light bulbs. Steel and clear plastic for the bulbs. More work was done to the back side of the headlights for the electrical connectors. They are made of brass and styrene. They will get lightly weathered when the inside of the hood does. The loom for the light wiring was made the same way as the one for the engine. It takes 18 inches of armature wire to wrap one inch of the loom. The pigtails are just fastening features for the offshoots for each light assembly. It's tighter under there than I expected so I had to be careful how I routed the loom. The driver's side headlight is connected here. The lower driving lights have been turned into parking lights/turn indicators. The front section that supports them had to be reworked to accommodate some other changes I made too; still a little finish work to do on that. Those lights are connected here.

Now to let the clear dry for a while before final assembly…

The headlight covers are also vacuum formed clear Lexan and even more tedious to cut out than the windshield. Careful sanding is the trick to making them fit properly. On this car they are painted silver; I used Tamiya Mica Silver.