Scale-Master

Thank you James. I forgot the fire extinguisher when I was finishing up the interior. So I made one. The bottle is aluminum turned on the lathe; the handle is carved from styrene with a stretched sprue nozzle and a piece of tubing for the gauge. I used the art I already drew for a 1/12 scale extinguisher and reduced it and printed it. The strap on the real car is Velcro; I used electrical tape on the model.

I remember when my Dad built the one that is in the box art photos. He used "714" for the numbers because that was our new phone area code. I like the colors on yours a lot better.

And now installed in the interior. Also could now install the console with Hurst shifter and graphic equalizer…

Thanks Rob. Yeah, it has been bugging me for a while now, just had to get enough time in one chunk to get on it. Harness installed on the seat. The fabric is velour and was replicated by adding talc to the paint. I misplaced the head rest I already made so I made a new one thus guaranteeing the lost one will appear soon. The headrest knob was machined from aluminum with the proper 9 notches in it.

After a little hiatus, (and over fifty other models started and finished...) I'm back on this. I made the harness for the driver's seat. A couple different kinds of tape, some hand cut Mylar and some custom made decals. They are Schroth ASM (Anti-Submarining) so there is an electronic inertia reel that mounts into the back seat. I just took off the Momo pads on the real car, but since they were on it for 20-some years I thought I'd put them on the model.

I thought I could get away with only machining the snaps, (male and female) for the lower front parts of the seats. Until I installed them and realized that since I polished the rear panel it acted as a mirror and the back snaps (or lack thereof) were clearly visible in the reflection. So I went back to the lathe to make another eight parts…

The harnesses are ready to install. Except for the reworked anchors they are fully scratch-built. The driver's side lap belts are already in the car as I needed to use them to determine the lengths of the latched passenger side ones.

The driveline tunnel was textured to look like it was shot with an epoxy bed liner and painted Wolf Blue, and then the raised rivet detail was scraped off to show the raw aluminum. I also painted the interior panels Wolf Blue and then hand painted the rivet detail in silver.

Thanks! I draw what I want in vector and cut vinyl for the resist. I use hydrochloric acid.

I decided after I made the seat belt hardware to make the passenger side all clipped together. So I created new artwork and acid cut a new connected piece from brass for the buckles. This is it fresh from being cut.

I machined aluminum snaps to fasten the seat covers to the seats.

Thanks Bruce. I made patterns for the sides and was able to do it in five pieces.

I didn't like the way the polished metal finish looked on the seats after they had been sitting for a while. They lost some of their luster and were becoming slightly splotchy looking. So I polished off the aluminum powder finish and Bare Metal Foiled them.

Thank You David! Means a lot. I modified the Tamiya anchor pieces by thinning them and filing the slots to accept a scale 2.5 inch wide belt instead of the 2.0 they normally accept. Top ones are roughed out; bottoms are "factory" sized slots. I machined these buckles on my mill. The kit parts would lose integrity if they were widened to accept the wider belts I plan to use. They are in primer here ready to be cleaned up.

Thanks Pete. I plan to not install one of the seat covers and just fold it up and either lay it on the seat under the harnesses, or in the back.

I finally got around to making the seatbelt hardware for it. It's acid cut brass. I drew the parts and made a resist (in black) then burned the parts out of the sheet.

Thanks Ray. First thing I painted with my Dad's old airbrush (from the '60s) that I just rebuilt. Still makes a pretty decent line.

Tamiya kit, not a lot of parts, but an interesting subject and a very fun weekend project. Used Tamiya paints and Panel Line Accents.

You are right on David. I have a pile of scraps that come in handy all the time. Scratch-built brass roof, loosely dry fitted together, it doesn't all fit the way it will in the end since some of the panels need to be bolted in place for them to line up properly. But I like the way it is shaping up…

I made the rubber pad for the edge of the scuttle from some vinyl tubing I slit down one side.

Thanks guys! I finally got around to finishing the paint work for the cowl…

The seat covers were fabricated from vinyl and frisket film. The inside has the cloth material for reasons to be revealed later…

The metal finish wasn't as uniform as I wanted so I clear coated the seats and repeated the process with the SNJ aluminum powder. It's hard to capture in photos, but I think they look better now.

The finish is Tamiya Bare Metal Silver that was sanded out then polished with SNJ powder. Maybe another round of polishing is in order…

I found some leftover seats from an older (JPE Seven) model that I didn't use in it to modify for this one. First I removed the hump and filled in the resulting hole. Then I drilled out and chamfered some holes.