Scale-Master

The interior is well engineered and comes with the decals. The seatbelts are PE brass.

The casting on this Formula Models white metal kit is very nice and clean especially for being 20, maybe 25+ years old. Not really a surprise since it was cast by Marsh Models. After a few hours of minor clean up and drilling & fitting the main core of it looked like this. I used some smaller screws (leftover Tamiya items) to hold it together rather than the kit supplied ones.

Another camo wrap, this time using the dot pattern seen on some Ferrari’s.

Playing around with the new Scale Motorsports Camo decals. While they are listed as 1/24 scale, I thought I’d see how they worked on a little Hot Wheels to make a test mule.

After being clued into mistakes in the instructions about the installation of the belts, (courtesy of Chuck Kourouklis), I redid them. Not only is there no stretching and fighting with the belts (because they fit this way), there is no excessive tension on the parts. But it still runs backwards and the battery box is not designed to allow simply reversing the batteries. I’m calling it done. Click on the photo to see it "run".

Not to me...

In the instructions they have ads for other versions, and other scales. All the wiring and ancillaries are installed and the decals have been applied. I got it to run twice before the alternator shaft sheared off. I drilled out both parts of the shaft beefed it up with brass like the power steering pump. It is fully assembled and it runs. Albeit backwards.

I appreciate your confidence in my abilities, but I'd rather build a real one than a 1/4 scale Seven. Maybe power it with a 1/2 scale Hemi? The engine became too cumbersome to handle and work on so I mounted it to the stand. The fit was tight around the harmonic balancer so I shaved some material from the front mount. The exhaust manifolds were heavily textured to look like cast items. The belts were very tight and needed to be stretched. The largest one, even after initial stretching, was too taut for the power steering pump and it broke off the engine. I had to remount it with two half inch lengths of brass for strength. At this point it does “run”.

I wonder if it is a south Texas thing? I saw multiple cars with those ridiculous spoke-like thingies around Galveston last time I was there.

The belt driven accessories are on it…

I think it's wise to build one to see how it looks before building a super detailed version. Harmonic balancer & lower pulley, fuel pump & lines, coil & distributor are installed.

The spark plug boots took a little while to clean up. I attached them and the valve covers with tacky glue so the covers can be removed if needed to reset the rods. They look like they may have issues since they don’t have a very positive fit to the rockers. The carbs were shot with Tamiya Titanium Gold.

Heads and intake are cemented on.

The pushrods and lifters are in and it works properly. I used a tiny bit of EVOO applied with a cotton swab to the bottom of each lifter. One of the springs in this shot is the one I made. Looks close enough even without the shade of the valve cover.

Yours looks good Andy. Mike, I'll include my "big ruler" in the next photo(s). The rockers are installed. I found some wire that was pretty close to the same thickness to make a replacement spring and copied the diameter and wind count. It isn’t exactly the same, but it works and I think after the valve cover is installed no one will be able to tell.

The heads are assembled and ready for the rockers. I did a spring count while I was I was separating them for the valves and the kit is one spring short. Looks like I’ll have to make a new one for the rockers. I am being very attentive to the way it goes together especially since I noticed how ambiguous the instructions are early on. Add to that the error in part numbers I found, I am triple checking before cementing parts. The belts look like they are just O-rings, and I have some that are left over and look close from when I rebuilt the power steering pump on my 1:1 Camaro. I’m sure if I don’t have the sizes that fit properly I can source some that will work if needed.

This assembly was the first that I noticed there were incorrect directions. One deck can fit on either side; the other only fits in its proper place.

Yes, after building a few real engines I'm aware of that, (and the used cams I have on hand for my small-block have bright journal surfaces). The silver, while not as polished as a real cam, it is brighter than it photographed. And the raw material between the lobes should be darker and rougher too. I burnished the bearing surfaces so there would hopefully not be much of a friction issue, and I suspect I'll need to use some EVOO to lube it for the "lifters" (which are molded to the push rods), further darkening the lobes. I doubt the cam will be all that visible once assembled, and I think BMF would tear and muck up the works when it is "fired up". True accuracy is somewhat of a moot point the more I look at the way the kit is engineered, and if it is to run.

The pistons are shown to be assembled onto the rods in the instructions. I assembled and painted them first, (so I could address the seams), then attached them to the rods with the wrist pins and keepers. (I didn’t like the cloudy effect from the cement where it showed through on the block so I painted those mounting points at the corners orange.)

Did you notice that some of the parts are mis-numbered in the instructions?

I have not fully figured out how this is going to look when it is done. Some of the exterior parts will be painted appropriate colors and other parts will be left clear to show off the working internals. I may mask some of the glue joints on the clear parts with paint too, but I’ll have to decide as I go. While most of the internal mechanical parts are molded in a metallic gray, I’m not sure if the swirls in the metallic plastic will be visible through the clear “body”. So I decided to paint them in case it turns out to be that they are seen. I mixed TS-42 Light Gunmetal and clear flat for the cast/forged steel parts. The cam lobes were highlighted by dry brushing and burnishing aluminum power on them. The rods, crank and main caps were painted with the gray mix. I used a tiny amount of olive oil to lube the bearing areas. While there is ample (sloppy?) clearance a little adjusting of the tension of the main cap screws help ease the friction and the oil smoothed out the action furthermore.

Just beautiful. What color/paint did you use for the body?

It did go together quickly, but with the upgrades you're talking about Chris it could take a lot longer... It is done and posted here now: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/107311-aryton-senna’s-1981-kart/

OOB with a few extra decals. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/107088-aryton-senna’s-go-kart/?page=1

Thanks Ed. Except for a few supplemental decals it is straight out of the box. I think the different textures of paint helps quite a bit though.