1989 Valvoline March Indy Car - Al Unser Jr.

[ModelcarJR]

I started this Monogram kit from the early 90s last week while the weather was still good. I painted the body and all the parts. Yesterday, while it was raining I started assembly and have made good progress so far. I am just assembling box stock except for a few added touches. I have a set of Indy Cal tire decals for this era so I sanded down the tires, removed the raised letters on one side of the tires and will decal both sides. I also have a driver's seat that I built long ago and it moves from build to build as I need it and is just handi-tacked in place. I will also create a wickerbill for the rear wing. I can't do any wiring or plumbing as the engine cover will not fit on these Monogram kits as there isn't enough clearance. Normally, I would wire and plumb the engine in these Indy cars and do some washes and dry brushing of the engine but I am going to pass on this one. So far, everything is going together well. Thanks  for looking! ?

 

[afx]

Nice progress so far.

[wrenchr]

Nice and clean build, will be checking back on the progress. 

[drodg]

Nice build.  

[bbowser]

Watching with interest!

[slusher]

N ice start I will be watching and flooding  along"...

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments!

I am finishing up the last two photos are with the decals complete and all that is left are the two mirrors once I cut some mirror foil. The first one is with a progress shot of the completed wickerbill on the rear wing. I cut a piece of .015 x .060" plastic strip and then sliced some .030" rod into thin pieces to glue the length of the strip at an interval of about 5/8". then painted it with silver leaf. I think it makes a convincing wickerbill. The engine cover fits better than most at least from the outside.  However, it doesn't line up with the pop-off valve, gas cap, or wastegate openings. Maybe I shouldn't have used the engine mounting holes in the instructions but would have to have scraped off the raised mount to re-position. Oh, well! Thanks for looking! 

[Belugawrx]

Really nice job on this so far?

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, Bruce! I appreciate your comment! 

Here are the finished pics after the mirrors went on. I cut some mirror foil with an adhesive backing. Went pretty smoothly. Here are some other comments on the finished kit:

1. I tried the first decal around the fuel filler and it started disintegrating a bit. The kit is 30 years old and I had taken the cellophane off at some point and then decided not to build it at that time.  So I took the decal sheet and applied a light coat of clear lacquer and let it dry a couple of hours.I didn't have any major problems after that. I touched up the red with Testors Hemi Orange and the light blue in the decal matches pretty well with Testors light blue in the square bottle. 
2. The tire decals from IndyCals were great although a couple of years old. One exception - The last of eight decals disintegrated on me. I had some old Slixx decals that were a bit bigger and I think were meant for a Stock Car tire. They were old and faded too. So I found the best one and used it. You may be able to find it in the pictures.  Maybe not.
3. As I mentioned previously, the engine may be too far forward using the kit mounting holes. But even if moved back the pop-off valve still wouldn't stick out through the hole in the engine cover. I don't know how you would go about raising the engine without affecting the rear wheel stance. I also don't think you can shorten the engine cover. 
4. The kit does come with road racing wings but the fuel filler only has a hole on the left side. I know that there is a filler for which ever side you want to use in the AMT kits but it is not there in this kit. 
5. There are no helmet or  uniform decals for the driver figure. Also no visor. for the helmet. 
6. The engine cover fits better than most and with the addition of the tire decals, driver's seat with harness, wicherbill and mirror foil for the mirrors it builds up pretty well!

Thanks for looking! ?

[slusher]

Great looking build!