1968 Lotus 56 STP Turbine Indy Car MPC 1/25

[DougS]

 

I finally finished a car!

I have so many models started and never finished that I finally forced myself to finish one before starting anything else.

This is the MPC STP turbine car in 1/25 scale. I thought it was going to be a quick job to finish it up but the longer I worked the more things got changed or added.

There's only one shot with the body on because I just couldn't get everything to fit right so I decided to display it with the body removed. Has anyone else built this and had trouble fitting the body or is it just me?

I added some wires, hoses, tubing, some details at the very rear that were completely missing, replaced all springs on the shocks replaced clear pieces on the turbine with screen.

Seems like every reference picture I found everything was just a little bit different so this isn't any specific car but a combination of all of them.

[89AKurt]

You didn't build the tractor? 😪

I have that in the stash, your build should help anyone.  Since you mentioned the body not fitting, I would Dremel grind the inside down.  I use a bright back light which shows where it's thin.  A pet peeve of mine is springs (I have a large stash of those too), so that's a great detail.  Screen is a great idea.  The best thing, you committed to finishing something on The Shelf Of Doom! 😁

[Jim B]

Great looking Indy car.  It's very unique.  Well done.

It's a 50-year-old MPC kit.  I wouldn't expect anything to fit well.  Probably didn't fit well 50 years ago, either.

[TonyK]

Your model looks great; especially all the chassis detail and colors. I built a couple of these MANY years ago so don't remember the fit problems but I'm sure there were many. Me and MPC kits never got along.

[Mike 1017]

I LUV It. This one is on my bucket list. Lots of info out there about this car

[ChrisR]

Nice!

[Spooker]

Nice job on a so-so kit.  An upgrade to consider would be the proper Firestone tires from Replicas & Miniatures.  Also, there was a vac-formed windshield available from Classic Racing Resins, but it doesn't show in his current listing (might have an extra, I'll look).  I'm currently working on all three cars in race livery using the Lance Sellers resin body/tire/windshield conversion kit.

[Rich Chernosky]

What a great build of a kit that is hard to get right. On many formula kits the top body panel rarely fits so it is not you. If you can force those panels to fit you can make tiny clips out of thin steel wire (size of a #77 bit . Once in place you can touch the them up with the body color and they will be barely noticeable  but still do the job. 

[Jim N]

Very nice!  Looks great.

[bbowser]

Love it, great work!

[DougS]

22 hours ago, 89AKurt said:

You didn't build the tractor? 😪

I have that in the stash, your build should help anyone.  Since you mentioned the body not fitting, I would Dremel grind the inside down.  I use a bright back light which shows where it's thin.  A pet peeve of mine is springs (I have a large stash of those too), so that's a great detail.  Screen is a great idea.  The best thing, you committed to finishing something on The Shelf Of Doom! 😁

Thanks Kurt, I started with the tractor first and lost interest but had the screen sitting on the workbench and thought I should try to work it in on the turbine. The screen happened to be on my tea infuser (see picture). it turned out so good I continued with the rest of the car. Some day I will get back to the tractor.

[DougS]

Thanks everyone for all the encouraging comments.