maserati birdcage, brass chassis, russkit wheels

[jbwelda]

not sure why the pic is so big though!

[slotbaker]

Nice.

I was a real fan of Russkit stuff, as it really promoted the scratch building side of the hobby.

Take care with those wheels, they don't like being twisted by hand to lock or unlock them.

You could try re-sizing the pic to about 700 pixels wide. At the moment yours is about 1200 wide which is a bit big for viewing on the internet.

Got any more pics of the old stuff??

[jbwelda]

that photo was supposed to be 640 X 480 or some such thing...doesnt

seem to be though.

i remember ruining the russkit wheels as a kid so now ive figured out why

they give you two wrenches with them!

that body has made some great strides just in the last weekend since i

took the photo. will post more at some point.

ive got all kinds of old slot car stuff as ive taken to restoring old ones

and/or building retro ones. check the other thread i posted for some and

maybe i will upload more if there is interest. i was sort of thinking this

forum was dead.

about the body shown, i have no idea where it came from or who it was

made by. i got it in a lot on ebay and it had literally one eighth inch of

ugly flourescent orange paint on it and about another eighth of dirt on top

of that. couldnt even tell what it was. then i got it and started looking at it:

maserati birdcage, not a bad rendition at all. chassis is scratch built with

ball bearings in all four wheels and the motor as well. but the body was

busted in a couple places: the lower front valance was cut away, the left

front fender cracked and a big piece missing, the interior was cut away,

etc. so i stripped it down and repaired the problems and shot some paint.

but then some filling i did sank or it wasnt as good as i initially thought

and it looked like ###### plus i put on too much paint and the detail in the

intake screens and headlamp covers was all filled in, so i stripped it again

and started over, redoing all the bodywork. then i fabricated the

aluminum interior panels you can barely see in the photo, rebuilt the

birdcage part using plastic and aluminum tubing, plus a lot more not

shown in this photo.

to tell the truth im not sure i will use the russkit wires as the rear (wide)

ones might well be too wide to fit the fender wells. wish i had two sets of

narrows. might end up just using some halibrand kidney wheels or maybe

some wire inserts. this car will probably not see much track time in

reality; probably run it once or twice and retire it as a show piece.

anyone have any idea where this body came from? ive searched high and

low for a source but no luck. it is NOT the russkit superlegera body. i

faintly remember a birdcage put out by MPC or someone but no one i

know remembers it and i know a lot of people who should so i think im

just confused on that.

[jbwelda]

>anyone have any idea where this body came from?

answering my own question here...

turns out its from a fairly obscure 60s company called Bergman. anyone remember them? i think this maserati and a ferrari were its sole products. im currently after a MOC maserati on ebay so PLEASE dont bid against me even if just to see just how foolish a bid i put in on it because I REALLY WANT A MINT ONE!

[jbwelda]

bump for zebm1

this has come a lot further but i havent taken or posted any photos lately

[slotbaker]

bump for zebm1

this has come a lot further but i havent taken or posted any photos lately

What a tease.

Can you show some more pics?

[jbwelda]

i need to photo and post some other things here soon so i will do this one as well.

truth be told im not sure much difference will be apparent but i will let the viewers be the judge of that.

[Guest zebm1]

bump and gring yur own jb.....tha type 161 is one of my all time faves, another is tha '50 - '52 Cunningham C4Rs....

but I don't think anyone ever made a body of this car.

S M P, S M P, send more pics

[jbwelda]

i think i have a 1/32 cunningham in resin somewhere yet to build. maybe i will dig it out and take a photo one of these days.

so im glad theres some interest in slots here still; i had kinda given up the ghost plus me and my buddy took down our track so there hasnt been much motivation for me to do any for awhile.

but as mentioned the 'cage has come some way since those pics, heres some more recent ones. still need to pick and mount some wheels and i need to perform surgery on a pilot figure one of these days.

completely off topic but i picked up one of those CMC birdcage 1/18 diecasts, man what a piece of engineering that is. its as complex as the real thing, i swear!

[slotbaker]

Nice workmanship there.

Can you show us a pic of the business side?

What motor is that poking through?

[jbwelda]

i think its a revell/pittman rp77 but dont know for sure. it was with the (utterly destroyed) car when i got it. heres a kinda fuzzy shot of the chassis

note the ball bearings on all four axle contact surfaces. it runs very smooth even if the rpms arent what you would get from a can motor.

[slotbaker]

Pittmans are kool, and go forever.

Thanks for showing.