Skyking Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 This is my "closet hobby", 1/32nd scale slot cars. I am in the middle of redoing my basement into my man cave, and eventually I will have a 16 x 5 table with my representation of Watkins Glen International set up. In the mean time I have been collecting cars and other goodies so that I'll be ready to go when it's set up. The GT-40 is my all time favorite race car, clinched when I was able to nab a ride in the Mk II Gulf #6 car at one of the Vintage races at The Glen many years ago. Going 180 MPH down the long back straight with your butt 6 inches off the ground should be a mandatory right of passage to manhood for every teenage boy. If I were to win the lottery, I would have a Mk II sitting in my garage painted as the #2 car driven by Chris Amon and Bruce Mclaren at Lemans in '66. I have about a dozen Mk I's and II's in my collection, but up until a bit ago, the only Mk IV's available are limited run resin cars from NSR, and at 135 dollars a pop I wasn't really ready to spend that kind of money for a car 5 inches long..lol. Recently MRRC announced a new tool Mk-IV, so I was excited. My excitement was short lived when I saw the release was going to be the Presentation car, a rather boring white with blue stripe finish with no numbers or distinguishing markings. Well this just will not do, so I ordered two, kept one in the box markings, and dismantled the second for the remarking you see here. I choose to do the number 1 car driven by Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt at the '67 Lemans race, which they won. After stripping all the running gear, windows, interior tub, lights, and everything else I could remove, I stripped the paint down to the bare plastic, then shot it with Mr. Surfacer 1000. After it cured a couple of days, I applied 3 coats of Testors One Shot Lacquer Blaze Red. Letting it sit overnight, I applied the first coat of gloss, then decaled it using Lemans Miniatures decal sheet. These are excellent decals, but I finally found some that rival Monogram kit decals for resistance to setting solution. It shrugged off Micro-Sol like it was water, and Solvaset barely got them to settle down, but it worked, just took a long time. They are very opaque, no hint of red bleed through anywhere. After the decals dried overnight, I shot one more coat of gloss and called it done. I made some appearance improvements by replacing the plastic exhaust with 1/8 aluminum tube, polished and clear coated, plus I dipped all the glass into Future before reassembly. I noticed after I took these pictures that I have the front wheels reversed. The blue knock-off should be on the right, not left side. Oops. I'll have to pull the frame out and flip the axle end for end. I can't wait to get it on the track, but I'm also a bit leery. I'd hate to send it barrel rolling across the table after taking the turn at the end of the back stretch too fast. This is how it came in the box. White, plain stripes.... booooring. And this is the end result. Much better. When they designed the GT-40, they really couldn't improve on the looks. The Mk IV's are especially purpose looking. The view seen by Ferrari for most of the day. Last look. My next repaint will be the red number 3 car, then I'll probably do the Yellow #1 Sebring car. One can not own too many GT-40's. Cheers Mike Quote Link to post Share on other sites
HOLMES Posted March 2, 2009 Share Posted March 2, 2009 Mike, You are a MAN of many talents... this is AWESOME...Love the colors GORGEOUS !!! I WANT ONE !!!! To drive that is..... HOLMES... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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