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I vacuum formed some windows. I use left over clear food packaging as clear material

This was installed and the interior built. Driver is home cast

Next up, mirrors, wipers and other smaller details.





Cheers

Dan

i added scratch built wipers, mirror, door handles and a radio antenna, and then took it for a spin around the track.

Great job Dan! Your detail is amazing...wipers, mirrors, steering wheel..... Well Done. Where did you buy the pimguide from?

Cheers
Clive

Thanks. I do what I can without spending a bunch of money on photoetch stuff. I should have gone into more detail about how I make this things out of inexpensive material from the Craft store.

Michael's sells a black elastic thread that I use to make wipers, mirrors and the roof antenna.

For the mirrors I light it up with a lighter to soften it and mold it. I let it drip on a brass plate were it cools into a blob with a flat face I then use an exacto knife to trim up the blob to make it look like a mirror. A hole is drilled in the body and the mirror placed with a drop of CA. This gives you a flexible mirror firmly attached, and they wont break off.

For the antenna, again I use an open flame and do the stretched sprue trick except instead of styrene I use this elastic thread. By pulling it the right amount and removing it from the open flame, you can get a nice tapered antenna out of it. I drill a hole in the roof and then attach this antenna with CA. Again this give you a delicate accessory that can handle slot car use without breaking off

Also at Micheal's they have nickle plated beading wire. I use this to make the windshield wiper arms. The blades are made from the black elastic thread.

Door hands are made using the beading wire. I bend them to shape and then hammer the wire flat to give them better shape. I then drill a hole and use CA to attach it to the door

They may not look as good as detail items that you can purchase, but hey they cost next to nothing, and they fit my needs.

Cheers

Dan

I got the pip guides from Shapeways.

Excellent tips on making details from inexpensive and readily available items! I love to walk the aisles at craft stores, they are a scratchbuilder's gold mine.

Thanks!
Rick V.

Awesome little car Dan! and a fine tribute to our lost slot brother as well.
Great work.

Bob

More details about the interior

The interior tray was vacuum formed over a master I built. I plan on making a few of these Porsches, so it make it worth my time to make a master . This was made out of clear pastic food containers that I salvage from our recycle bin. I encourage my wife to purchase stuff in clear plastic containers.

This was painted black. The dashboard graphics were printed with my laser printer on decal paper. I did about 4 different styles of dashboard layouts and got about 60 on a half a page of decal paper.

The simple roll bar was made of styrene tube. I thread the beading wire through it so can be formed without the corners collapsing.

In this case I made the steering wheel out of a styrene tube that was thinly sliced using my Christmas MIcromark cutoff saw that the wife bought me.

The driver is a resin casting. The casting has an individual lap, torso, arms, and 4 different helmeted heads. This allows me a lot of flexibility in posing the driver when positioning him in the car. The four heads cover off a few eras in racing, and I use what ever is appropriate for the car.



I touched up the paint and gave the car another coat of gloss, and am considering this one done. It has been turning laps on the tight Kleskun Hills course. The Pipguide makes an interesting drive, with cornering really softened. I have not been able to match the times of similarly prepared cars using a standard guide, but am getting closer. The upside is the drive is smooth and less delsots, so in a race it would be easy to drive.





I am going to turn my attention to a 143 scale build now. A Ferrari 512 or possibly a Trans Am Camaro. Not decided yet.

Thanks for following along, and I hope I have demonstated a technique or two you might be able to use

Thanks to all who have commented, and to Bob for coming up witht this idea and for Harry embracing it with a Forum section

I am saddened that our friend Keith will not be here to share his techniques and builds, as you know he would have had some entries into this section. Building this tribute car allowed me to reflect on what Keith meant to me, and also how precious time is to all of us. I spend a lot of time hobbying, and I have to make sure I balance my time with the people that mean so much to me. The loss of Keith has really driven that point home.

Cheers

Simply awesome, so much to learn (for me at least!!) from just this build! Thanks for sharing!

Pim

Thanx Dan,
Your explanations are very clear and understandable. The master pieces used to vacform the clear plastic...what is that made of? Sorry for all the questions, but this is REALLY interesting!!

Cheers
Clive

I use the mold of the car body to make the master. I use resin to make a solid mold of the top half of the car. I then vacuum form the plastic around that. It results in glass that fits perfectly.

Cheers

Dan

It sounds as if you do not make the typical stamp that provides you with vacuformed "klick - in" inserts.
Do you mould the glass over the separately cast outside of the roof / window part of the car and cut out single glass parts from this vacu mould then, which you fit / glue into the window openings ?

Roland

Once the vacuum form is done each window is cut out and glued in the opening using a water based window glue. The glue dries clear and is water soluble. Once dry a wet Q tip or micro brush can be used to remove the accumulation of any excess glue.

Cheers

Dan