This slot car is being built up as a replica of the 'Tom Baldwin Coupe' as it raced at Islip Speedway in the early 70s...
You may have heard of Tom Baldwin, as his son has had 'some success in racing' in the years since this cool looking coupe raced at the local track when I was a kid.
Anyway - I make my own decals, and I even offer up a few sets on the nymodifieds website (and I could scale these for 1/32 if someone was interested)...
There is a trick involved - I do not offer 'white ink' decals, so a work-around for 'non-white' cars involves using a white base decal paper as an "under layer" for the clear color printed decals that I do make.
WHITE BASE DECALS FOR THE TOM BALDWIN COUPE -I printed out a white decal sheet and trimmed the shape and put it down in position. The white artwork conforms to the outline of the "Grumman TOMCAT" decal.
I did not have to use anything for the engine-turned gold leaf style #7 or star burst effect - they are just clear decals on the light yellow body color.
'TOMCAT' IN PLACE -I place the 'clear' color printed decal over the positioned white base shape. The end result is a decent quality appearing decal for a specific subject.
There was a Grumman plant located about 3-4 miles from Islip Speedway - and growing up around there I saw these "TOMCAT" and "Anytime Baby!' round stickers all over town.
I guess Tom Baldwin thought a few would look good on his race car, since he was named 'Tom' afterall...
I also made up grey 'shut lines' or 'shadow line' decals for the deck lid since I didn't model/master them in. You can see the gas filler cap has been added as well...
THE CLASSIC GAS CAP -Although not a perfectly scaled and detailed piece, this method of creating gas caps seems to have a special place with slot car builders... It has been done for like 50 years now.
Basically you solder a 1/32 brass rod into a slot headed screw and it creates a plausible-from-a-distance gas cap filler. The screw threads actually let you spin in into the styrene body, and adjust the 'stand off'' as you see fit.
I still have to blow this all apart - paint it up, add some details, clear the body/decals, and add inserts, but it is coming along...
Works for me and it is a nod to *slot car tradition*.