11 replies to this topic

[don.siegel]

The French slot car manufacturer PSK (Proto Slot Kit) is rolling out a new chassis kit especially for converting all types of 1/43 cars to slot cars! Even Dinky and other diecasts!

The unusual thing is that the chassis is made of sintered polyamide, made using 3D printing - all parts are "printed" on a single sprue. These will of course fit smaller 1/32 cars as well, and a special version is being developed for 1/32 F1 cars... Here are a couple photos of the possibilities.

Minimum wheelbase is 47.5mm and maximum is 74.5mm - rear wheels can be as small as 15mm. They're developing their own turned aluminum wheels too, as well as plastic versions.

















More info at the Proto-Slot-Kit website.

Don

[Marty Stanley]

Don,

Very nice indeed.

I have a few 1/43 stuff sitting around that whenever my grandkids come over, we spend a lot of time enjoying ourselves with them.

Now, I am a firm believer in the fact that slot car chassis should be constructed of brass and wire. I feel the best kit is available from K&S Engineering.

I see you posted the minimum wheelbase at 1.870 inches and the max at 2.945 inches. Converting that to 1/24th says that chassis can be adjusted to fit anything from 3.750 to 4.5 inches (1/24 scale wheelbases). That is very nice.

What is the typical track setup?

This has probably been asked more than once, but I've never seen anything stated about 1/43 rules with regards to wheelbase, track, and such. There are a lot of newly-developed items out there for this scale. With gasoline at its present level, this might be where many of us do our racing at in the near future - on home tracks. The footprint of a 165 foot Engleman works out to about a 10 x 25 footprint. Make it just a bit shorter and a four-lane raceway can fit in a lot of garages!

I'm liking it more and more.

[Lloyd Lewis]

Thanks, Don. I have always wanted a Howmet. I shall have a look at the PSK site now.

Regards,

Lloyd

[chaparrAL]

How sturdy is sintered polyamide?

Three D printers and the materials they use are very very expensive. Its most commonly used to make one off patterns for "lost" type investment casting.

Cool-looking stuff!

[don.siegel]

Speaking of 1/32 small car converstions... here's an Arii Honda S600 kit motorized with the PY43 chassis:





To answer a few of your questions:

- The wheels as used on this Honda and some of the other cars are 11mm in diameter.

- Minimum diameter of front tires for car to touch and roll: 14mm

- Max. front axle diameter is 2mm

- No magnet.

- The price of the chassis won't change - they're produced in small quantities, not mass produced in China.

- A number of drivers competing in the 24 hour Davic race at the Paris area club SCIF this weekend tried the cars with diecast bodies and were very impressed by their driveability, similar to sensations in 1/32.

- In fact, 3D printing has become much more affordable, both materials and machines, although the one used here is an industrial model. They are also increasingly used for manufacturing and not just for fast prototyping purposes.

- You can use these on any kind of track, from regular Scalextric to Carrera Go, or even old Jouef track, very popular here in France!


Cheers,
Don

[MrWeiler]

Hi Don:

Who makes the Howmet body?

[don.siegel]

It's a fully-assembled resin kit under the Bizarre brand, which is part of Spark. (hope those names mean something to you, they don't to me! I assume they're European/French companies, but I'm not too familiar with the 1/43 diecast/resin world).

Don

[stoo23]

Hey! Thanks for 'posting' that info... Very interesting.

I had/have been aware of both Spark Models and Bizarre, for a while now, as a friend was looking for a couple of particular cars that No one else made... I had found them quite by accident doing some lengthy web crawling... as one often does... LOL.

Spark have made, as they put it many cars... "from the Back of the Grid", often ignored by the larger 1/43 scale manufacturers.
The cars my friend purchased were certainly nice examples and I also agree, that Howmet looks great!! I'm sure John D AKA Howmet TX would be interested in that Howmet!!!

As to 3D printers... if you do a bit of 'Googling' using say "3D Printer Plans" or similar, you will find an absolute wealth of material relating to plans/kits/designs/software and parts to set about making your own... if you are so inclined.

I guess one couldn't really describe them as really cheap as such... but can certainly be built for far less than what one would imagine and far less than any commercial machines.
Here are a few 'links' that may be of interest to any budding scratchbuilding home engineers! LOL!

As an example, the BotmIll 'Glider III', is US$1,395.00, I believe!!

http://weburbanist.c...rinter-designs/

http://makerbot.com/

http://www.fabathome...title=Main_Page

http://www.botmill.com/

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

That should 'whet' one's appetite on 3D printers... LOL.

Spark Models

BizarreModel

Cheers.

[TSR]

The 1/43 scale PSK c\hassis will soon be available in the USA from their exclusive distributor, your sponsor, Electric Dreams.

[MrWeiler]

Hey! Thanks for 'posting' that info... Very interesting.

I had/have been aware of both Spark Models and Bizarre, for a while now, as a friend was looking for a couple of particular cars that No one else made... I had found them quite by accident doing some lengthy web crawling... as one often does... LOL.

Spark have made, as they put it many cars... "from the Back of the Grid", often ignored by the larger 1/43 scale manufacturers.
The cars my friend purchased were certainly nice examples and I also agree, that Howmet looks great!! I'm sure John D AKA Howmet TX would be interested in that Howmet!!!


Cheers.

Hi:
Did you bookmark a link?

[don.siegel]

Here are a couple of links that Chris from PSK sent me, about converting a "Cochon Rose" (pink pig) Porsche, a little diecast sold at newsstands, with the new PY43 chassis and how it runs on the track in a youtube clip.
Don

http://www.proto-slo...g43_cochon.html

[MG Brown]

IIRC- there are two versions of the Bizarre 1/43 Howmet TX:

Bz048 LM68 #23



Bz049 LM68 #22



Basic differences are the deco near as I can tell.

Do note that they were released in 2007 and may be hard to locate.