113 replies to this topic

[n.elmholt]

Rick,
 
Most resin bodies like the Fisher are very heavy and not att all suited for (racing) slot cars. You can mill them out to get them lighter, but then they become very fragile.  :-(  But Fisher makes some very nice kits and they deserves to be raced. :-)
 
I am currently building a similar project, a Lotus 11 based on the Profil 24 kit
 
1/24 Scuderia Long 1958/59 Lotus 11
 
Niels

[Dale B.]

Those are great-looking drivers; I saved that site.

[dc-65x]

Most resin bodies like the Fisher are very heavy and not at all suited for (racing) slot cars. You can mill them out to get them lighter, but then they become very fragile...

 
I'm looking forward to weighing the Fisher body when it arrives. I'll be comparing it to my period Auto Hobbies fiberglass Ferrari Testarossa. If it's close then it's OK for me. Since the original fiberglass bodies (especially in 1/24) are quite scarce, I'm thinking of this project as if it were a period fiberglass bodied car.
 
As for being suited for racing... I guess I was spoiled by the vintage racing we used to do at Slot Car Junction in South San Francisco. We all wanted to win but everyone treated each others cars with respect. No one would pass a slower car by knocking it out of the way. In fact, the slower car would usually slow down on a straight and allow the faster car to pass. Sure, crashes can happen but they were NOT the norm.
 
Anyway, it really doesn't matter for me here. There is no vintage racing here, just some hot laps on my track when the fun of building is done.

[endbelldrive]

One thought that keeps popping up in my head is to treat this build as if it was a fiberglass Auto Hobbies or Braverman body from back in the day.

Same here. I've got a 1/24 Lister Jag on the workbench and thinking Revell RP-77 and a nice-looking set of bevel gears along with the late 1963, early 1964 chassis idea.

[dc-65x]

Nice, Bob! I'd love to see that project.

Consider one of these DRIVERS before you start anything. The details nearly paint themselves.
 
I've been a big fan for a while.

 
Okie-dokie, Jairus. I ordered the '60s GP driver, the short sleeve torso, 5'0s drivers heads, and Fangio (late) heads.
 
With all these body parts I feel like Dr. Frankenstein... or is that Frankensteen?
 

[Jairus]

"No, it's pronounced "Fronkensteen."
(Remember, you started it.)

You won't be disappointed with the figures.

I found the arms to be cast really too long and took me a while to understand that this was on purpose to allow cutting and re-positioning.

[n.elmholt]

Profil24 has a great vintage driver:

Figurine pilote année 50, 1/24

[Jairus]

Here's a link to Patto's for the needed decals.

Get two so you can do that hood bulge in multiple pieces. And... get yourself some Walthers Solvaset, too.
 
Patto's Place
 

[beardogracing]

I've been building resin cars for years.

Scrub it with bathroom cleanser, rough the surface with fine sandpaper, wash again in soap and water, and prime with Tamiya white primer. Use Tamiya paints. See resin Lotus 24 below.

Rick, for you it should be simple!

And yes that's an Immense Miniatures Jimmy driving.
 
Easy peazy, and use Immense Miniatures drivers. Sorry, Niels, they're better. 
 

[dc-65x]

Thanks, Jairus. I have Micro Set and Micro Sol decal solutions. Do you like to use the Walthers Solvaset better?
 
Nice car, Chris. That's the color I was trying for with my last vac body build. Thanks for the vote of confidence, too.
 
Order update from from Fisher Model & Pattern!
 
Your order number 624 at Fisher Model & Pattern has been updated.
 
Order status: Completed
 
WHEEEE!!!!!!

[beardogracing]

Hi Rick,

 

I don't know if Tamiya will work on old clear bodies, but Tamiya Racing Green in their TS line of paints was specially formulated from a real Lotus 25 living in Japan, for their 1/20 kit of a Lotus 25.

 

Tamiya TS-43

 

Nice Lotus, by-the-way.

 

Chris

[munter]

Good to see you have made a move to resin, Rick. Knowing your standard of work I will not be surprised to see wonderful results.

 

I have been a resin fan for the last two years... in fact I have become obsessed by it... casting in 1/32 that is.

[dc-65x]

The resin has arrived.

 

 

Here are the goodies in "da box":

 

 

The first thing I wanted to know is the weight. Would it be comparable to a '60s fiberglass body? It came in at 43 grams:

 

 

Next up was an eBay find, an Auto Hobbies Lister Jag:

 

 

47 grams! OK, we in the ballpark for weight. I can proceed as if I'm recreating a vintage fiberglass body build.

[endbelldrive]

Yah! Look at those curves!

[n.elmholt]

Current fibreglass bodies weighs from 9-20 grams.

 

But if it not for a hardcore racer, the weight does not matter that much.

 

Our DSV bodies weighs 15-18 grams before paint, etc.  :-)

 

Niels

[dc-65x]

Hi Niels,

 

As usual I'm playing in the past.     I'm trying to do a hardcore racer alright... but a recreation of racer from around 1964. The Fisher body seems to be an appropriate weight for that period.

[n.elmholt]

Rick, I like that approach, but if you ever want lighter alternatives, give me a call. :-)

 

I don't like the 9-10 gram bodies as they are too fragile, but the 15 - max 20 gram bodies I make to our Danish 1965-1971 touring cars are fine. :-)

With a 130 gram minimum weight you get very good-handling cars that are great fun and very competetive to drive. :-)

 

Niels :-)

[munter]

That Fisher kit looks great.

 

Wrong scale for me but I believe I can recognise quality resin bodies when I see them.

 

What is that cylinder that sits/lies on the bonnet... er hood of this model Cunningham?

 

Nice box, too.

[dc-65x]

What is that cylinder that sits/lies on the bonnet... er hood of this model Cunningham?

 

 
Hey John.

 

My Fisher instruction sheet calls it an "oil cooler housing".

 

I love all the scoops, louvers, velocity stacks, side pipes, and assorted lumps and bumps on the old race cars.

[dc-65x]

Parts from not only the USA but Great Britian and France have showed up. It's time to "get her done"... I hope!
 
Rather than trying to build an exact scale "motorized model", I'm going to try and build a what I thought of in the day as a "slot racer". I will try to pay homage to the real prototype.
 
 OK, here goes.
 
For wheels and tires I dug around and found some that I think will work out. The prototype had 16" wheels and, I believe, the same size skinny tires front and rear. A 1/24 scale 16" wheel  would measure about .729" (16" + 1 1/2" = 17 1/2" X .04167).
 
The front wheels I have that came closest were these K&B's that measure .715". The tires are Russkit Dunlop fronts. They are going to be a bit smaller in diameter than the rears by about 1/16":
 

 
For the rears I'm using Russkit drag set screw wheels that will need to modified and Russkit Dunlop rear tires... actually a silicone or urethane version. Here are the original parts:
 

 
The drag wheels need to be machined to match the K&B fronts. Below the stock wheel is in the middle. The K&B is on the right. The modified Russkit is on the left:
 

 
I've had good luck with Ortmann's Russkit rears but could not find them in the US. Luckily, Regis came to my rescue:
 

Nice work again.

For the tyres:

Ortmann Tyres

 
Ordering from RS Slot Racing in Great Britian was quick and easy. I'll be using them again. Thanks, Regis!
 
I also tried some urethane tires from France that are listed on eBay. Below the original Russkit tire is on the left. The Ortmann is in the middle and the French tire is on the right:
 

 
The French tire is nicely injection molded rather than cast. It is a bit larger in diameter and lacks the sidewall lettering of the original. It's also super soft and sticky.
 
For power I've decided on an inline open frame motor, a Pittman DC77-6:
 

 
This motor will allow me to fit a dashboard, steering wheel, and an upper torso driver figure. More on that nightmare later.
 
I have two of these motors, both new in the package. Unfortunately, both look like grunt with moisture or humidity damage. Some Pittman's come out of the box and look like the day they were made and some look like this:
 

 
I'll need to use the motor to build the chassis so I'll try and make her "purdy" after the chassis is done:
 

 
Time to start mocking up the car in my second "Rick's" jig:
 

 
The wheels and tires are set at the korrect track width and wheelbase. The motor is centered between jig pins, its front is sitting on a 1/16" spacer and its centered up with the rear axle by my alignment gizmo.
 
Next up, I've got to get the dashboard, steering wheel, and driver nightmare solved... 

[don.siegel]

Nice, Rick. It's great following your thought process on this, but please let us know that it takes more time to make these decisions on wheels, tires, motor, etc., than seems to be the case when the photos all pop up. 

 

I know that I spend lonely evenings combing through my endless boxes (hey, catchy song title!) looking for the "mot juste" - I mean the "right part". 

 

The Vintage Police approve of your choice of motor and wheels! We have our doubts about the resin body... but it sure is pretty! 

 

I use those K&B wheels for a lot of '50s and early '60s cars, they seem to be about right, although probably a bit smaller and wider than the actual ones. On the rear wheels, aren't the regular Russkit road tires way to small for the dragster wheels? Yes, I know they probably stretch... 

 

Carry on slotting!

 

Don 

[dc-65x]

The Vintage Police approve of your choice of motor and wheels! We have our doubts about the resin body... but it sure is pretty!

 
I know Don, I'd give plenty to have some of those "Heavenly" fiberglass 1/24 bodies shown below. Thanks to Steve Okeefe for the scans. Below is also a link to his posting of the entire magazine article:
 
Heavenly Bodies 6311
 

 

 
So resin kits and model kits will have to satisfy my vintage building needs...
 

On the rear wheels, aren't the regular Russkit road tires way to small for the dragster wheels? Yes, I know they probably stretch...

 
Now you've got the red flags waving on that one.   The vintage rubber Russkit tires stretch over the drag wheels just fine. Here they are along with one of the resin kit wheels and tires:
 

 
BUT, will the silicone and urethane tires stretch or... BREAK.    Now that I have them in hand I'd better find out...

[dc-65x]

My overstretching the silicone tire and breaking it scare turned out OK. I buttered up the wheel and tire with "flow-able silicone windshield and glass sealer". The tire slipped right on and with the lubricity of the uncured sealer, centered up great.

 

Next up, I wanted to get a driver figure temporarily fitted to make sure it wouldn't interfere with the mechanical components. This is the look I'm after:

 

 

It's a Bill Sippel (Auto Hobbies founder) built car I have that was featured in the 11/63 issue of Model Car Science Magazine. A full driver upper torso with arms flailing and grasping a full steering wheel inseted into a dashboard. This car uses a rather rare Strombecker driver. Rather than use up one of the few originals I have I thought would use a resin replica driver in my resin replica body:

 

 

I decided to use the "Short Sleeve Torso" and the "Fangio (Late) Heads".

 

Here's a link:

 

Immenseminiatures.com

 

Putting all these body parts together so they correctly grabbed a dashboard mounted steering wheel... while placing the driver at a somewhat correct height in the cockpit proved to be, well, a nightmare for this "troubled modeler"!   

 

I had to shorten arms and re-angle the arm to torso attachment points and finally (six hours later ) ended up with this little dude:

 

 

Drilling the hole for the dudes neck was also not much fun. The piano wire hoop will be epoxied to the underside of the body leaving an "open cockpit" look like Bill Sippel's car above:

 

 

Here's the mock-up in my Rick's set-up jig:

 

 

Next up is my favorite part... the chassis. 

[SlotStox#53]

Sweet! Looks like it's sweeping round the corners with the rear sliding, just standing still

Those driver figures are neat. 

[munter]

Thanks for the reply, Rick.The mock-up is looking great.

 

The vents, ducts, louvres, bumps, lumps, and curves sure are one of the main attractions of these older race cars.

 

I hadn't heard of the Fisher brand before reading your thread. Have you looked at the 1/24 Top Slot resin bodies?