68 replies to this topic

[Martin]

I wish I could let you hear the sound of that flat 6, pure music.

 

We here are on lock down so maybe its a good time to carve a Genie body, I never did think the Revell version was great. Too high and the scoops on the top of the front fenders were only ever on one car driven by Don Wester.

Funny how the Revell guys would take pictures in the pits then go back and model that specific car #60

I showed my Revell car to Joe Sr, and he named the guy he sold it too in1965ish, Remember he is now 90 years old.

Great shots of the car in this post. I do wonder if Don is getting lapped by the Chappys? Good company though, for a short while. 

 

http://slotblog.net/...sis-genie-ford/

[strummer]

Martin

 

The subject of that "genie-ford" discussion is mentioned as a Revell; I thought that company made exclusively "hard bodies", yet the car in those photos looks like a thin, "Lexan" type...? In any case, it's quite a nice looking model... 

 

Mark in Oregon

[don.siegel]

Mark, 

 

Revell did a whole series of 1/24 cars with vac-formed bodies later in life, using two different "asymmetrical" chassis, first in brass and then quickly in aluminum. Same old 36D motors, and the later ones have some very nice cast wheels. 

 

Let's see, if memory serves: Genie, Lotus 30, Chaparral, Ford GT and Ford GT Roadster... Available both in very nice kits, in square boxes with a transparent hard plastic cover, and also as RTRs in small cardboard boxes. 

 

If I didn't miss anything, those were the only non hard-plastic bodies made by Revell, who also did its own line of vac-formed bodies and they're some of the nicer ones out there. 

 

Don 

[strummer]

Thanks Don

 

I did not know that...obviously....

 

More stuff to look for. I've never been a fan of "vac-formed" bodies, but that one looks really nice.

 

Mark in Oregon

[don.siegel]

Here's a quick look at their RTR Ford GT-40 roadster. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MattD]

Lola T70, too.

[strummer]

"Speak of the devil"...a Lotus 30: 

 

 

...current eBay listing; described as  a "1966" release.

 

I guess in the very short timeframe of '60s slot cars, 1966 would be "later in life", just as Don said. 

 

Mark in Oregon

 

 

 

 

[MSwiss]

Wow, look at those wheels.

 

I remember back in the the day, I thought those cars had a real nice presentation.

[Martin]

A long with those nice cast wheels Mike,their metallic paint colors are fantastic looking on those Revell RTRs

 

We will get you up to speed on soft bodies Mark. There are some really nice models out there. They are not so thin by the way, and are made of Butyrate. A great material for detail but not used today as it been replaced with Lexan and PETG. 

 

You do not have to give up detail e.g. this Russkit Lotus 40.

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[strummer]

Wow...

 

I never would have guessed that is a "soft body"; especially with the add-on details. It even has a recessed cockpit! 

 

I think that's the thing that has always turned me off about them: the molded on details look...well, not realistic.

 

This is beautiful; thanks for showing it.  

 

Mark in Oregon

[MSwiss]

A long with those nice cast wheels Mike,their metallic paint colors are fantastic looking on those Revell RTRs

I was going to mention the metallic paint until the clearer picture of the awesome wheels was posted.

While, these days, we'd probably more appreciate the correct color of the real car, back when we were 12 or 13, those metallic colors really caught our eye.

[Martin]

Mike,

these are not mine, but they do illustrate some of the beautiful paint they had back then. Its like a one step candy. You can see the gold in the color especially in the green and red. Take a look at the inside sometime.

Not sure how they got such good results in a production setting.

Funny how colors connect us to memories.

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[strummer]

Mike,

these are not mine, but they do illustrate some of the beautiful paint they had back then. Its like a one step candy. You can see the gold in the color especially in the green and red. Take a look at the inside sometime.

Not sure how they got such good results in a production setting.

Funny how colors connect us to memories.

 

So true. Smells, too.

 

Example: one of the (many) uncles on my mother's side had a big set-up in the basement of his house. This was in Connecticut, before 1964.

 

I would have been 6 or 7 at the most, so I have very little recollection of it. I remember only a couple of things: the room was fairly dark; the cars were pretty large (so I would have to guess they were 1/24); the track was a light color, so I bet it was wood; us kids weren't allowed to touch anything and there was an odd, warm oder to that place. I know what heating oil smells like, and it wasn't that same oder, so I can only guess it was the oil they were using on the cars. 

 

 When the new freeway was being built, that house was right where the on ramp was going to go, so the place was sold and torn down. I know that set-up didn't re-appear in their new house, so I can only guess it went to the dump (as we called it back then) along with the rest of the structure.

 

Thinking about it now, I can almost re-create that strong smell; and in doing so, can "see" that set-up in my mind's eye. What I wouldn't give for a couple of photographs...

 

Mark (now) in Oregon

[don.siegel]

You're so right Mark... when I started collecting, the first photo of an Aurora box of track brought back the smell of opening a new box back in 63-64, very strongly! 

 

There was actually a pioneering 1/24 track in Connecticut, that would be quite a coincidence if it was your uncle! Can't find the photo from the first US book on the subject, but the only name given is Bob Fennelly. They used contact strips of printer's lead lining the slots as contacts... And I found a couple of cars that may have been from that track or a similar one, with "feelers" that must have picked up the current inside the slot. 

 

Don 

[strummer]

Hello again Don. 

 

That would be a heck of a coincidence...my uncle's name was Walter Peck.

 

At his "new" house (which was also an old colonial) he and his brothers set up in a separate garage to build and run a "stock car"...which at that time, was just an old 30s(?) vintage car, cut down and made into what we might call a "jalopy".

 

They were never very successful in that endeavor...yet when we would gather for our big Memorial Day picnic and listen to the "500" on the radio, they would stand around and make comments about those REAL drivers as if they were equals!  

 

Mark in Oregon

[don.siegel]

Great story Mark. 

 

I had an uncle kind of like that... except that he was a psychiatrist, and sometimes talked like he was a close colleague of Freud and Jung... 

 

Don 

 

PS: didn't find my photos Mark, but did find my post on another forum: 

https://www.slotforu...ers#entry692521

[strummer]

Cool...

 

I will have to re-read that book now, and with a renewed interest. Thanks for that link! 

 

I suppose early modelers coming out of Connecticut should come as no surprise: that state was, after all, the gun and clock making capital of the country, so it had a history of "tinkering". In fact, my Mom was born (and her family lived) in Thomaston (home of Seth's factory) and I was born in Waterbury, which also produced beautiful clocks.

 

I can remember our Dad taking us out "night-crawling" (fishing bait): we would go to the village green (at night, of course) next to the big Seth Thomas factory. The light from the clock tower would give us just enough illumination to see, but not so much to where it would frighten the worms!

 

I'm sorry; what does that have to do with MPC Scarabs...or "genies"...or...?     

 

Mark in Oregon

 

 

Mark in Oregon

 

 

[MattD]

I like those metallic and candy colors on the old vac bodies like Revell, K&B, BZ and others.     I like close replicas but I use a lot of one off paints on some of them, just because the colors are so pretty.          

 

Those colors jump out at you under a 30 thou layer of clear plastic!!

 

 

 

 

[Martin]

As a young teenager I saw this color( not the car) at the track and always wanted a car painted the same color.

 

As for smells, I will never forget walking into a big commercial raceway and getting a waft of Oil of wintergreen and electric ozone. Opening my old slot box still takes me back to that place.

 

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[MattD]

 

Martin the yellow candy in the metalcast series gives that 60's look if it backed by gold metallic.   

 

I love those paints.

 

The gold Cheetah  is a Cox body put together from two broken bodies.  It is sprayed with abase of Testors gold and then the yellow metalcast and a bit of clear over that.    The blue is Metalcast backed by silver and the red is backed by silver.   

 

[Martin]

Nice selection of colors. I will have to give them a try.

 

Forgot to say, the Cheetah Beetah looks amazing by the way  

[strummer]

An update on this particular model.

 

This stuff arrived today! 

 

 

 

An eBay seller had listed these, and made me (what I think was) a good deal on both.

 

I'm planning on swapping out the bodies and keeping the complete car "stock"; if I can ever find another windscreen I will attempt to paint the other in a "realistic" color scheme.

 

This is a very different set-up from what little 1/24 I've seen; what with the curved chassis and motor built specifically for it...no "36" can here! It's in need of rear tires, so if you guys have any suggestions for this particular model, I'm all ears.

 

Anyway, I'm pleased to have able to get one (and a half   ) of these, as I always thought they were rather cool looking; in an odd sort of way.

 

Mark in Oregon

[Ramcatlarry]

Tires....one nice thing about the MPC is their tires are a good rubber.  I have found them (OEM wheels and tires) over the years to be good drivers as well as display.

[Martin]

Mark,keep the white stripe, it is factory.

[don.siegel]

The cars also came with a choice of tires: sponge or something called "Grun Rader", which were a sort of silicone. 

 

This was MPC's first production model and it looks like they sold a lot of them! They also called it the "world's fastest production slot car" when it came out... 

 

Don