Fast Friday: End of an Era

This isn’t a record for the longest it ever took me to finish a model, but it was a long time. More than two years. I have GOT to pick up the pace!

Earlier this week I finally finished this, A.J. Foyt’s 1964 Indianapolis 500 winning Watson roadster. The basis is the venerable AMT Watson roadster kit. After that, a lot was added and done:

• Lance Sellers’ 1964 Watson conversion set. This supplied the nose, and the main part of the body around the cockpit and the rear, as well as the wheels and tires.
• Indycals decals. Both the main livery and all those dzus fasteners you see. Highly recommended.
• Cockpit rebuild: the black and white checker pattern on the seat is a decal, the seatbelts feature photo etch buckles. I also redid the instrument panel with photoetch gauge bezels.
• Paint I think is Testors pearl white with Tamiya Italian Red.

The 1964 500 was one of mixed emotions. It featured many accidents, including the horrific Sachs-MacDonald crash in the early stages. In the end, the day belonged to Foyt. It was a bittersweet win, though, and marked the end of an era: it was the last time a front-engine car would win the 500.

Fast Friday: A.J. Foyt 1987 Oldsmobile

Yes, it’s true: I actually finished a model.

Here is A.J. Foyt’s 1987 Oldsmobile. This one had been on the bench for a long time, certainly longer than the 10 laps the car actually lasted in the Daytona 500. He started 41^st and finished 42^nd after a spark plug failure. Foyt did go on to run five more races that season, but only finished one of them. Still, not bad for a guy 52 years old at that point.

This model fought me quite a bit. And created a mystery when I went to install the right side of the chassis, and noticed everything forward of the firewall was flat out missing. I could have sworn it was there when I started. I ended up pulling one off of an old early 80s Monte Carlo glue bomb I had. The most frustrating moment, though, had to be at the very end. First I noticed some wrinkling of the decals after putting on a coat of Future, and then after I put in the windshield with “safe” glue, a small drop seeped out and lifted the paint on the cowling! Grrr. It almost hit the wall at that point. But, some careful masking, airbrushing and polishing and it’s close enough.

I also think the headlight buckets and wheels are wrong for this car (I think they should be five-hole wheels), but I just needed to clear it off the bench. Monogram kit (the Wynn’s Kmart car) with Testors lacquer paint (Chevy engine orange) and Powerslide decals.