The 197? John Player Special Racing Team

[PR19_Kit]

Champing at the bit here, I've been wondering how that trailer will look for YEARS!

Scalpel, files, sanding block, styrene glue and tape at the ready. 

[zenrat]

Wrong metaphor mate.

"Spinning your tyres" would be more appropriate.



4 hours 45 minutes to go here...

[PR19_Kit]

4 hours 45 minutes to go here...

What? 

That means you Antipodean guys will have a head start on us in the west. It'll be like a HUGE handicap built into the Christmas Tree!

[The Christmas Tree is a drag racing reference, the rest of you don't worry if you don't understand it, Fred surely will]

[PR19_Kit]

So help me, I'm going to wait till it's past midnight tonight (Not that that's unusual in my case...) and start on the trailer then.

Maybe post the initial pics in the morning?

[jcf]

4 hours 45 minutes to go here...

What? 

That means you Antipodean guys will have a head start on us in the west. It'll be like a HUGE handicap built into the Christmas Tree!

[The Christmas Tree is a drag racing reference, the rest of you don't worry if you don't understand it, Fred surely will]

And you have one over folks in North America, especially us out here on the
West Coast.

Start and end times are local, not Greenwich. 

[PR19_Kit]

Start and end times are local, not Greenwich. 

Around these parts now, local times ARE Greenwich. 

[PR19_Kit]

At round 0010 this morning I started on the trailer for the JPS Team. 

I'm not sure whether to start a new thread for each part of the JPS Team, or have the whole lot in here, but for now the trailer build will be in this thread.

This thing is HUGE! When all the parts of the floor were glued together it's almost 23" long! And that's without the tailgate attached too. It's very cleverly designed but some parts don't fit too well, there's a well in the floor for a spare wheel, but try as I might I can't get the lid to fit in the closed position so I'm going to glue it closed later on. There's no way you can see when the roof's on anyway.



The wheels plug on and off the axles, very clever. 




Here's all the main bits for the trailer with a Revell Contacta tube for a size reference..............

The bit at the top is the roof, and it has a 6-7 piece engine hoist glued in place! I haven't figured out how it works yet, and I'm not even sure you'll be able to see it when the whole thing's complete either, but it's there.

I'm not quite sure how I'll glue those long sides on because the glue thread might have dried at one end before I get to the other! 

[zenrat]

Ooh, there's more to it than I thought.

[PR19_Kit]

I've taped the sides on to see what goes where now, and the big side door actually hinges open and clips into place along the sides! 

And guess what? The engine hoist slides out through the open door, AND the spare wheel well and hatch is just inside that door too! The hatch still won't fit though. 

[zenrat]

Spare wheel well?
Or contraband hidey hole when returning from continental race meets...

[PR19_Kit]

Spare wheel well?
Or contraband hidey hole when returning from continental race meets...

Hehehehe, you could well be right there, having read about some of Mr Chapman's 'external activities! 

I've figured out how to glue the sides on, glue one end and just tape the other end to position it. When the first end's dry untape the 2nd end, bend it away and glue that end with the aid of the Contacta's handy nozzle.

At least that's the theory............... 

[jcf]

My preference when doing long assemblies is to spot-weld
with the thicker glue using a dot of glue every inch to inch
and a half or so, and then run liquid glue down the join. It
mixes with the thicker glue and the join is tight and
strong.

[PR19_Kit]

I use a similar method already, using Contacta for the first run and then re-energising it with a brushful of MekPak along the join afterwards. It was certainly essential with this monster!

I've got both sides and ends on now, with LOTS of tape to hold it all in place while it sets, and I'm going to leave the roof off for a bit as it'll need painting inside and I need to ensure the race cars will fit properly.

It has a couple of sliding jacks at the front end to support it when it's not attached to the fifth wheel and they're a nice tight fit so they really DO support it. Very good engineering, I'm impressed.





I'll move onto one of the other vehicles now, I'm just not sure which at the moment! 

[Rheged]

Please could you leave a 12" ruler or 50p piece or standard house brick beside the trailer the next time you photograph it? Thank you! Without a reference point I'm not sure whether you are doing micro-surgery or heavy engineering (although I suspect the latter)  Whichever it is, it's looking most interesting. 

Sorry, cancel this, I missed the contacta  unit in an earlier pic.   But it's still VERY interesting

[PR19_Kit]

Like Fred Zenrat I tend to start off a model car build by gluing the engine together as it gives you the basis for clearances in the body shell, as well as tending to affect the wheelbase and track of the finished car.

So I started on the Ford GT40 engine that's going into the Transit tow truck. I've built maybe 2-3 of the original IMC GT40s, but I'd totally forgotten that the kit comes with parts to make the exotic DOHC Ford 255 Indy engine as well as the stock 289 V8. The re-popped Testors kit comes with those parts too, but they don't get mentioned in the instructions.

Having caught sight of them I thought WTH, let's go for it, totally ignoring the fact that an engine designed for the Indy 500 would be TOTALLY unsuitable for towing a gert great trailer with two race cars aboard! But it looks so cool with those 8 injectors sticking out at 45 degrees and the serpentine exhaust..... 

On which subject, Testors totally ignore the exhausts, even for the stock engine. 

The parts are there, both for the 289 and the 255, but there's no mention of them nor is there any diagram showing them. How stupid is that?

Here's the 255 before I've added any bits, pieces or greebles.