Lotus 29 Indy Car

[Gluebomber]

This is the old 1/25 MPC Lotus 29 from the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame 3-kit set. It represents Jimmy Clark's Second Place finisher in the 1963 Indy 500.

I detailed the engine and cockpit, and added the IndyCals resin corrected nose, windscreen, and tires. Paint is Tamiya Racing Green decanted and airbrushed with IndyCals decals.

There are some things I'm still not happy with. The rear engine cover does not fit well and the injector stacks are a bit too tall. If I ever find some better intakes, I'l switch them out and try to fix the engine cover at the same time. For now, though, I'm calling it done!

Any comments, positive or negative, are welcome. Thanks for looking!

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Harry P.]

Beautifully done and super clean! I like it.

[afx]

Very nice. My initial impression was that the offset of the front wheels are too deep but I just did a quick internet search and your build matches the car in the Speedway's museum. Good job.

 

Edited August 19, 2015 by afx

[cobraman]

Nice work !

[Prince Ital Mike]

Wow, beautiful build!!!

[Greg Myers]

Yep, Lotus, You nailed it Larry.

[o-man]

Awesome!

[Duntov]

Very nice work --- clean and crisp modeling and great photos!!!

[Speedfreak]

Very nice Larry, looks pristine. Did you use solder for the main header tubes? They look like metal. And the tires are incredible too, whole thing is nice.

[Apriliadan]

Beautiful

[slusher]

Awesome build...

[Art Anderson]

Very nice indeed! However, it was AMT who produced that kit, first released in May 1964 (4 years before MPC released their first Indy car model--the 1967 STP Turbine).

Art

[Danno]

Excellent replica of an iconic Indy car!

[Phildaupho]

Incredibly well done build. Congratulations.

[Gluebomber]

Thanks for the kind comments, Guys.

Gene, the exhaust headers are just the kit parts painted with Metalizer (Titanium, I think). The tires are part of the IndyCals transkit and are a huge improvement over the kit tires. They come in white resin and the ones on this model are painted in Tamiya gloss black acrylic, decaled, and sprayed with satin acrylic.

Thanks for clarifying the heritage on the kit, Art. I knew AMT was involved, but didn't know at what point.

[RancheroSteve]

Wow, that is just an excellent build of a difficult kit! Those Indycals parts really bump it up a notch.

[Nacho Z]

Fantastic!!

[Miatatom]

The Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame 3-kit set.

I've got that one in my stash. Hate to hear that it's difficult. What problems did you have besides the engine cover and stacks, Larry?

[bbowser]

Excellent replica of an iconic Indy car!

The beginning of the end for the venerable roadsters. Excellent work, great model!

[Gluebomber]

Thanks again for the kind words.

Tom, the kit isn't hard to build, but just lacks a lot of detail. If I had to use the kit tires, I wouldn't have built it - they're that bad. There are lots of chrome plated parts that need to be stripped and pained with the correct metallic colors. The engine placement is a little vague, so make sure you do a lot of test fitting because where the engine sits determines where the rear suspension ends up. The rear springs look pretty bad so I made some new ones from aluminum wire. Don't bother with the front ones because they're inside the front bodywork. If you can find a replacement for the seat, you may want to use it. The one in the kit is pretty weak. I had an extra one from the Olsonite Eagle kit and used that one.

I don't have any connection with IndyCals, but if you want to build this kit, I'd consider getting their detail set. The parts are well done and the decals are a huge improvement over the ones in the kit.

Hope that helps.

[drodg]

Very good job. I love the old Lotus race cars from Indy and F1

[Ridgeback]

Really nice.