In 1994 Tamiya released it’s one & only 1/20 scale Indy car, and just to make it even more “interesting” they decided to make it as a Snap-Tite kit. I guess that the whole idea was that the model would appeal to a greater range of casual modelers, and even Auto Racing enthusiasts. Since this was the only Indy car they modeled, I guess that their concept didn’t hold true.
Since it was Tamiya’s 1st Indy car model, why 1993? Well for starters, Indy car was a United States regional series, so it didn’t have much of a world wide following like F1 did. But that all changed in 1993 when Nigel Mansell, the current 1992 F1 world champion, left F1 and signed to drive for the Newman Haas Indy Car Team paired up with and other former F1 World champion, Mario Andretti, as son Michael Andretti left the team to drive for Mclaren in F1. So now the Indy 500 would have fans watching the race from all over the world where available. Mansell didn’t disappoint by leading a good part of the race, but miscued on a late yellow restart, and Penske driver Emmo Fittipaldi past him to win the race while Mansell finished an amazing 3rd. while Luyendyk finished 2nd. Even with all the interest in Indy car racing world wide now, the model kit wasn’t a great success. Perhaps it was the Snap-Tite concept, but who really knows.
I’ve always shied away from any and all kits that were Snap-Tite for a number of valid and not so valid reasons. I procrastinated for years about buying this kit, and even after reading mostly favorable reviews, continued to find reasons to pass it up. Finally, a deal came my way that I just couldn’t pass up the kit any longer. The kit comes in two versions: the Oval version and the road course version. My kit is the Oval version. What I didn’t want to do was either of the Newman Haas cars as I was saving that scheme for the road course version in 1/25 scale. So I opted for the Foyt Copenhagen car driven by another personal favorite: Robby Gordon. Paint is by Gravity of Spain while the decals are by Indy Cal.
I just noticed that I posted the correct picture for Gordon’s #41 car, but the wrong decal sheet as it’s for the #14 car of AJ Foyt.
For the 1st time in literally years, I’ve taken time off from modeling since my Ford Cobra was completed several weeks ago as I’m once again dealing with Retina issues. As my sight stabilized, and I’ve not got a new pair of bi-f0cals, plus computer glasses that really do help, I’m back at the bench. So out came the Indy Ford Lola 93/00 from my still small but ever growing stash.
As per my usual work flow, I like to start with the body and chassis from construction through painting, decaling, glossing, and polsih/wax. Right from the start I had to make some decisions as to exactly how I wanted to display the Lola. Starting with the nose cone, I would be closing up the suspension section as its main purpose is for a mounting location for the steering rod. Neither of the 2 coil over shocks, nor any master cylinders, etc are modeled, and the space is just way to shallow to even consider that option. So closed it will be.
Next up is the one piece side pod covers and engine cover.
I prefer not to have the entire unit off the car, rather just the engine cover being removable for display purposes, So I cut the 3 sections apart. This also will make it much easier to deal with seam between the chassis pan and the side pods which I’ve gotten nearly perfect, but not quite. The only issue is that by cutting them apart, the seams are now a tad to wide and a gap has resulted. So some sheet plastic needs to be added to widen the engine cover.
The fit of the two piece nose cone section was just ok at best, requiring sanding to level, then Putty work to blend in to the lower and side of the chassis plate.
Joel
