SlotCarMAG issue 5

www.slotcarmag.co.uk

ISSUE 5 • VOLUME 1 • DECEMBER 2011

FOR RACERS, COLLECTORS AND BUILDERS

PP Chassis:

With a little nip and tuck, the MRRC 2F can handle like a dream

Royale accessories: Stunning buildings from Royale’s Greg Paquette

Italian Job pt2:

An answer to a Ferrari chassis problem

Concrete mix:

Lynne Haines mixes it with the grey stuff

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N I W

GE R R O GE RNE46 TURARI 2 IT FER SIN KE 2 RE E PAG SE

Mag SLOT CAR

FOR RACERS, COLLECTORS AND BUILDERS

Contents

ISSUE 5 • VOLUME 1 • DECEMBER 2011

visit: www.slotcarmag.co.uk

In This Issue:

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Pit Board:

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Concrete Mix:

Season’s Greetings... and welcome to Issue 5. Mix some concrete, do a spot of graffiti then settle down with a good book – what a great way to spend Christmas! It’s all here and much more.

Bill Posters was innocent Lynne Haines shows how something even as bland as concrete needs to have some love and care to make it look “right”.

Decal Dilemma:

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Part 5 of Richard Bennett’s master class Here Richard looks at the gentle art of the decal. Buy some off the shelf, or make your own? There’s a few tricks to be learned to turn any car into a stunner.

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PP Competition Chassis:

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Royale Accessories:

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Foreign Affair:

Give your car a heart transplant Jim McNeill shows what MRRC should have done and fits a “proper” chassis to his Chaparral 2F. The transformation in handling says it all!

Building for the future L. B. Fellows talks to Greg Paquette, who makes model buildings into super-realism art form. Place one of them next to your track and everything comes alive!

“Hang on lads; I’ve got an idea” Not quite Michael Caine, but Rui Costa goes into action with part two of his “Italian Job”. There are no Minis in sight, but those Ferraris certainly needed a hand.

SlotCarMAG is an independent magazine for the Slot Car enthusiast. It is produced bi-monthly and available for purchase via our on-line store at www.lulu.com/uk and printed in hi- resolution digital format. Hard copies are also available from www.pendleslotracing.co.uk It is also available to purchase as a pdf download from the SlotCarMAG web site.

For further information, please contact the publisher via email. Address opposite.

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Le Mans HO Style: Small scale goes huge.

Andy Player reports on a truly international 24 hour race held on a huge replica of the famous Le Mans Circuit: A real drivers’ challenge!

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Club Focus:

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Questionable Character:

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Bearwood Graham Pritchard and the club members are keen to have fun and you may even find a Transit van racing around Bearwood.

A new slot racer question-and-answer page Mac Pinches recently announced his retirement from competitive slot car racing. He’s not going to walk away that easily...

The World According To Dilworth: It’s Christmaaaas!

Well for the rest of us it most certainly is. Dilworth though has his usual slant on proceedings and finds that even he can be touched by the festivities.

Book Review: Digital Slot car Racing in 1/32 scale Ric Woods got a sneak preview of Dave Chang’s latest book. He was mighty impressed too (and that coming from a die-hard analogue kind of guy).

WIN!

GREAT PRIZE – SEE PAGE 2!

PUBLISHING / WEB: Wayne Tooke: info@slotcarmag.co.uk EDITORIAL: Ric Woods: ric-woods@slotcarmag.co.uk ART & DESIGN: Marc Abbott: marc-abbott@slotcarmag.co.uk

Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to accurately compile the information contained herein, SlotCarMAG or any of its contributors or advertisers accepts no liability for any errors and omissions or any inadvertent disclosure of any information not meant for publication. SlotCarMAG neither endorses or accepts responsibility for the reproduction of material supplied that is of sub-standard quality, such as photocopies, laser prints, pre-printed photographs, low resolution digital images etc, and reserve the right to refuse the use of such material, products or services of advertisers in this publication. Opinions expressed shall not necessarily be that of the SlotCarMAG. All information should be verified before being acted upon.

Copyright: Contents of this magazine or our web site, cannot be reproduced in any way, shape or form without the written permission of the publishers.

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Bill Posters was innocent!

by Lynne Haines

Concrete. Maligned by many as environmentally unfriendly, it’s an ancient idea. It’s everywhere in the modern world. Roadways, bridges, dams, walls, tunnels, silos, buildings. It is almost impossible to imagine our urban environment without it. So it stands to reason that we should include it in our miniature environments.

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t is quite a simple process to download photographic “textures,” print them on high-resolution paper, and glue them to the surface of heavy card stock or foam core board which can then be used for construction. But I find the results of this process to be on the whole unsatisfying. While they look good, they don’t always look right. Real texture is important in imparting depth and feel to a diorama.

My track has been languishing incomplete for sometime while my attention was taken elsewhere. Now seems like an appropriate time to get back to it. There is an area on the Tyers Targa that seems perfectly suited to this demonstration. A section of raised roadway crosses the base track leaving a void beneath. This portion has long caused concern as to how to complete the construction in a realistic way. A concrete retaining wall seems an appropriate starting point to the project.

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

So, how do we go about making something that contains the essence of concrete?

Working as usual with a low-budget solution, I have used heavy mounting card (of the type used by picture framers) for the main substrate of the retaining wall. This selection was simply because I had some available, but a thick pasteboard or light foamcore would be just as suitable. After much measuring, cutting, trimming and tinkering the basic wall shape is cut out ready for detailing.

There is a tendency in freeway construction today to add pattern detail to pre-fabricated concrete construction. This detail is suitable for emulating in small scale. (see below) A layer of pattern has been added to the base substrate. The alternating stripes are cut from more mounting card and the hexagonal “tiles” are expanded styrene packing. The lot has been glued

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Decal dilemma Part 5 of Richard Bennett’s relivery article: Decals and a bit more about painting.

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n the last edition we talked about masking and painting.

But, forgive the pun, we glossed over the actual painting process, so here are a few more pointers to painting using automotive paints.

Make sure your primed body has been rubbed down with a very fine-grain sandpaper (1200 - 1500 grit should be ok here).

The paint should be smooth to the touch, but don’t rub too hard to totally remove the primer from corners or raised pieces of plastic.

Paint the first coat and leave to dry for at least 30 minutes (an hour would be better) then rub down the gloss with more fine sandpaper. Wet and dry paper is good because you can use it under running water. The Tamiya masking tape will survive a couple of wettings, but be careful when sanding close to the masked area as you don’t want to damage the crisp straight lines you so carefully masked earlier.

Repeat this for the next two coats. After three coats you

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

should be done. If you are using a metallic or pearlescent paint it is advisable to very gently rub down the final coat as well, giving it a dull appearance. You will be lacquering the car later which will bring the gloss finish back.

So at this point you should be faced with a car that is fully painted with one or more colours, and which has a nice smooth finish. You should leave the car at least 24 hours before you do anything else to it and I would recommend leaving it even longer than that if you have the patience. If you have the facility to put the car in an oven or under a heat lamp, no more than 3040 degrees, then that will help significantly with the curing process.

The next step is to do your decals. While the car is curing you can be searching out where to get your decals from. You can make your own or you can buy them online. Pendle Slot Racing does a selection of very good quality DMC decals, but they have limited numbers and only for a certain select number of cars.

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Penelope Pitlane Competition Chassis

Will this classy chassis make for a happy Chappy?

by Jim McNeill

couple of extra ones, just to be sure. The trick with the balsa is to ‘paint’ it with superglue (CA). This soaks into the wood to give a very strong yet light mounting block, and in all sorts of endurance events and monumental shunts I’ve never had one fail. The mounting screws can then be adjusted to give extra body movement if you want it.

The Body Of course the dreaded slimline motor in the original car meant that MRRC could fit a deep and detailed interior, but this was going to collide horribly with the Slot.it Boxer I intended to use. (incidentally, the chassis will also take a Flat 6, but I doubt whether that would have been low enough to keep the original

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

insides either.) So out it came, and at the same time the rather OTT headlight/radiator moulding was cut to give more clearance for the guide. Rather than simply replace the interior with a piece of black card with the upper bits of driver glued on, I thought I would try photographing the original, minus the driver’s head and body, from directly above. Once printed out to the correct size, this gave a decent enough impression of some interior detail, though the printer had rendered the driver’s lower overalls into a brilliant white, something John Travolta might have worn back in ’77, so a few dabs of matt white were in order before I glued his top half back on. Then the whole lot was simply taped in place and thankfully there was plenty of clearance.

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The magazine for racers, collectors and builders – Slot Car MAG

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

15

Building For The Future

by L. B. Fellows

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t’s the sad truth that few of us are immune to the effects of the sluggish economy these days.

Fortunately for Greg Paquette, he follows the old adage, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”

A long time 1/32 scale slot car enthusiast, entrepreneur and real estate developer, Greg found himself in a major slump after the 2008 U.S. real estate bubble burst. Three years later he is immersed in real estate of a different kind, developing and building hand-crafted slot car trackside building replicas. We asked Greg how this transition came about: “A couple of years after my real estate development business was squashed my wife and I decided it was time to leave our downtown condo in San Diego, California. After many years away, our friends and families welcomed us back home to Minneapolis, Minnesota in April 2010.”

“As soon as we moved to our new digs in the suburbs with manicured yards, swing sets, and small children running around, I dusted off my slot car track and cars and set up my beloved 135 foot (~ 39 metre) four-lane Scalextric track with an infra-red lap counter. I quickly invited some of my old friends to come over, realising they too liked racing 1/32 scale slot cars. It soon became the weekly Thursday Night Race Club.”

“It wasn’t long until I was looking to spruce up the landscape surrounding the track. Searching the web was

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

Economic downturn spawns new slot car business

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Foreign Affair Ponderings from Portugal, by Rui Costa

“Hang on, lads; I've got a great idea.”

Italian Job – part 2

n my previous article in SlotCarMAG issue 4, I challenged myself to transform the recently-released Monogram models of the Ferrari 250 GTO and 275P into two classic cars that should not only look strikingly gorgeous inside the display case, but could also perform as authentic bombshells on the track.

The main problem I have with these beautiful cars has to do with what lies underneath those pretty neat plastic body shells.

The so-called Sebring CT 44 is a standard universal plastic chassis that is adjustable to any wheelbase between 69mm to 99mm, by means of four bolts and screws. It is slim enough to fit under exceptionally narrow and short bodies, but can also enclose really wide wheels and tires under larger and longer bodies.

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MRRC included it in both Porsches 910 and 911, Ford MKIV, AC Cobra, Chaparral 2F and their new Cheetah, and RevellMonogram in their Chaparral 2C, and 1963 Shelby King Cobra, besides these two Ferraris from 1964. The small Spanish company TOP SLOT offers hand-made top quality resin cars, and three of their Mercedes Benz models (540k Special Roadster 1939, W196 R Streamliner 1954 and 300 SL Coupé Gullwing 1955), plus the Pegaso Z102 Spyder also come fitted with this same Sebring chassis.

After reading some articles in SlotCarMAG, Más Slot and Slot Car Illustrated online magazine, I came to the conclusion that opinions may vary and authors can say the best and the worst about it. Some slot fans do like the Sebring chassis, considering

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The magazine for racers, collectors and builders – Slot Car MAG

HO

24 hours of

Le Mans

by Andy Player

My dream of driving at Le Mans started when I was nine years old, watching Jacky Ickx bring home the Martini Porsche to yet another victory. As I grew up, I realised that most dreams just don’t happen.

O

f course, slot cars allow us mere mortals to have fun and fulfil our motor racing dreams on a smaller scale, so when I discovered the HO Le Mans 24 hour race, hosted each November by the Derby HO Racing Club, I knew HO slot car racing was for me The race was first run in 1992 on an eight-lane replica of the 1970 Le Mans circuit, constructed from Tomy AFX plastic track and with a lap length just 3 inches shy of 200 feet. Over the years, locals from the Midlands and South Yorkshire have been joined by teams and racers from around the UK and from America, with Team USA achieving an impressive six wins in their visits to the race.

The circuit has undergone several revisions over the years, including the introduction of routed sections made by American master-builder Brad Bowman. Since 2002, thirty-three routed sections make up the entire track, now 233 feet and 4 inches.

And what a track it is to drive! Although the circuit is dominated by the 100-foot Mulsanne straight, every rookie is surprised by how tricky it is – especially at four in the morning.

The first challenge is getting the braking point for the Mulsanne corner just right. Over 24 hours, perfect timing can

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

Above: starting grid – Eight cars on the grid (photo: Andy Player) Right: Wrun Wragged – Wrun Wragged celebrate their third win (photo: Nick Sismey) Below: Le Mans track – Brad Bowman’s routed track is simply awesome (photo: Nick Sismey)

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Club Focus

BEARWOOD SCALEXTRIC CLUB

by Graham Pritchard

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e are a long-established friendly group of Scalextric/slot car enthusiasts who meet on a Thursday evening in our own club room at Hadley Stadium, Bearwood, West Midlands B66 4ND. Many people seem to think that most Scalextric clubs are generally full of very serious racers who take things way too seriously and will not tolerate new people or beginners – but that’s not the case with us, I can assure you 100%! We aim to provide a cheap fun night out, racing Scalextric cars and having a good laugh with a bunch of like-minded ordinary people.

We have been around for a very long time and know what makes a good evening’s entertainment in the world of slot cars – how about trying the Transit vans that I’ve converted into slot cars? They are just brilliant to race – told you we don’t take things too seriously didn’t I!

Slot Car MAG – The magazine for racers, collectors and builders

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CALLING ALL UK-BASED SLOT CAR CLUBS To make sure that your club gets a FREE listing in the UK Slot Car Festival Programme and the oďŹƒcial web site, search for the thread on slotforum.com or use the URL listed below for more details.

Programmes will be given out to all persons as part of the entrance fee*

UK SLOT CAR FESTIVAL 2012

SUNDAY 20th MAY www.ukslotcarfestival.co.uk *whilst stocks last