How not to build the '68 STP turbine

[slidinsideways]

This is the only model I have come close to finishing in my ADULT life. Got this far about 18 months ago. As my knowledge improved I was sickened to learn how inaccurate it is. Therefore I will re-do this car correctly. I knew I needed to paint the flou. yellow around the nose and LF tire/wheel combo. I did NOT know that the panel on the rear should also be yellow. I have purchased an update kit from our own Lance Sellers, so I should be able to make the body fit much better. As well, the brake calipers should be centered under the rotor in the 6 o'clock position, not in the 9 o'clock as I have them. The rectangular tanks under the rear cover should be an olive shade of green as well. I believe the seat belts(of which I never installed the lap portion) should be a much lighter blue.
As I build 1:1 race cars for a living, I am aware of other subtleties as well such as the extreme amount of caster built into this kit. That is top ball joint rearward of the bottom ball joint. Somehow I intend to fix this on the rebuild. Decals are a combo of kit and Indycals. I have purchased the tires from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland to replace the hideous kit items. I scratch built the exhaust vanes and installed them into the turbine outlet before I had the L.Sellers kit. No aftermarket parts were used in this build at this point.
Please be advised!! CONSTRUCTIVE criticism WELCOME!!

[herk56]

Hey Bill, that's how we learn, by doing! Don't forget, the left front wheel and sidewall are also flo. yellow. Also, if you want to get finicky, the upper arms aren't compeltely round tube but partly fabricated, tapered recatangular or "I"-beam rocker arrms. shows in pics here:

www.avonaero.com/STP%20CAR.htm

Not sure if the difference is worth the work! Keep plugging away - Brian

[lance]

Finish it !!! It can only help you build the next one better . Lance

[sandysixtysfan]

You did a lot of things well so take pride in that. Next identify the things you arn't happy with and figure how to correct them. Don't worry about building a perfect model just try to build the next one a little better than the previous one. Thats how you'll get better over time.
Sandy

[2lapsdown]

You'll find in time that there are are no real critics in this forum, but there are a lot of gifted and passionate teachers. The things you've done well on this car far out-weigh the things you pointed out that were wrong. I'm currently working on this car and I learned some things to help me from your photos. You're doing fine.

[Deleted]

Don't beat up on yourself. ;D I and my son just finished this same kit a few weeks ago and did what I would consider a reasonable job on it. I've got to clear coat it and order an Indycals set to finish it off. This was my first attempt at building a plastic car kit in about 30 years so my learning curve had to be updated. The most aggravating thing I had to deal with was the "chrome" finish on some of the parts. I found that Plastruct Weldene doesn't do too well with this stuff. I bought some Great Planes CA cement with a medium viscosity that did the trick with this stuff. Also used it for everything else on this kit.
Great paint job! I tried my hand at using acrylics for the first time outside of model railroading stuff. Once it gets clear coated it shouldn't be too bad. The tolulene based stuff probably would have been better, but I'm trying to stay away from this stuff as it has a rather adverse long-term effect on kidneys, etc.
You could free-lance and rationalize this paint job by saying that Granatelli got a new lease on life for the turbines in '69 dropping the yellow nose job.
All-in-all it does look good.

[Deleted]

Looks great to me. In the reference photos I have there seem to be differences in the car no doubt because they were changing things as they tested. I know from experience that you can drive yourself crazy trying to duplicate a car only to find that the belts were black the next week or they changed a vent, etc. Enjoy buiding it the way you like it.

[indy]

Build this one the best you can and in a few years you can come back and do another one - there were like three or four variations of this car ran that month!

Looks good to me but if you are still sick of it when it is done just ship it to me ;D haha just kidding!

Jordan

[Deleted]

Hi Brother Bill,

So far it looks really nice! Getting one finished will be your greatest hurdle, after that, it will be smooth sailing.

Bill <><

[Deleted]

Bill...

Looks great to me!! Keep going. This one I built years before Lance did his beautiful conversion kit for the old AMT Lotus Turbine. I built this one while writing an article for Motor Racing Replica News. This was my first Day-Glo Paint job. It's rough, but it was fun and I learned a great deal. Keep going Buddy!

Best to you

Russ