Vel's Parnelli Jones F5000 Al Unser Car

[Art Laski]

I've been dying to get to this kit for a year now, and I finally just decided to dive in, even though I still have some other projects in motion.

This is Kevin Kuzman's Silver City Models resin and white metal kit, which will be my first of this type. It's going to be fun getting this one built. Like many race cars, there were multiple liveries, but I am going to do this one of Al Unser:



Here's the kit:



Right now I am just in cleanup mode, and getting ready to mock it up. In doing so, I'm looking at areas that I could improve upon without creating a major project out of this. One thing that jumped out at me right away were the brakes. Since they are so visible on this kit, I figured they could use an upgrade. I had some Detail Master vented discs that are the perfect size, along with some calipers as well, but I needed to make some brake hats to be able to use the rotors. This looked like an opportunity for me to use my lathe for the first time. I have no machining skills (yet), but this is a simple enough project to learn on. The material I had was too soft, but I still managed to make something usable, ugly, but usable. Hey, I made something!

[Calvin]

Awesome! Kevin's kits are top notch stuff!
Ironically I plan to do the same car! We sure have similar plans lately.

[Art Laski]

Nice, Calvin! Now you need to start a midget ;-)

[Calvin]

May 14, 2015 1:20:30 GMT -5 Art Laski said:

Nice, Calvin! Now you need to start a midget ;-)

Ah.....no. Too hard for me!

[harveythedog2]

Great stuff Art!

[Art Laski]

Thanks, Stu!

Here are a few more mock up shots. Sorry for the lack of focus on these.

[2lapsdown]

I'm going to enjoy this as I have 2 of these kits. One for a Mario Viceroy and one Boraxo, show us the way Art.

John

[racerbrown]

such a cool looking car and we all know art will do it justice.
duane

[shunter]

I love these old beasts....look forward to this Art.

[Art Laski]

Thanks for looking guys! I want to say that even though I am going to upgrading the kit a bit to suit my own taste, this is a very cool kit and will make a great model right outof the box. And I have to thank Kevin for his terrific customer service. Carpet monster bit me bad on this one and he helped me out right away and got me back on track.

I stalled a little on this because I wanted to do some fab, but I am back at it. The exhaust pipes don't have a support bracket in the kit, so I decided to make my own. I did it in brass because I thought it would be stronger, but I could have done it in styrene in a tenth of the time. I struggled with it for a couple of days, thinking about it many hours and several do-overs! All for a simple part...













I also re-bent the headers so they came out more to the side rather than down to match the references I had, but I broke one of the white metal pipes, so I decided to replace the pipe with aluminum tube. It's a little rounder than the original casting and might help save weight on the model which will help save wear and tear when travelling. This sucker is going to be heavy!

[2lapsdown]

I've already learned something with the exhaust brace, and I'm sure there's more lessons to come. I'm so glad to see you doing this as I have 2 of these kits and I hold your work in the highest regard.

John

[racerbrown]

scratch building at it's best!
duane

[clm1545]

More magic from Art. Always impressive.

[Calvin]

Beautiful! You're always doing incredible things! Gosh dang it!

[Art Laski]

Thank you, guys!

John, if you're looking for lessons, there are a couple of other things in the pictures you may notice that I didn't mention yet. One is that I drilled the top of the uprightsand the brace so I can pin them. I'm going to use a Dirt Modeler PE rod end in there as a clevis, which you'll see later. I sort of misdrilled the hole on the left a little, but I'm going to fill in the hole on the backside on that one and cover it with a photo etch bolt head.

Also, most of the pics of that era have half shafts with universal joints as opposed to the drive shafts with CV joints that the kit provided, so I made my own, stealing the u-joints from a Monogram Corvette kit. These aren't glued up yet, but when they are I will align the u-joints with each other.

I really appreciate the compliments. More to come!

[2lapsdown]

I see that now, that's why I love seeing your techniques. Amazin'

John

[2lapsdown]

Art, I'm only asking this because I don't use solder. Why did you go that way on the exhaust brace? Also, is that rectangular stock or round? I can't quite tell. I'm definitely going to add that brace to mine. Also, what size tube for the exhaust? Sorry for all the questions, but it's hard not to tap in to a resource like yourself. Thanks.

John

[Art Laski]

John,

I chose to use brass and solder on the bracket for two reasons. First, I have been using brass lately and I like working with it. I know making this piece would be a challenge because of the proximity of the joints and I was up for that challenge.

Secondly, I thought the strength of the brass might be beneficial. Since I like to travel to model shows, and this model is going to be quite heavy (and the headers are metal), it seems there my be some stress on it while it's being handled and riding in cars.

I'm sure styrene would have worked fine, especially for a shelf model, and probably would have been much easier to construct!

I replaced the exhaust pipes with 3/32 aluminum tube and the brass bracket is 1/8 tube.

I need to get back on this this weekend!

-Art

[racerbrown]

i think we should call them "laski brackets".
duane

[Art Laski]

Thank you guys!

Spent a bunch more time getting this thing mocked up and everything fitting. The kit provides some styrene rod for the rear radius rods, but I elected to use Piano wire instead.

[Art Laski]

I tried to mock up the front end as is, but it just wasn't working. The parts were just moving around too much, so I pinned the A-arms with wire.

[Art Laski]

I also pinned the front wings.

[Art Laski]

The kit doesn't come with side plates for the rear wing, just a sheet of styrene. I printed a pic that has the correct shape for version I'm building and the pic just happened to print almost the exact same size. So I cut out the end plate and used it as a template. I glued the paper pattern and two sheets of styrene together and cut them out together. Then I pinned them as well and attached them permanently.

[Patrick]

Excellent job Art! I'm not confident drilling and pinning the suspension. I'm afraid of not drilling straight and damaging the suspension piece.

Patrick

[sandysixtysfan]

This is amazing! Just plain amazing.

Sandy

[racerbrown]

Aug 3, 2015 2:54:57 GMT -5 Patrick said:

Excellent job Art! I'm not confident drilling and pinning the suspension. I'm afraid of not drilling straight and damaging the suspension piece.

Patrick

amen to that patrick but as art shows us "practice makes perfect".
i definitely need more practice.
duane

[2lapsdown]

I'm with Patrick. Up until the point where you drill the suspension I was happily following along. How in the world do you do the voodoo that you do? With every project I gain more respect for you talent.

John

[Deleted]

Interesting that your name is what you produce. Simply unbelievable detail and workmanship.

A big Thumbs Up.

[clm1545]

Damn, Art You are GOOD. I don't understand why you travel to shows, seems, to me, that you could just send your entry, and they would send you the trophy.

[Art Laski]

Aug 3, 2015 7:12:49 GMT -5 2lapsdown said:

I'm with Patrick. Up until the point where you drill the suspension I was happily following along. How in the world do you do the voodoo that you do? With every project I gain more respect for you talent.

John

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I really do appreciate it. I am just about to start getting some color on thing and I can't wait.

If it wasn't for reading glasses, an Optivisor, and really small drills, I couldn't do it either. But it's a bit easier when you make it bigger!

Missing the mark is a real concern, but usually I can fix it. On the front wing, I missed the mark on the left side of the body, so I filled in the hole with styrene rod and re-drilled it. It's a little dicier with the metal. I had to get that right. Making a pilot mark with an exacto blade helps...