Front engined Scarab by Mark Gussin

This slot car has been completed for some time now. It is the lovely front engined Scarab and uses the Nostalgia body which is very similar to the old Auto hobbies fibreglass one. They are great looking cars Scarabs and have a wonderful story that goes with them. I've tried to get the Preston Lerner book but failed so if there is anyone out there who would like to sell me a copy I'd appreciate it.

This is the front engined car that successfully raced in the 1950s. The Nostalgia Raceways body is excellent but typically of cars of that era the wheelbase is short and the room for motor etc. is limited. I chose the trusty Riko chassis (similar to the Monogram unit) but had to shorten it and solder the front and rear chassis elements together. That done the plastic body fixing posts were added and then the whole lot sprayed in metallic blue.

I then added the decals which came from Mike Sells who kindly reduced some down for me. The White scallop would otherwise have been a real challenge.

The side pipes were from the recent Revell AC Cobra static kit, dechromed and painted. The wheels were regular slot car aluminium ones with resin inserts. I make inserts from static wheels reduced down then the reductions copied in resin. Inserts were glued into the wheels then the whole lot was sprayed gold, cut outs were then highlighted in black. The knock-offs were made from the AC Cobra kit's wheel inserts ground down. I believe the UK and US available kits don't have chrome. The Spanish ones do and with grinding carefully I was able to keep the chrome intact.

The driver, Lance, got and an MRRC copy head. For the rear lights I bought some clear red mouldings from a model shop which work very well. I don't know what they are for but they look great as brake lights.

Sticking in the screen was really difficult. I used White glue and found that using small blobs of blue-tack (the stuff used to stick posters on walls) helped a lot in positioning.

Once the screen was partly dried the blobs were easily removed.

The slot car propels itself around a makeshift test track very well. Motor is a bit overpowered which is appropriate and tyres are old and spin too much which is appropriate too but may will be changed over at some point. .

I am very pleased with the results and I do love to do these fibreglass cars even if they take up a lot of time.