Police, Camera, Action!

I came across a company called Tarn Model Foundry online and they had a stand at the Slot Car Festival back in May.  They make a range of unusual racing and rally 1:32 figures, and this one in particular caught my eye.  The quality of the resin moulding isn't great (the figure has a hand missing!) but I had to have it for comedy value - and it looks pretty good once it's painted up...

The first person to be caught by this policeman with his speed gun was James Bond in his Aston Martin DB5:

But by flicking a switch to engage one of Q's little extras, Bond will escape a ticket this time...

Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in hot pursuit!

At a slot car show earlier this year, I came across Chase Cars who manufacture bodyshells and chassis to recreate the car chases of films and TV from the 70s and 80s.  The unique thing about their chassis is that it leans and steers in the corners, so you get a more realistic appearance when racing their cars.

I bought a chassis and a couple of bodyshells.  First build is the 1977 Dodge Monaco police car as driven by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the Dukes of Hazzard.

The bodyshell comes with roof lights, plastic windows and interior, with Hazard County Sheriff decals.  I had to get axles, wheels, tyres, a pickup and a motor to go with the chassis.

The tough plastic chassis comes in a single moulded piece that needs taking apart.

Quite a few bits...

After a few hours, it looks like this...

The steering mechanism links to the pickup guide so the wheels turns when the guide reaches a corner.  The motor pod is suspended and sprung in the chassis so it can rock when the car drives round corners.

I sprayed the car and applied the transfers.  I dremel-ed out the windows in the bodyshell and fitted plastic ones, and painted the interior with the model of Rosco.

The completed model...

High quality decals...

It is a lot of effort to put together but on the track it looks great, although the chassis is built for realistic roll rather than speed, so it won't keep up with the Scalextric General Lee.  Andy has also bought one of these chassis, so we'll see how they go together when he's built his.

Mighty Metro

As I blogged a few years back, Andy has made it his mission to collect the old Scalextric MG Metros wherever he finds them, in preparation for a Mighty Metro competition one day.  Here's just a few that he has so far:

I thought I would create the ultimate Metro ready to race with Andy.  This was created in three steps:

The left hand side is a original Metro chassis that I bought from eBay (it originally came with the black and red Navico bodyshell like the one in the top row, third from left of Andy's collection).  The car had been extensively modified. It has a MRRC 20,000 rpm FF motor fitted low down in the chassis.  The motor has a brass pinion and the gear is an upgraded alloy type.  The chassis has been fitted with a larger guide with new braids with uprated wiring. It also has lead and extra magnets fitted which I had to reduce and move around to decrease the excessive downforce.  It also has different wheels and tyres.

In the middle is an interior which I sprayed up grey and then painted the driver and seats.

The right-hand side is the replacement bodyshell, again from eBay, which had been resprayed in silver and blue with lots of racing stickers added.  Put it together and you get an a unique, fast Metro with great handling.  Bring it on, Andy!