Slot Addiction

Wild horses

It’s time to tackle another build project, and lately I’ve been thinking about the rst race meeting I ever attended. As it happens, it was a real classic: the 1970 Easter meeting at Bathurst, where Norm Beechey’s Monaro trounced the Mustangs of Bob Jane, Allan Moffat and Pete Geoghegan. It is a tease of a memory, because I now know it was a noteworthy occasion, but at the time I was only eight years old... I don’t recall much about it apart from shiny, noisy, fast race cars. But building one from that bunch is a no-brainer as far as this column goes.

The Monaro was not really an option unless I went with a fragile resin body shell, and I’ve already done the Moffat Mustang. So this time around I thought I’d tackle Pete Geoghegan’s ’67 Mustang. It was a fairly straightforward build, made easier by the Pioneer notchback Mustangs, and the bounty of reference material available way back in issue #28 of AMC.

Once again, half the fun of these builds for me is the research, although the AMC article made it fairly straightforward. The rst thing I picked up on is that the exterior of Big Pete’s Mustang GTA went through various incarnations in its long life. Unlike the Jane and Moffat Mustangs, it started its life as a road going car, a 289 GT with automatic, hence the GT fuel cap and ‘GTA’ moniker. As it got older, Pete’s mechanics tried to get rid of unnecessary weight and removed the bumper over-riders and front grille Pony emblem. Much later when the rules were relaxed, the guards were ared a little and then chopped fairly radically. So there were multiple con gurations from which to select.

The second thing I quickly became aware of was that of the multiple Mustang releases by Pioneer, only two of them were ’67 notchbacks: the Parnelli Jones Shelby car, and the Kode Key racer of Bob Barker. This was good and bad – good in that the Pioneer model included the rear quarter panel bezels that indicate a ’67, but bad in that these are old releases and no longer on sale through retailers. Sharp readers might remember though, I managed to pick one up for a reasonable price at the Scalextric Club swap meet last year.

I got hold of as many photos of the race car as I could. The bezels were a big tick, and ve spoke wheels, the lack of a front grill and ares were also a handy match. However the Trans Am boot lid fuel ller would have to go, and I would need to nd a ‘GT’ fuel ller to go between the tail lights, and some chrome bumpers. More demanding would be the Allan Stand eld-made aluminium scoops for the front brakes. Naturally the decals would come from Patto’s, but I would have to put the ‘Big’ into ‘Pete’ for the driver gure.

Pioneer slot cars are great runners, so the running gear was left mostly alone – just a quick once-over to make sure it was as it should be. As Pete was a noted Firestone user, the ‘Goodyear’ tyre branding had to be removed. They are only branded on one side, so I simply turned them

around. Similarly, Pete ran with the exhaust exiting on the passenger side, so I turned the Pioneer one around and stuck it under the passenger side.

Next came the body, which needed a respray in white, so it was put in a bath of metho to soften the paint and then scrubbed with a toothbrush. When it was clean, I plugged up the hole in the boot and used ller to smooth it at. Final preparation came with some wet sanding to remove any remaining debris and give the surface some bite for the rst coat. Again when clean and dry, I laid down some Tamiya primer and then Humbrol enamel paint. I’ve heard so many stories of good paint jobs turning bad, so I always leave plenty of time between these paint stages for the solvent to gas out.

Once the decals and clear coat were applied, it was time to start the assembly. Luck was on my side for some bits. In my collection of stuff, I had some unused bumpers from a previous Pioneer Mustang white kit and a GT fuel ller left over from an old Carrera fastback Mustang.

Then I turned to the front brake ducts, that I was considering making from brass hobby sheet. This can be a bit ddly, and I got hold of a brass folder specially for the task. While I was procrastinating about it, I noticed the Carrera Mustang also had some side scoops that would be just the ticket. The ducts added a nice touch, something unique to Pete’s car.

To nish it off I needed a suitable driver gure – in most photos the bulk of Pete really shows. I decided to nd an oversized gure and added a head from Immense Miniatures, a specialist slot modelling company from Texas. The owners, Marc and Heidi Tyler started off making animatronic animal puppets for Hollywood movies such as Gremlins, but CGI put an end to their business. With the advent of 3D scanning and printing, they put their skills to work making these accurate scale miniatures of famous racing gures.

I ordered a Jack Brabham driver helmet set and the biggest gure I could nd – F1 team owner John Cooper. The quality of the pieces that arrived from Immense Miniatures was outstanding, however they still didn’t seem to convey Pete’s bulk.

Then I remembered a spare driver gure from an old Scalextric Ferrari P4. In the hobby these were disparagingly known as ‘Mr Blobby,’ but as you can see in the photos, it made a much better head for Pete. I used a piece of cotton make-up pad and superglue to make reproof facemask and covered it in acrylic paint. With a piece of plastic wedged underneath to boost him higher in the seat, Pete now looks suitably in command of his wild steed. At least that’s how I saw him 50 years ago.