This was my first Indy car in a long time and the decision to do it was
kinda strange. I
am a big Mario Andretti fan and have a goal of doing a model of each of
his cars once in
my lifetime. These AMT kits are kinda cheap on e-bay and I never have
liked the all
white K-Mart car and always have wanted to do the 1987 Lola that Mario
virtually
dominated the Indy 500 that year. This was Mario's last hurrah at Indy
when he
dominated qualifying to capture the pole. He dominated the race as this
was the first
year for the Ilmore Chevy engine and had a two lap lead late in the race
until the car had
electrical problems. I liked this all red version and when I found out
that Indycals made
aftermarket decals for that car, I knew I had to make one. Some of the
guys on the
model boards I frequent were kind enough to send me lots of reference
photos and the
process began when I found a real cheap kit on e-bay. The only
modification I made to
back date the Lola from the 1988 version to the 1987 version was to add a
thin outlet in
the top left side pod for the radiator. I simply added a lip from sheet
styrene and
simulated the outlet with black decal film. I added as much engine
plumbing as I could
see in the reference photos I had with some creative engineering knowledge
of these
racing engines. Assembly of the car was done sort of like an airplane as I
painted and
detailed the cockpit first, then assembled the main tub, masked off the
cockpit and
primed and made sure the main tub seams were all filled. I then primed and
painted the
main body color using Guards Red. I used various Metalizer colors on the
engine. Flat
black was used on the interior of the body panels. Another thing that took
some time
was the fit of the rear bodywork to the main tub. I wanted to show off the
detail and
wanted to have this piece fit well on and still be able to remove it. This
took a lot of
careful filing and selective filling in some areas. The Indycals
aftermarket decals are
TERRIFIC!! The color density is good and they go on with no problems and
are
extremelly accurate. Check out the Links section for their website.
Another good result
of this model was findi9ng the Indycals site and its link to a resin
1/25th scale model of
Mario's only Indy winning Hawk that Indycals also makes decals for. Can't
wait to make
that car also.
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