Try something new – Revell Ford Thunderbird 1997

Wheels and tyres

Time to take a break from the body shell and work on the tyres and wheels. The kit-supplied tyres and wheels are okay but need some work. Firstly the tyres need to be made to look like they have been on a race car rather than on a showroom model. So I attacked the rolling surfaces with a coarse sanding stick to make them look like they had done a few circuits of the track.

Then onto the wheels, these didn’t need too much done to them, just the holes between the spokes needed drilling out and filing to shape. These were then sprayed black, picking out the centre boss and wheel nuts, silver and yellow respectively. The tyres where then fitted to the wheels but I put them on back to front with the raised sidewall detail on the inside. I did this, as the Goodyear decals don’t lie very well over raised Goodyear lettering and painting the raised lettering didn’t look right. On my research photos of NASCARs in pits it seems common to mark tyres with details of where they are to go on the car, positions of balance weights, and other details. There seems to be no commonality between the various teams and finding no pit photos of car 94 I used a bit of modelling license and made up my own markings.

The Engine

I then moved onto the engine. As I wasn’t going to be displaying the engine, I built and painted it as per the kit instructions. The engine was then put aside as it would not be needed until a later stage in the build.

The body shell again…