Penske PC-6 (Rick Mears 1979 Indy 500 winner) I've always liked Rick Mears as a race car driver. He is a four time winner of the Indy 500, the first one coming in 1979, driving a Penske PC-6. A short article on his win can be found at Racing News here. The AMT kit of this car, issued shortly after the race, has been noted as a difficult kit to build, with a number of inaccuracies. I came across an online forum - Open Wheel Racing Modelling - that focuses on building various kits. I thought it would be an interesting idea to build the kit as a Work In Progress (WIP) on this forum. I received a great deal of help and encouragement from the forum members in completing the 5 month build. You can see the postings at 1979 Penske PC6 Rick Mears Indy winner WIP I couldn't find a lot of pictures of either the original, or the restored car on the Internet, so there is some artistic license taken on this particular model Base Kit(s): 1/25 scale AMT Penske PC-6 Norton Spirit (kit number 3002) Finished: Apr 2016 Modifications/Additions: - wing end plates replaced with sheet styrene - brake lines added, front and rear - poseable steering added - front rollbar and gussets added - instrument faces from Model Car Garage, with wiring added - seatbelts added to cockpit - fuel filler tube added - ground effects skirts added, from aluminum duct tape - replace shocks with RB Motion items - suspension arms replaced with styrene rod - exhaust wastegate scratchbuilt and exhaust pipe added - additional webbing added to transaxle - IndyCals decals, Tamiya lacquer paint for bodywork, Alclad for metallic parts Awards: Kingston Modelrama, Kingston, ON, April 2016 - 1st place Competition Road Course Toronto Model Car Show, Toronto, ON, Sept 2016 - 1st place Competition Open Wheel Ajax 36, Ajax, ON Oct 2016, 1st place Competition - Closed Wheet Click on Thumbnail to see detailed image. These images are 1024 x 768 and should load reasonably quickly, depending on your connection speed. There are about 100 construction photos at 1979 Penske PC6 Rick Mears Indy winner WIP |