Starting an old AMT Parnelli Jones Indy winner. I have done a couple in the past, but it has been a few years. I had mostly forgotten what a great kit that was! It has been a long time since it was re-issued and I don’t know why. It sells for lots of bucks at swap meets. It was a great kit, but lots of work. I think that may have been the nicest car kit AMT ever made. The Offy engine is SO much better than the one in the Monogram (now Revell, of course) Kurtis Roadster kits which get re-issued periodically.
Those Revell roadsters can be made into nice models, but it takes a lot of work. The AMT cars are great even built OOB!
I intend to build this kit as a museum display, with the body panels not attached to the car (except for the floor pan), but displayed around the car. Some of the interior detailing is just too nice to obsure with the body
The release I have is when they combined it with a Lotus and a March, Indy cars, so it is not in the original box. I have another somewhere in-progress, but I don’t think it is in original box. Do you want me to scan just the part of the 3 in 1 kit that shows the Watson?
Yes, I will take pics as I build, but still not far along at this point. Since the frame will be entirely exposed I am spending an inordinate amount of time filling all those frame joints and really making the tank look nice.
I had been intending to use an Etzel resin version of the Offy engine, but the Etzel one is just a smigeon too high, so will have to use the AMT one. Not a big problem, the AMT engine is quite nice and I can make just a few changes to make it even better, but it still will not be as nice as the Etzel version. Model car garage bought molds and now sells the Etzel Offy.
Hi Don! Love that kit and look forward to seeing your build. taxtp asked about a box photo so I thought I might help a wee bit and post up a pic of the original, hope you don’t mind. I also have the box for the 3 reissues that I know of if you guys wanna see 'em.
Thanks for the pics Don! I really like this old kit. Are you going to use the option for the working front suspension? I tried it once and it seems to break very easy. Are you using the original vinyl tires or the two piece jobs from the reissue or resin? If you don’t already have them, check Indycals site for decals that are much better than the kit offering and soft resin tires. I have seen pics of your other work so I am sure this will look fantastic. Keep glooin’ and i’ll keep watching. By the way, should you have a problem with some of the parts let me know. I have spares. rommel
I will break away the support tabs for the front axle. My intent is not to make the front suspension actually work, since the model will be on jack stands, but I want to eliminate those supports because they do not look right. They were, of course, not there on the real cars. I have replaced the kit torsion bars with piano wire, as the big fork on the ends was not scale.
I am using the kit tires- the two-piece styrene ones of the re-issue. I have already glued them, and filed the surface smooth by turning the tires with a Dremel to eliminate the “seam” and they look fine.
