Derby becomes an addiction - fun had by all!

[Brad Korando]

Hi all:
I’ve been a forum member since October of 2008 and have had a great time lurking about on Derby Talk. Like many of you, I have found the forum to be a terrific source of information; as well as fun place to see some wonderful Derby cars. My Scout is in his first year of Webelos and has participated in Pinewood Derby races over the past three years. I was a Cub Scout in the mid 1970’s in a rural part of northern Illinois. We had the Derby at the Pack level, but I don’t recall there being a district Derby to compete in. It’s quite possible that there was and that my parents didn’t know about it, or didn’t want me to know about it! The first year my son Andy participated in the Derby was a real eye opener for us. We didn’t spend any time looking into the Derby on-line. We were overwhelmed with the speed of some of the cars, and also the effort put into cars to achieve some fantastic looking results. Andy’s first car, like many other Scouts, was inspired by the Batmobile. I’m interested in woodworking and Andy loves projects and we had fun making a pretty straight-forward attempt that ran well, but didn’t place. Here’s a picture of the first car.



We left our first Derby with the desire to put more time into our entry for the next year, and thought about the possibility to showcase our interest in 1:1 race cars. As a bit of background on our non-Derby hobby interests: I’m currently modeling a 1:32 scale slot car track that is based upon a fictitious road racing circuit sometime in the 1950’s or early 1960’s. The approach that I’m taking with the slot car layout is much like what you may have seen in model railroads. The desired goal is to end up with very realistic scenery based upon a plausible premise to showcase scale model cars that can actually race around the track. Here’s a photo of a portion of the slot car track that will give you an idea of what I’ve been working on.




Back to the Pinewood Derby…We started thinking about the Derby for the following year on the car ride home for the debut of the Batmobile. We decided to make a realistic looking vintage race car and chose a 1957 Maserati 250F, because it is one of Andy’s favorite slot cars that we race on our track. The particular 250F that we built represents the car driven to victory by Juan Manuel Fangio on the Nurburgring for the 1957 German Grand Prix. I drew the templates and Andy cut the block out on the band saw. We then both took turns carving in an effort to teach him how to carve. Woodworking and carving are two other interests (my mom is a woodcarver and my dad is a retired cabinetmaker). The driver is from a 1:24 Fujimi Driver model kit; the windscreen is formed from clear PETG. The intake tube along the bonnet is made from styrene tubing, and the exhaust is from dowel rod. The mirror is from brass rod and a rounded dowel rod while the steering wheel was made from sheet styrene. The decals were printed on a laser printer. BSA wheels and axels were used, although not located in the standard slots. Using the standard axel slots was not a requirement provided that the wheel base was not longer than the standard wheel base. We were pleased with the looks of our car and had fun building it!






For this entry we spent some time on-line in order to find out what we could do to make a faster car. We removed the burrs, polished the axels and trued the wheels - not a lot of prep by comparison to what we’ve learned here, but we were getting better! The car was aligned to track straight and did a pretty good job at that. Andy’s car took first place in the Bear Den and sixth overall. It was at this Pack Derby that we learned of the District race that we missed out on in the previous year! Not wanting to miss another District race, we marked the date and brought the 250F for Andy to race and the newly race-tuned Batmobile for me to race in the 2008 District race. Trophies were not awarded by Den this time and once again Andy finished sixth overall. The Batmobile was the big surprise for us. I spent even more time on the wheels and axels and added weight to bring it up to 8.3 oz. This combination resulted in a first place finish in the Open Class!

The Pinewood Derby was getting to be great fun and was growing into the addiction that I’ve seen and read a lot about here on Derby Talk. The following year (this year) I was determined to build a car of my own and before I was finished with it, the whole family had decided to compete as well. I’ll follow up on this another time…
Thanks so much for the fine venue that the Derby Talk forum offers. It is terrific group of enthusiasts and has provided me with a great deal of inspiration!

Best Regards,
Brad Korando

[OneHour]

Brad,

Very, very nice!

[WoodSpeed]

GORGEOUS WORK !

[Brad Korando]

Thanks for the kind words and for your interest guys.
As mentioned, the whole family has become interested in the Pinewood Derby and this year we decided to field cars for my oldest son Eddie, my daughter Heidi and my wife Jeannie. I started in on one of my cars for the Open Class right after the 2008 District race. I have always loved the look of the early cars of Bruce McLaren. I believe that this is a bit of a mix between an M1A and M1B raced in the mid 1960’s in the USRA races that pre-dated Can Am. The muddling of the version of the car and decals not depicting a specific livery make this car a bit of a fantasy livery on a fantasy car.









Other than the driver and wheels the car is entirely scratch-built. I started with the pine block from a BSA kit and added pine to increase the width for the enclosed wheel design. I carved a mold for and also made a vac-form box in order to make the windscreen. The velocity stacks for the Weber carburetors are made from aluminum tubing that I flared with an awl. The fuel lines are made from brass rod and the shifter and related linkage are made from sewing pins. The ignition panel and switches are a combination of styrene plastic and clipped pieces of staples. The seats and harness are also from sheet styrene. The fire extinguisher is made from a dowel rod, sewing pin and pieces of Bare Metal Foil. The exhaust pipes are from aluminum tubing and the brake lights are sewing pins stuck through styrene. The car is painted with several coats of Dupli-Color lacquer primer, color and clear. I applied six coats of clear lacquer before applying the decals followed by many more coats of clear to build up a hi-gloss finish. The 1:1 car was not quite as glossy, and the numbers and sponsor logos would have been applied after the paint and finish. I went with this approach because I wanted a durable finish and I like the look of it. As for performance in the Derby…well, it looks really nice anyway. It wasn’t competitive in the Open Class, but it did receive a Craftsman Award. The compound curves of the fenders and radiator intakes on this car were a real challenge for me. I spent a lot of time going back and forth through the carving, sanding, filling, priming, filling and sanding stage. It was a great warm up for the cars to follow in my next update…

Thanks again for compliments OneHour and WoodSpeed and I certainly appreciate your interest. I have more cars to show if you’re still interested.
Brad Korando

[azgreg]

Brad, you do absolutely wonderful work. Thanks for sharing.

[sporty]

Thats got to be one of the most detailed, best looking pinewood derby cars that I have ever seen posted here.

And I have seen many cars since I signed up here. not to mention the hours surfing the net of neat pwd cars.


how many hours from start to finish to build ?

I have had as much as 20 hours into a car in body and paint, I would imagine allot more hours than that on this one.

sporty

[ah8tk]

These cars are fantastic! I believe on the McLaren car it would be a pain to change that tire, but it looks wonderful under that windscreen. Your 1:24 scale track is fun to look at (and much more fun than a train set, in my opinion).

If you have more we would like to see them also. Bring them on!

[WoodSpeed]

I have more cars to show if you’re still interested.
Brad Korando

Are you kidding ? Of course we are interested !

Where did you get the driver ?

How did you attach the windscreen ??

Too many questions to list.

I second Sporty's comment: that is the best derby car I have ever seen .... at least until you post pics of more of your cars.

[millettbbc]

That is impressive! You are the man!!!!

[Brad Korando]

4/17/09
Wow, guys I’m flattered! Thanks so much for the kind words and the continued interest!
The McLaren was a project that brought both joy and grief throughout the build, and Sporty is right, I have a lot of hours sunk into it. I never really kept track of the time, and after I finished it I regretted not keeping a log of time. I tend to a student (or victim) of trial and error, and every once in a while I learn from my mistakes! Looking back though, I’d estimate that from start to finish I have between 40-60 hours into it. The most time consuming part of the project was shaping and reshaping the body until I had it close enough to that of the 1:1 car. I had the luxury of working from scale drawings that I found on a slot car modeling site. I mounted copies of these onto card stack and then used an X-Acto knife to cut out the profiles. This particular set of drawings featured section cuts through various parts of the body which made evaluating my progress a lot easier than had I not had them. When I inevitably removed too much wood I used filler to build back mistake. Bondo was used where I needed higher builds or near the edges of the body because it becomes very hard and strong when cured. Tamiya Light-curing Putty was used to fill in the wood grain and small dents. I highly recommend this product, or a similar product like Squadron Green Putty. I apply putty over the entire surface of the body and sand smooth with 220–320 grit sand paper just prior to priming. Including the prep work, I’d estimate that I have at least 10 hours into the paint and finish on the McLaren. Just as a side note, I did not take any of these steps for the Batmobile or the Maserati. Seeing the fantastic cars that are show cased here on Derby Talk inspired me to take more of a model building approach to build Pinewood Derby cars.
Like the driver for the Maserati, this driver came from a 1:24 Fujimi kit.


If you are not familiar with them, these are terrific kits for 1:24 sale drivers and related racing figures. The figures are made from separate legs, torsos, arms and heads that allow the builder to model a figure for the 1950’s polo helmet era, the 1960’s open face helmet era and the modern full face helmet era – all from the same kit. The kits come molded in either white or gray plastic and require painting. After assembly, I prime them with Rustoleum plastic primer and then brush them with cheap craft paints that can be found for less than a $1 a tube at stores like Hobby Lobby. I don’t believe that the Fujimi kits are currently being produced, but they can be found without a lot of searching in the $10 - $20 price range on eBay and also dedicated hobby shops that cater to modelers.
The windscreen is attached with the most wonderfully nasty glue I can think of – Hob-e-Tac Adhesive by Woodland Scenics. It comes in a jar with a brush and the glue is white, but dries clear and remains tacky. This stuff is a real mess when to work with so I typically use the end of a tooth to apply it to small pieces, or edges like on the windscreen. Basically, one applies it and waits for it to turn clear and then carefully places the piece to the object that it is to be glued to. In the case of the McLaren, the body finish is smooth enough that any glue that got on the body by mistake could be carefully rubbed of without leaving a mark. This trick doesn’t work on objects that don’t have a smooth finish.
You’re right ah8tk, it would have been a bear to use the spare tire. Carrying a spare tire on board was one of the rule requirements for URSA and European endurance racing at the time: I believe because cars like the McLaren were still considered ‘sports cars’ rather than ‘prototype’ racers. This is also the reason for a passenger seat. The passenger seat is still a requirement on race cars for the LeMans series of racing, but I believe they no longer are required to carry the spare tire. The races the McLaren ran were either rather short in length or very long endurance races. The short races were often run without the need for a tire change. Some of the road courses were long enough that a car might be miles away from the pits when a tire went down. In those instances the driver would make the call as to whether to change the tire there or limp the car all the way round to the pits. Either way was time consuming and on all by the longer endurance races would take a car out of contention for the win. In the case of the McLaren, the M1A was the only version to have the tire under the windscreen. The tire under the windscreen, and the shape of front end where the reason why I chose it to make a model of the M1A – that and Elvis drove one in Spinout!

Andy's entry for the 2008 Pack race will be the next car to share. I have to gather the photos and will have it ready to post either later tonight or tomorrow.

Brad

[dna1990]

OK, I will show ignorance in hopes of learning more this week.

When you say 1:1 car, you mean the real full size car, correct?

What is the aparatus/intake on the hood of the McLaren?

[Brad Korando]

First a correction; I just noticed that I referred to the next update as being Andy's car for the 2008 Pack race. I really meant the 2009 Pack race. Gee, it's April already and I still can't get the year right

Absolutely right dna1990, the 1:1 is in reference to the full scale size of the real car. The indentation in front of the windscreen and hose are for the radiator. The radiator itself would be located under the angled air deflectors. There are two openings low and in the center of the front fascia of the car that direct air to the radiator. You can just barely see the shadow of one of them just below and to the right of the front #77 decal in the third picture from the top. Incidentally, the smaller openings to each side of the radiator openings on the fascia were ducted to the front brakes to cool the brakes on short courses where the brakes had a tendency to fade and eventually fail if the race was long enough. The large opening on the hood was the exhaust port where the heat from the radiator would be dispelled. I’m pretty certain that the air deflectors were there to create negative air pressure at the exhaust port to assist in drawing air through the radiator. The hose is to the top of the radiator. The M1A has a low front profile, and I believe that this resulted in there not being enough clearance for the top radiator hose. The hose wasn't exposed on later cars. I used a short piece of electrical wire to model the hose on the Pinewood Derby car. The bronze colored round flange was made from very thin sheet styrene. I used Bare Metal Foil for the aluminum fitting at the ends of the radiator hose.

The next car I have to show is the car that Andy and I built for the 2009 Pack race. Last summer we went to see a road race of vintage race cars at Road America here in Wisconsin. It also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the Scarab race car. In short, Scarab was the first American race car manufacturer and race team to design, build and field a sports car that was competitive to the likes of Jaguar, Maserati , Ferrari and the other European manufacturers. There are only a handful of these cars that remain today and all but 1 of them was on display at Road America. We already had a 1:24 plastic model kit of the only mid-engine Scarab and Andy decided that he’d like to model his next Pinewood Derby car after it.







Andy really liked the look of the McLaren and wanted his car to be of similar quality. I wanted to make sure that he was involved in every aspect of planning and building the car. I was aware that this approach would take quite a lot of time, so we started work in September 2008, four months before the scheduled Pack race. I planned and printed out a work schedule that would allow us to work on the car a little every other night and on the weekends; and would have us finished well before the Derby in January. Andy was to keep track of our progress by marking down the time spent each work session and checking off each task as it was completed. I was concerned that Andy may get burned out on the project if we waited to start the build closer to the Derby, and were forced to spend long blocks of time each week to meet our deadline. I thought that a more relaxed pace would lessen the risk of burn-out and improve our chance for better looking results. Andy was very interested what I was doing during the McLaren build and had a pretty good idea of what his Scarab project would entail.

Unlike the McLaren, I didn’t have scale drawings for this car so I drew the template drawings myself, but showed him what I was doing and why it was being done. The 1:24 plastic model conformed to the BSA size restrictions so I was able to take several measurements from it. We started with the pine block from the BSA kits and Andy glued and clamped on blocks that I ripped on the table saw to widen the block for the inboard wheel design. Andy traced the templates onto the block and then bored the axel holes using the Derbyworx jig. He used the drill press and a Forestner bit to cut the wheel arches and also the well for the spare tire. He then cut out the side profile of the car using the band saw, retraced the plan profile onto the cut block, and finished the cutout of the block. Compared to the McLaren, the shape of the Scarab was much simpler and wedge shaped. This made carving and shaping the car easier as well, and something that Andy and I could do together. I would start by marking up the block with the areas that needed to be removed, and started to remove the material with small carving gouges and knives. Once I showed him the tool and technique to use I’d hand him the block to carve himself. Andy has had quite a bit of experience with woodworking tools for his age, and is very responsible and cautious with them. Most importantly, my eyes never wavered from his hands during the drilling, cutting and carving portions of the project. We repeated the marking, my example carving and his carving process countless times (really) until we got the shape close to what it needed to be. We put away the carving tools and replaced them with a wood rasp and rifler files to shape the car to a point to where only sand paper was needed. This process took a couple of months, working on it every other night and weekends. During this time we’d work on the cockpit when Andy was getting tired of working on the body shaping. The driver figure is our familiar friend from the Fujimi kit. The seats, steering wheel, windscreen, crash bar and fuel and radiator filler caps are from the 1:24 Scarab plastic model kit. We made the floor pan, interior side pods and back panel from sheet styrene. We also were able to cut out a portion of the molded chassis pan from the model kit to fit onto the underside of the Derby car. The chassis pan is attached with small screws that allows for its removal. Most of the added weight to the car was installed in 3/8” horizontal holes that were bored by Andy during the initial boring of the pine block. The benefit of the removable chassis pan is that additional weight can be added, low on the body, at the time of weigh-in to bring the car up to the 5 ounce limit. The wheelbase of the Scarab didn’t work with the precut axel slots, but it was shorter than the precut slots. Our district rules allow the wheel base to be moved and/or be made shorter than the precut slots: provided that the ends of the axel are visible. We cut inspection holes into the bottom of the car in order to comply with this requirement. Like the McLaren Derby car, we used Dupli-Color lacquer primer, color and clear finish for Andy’s car. One of the things that I like about lacquer is that it can be applied in very light coats that dry quickly. Fantastic results can be achieved if the car is prepped well and if the car is wiped clean prior to painting and kept clean (rubber gloves) during the finishing process. The application of several light coats took a lot of time, but was easy enough for Andy to do with my supervision. We do use a respirator when painting as well as a homemade paint booth that I made for my slot car hobby. The decals are from Pattos Place and make it close to the 1964 Daytona entry by Mecom Racing with A.J. Foyt driving. Andy trued the wheels, polished the hubs and prepared the wheels and axels using the drill press.

We didn’t think that his car would compete well in the overall race standings because of the short wheel base and high somewhat forward concentration of weight. It was however, fast enough to place first in his Webelos den and he was very pleased with that result. I photographed our work as it progressed and captured some great action shots of Andy with chips and sawdust flying. We kept a log of the time we spent building the car, noting the date and amount of time for each of the tasks that were performed. We logged a total of 48 ½ hours invested into the project. Of that time, I estimate that we spent an equal amount of hands-on time. Best of all, we had a great time together and Andy is very proud of his car.

Well that’s the story on Andy’s Scarab for the 2009 Pack race. I still have to show you the rest of the family’s cars. The cars aren’t as detailed as what I have shown you so far, so I will likely group them together in the next update.

Thanks for following along.

Brad

[pwrd by tungsten]

Awesome. Feel free to post as much as you like.

[Brad Korando]

Here’s the next batch of Derby cars that I have to share with you. Eddie, my oldest son wanted to enter a car for the open class. He opted for a low profile car with an extended wheel base.

This car proved to be a learning experience for us. We aligned the car to go straight, but narrowed the wheel track too much. This resulted in the rear wheels coming in contact with the center rail and slowing the car down a bit. Also, the weight limit for open class was 10 oz and this car weighed slightly less than 5 oz. The weight placement and cutout front resulted in the car having a COM of about 1”. He didn’t place in the open class, but left the Pack race with an understanding of the mistakes we made and what we could do to be more competitive.



My daughter Heidi likes all things pink and also likes 1960’s ‘Mod-looking’ things so this seemed like it might fit the bill.

This car has a Fujimi driver figure in it and was also an open class entrant. Like Eddie’s car; it would have benefited from additional weight. It weighed in at just less than 4 oz. It was aligned to track straight and did a pretty decent job of it. The car was quick off the start and ran smoothly, but just didn’t have enough speed to compete in the class.



My wife is affectionately called ‘Mamba’ around the house which is the inspiration for the black ‘tongue’ racing down the bonnet of the car.

The driver figure is yet another figure from the Fujimi kit. This car weighed in at 4.5 oz and was aligned to track straight. It ran well enough to place 2nd in the open class event.



This takes care of the field of cars we brought to the 2009 Pack race. I’ll wrap things up in the next update by posting pictures of the batch of cars we brought to the 2009 District race.

Thanks for looking,
Brad

[Brad Korando]

Here’s the group of cars we brought to the March 2009 District race.
Andy decided enough was enough, and decided that fast was the way to go. We took what we learned from Eddie’s Pack race car and built this. It weighed in at exactly 5.0 oz with a COM of 7/8”. He made the right call and posted some fast and consistent times to take first place in Webelos.


Eddie came up with an improved version of the Pack car that weighed 8.2 oz with a COM of ¾”. It ran well and placed second in a very fast Open Class.


Heidi wanted her “brand” to be more recognizable and come up with this design. It was a 9.5 oz car that ran well, but wasn’t fast enough to place in the top three.


I also wanted to see if I could be completive in the Open Class race and came up with this car influenced by my favorite driver of all time – Racer X. The car is 7.9 oz with a COM of ¾” and proved to be quick. It came in on the heels of Eddie’s car for a third place finish in the Open Class.


Finally: I’ve always liked AC and Shelby Cobras and decided to model one. Although not marked properly (the right decals proved to be too old to use and I was out of time to wait for replacements), this car is supposed to be CSX2341, or the Ken Miles car. I like the fact that this is a unique looking car with the bulging 427 rear and the “D” shaped grille opening. The detail bits and decals were donated from a Revell 427 model kit. The driver figure came from an old 1:24 scale slot car kit that I had lying around.







Take care and thanks for looking.
Brad Korando