1/43 Indy car model obsession – part one
One man’s love for Indy racing and Indy models
It started as a lark. A challenge. I took it upon myself to try and build an MA Scale Dallara DW12 into the Dario Franchitti Target Indy 500 winner. After a ton of work making the relatively crude model kit look right, I then sold it on Ebay, which was always the plan. A super Indy fan purchased it and then asked me if I would like to build more 1/43 Indy cars for him. This is how I began building a bunch of kits to satisfy his 1/43 Indy car model obsession.
As I found out, he has a lot of Indy car kits.
CART comes first
The first model to build was the Formula Models Eagle. The request was to decorate the Eagle in the 1999 patriotic version shown at the top. It was a relatively straight build simply adjusting paint colors to this particular livery. I used both 1/43 and 1/32 decal sheets from Indycals to build the flag motif. The 1/32 sheet was only used to create the largest star on the blue background.
More CART followed with the SMTS Interscope March. The car was driven by Danny “on the gas” Ongais. The SMTS kit proved extremely easy to build. Like Marsh models, SMTS designs their kits so that they can also provide built models for collectors as well. Therefore, the kits are engineered to go together the right way without additional work to make the parts fit. Sadly, this kit has been discontinued but others may or may not be obtained from Grand Prix Models.
A couple of Porsche Indy models followed with the Tameo March 88C first. The Quaker State sponsorship on this and the following Meri March 89C make for handsome cars in their white and kelly green. The Tameo kit went together well as Tameo kits do, but there was no way to securely attach the front fins; there was only a minor indent in the body to receive the photoetched parts. The Meri kit went together well too. This is the car with which Teo Fabi won at Mid-Ohio for Porsche’s only Indy win. Tameo Indy kits are still listed on their site and can be obtained from Grand Prix Models as well, while the Meri kit can still be found on Ebay.
Target, Target and another Target
There are a number of Chip Ganassi Target cars that got built. This Reynard from Formula Models was decorated for driver Jimmy Vasser with wings are for road courses. Like all Formula Models kits, it goes together well and has lots of detail. Unfortunately, the creator of Formula Models (and a huge Indy car lover) Colin Fraser passed on a few years ago and so these models are sadly no longer in production. I hope someone will purchase the tooling for the line of kits and offer them once more.
Say what you will about the IRL but the cars make good models. Picking up on the Target Ganassi theme, Formula Models kits of Dallaras for Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were assembled. The kits were virtually identical for both drivers, with changes to all the sponsor logos the main difference besides the race number. Note that it takes quite a while to put all the sponsor decals on those Target cars!
Wait, wait! There’s more!
Part two of one man’s 1/43 Indy car model obsession can be seen here. More IRL cars and a few from the current Dallara DW12 generation.
You can find more model car fun here or more racing craziness here.
