Accurate Miniatures - 1964 Corvette Grand Sport - Sebring

 Had picked this kit up at a sale, and held on to it for years. I had seen pictures of other builders who had finished this kit, and was a little intimidated by the level of detail... wasn't sure I was up to the task of doing it justice.

Until one I day I decided to dig in, give it the time it needed, and see what came out in the end.

The kit starts as a highly detailed chassis (just like the real car).

Here it is, pretty far along in the process... Already has the engine, suspension, and tires fitted up. 

Took my time to detail things, and used several shades of black, grey, and silver to make everything look like they were separate parts, and not just lumps of plastic.

If you look close you can even see the tops of the battery sections and a rear shock peeking out that are painted yellow to stand out.

The car that ran at Sebring in 1964 featured a dark blue paint with large white stripe and sported the number 2 on the doors.

Here it is with the body painted, and mocked up on the chassis for a test fit.

At this point, it looks to be pretty far along, but still has lots of little bits to go.

Things like the "glass", windshield wipers, door handles, exhaust pipes, and a few other details to be painted on.

So here she is! All finished up. You can see the parts I mentioned above have all been added.

Things like the glass pieces, rear differential cooler sticking up there in the back... and the hood vents.

Oh those hood vents.  If you compare the last two pictures, you can see the vertical fins now in the hood vents. This was one of those parts I was scared of. Each of those little holes has a series of tiny brass plates, that all have to get glued together, and then placed in the hood openings.

 And on top of that.... they needed to have the stripe painted on them.

As I said I went full out on this one... no decal for the big white stripe...that is all masked and painted two colors! There are also fins in the vents along the side of the hood, though they are a little harder to see.

 

 And here's the Chevy racing, all aluminum 373 cubic inch V8, complete with 4 - 2 barrel carbs ready to convert air and fuel to raw power.

And finally, the view that most of the competition saw that day at the track!