Detailing the interior of the Thunderslot Lola T70
I detailed the interior of the Thunderslot Lola T70 Spyder white kit. The back panel of the interior should be body color, so I masked the interior and painted it with the same DupliColor paint as the body. Then I painted the rest of the interior with Model Master Non-buffing Aluminum Metalizer. The restored Gurney car was dual black seat inserts but most of the cars in period only had a driver’s seat and the other side was left bare aluminum. I painted the driver’s side flat black. The filler covers on the top of the side fuel tanks are just blobs on the vacuum interior, so I cut some .002″ Stainless sheet to the oval shape, dimpling around the edges to simulate the bolts, and using a hole punch in the middle where the filler cap is. The stainless was a little too shiny so I brushed a coat of flat clear on top and then glued the covers in place. The “dash” cross member is painted in some of the Lolas; in others it is left in aluminum, so I painted it with the metalizer. I painted the instrument panel flat black, then used a #11 blade to scrape the paint off of the instrument bezels and the numeral bumps inside. I topped it off with some red detail paint and a drop of canopy glue for the dial lenses. After painting the driver figure, I decided to make some seat belts. I put a length of blue masking tape on a piece of glass, cut it into narrow strips, and blackened it with a Sharpie. I cut small pieces of the stainless sheet and bent it around the tape, and putting a drop of black in the middle with a Sharpie. The strips are glued to the back side of the bottom of the driver’s torso, run up over the chest, and into holes in the back panel of the interior. None of the roll bars in the kit were correct for the #21 car, so I used a bent paper clip. Finally, I added some wiring to the front of the instrument panel, using some wire from an old wired “mouse”.
