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About a year ago Scalextric announced they were going to make a 1963 VW, which was a great idea. Unfortunately, if you've owned a few of the real ones, you tend to spot the differences in the details that make for different model years. A '63 would never have 4 bolt wheels with flat hubcaps, nor larger windows and quarterlights that slope on their rear edge.


It looks like they just found the drawings for their 1966 Bug Airfix kit, copied them and hoped people would be a little hazy over the changes in those three years.


A real shame, as if you dig back in their catalog there is a '62 VW which would have been a much better start. I found an incomplete kit and started to work...


I changed the bumpers for the US spec "towel rail" ones, added a sunroof and tried it on one of my new narrow chassis.




I came up with a way of molding the bumpers in one piece with the bodywork, at least in my imagination. Time to make the mold and get one cast...





Looks promising, time to get some paint on. Bear in mind I'm a child of the '70s and grew up when a Disney movie on TV was a special occasion :oops:




I've designed some wheel inserts which will be the stock wheel with no hubcap, they should arrive in a week. I can't wait to get it on the track 8-)

That is looking pretty sweet! :D
Can hardly wait to see it in action via video!

Your car is dead on! Paint it black and you've got my 62 sunroof Bug. I remember one time driving down Yonge Street in Toronto with 8 of us in the car. Two deep on each of the seats except mine, and the smallest of the girls in the space behind the back seat. It was after midnight on a Saturday night, err Sunday morning, and it is a wonder we didn't get pulled over. Of course nobody wore seat belts back then. We even did the old fire drill where everyone gets out at a red light, runs around the car and pile back in.
The crazy days of youth, eh?

The wheel centers arrived, made as SLA parts which were still covered in the most disgusting goo.


I cleaned them up, made a silicone mold and resin cast them. The interiors arrived too, I've only just ordered the waterslide transfers so for the moment it's still got the paper graphics on. At least it's a chance to get them the right size.

Jim Douglas wore a beige jacket (it was filmed in 1968) and Herbie's interior was gray to cut down on reflections from the studio lights.


The wide wheels make it look pretty tough, and accurate for the racing scenes in The Love Bug.




Cornering very hard! This car had a Porsche 356 engine, Porsche 356 brakes, a camber compensator plus another suspension stabilizer to stop the swing axles from tucking under. You know that the driver for these scenes was Carey Loftin don't you? Stunt co-ordinator for Bullitt among others.




Now what car should some enterprising person make to run alongside Herbie?


How about an Intermeccanica Apollo, the Thorndyke Special? I'm on the case!

Wow, that looks good Gareth. Can it do the wheelies like in the movie? What type of SLA printer did yo use to print that out? I thought about getting a Laser SLA but ended up getting repair parts to repair my FFF type printer. I plan on trying out some of that brush on epoxy to fill in the gaps left behind by the extrusions.

I've done a couple of designs which allow it to wheelie but I'm not confident either will work with the steering mechanism, when the nose comes down it's got to line up with the steering linkage and I don't think that will be reliable. Never mind!

The wheel centers were done on a bureau's SLA machine, the chassis and the Apollo bodyshell were done on a bureau's SLS machine. The SLA machine was $50k+ and the SLS machine was $150k so well out of my reach!

The Bug bodyshell was done from a vintage plastic model kit with different bumpers and a sunroof fitted.

Gareth - Herbie is absolutely fantastic! Awesome work!

Those wide five inserts look great. Any idea if they fit either Slot.it or SCC insert wheels, what size?

This is great stuff. You really are the trail blazer on this - the technology had been out there but Chase-Cars was really the FIRST that had done the whole package; body and chassis and even added something extra cool- the leaning and full steering. Plus you have been doing this for years already - definitely in the forefront of this technology.

I really like the independent subjects - where you do the unusual cars you want to see in production... The "Herbie Collector's Set" seems like it might be interesting to lots of folks as well. I don't recall seeing the Apollo (215 cid Buick aluminum V8 powered sport car) ever made in scale... plus you have made Tatras, police cars, TV cars, etc.

I collect and race 1/24 stuff almost exclusively but I really like the 3D process and always check out Chase-Cars Choc-ice threads.

Thanks!

Millimeters work fine for me, I understand them. I'll measure up some of my wheels to see. As my screen name suggest, I like VW Buses and Porsches.

How about the recent Herbie from the Electric Dreams collection located in the front of the warehouse?

Herbie fans can be anywhere!

It's from the Fully Loaded movie which my own full sized Bug had some parts from. But my slot car is from the 1969 Love Bug, the stripes and numbers changed a little between movies and my graphics are from the first one.

A little more progress on the Thorndyke Special, trial fit onto the chassis.




These both fit on the new narrow chassis I'm developing, I've assembled most of the 8 chassis for testing (and sent a couple out for others to try!) so I'm working through the changes now before it makes it to production.