GPMA: Anything Goes Contest Winner: 1/12 Cooper F3 by Dale King

Here is another look at Dale King's breathtakingly realistic Cooper F3, the winner of our latest contest. And congratulations to the three entries that tied for second - thanks to everyone who participated. - kjs.

Back in the early 1970s I found this little 24th scale plastic model kit by Merit of a Cooper Formula III car. For reasons I still don't really understand, it got me very interested in doing one in 1/12th. I went over to Autobooks in Burbank, California to see if I could find any research on it. I asked the owner of the shop, Harry Morrow, if he knew anything about this particular car. He mumbled something to me and handed me the keys to his house.

I was quite confused at first until I realized what he was telling me was that he owned 3 of the real cars, lived only a couple of blocks away and that I was welcome to go see them. It turned out to be a model builder's dream. The 3 cars were in his garage: one stripped to the frame, one nearly complete but without the body and one restored. I spent many, many hours there taking photographs and making drawing with measurements. He even dragged separate components out for me.

After doing a finished set of plans, I started scratch-building the model in 1/12th scale. Some 2,200 hours later it was complete. Most of the frame, suspension and engine are in brass. I even hand engraved the name Norton into the small plate at the top of the engine. The seat was carved in Bass wood and then covered in black glove leather. The tires were each machined out of clear Lucite, on which I then hand cut the tread pattern. I created a master for the rims and cast at least 15 or so in order to get 4 good ones. This was well before the casting resins of today and so they were cast in translucent fiberglass resin. The 4 universal joints are operational as are the steering and suspension. Not only do the shocks work but so does the safety belt buckle.

The body was created in an unusual fashion (at least for me). I carved a wooden buck, primered and then polished it until it was smooth. After heavily waxing it, I fiberglassed directly onto the buck using 3/4 oz. cloth on each of the 3 sections (the underside, nose and tail). When it was fully cured I popped each piece off, cleaned up the edges and had a nice thin body shell that was smooth on both the outside and inside. It was then primered and painted with Ditzler Acrylic lacquer and rubbed out. One of the greatest compliments I received was having the model outlawed from competing at the IAAM contests. It had won first place every time and so it was felt it was only fair to let something else win. At that point I happily retired it from competition, but I still display it at shows. It now lives in my large model case at my home in Newport Beach, California.