Since K-Line has flew-the-coop, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. Such as the "Speedy Gonzales Missile Car". The inspiration for this car is the Revell IM-99 BOMARC missile kit. This is a a cool looking missile and an iconic plastic kit, which, just happens to fit perfectly on one of Lionel's beautiful PS-4 flatcars.
I had suspected that there might be a clearance issue with the wing span of the missile. Upon opening the box and looking the kit over, I found that Revell was kind enough to make the wing tips a separate piece, so, I was able to mount them in a retracted position and now side to side clearance is not a problem.
There was one other problem though. The jack stands that supported the launch frame were mounted to the side of the frame and this meant they would not fit on the deck of the flat car. I had to remove the jack stands and remount them to the ends of the frame in order to make things fit on the deck. The jack stands were drilled and tapped for 1-72 bolts. This allows the frame to be bolted from underneath to secure it to the deck. The equipment boxes [Frenchman River Model Works] were secured in the same manner. I made custom decals on my printer using Micro-Scale Ink Jet clear decal paper and coating the sheet with Testor's Decal Bonder.
Revell designed the launch rail mechanism in a way that most things that rotate in movement are just basically a snap fit. I felt that this might be too fragile of a way to do things. Instead, I drilled and tapped for brass bolts/nuts or pinned everything that moves in order to strengthen the mechanism. Bare-Metal foil was used to represent the hydraulic piston shaft.
Once again, contractor, ACME ARMS has put its touch on things that go BOOM!
PS: For those you who noticed that this is actually a Surface to Air Missile, it did cross my mind to make it a Yosemite SAM, however, with the sleek shape of the missile itself, I felt Speedy was a bit more appropriate. Maybe Sam will be the next project.
