ACME LeMans Palooza 2008 is in the history book!

For a third year in a row, a group of ACME sports car builder/enthusiasts gathered to watch the race and build a model during the event. Members from our regional ACME Georgia, Florida and Tennessee chapters were in attendance.

We all had a blast, it was a lot of fun, and all 6 builders finished their models :cool: Rules are simple to exploit. Must be a LeMans racing subject. "Finished primer" allowed prior to the start. Other than that, just have fun, and of course DNF's are not encouraged :biggrin:

I built a Fisher Jaguar D-Type; only 32 parts and rather simple to build. So I spent the day running my mouth and providing comic relief, and competitive grief :evillol: Veyron built a Tamiya Porsche 936-78. Mike Edwards built a Formula Canada/Scale Productions Ferrari 333SP, finished at 2AM. His Dad Danny Edwards finished his Monogram Ferrari 275P first, well ahead of Mike. My Jaguar was done about 4:30AM (I had claimed early on that I could be done by 9PM, so when I didn't Mike E made sure I knew it when he beat my finish time by several hours :uhoh: ). Eric Cole/Mach I 2003 finished his Denso Toyota 88C right before the checkered flag; he finally got some sleep from 6:30AM-8:45AM. Henry Trent finished a Porsche GT2 right before the checkered flag, and also got about 2/3 of the way finished with a resin Chapparal.

Eric and I saw a new silver Nissan GT-R flying south on I-75 on our way to Veyron's house :naughty:

Did I happen to mention we had a blast? :smokin:

GTMike400 dropped in to visit, though he didn't build anything. He was psyched over his mountain driving exploits and a bagful of explosive devices (aka fireworks) he bought in Tennessee. Needless to say I was compelled to remind him of his apparent overcompensation by driving a bright red car and being so gleeful over a bagful of explosives :evillol:

http://public.fotki.com/ACME-IPMS/modelpaloozas/lemanspalooza2008/

At the beginning
http://images35.fotki.com/v1205/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4636-vi.jpg
http://images38.fotki.com/v1211/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4645-vi.jpg

Ringgold, GA, home of Veyron and the LeMans palooza, is a rural area, much like the real LeMans. Background noises in this bucolic country setting are usually roosters and squealing pigs :rofl: In the spirit of rural agriculture, we set up a dehydrator farm. We had four in all.
http://images36.fotki.com/v1203/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4647-vi.jpg

8:30 PM, I'm still only this far
http://images38.fotki.com/v1222/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4659-vi.jpg

GTMike400 telling me I'm #1
http://images36.fotki.com/v1202/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4663-vi.jpg

http://images39.fotki.com/v1234/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4671-vi.jpg

Mach I 2003 does not compromise his surgically-clean style or freakishly calm demeanor :cwm27: , even in a speed-build like this:
http://images36.fotki.com/v1204/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4678-vi.jpg

Although we now have photographic evidence that even he does make a mess:
http://images39.fotki.com/v1229/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4688-vi.jpg

Veyron needed a few martinis himself after fighting this vintage Tamiya kit and it's cantankerous decals:
http://images35.fotki.com/v1208/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4697-vi.jpg
http://images39.fotki.com/v1234/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4691-vi.jpg

Danny finished first w/his Monogram 275P:
http://images35.fotki.com/v1210/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4694-vi.jpg

Mike finished his 333SP around 2AM, and unlike all us old pharts he didn't take any naps
http://images38.fotki.com/v1214/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4692-vi.jpg

My D Type was done around 4:30AM. I need to do some post-race tweaks to get it to fit together better, and add a few details missing from the kit.
http://images34.fotki.com/v1122/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4677-vi.jpg

The surgeon applying his headlight covers just before the checkered flag:
http://images36.fotki.com/v1202/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4719-vi.jpg

McNish congratulating us on our fine work :biggrin:
http://images36.fotki.com/v1202/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4737-vi.jpg
http://images37.fotki.com/v1199/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4739-vi.jpg

The finish line:
http://images35.fotki.com/v1205/photos/4/498566/6359011/IMG_4738-vi.jpg

That really looks like you all had a blast. Congratulations to the winner and all the others for finishing.

Cheers from Germany

nice!
sorta snuck that in. I'd forgotten about the race until i saw it.

Seems you guys had lots of fun. I´m impressed by the quality you got out from building with such time pressure. Little envy on my side...

Robert

Great work everyone, I really like the finish on that Jaguar!

If only i lived closer, i've would've been there. Seems like there is barely any model clubs, or any car builder/enthusiasts in the northeast. I would have to do a little traveling, this years IPMSStratford contest got postponed till next year. Damn it, you southerners have it good!! Well at least i get speed channel.
Enough complaining, on to the builds. All of them came out beautiful, and none of them look like a 24hr build. Paint jobs and decals came out top notch for giving them not much time drying! More Pics please!!!
Onto the questions, i've noticed Eric using microscale clear glue. How is that stuff? Denso red are decals or paint? Also how fast after painting and putting the parts in the dehydrator were they handled?
Sweet stuff from all of you in such a small time frame.

Onto the questions, i've noticed Eric using microscale clear glue. How is that stuff? Denso red are decals or paint? Also how fast after painting and putting the parts in the dehydrator were they handled?
Sweet stuff from all of you in such a small time frame.

Microscale clear is a lot like Formula 560 canopy glue; they're both thick and very strong white glues that are much better than Elmer's. Either one work very well, and they're safe for final assemblies; it wipes clean w/water before it dries. When thoroughly cured it's about as strong as some epoxies, and dries almost completely clear.

If you go through the linked album, you can see that Eric masked his model for the red paint after the white had dried. He let the white dry in the dehydrator for about 4 or 5 hours. He drove us nuts by taking so incredibly long to sloooooowly remove the tape to see how the masking job went. He's an incredibly patient builder. I'm the polar opposite, being incredibly impatient. Veyron said "and now for the 24 hours of unmasking" :lol: while we waited and watched in awe as he removed the masking and had perfect results, of course. With a dehydrator you can handle lacquers w/in an hour or two, three or four is ideal. I had to sand out a couple bad runs/solvent bubbles in my Jaguar green (lower body, in areas not terribly visible), I let it cook for about 4 hours before sanding the bad areas and recoating the green (from a fresher can) and then going to clear. It looked good enough after the second round of paint that after 4 more hours of cooking, I only needed Tamiya's 3 compounds to polish out the finish. If you use lacquers and dehydrators, superglue and accelerator, and pick easy enough subjects, anyone can build something in 24 hours if you put your mind to it, and having moral support (or friendly grief :biggrin: ) with a bunch of friends all together helps immensely. There's a group near Toronto that do the same thing, and they too have a blast and turn out some really incredible builds. They even tackle Heller kits :eek:

A nice suite of subjects you guys put together :thumbsup:
All of them terrific builds belying the speed at which they were built.

Great job by all and glad to see you had fun as usual :)

Excellent builds in such a short period! :thumbsup:
I'll have to try this next year instead of watching the race 24/24! :D

Oh we were told you guys're nut!

BRAVI!

(less bravo our Mike that biult nothing and bothered friends LOL)

Despite all works are great I'll like to know who's the Mike that build the 333: is him an AF member we know under different nick? The pony is awesome.

Despite all works are great I'll like to know who's the Mike that build the 333: is him an AF member we know under different nick?

His AF nick is SCUDERIA - FERRARI.

Oh we were told you guys're nut!

BRAVI!

(less bravo our Mike that biult nothing and bothered friends LOL)

Despite all works are great I'll like to know who's the Mike that build the 333: is him an AF member we know under different nick? The pony is awesome.

GTMike400 got bothered more by us than the other way around :biggrin: Sometimes we forget that the kid is now over 20 :cwm27:

I couldn't remember their nicks easily when I was still in a post-race hangover yesterday; Mike Edwards is Scuderia-Ferrari, Danny is Carsprez...they don't post very often.

Ah yes another great build! I'm sure there were plenty of wholesome stories shared and no lies told at all.

I wish I had made it....I much rather had been building models than buckets!!!

Will Road Ringgold be open for next years Sebring? It's 12 hours isn't? No problem right???

Great stuff, cool tradition.

They don't look like rush jobs....