Uncertain T'Rantula

We all seem to have an affinity for Steve Scott’s “Uncertain T”. The car, the kit, and the man have been a subject of conversation countless times in our chats. We have also had other “uncertains” done for the gallery, so this is my tribute to that car.

I started with the T’rantula, and cut the body off even with the firewall. I used Plastruct sheet to extend the roofline upwards to the desired height, and Zap-a-Gap was used to splice it all together and fill the seams. I would have liked for the roof to be much taller, but I wanted the roofline to flow with the cowl line, so this was about as high as it could go.

It took a while to get the right angle and height. It took even longer to sand it all smooth!! (and I cracked it twice!) Once I got the roof squared away, the rest was pretty easy. The chassis from the Creepy T was shortened and sanded smoother, and holes were cut in the firewall of the “T” body to slide it into. Once that was all glued and primed for the umpteenth time, I squirted the whole thing with HOK Orion Silver basecoat, and then did a fade job with Kandy Oriental Blue and Kandy Organic Green.

The kool logo on the back was done by Dan Warford of Slippery Arts. The motor from the Creepy T was built basically stock, with the addition of a milled magneto with scale plug lines, photo etched pulley faces, and topped off with the spider from the “T” kit, whose legs I reshaped to droop down over the blower. Radiator and fan are from the parts box. Headlights are milled parts from Parks with epoxy lenses. The rear tires are of course the now infamous Richard Carroll's. These things weigh a ton, so the rear inside wheel inserts are reinforced with brass tubing to shim the axles. The fronts of the rims are milled aluminum, grafted to plastic mags deep inside. I love the “steamroller” stance they give the car!

The chute was rigged with heavy sewing threads. On the interior, I added a complete scale racing harness with cloth straps and photo- etched connectors. The steering wheel insert is also a photo etched piece from Model Car Garage, with a microscopic spider web between the bars, and a spider in the center! The rim is a rubber o-ring. If I had to change anything with this build, I would have chopped the tranny shorter and moved the motor back closer to the firewall, thus shortening the wheelbase even more.