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The Wingmaster Sprints are based on a 1/50th scale diecast sprint car series, originally produced by GMP (Georgia Marketing and Promotions). They were limited production items -- fully licensed replicas of actual sprint cars. Very, very cool looking! And I managed to motorize and sell them. The standard version would run on 1/43rd, 1/32nd and 1/24th scale tracks, and on many routed HO tracks. I also produced a version that would run on standard plastic HO tracks, but they were really a bit too wide for that.
I think 1/50th scale is close enough to 1/43rd scale to fit on this sub-forum. So once again I'm trying to launch a 3D printing sub-forum.
The Wingmaster Sprints had one pronounced weakness. The plastic mounts for the wings were easily bent or broken, and not easily repaired. If you wanted to race the cars you were well advised to remove the wings first, which sort of went against the whole idea of racing winged sprints.
I really didn't like that situation. While many of the cars I've produced have ended up as collector's items, I'd be much happier if they were raced. And raced in their full scale glory.
Once I started 3D printing I thought I had to try printing Wingmaster wing mounts, to be used as either original parts or repair parts. TPU (Thermoplastic PolyUrethane) seemed like the appropriate material. A good mix of rigidity and elasticity, with legendary toughness.
I started by trying to make the mount for the main wing. Reverse-engineering the design was tricky. And I had to adapt it for 3D printing. But I succeeded. See below:
Ed Bianchi
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