· Check this page for the most amazing 1/43 slot car collection, over 2,000 cars from Georg Oberloher in Germany
· Check this page for a picture collection of modern and vintage Artin 1/43 cars
· Check this page for a picture collection of various Artin 1/43 cars that I scratch built, repainted, or converted from diecast and/or plastic models.
· Some key things to know about Artin 1/43 cars:
o Motor is a S can type motor with end-bell and a 2 mm diameter axle.
o Rear and front drive axles are 2.16 mm diameter (0.085 inches). This is unfortunately quite non standard for slots as it sits right in between the European standard (2 mm) and the US standard (3/32 inches or 2.38 mm).
o Pinion is 10 tooth (4.5 mm outer diameter), crown gear is 28 tooth (12.5 mm diameter), 64 pitch, for a 2.8 gear ratio
o Several types of wheels and tires are available, depending on the cars: here is a picture of the three main kinds of tires that are available.
o Read this article for more details on the Artin 1/43 chassis.
· Here is how to tune-up and prepare Artin 1:43 cars:
o First and foremost, everyone should read this article on car tuning. This is mostly on 1/32 but a lot of the stuff in there is applicable to all scales.
o Then, read this article for detailed tips and tricks to get the best out of your Artin 1/43 cars.
o Tips and tricks for the Artin 1/43 motors.
o You can also get silicon tires for these cars:
· Slot Car World carries them, see here, scroll all the way down the page, very last item.
· This guy in France claims to have all kinds of silicon tires: http://www.chez.com/mintinbox/pvente.htm, even for Jouef 1/43 and other cars.
· Here is a way of adapting HO silicon tires on your Artin 1/43 rear wheels.
· Liberty also makes custom wheels and tires for Artin 1/43: see here
· Carrera Go!!! 1/43 cars:
o Same lubing and tire truing techniques as for the Artin 1/43 cars
o You can read a review of the Carrera go!!! cars here.
o Here is a tip from ArtinKing: GO!!! cars are great with the magnets removed, if you put some lead weight between the motor and front axle with a dab of hot glue (so you can always remove it if needed).
· Read this article that shows many examples of what can be done to create your own cars and conversions in 1:43
· Body and chassis work:
o Here is how I adapted some Fastlane 1/43 bodies on the Artin1/43 chassis
o Here are some examples of using Airfix-Heller model kits on Artin 1/43 chassis
o Here are some 1/43 die cast model conversions to Artin 1/43chassis
o If you are interested in old American muscle cars, you can also try to look for AMT plastic models (on e-bay) and adapt them onto an Artin chassis.
· Scratch built bodies and chassis:
o Alumilite corporation sells all kinds of stuff to make your own molds and cars: see in particular this link. Also VaBchRog wrote a great article showing how to make your own resin bodies.
o Here are some examples of 1/43 resin bodies adapted to the Artin chassis (Thanks to VaBchRog for making these bodies)
o Here is another useful link to get chrome and aluminum metal foil: Bare Metal Foil Co. These come in self-adhesive sheets, great for windows and chrome work on your models.
o Also check this site out, I found a lot of useful info for scratch building there and Brent Carlson has compiled on his web site the best articles you can find on scratchbuilding.
· Painting and decals: If you feel like a new livery on a car, the Artin bodies are really easy to repaint and using some decals you can get new liveries very easily.
o Some examples of cars I did.
o SlotCarWorld has tons of decals for 1/43 cars.
o Here is another great site for decals: Patto’s place
o You can also make your own decals easily with any inkjet color printer: SuperCaldecals or Testors have the required paper and products for that.
· Head and Tail lights for Artin cars:
o Check this link to see how you can get more info on lights for Artin 1/43 cars.
o What I show in the link above is equivalent to the commercial light kits sold by Overdrive, Ninco, Slot.it, or Cartrix for 1:32 cars (12V) but the electronics has been optimized to work at low voltage for 1:43 Artin cars (6-7.5V).
· Slide Guides for Artin 1/43 cars:
o Check out this article to see how 1/32 slide guides can easily be mounted on Artin 1/43 cars
o Go to http://horacepro.com/ and check out the guides for LifeLike cars (part number SG8310). Thanks to Rauncy, a Home Racing World discussion forum regular, for that tip).
· How to find old/vintage/discontinued 1/43 cars:
o A few cars can always be found at the special/vintage section of SlotCarWorld
o I also buy a lot of them on e-bay. The best ones I have found were on E-bay France and Germany, as well as on E-bay Australia. I buy any of the 1/43 Artin, Jouef (Jouef was a French1/43 manufacturer that actually was bought by Artin), Mattel, etc …. Here are the search links on e-bay:
· Artin
· Jouef
· Others
LastUpdate: 12/26/06 Drop me a note
