What a nice kit! The molding is exquisite, and flash is miniscule. Fit so far has been perfect. Maybe some build pictures tomorrow. I am taking to heart the admonition on the instructions to remove pieces only when really needed. I did remove a few parts to make measurements for decals, but put them back in bag with sprue, and closed bag. There are many very small pieces that are just about unidentifiable since this thing looks like no other car! The small parts look very fragile too. This is not a kit for beginners. I clipped off a corner of the PE fret to try Casey’ Brass Blackening on it. It gave just the patina I was looking for. Disaster last evening. I had finished the rear axle with Alclad Steel, and it was drying clamped into a micro clothspin sitting on a box edge. The pin launched the axle clear across my shop (12 feet). I heard it hit the rear wall. That area of my shop is filthy- sawdust all over the shop, and big power tools over there! I will have to do a major shop cleanup now to find that axle!
I’m looking forward to following this. I recently built the ICM 1914 Paris taxi and loved it but found some of the thin parts were prone to bending and breaking when cutting them from the sprues. Does your kit have thin fragile parts? From the pictures it sure looks like it would.
As an aside, did you finish the Allison turbo prop and do the internals turn when it’s all closed up? Mine doesn’t but it sure looks good. If you posted a picture of it when finished I somehow missed it and would love to see one.
Yes indeed it has small fragile parts. Broke a small diameter shaft already. It was about fifty mil in diameter by two inches. Got it mounted right away and glued ends together after mounting, but it has a slight bow. It is under seat, however, and may not be that visible.
Allison is all mounted on baseplate, but waiting for nameplate decals (inkjet) to dry before coating. Done very soon now. Did just post picture of it mounted.
Frame is now complete. Here is the frame, and a few other parts I am still working on.
On the right hand side of the picture, from top to bottom are the countershaft pully, The engine block, the flywheel and the countershaft and mount. As soon as I get anothere coat of paint on the pully I will mount it on the countershaft and mount that on the frame. Still have a lot of work yet on the engine.
Hey Don, looking real good so far. Nothing like a flying part to motivate someone to clean other parts of thier work areas. I feel your pain regarding this first hand.
Can you show us the remaining parts of the kit on or off the sprue? Also I have not checked but is this still available, and if so what is the price point?
Yep, big sheet of PE. I am on hold for the rest of the model, waiting for some backordered copper Alclad. Going to start the wheels while I am waiting. Painted the rims while still on the sprue. The cross section of the rim and tire are very small. The rim is black, while the narrow tire needs to be a dark gray. It would be impossible to mask it well. I am looking at taking the black rim/tire piece, now that it is gloss black, painting some dark gray on a sheet of cardboard, and make a fixture to roll the wheel through the paint on the cardboard. I think I’ll make a test wheel and try that.
I’ve already tried cutting a bit of the pe fret and putting it in brass blackening solution and like the patina- I will use that for the spokes.
I found out I made a big goof! I had cut cut several of the wheel rim/tire pieces from the sprue before I began to assemble the wheels. Bad idea! The rim/tire pieces are supposed to be placed in the jig before cutting them from the sprue! This holds the wheel centered in the spoke jig. I have the spokes assembled to both front wheel rim pieces now, but it would have been a lot easier if I had intrepreted the drawing properly. The sprue is supposed to be cut away while the wheel half is in the jig.
Finally got the Alclad Copper for a couple of the tanks. The cooling reservoir for the engine needed to be sanded very carefully, so I decided to cut it away until it was coppered, so I cut it off the cylinder and drilled a hole in the bottom for a brass rod, and drilled the cylinder to match. Also I did not like the cast oil reservoir- it needs to be transparent. I cut it at the bottom, cut the cap/filler off and replaced the reservoir with a section of 1/16 clear acrylic rod.
Now I mounted the engine in the frame, along with the flywheel, crankshaft and pushrod linkage.
Very impressive job on a really interesting kit. I was looking at it on Scalehobbyist last night and was really tempted to order it but didn’t. Seeing these pictures may change my mind.
I am stilll working away. I am working on the wheels now. The front one wasn’t too bad, but the rear wheels are an absolute nightmare. The rim and tire are cast together, in halves for each side of wheel. The pieces are a semi-circle in cross section, with a diameter of a sixteenth of an inch- but almost three inch overall diameter across. They are unbelievably fragile. Each spoke has a tiny hole in the outer end which fits over a tiny pin in the rim section. That pin is in a slight recess. It is important to fit the spoke in that recess, else the two halves will leave a gap when glued together. I have broken each half rim umpteen times, and have one rear wheel glued together. It does have some gaps, but I will fill and sand, and hope people will not notice the variations in width. This is not a kit I recommend to anyone but the most experienced. I have had to make up more wheel jigs in addition to the one included in the kit.
Thanks, Don, for that warning. That’s just the sort of thing I would do. I had to partially tear apart a Tamiya Lotus because I didn’t read the directions properly. Had to buy a second model.
Looking great so far. I have one and will be watching your build.
Well, rather than give up, I’ll go with what I got, see if I can make them acceptable.
This is about the best I can do with the rear wheels. They are too wide in spots and I am in the process of filling the cracks and gaps between the wheel halves. I cannot keep the spoke ends entirely in the recesses. The rim halves are just too weak and they bend while trying to glue the halves together. So be it. I 'll be filling, filing, sanding and painting them while I work on the rest of the vehicle.
The spokes are, the rim/tire halves are styrene. The spokes are dished in a jig, and then captured by the tire/rim halves. Unfortunately, this does not work perfectly. The dishing operation does not bend the spokes enough to reach the yield point and the dishing keeps trying to rebound. This puts a high stress on the spokes and they want to come off the tiny pins molded into the rim pieces. I am sorry now that I applied brass blackening solution to the spokes. I fear it hurt the adhesion of glue. The spokes kept popping off while trying to glue the spoke ends to the rims. I suggest leaving the spokes clean and unfinished, and painting them with the rims.
