Harry P. Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 This is the Entex 1/16 scale 1905 Rolls-Royce 15HP, one of the very first Rolls-Royce cars. Henry Royce had built his first car, the Royce 10, in 1904. Charles Rolls was the owner of an early motorcar dealership, C.S. Rolls and Co. When he saw the Royce 10, he was so impressed with the car that he told Henry Royce that his dealership would take as many cars as Royce could deliver, and he would sell them badged as "Rolls-Royce." The next year they formally partnered, and Rolls-Royce was born. That first year of "official" Rolls-Royce cars (1905), there were four models, a 10HP 2-cyliner car, a 15HP 3-cylinder car (this model), a 20HP 4-cylinder car, and the top-of-the-line 30HP 6-cylinder car. This model is similar to the Mercer I posted recently as far as detail goes… it's well detailed in some ways, and incredibly simplified in others. For example, the engine. The whole top half of the engine is one single piece, with a handful of parts that get added… but the engine looks very crude and poorly detailed. So much so that I decided not to bother trying to detail it. I glued the hood shut on this one. However, I did add a lot of other detail to the kit. The running board and fender brackets were very thin and flimsy, so I replaced them all with scratchbuilt ones made of brass rod. I also sanded down the interior side of the firewall and added a real wood dashboard, made of birch veneer that I stained and varnished. The windshield frame is also scratchbuilt of real wood to replace the kit piece. The windshield "gasket" is made of Evergreen U-channel, and the windshield was cut from a sheet of thin Lexan using the kit piece as a template (the kit windshield was way too thick and had swirls in the plastic that could not be polished out). The rear-view mirror was also scratchbuilt of styrene, brass rod, and thin sheet aluminum (cut from a pie pan!). The seats have a typical "diamond tufted" pattern, but the molded-in buttons were so small and faint that they were basically invisible, so I drilled out each one with a pin vise and used sewing pins to replace them. The molded plastic convertible top was improved in several ways. First, going by my reference photos, i used a pin vise to drill out holes for each brass fastener that holds the top material to the top bows. I sanded the top to scuff up the surface (inside and out), then applied wood stain to the top and wiped it off, leaving enough on the top to give it a more dimensional look. When the stain was dry, I used fine sandpaper to remove some of the stain from the high points to further accent the top. Finally the top was sprayed with flat clear to get rid of any shine from the stain. The fasteners that connect the top to the bows are tiny brass nails left over from a wooden ship kit (they're actually the nails you use to fasten the hull planking!). I also made new top bows by soaking strips of basswood overnight, then bending each bow over a form to get the correct bends. Once dry, each bow was stained, varnished, and glued to the underside of the top. I cut off the lower parts of the kit-supplied top bows, painted them gloss black, and glued them to my scratchbuilt wooden bows. I also drilled out holes along the lower edge of the top at the back and used slightly larger, round head brass nails to represent the fasteners that attach the top to the body. And the straps that run between the front of the top and the frame rails are made of painted strips of masking tape, with "hardware" scratchbuilt of brass wire. The tool boxes on the running boards are also made of real wood, stained and varnished, to replace the plastic kit pieces. The belts are masking tape and the hardware is brass wire. As far as the wild color scheme… I was going to paint the model a very "proper" and respectable dark green, but I thought the car needed a little more pizzazz… so I went with a red chassis, wheels and undersides of the fenders. It may not be a "typical" Rolls-Royce color scheme, but I like it! Paint is Rustoleum Hunter Green and Gloss Red. There were a few problems along the way… some due to the kit itself and poor engineering, and some were self-inflicted, like my decision to make the fender brackets out of brass rod. It took a lot of tedious trial and error to get the brackets bent to the right shape to hold the fenders in the correct position. Also, by replacing the kit's top bows with scratchbuilt wooden ones, getting the pivot points of the top bows to match up with the holes on the sides of the seats was a real pain… but I like the look of the real wood bows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffs396 Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 NICELY DONE Harry!!! Your extra detailing always improves your builds from box-stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbowser Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Wow, very impressive Harry. The extra work really shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragline Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Well done brass era stuff always tickled me and this is no exception Harry. So well done and all the extra you put into makes a truly nice complete package. Nice colors as well. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Very impressive Harry, so much detail. Very sharp model.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramfins59 Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Most excellent Harry. You do great work and obviously have great patience to get all those little details done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comp1839 Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 i'm not a classic vehicle kinda guy so, i like the non-orignal paint scheme. i think what does it for me, on this model. are the real wood details. well done and very authentic looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Looks great. Your added detail really makes it a stand out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Good grief, you're fast. You just got this kit a few weeks ago and you've already turned it into a masterpiece. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 Good grief, you're fast. You just got this kit a few weeks ago and you've already turned it into a masterpiece. Well done! Actually it was finished about a week ago... just now got around to taking pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelmartin Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Fabulous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 What a beautiful model !! A shame the engine parts weren't up to the rest of it, as you mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jouko Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Nice looking car you've made with many details. But, if I see right the RR logo is black, and if it's black it's wrong. It should be red. It was changed to black in 1932. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_rolls_Royce_logo_change_from_red_to_black http://www.probuspontivyfr.org/rolls.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.1/16th Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 BEAUTIFUL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PappyD340 Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 OUTSTANDING job Harry!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Stinks. You failed to put scale air in the tires or machine a complete new engine with oil leaks. And no coil springs in the seats?? Wired instruments? C'mon Harry... If you keep cutting corners like this, no LP-700 for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 Stinks. You failed to put scale air in the tires or machine a complete new engine with oil leaks. And no coil springs in the seats?? Wired instruments? C'mon Harry... If you keep cutting corners like this, no LP-700 for you. I'll try to pick up my game next time... Nice looking car you've made with many details. But, if I see right the RR logo is black, and if it's black it's wrong. It should be red. It was changed to black in 1932. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_the_rolls_Royce_logo_change_from_red_to_black http://www.probuspontivyfr.org/rolls.htm You got me! I missed that one. I just used the kit-supplied decal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 Very nice, Harry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debaronFR Posted August 23, 2013 Share Posted August 23, 2013 une merveille! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 23, 2013 Author Share Posted August 23, 2013 une merveille! I had to look that up on an online translation site! Thank you. I mean, merci beaucoup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony T Posted August 24, 2013 Share Posted August 24, 2013 Very nice build!! Love the extra details! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peekay Posted August 24, 2013 Share Posted August 24, 2013 Beautifully done! Your models all have a "museum" quality to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted August 24, 2013 Author Share Posted August 24, 2013 Beautifully done! Your models all have a "museum" quality to them. Thank you, Peter. That's a very much appreciated comment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Bartrop Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 I had a 1907 Mercedes-Benz from Bandai that got lost in a move before I summoned up the nerve to tackle it. and it wasn't particularly accurate either. The fact that it was a "Mercedes-Benz" should be your first clue as to how much attention they were paying to accuracy. I think the colour scheme works great, and is certainly period correct. There have been some pretty wild colour schemes applied to Rolls-Royces, and some make that look downright restrained. All in all, I think a very nicely done build of an Edwardian classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle potts Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Very nice, Harry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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