SSK Excalibur 1/12 scale Bandai kit

[codea]

I picked up this kit for $40 dollars Australian. It had been "started" but not much had been done. I decided that I wanted a kit to practice my scratch building skills on, because I had been attempting to scratch bulid an Australian TD Gemini, and reached the limit of my skills and so figured I'd try to fix a kit up, and also in a larger scale so I could get used to making things in a bigger scale before aiming again at completing the 1/25 scale project.

So the bandai kit is very basic. I refuse to say bad, because I think you get what you pay for most of the time, and I was prepared in advance. And it was what I was looking for anyway.

The kit is simple, with a number of engine parts, a couple of body parts, and a lot of intenal mechanics for a battery powered motor, and moveable steering.

Here is the engine gearbox etc. broken down from the attempted assembly.

So of course after fiddling with the parts etc, I started to research. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that it took a few weeks to gather enough material together to start.

I found an excalibur on a flickr account and was able to get a very good selection of reference photos. I learned that the excalibur series 1 was based around the Chevy 327/350 engine, a homemade frame strengthened from the original Dart frame to accommodate the 327/350 Chevy small block, and some had super chargers etc.

And I found heaps of material on the Chevy small block engine

First thing was to cut the engine/gearbox/oil pan up completely to get it in a position that I could start to re engineer it to look something like a chevy small block.

Then starting with the oil pan I glued it back together reinforcing the inner seam

I added end pieces to fill in the gaps created by cutting the one piece moldings up

And then using a scratch builders best friend, copious amounts of filling and sanding

to create something that vaguely looks like a late 60s oil pan.

This is a good example of the challenge I face, as I'd like the model represent a story, but I obviously can't make it like it came out of the factory as a lot of cars in the production line were custom made, some with super chargers, some with bigger engines and oil pans, fuel pumps etc, so I have to balance out all the possible variations as much as possible. And I don't have the super references of just one car to do that.

So for example with the oil pan, I am working on the approach that the model will represent some one doing the best they can to restore an excalibur back to as close as factory spec as possible, hence the aim of changing the oil pan back to a "traditional" late 60's shape. I will aim as I develop parts to replicate them as best I can.

In a future post you will see that for the fuel pump, instead of using the useless blob in the kit, i scratch built one. But based on the fact the water pumps don;t often last 50 years, I have found an Edelbrock water pump suitable for the 350 Chevy small block that is in a more traditional style with the strengthening vanes around the pulley housing as opposed to the excalibur in my reference photo's that has a modern flat, sleek looking water pump, which seems a little out of place for me.

Anyway I hope it makes sense as I go along, and I'd appreciate all and any comments at any time.

[sjordan2]

I once built the companion kit to this car, a 1/12 Alfa Romeo 1750 Zagato. Also just as simplistic as your Excalibur. I was a bit disappointed during building to see that the body and other parts weren't very accurate, but it turned out it wasn't that bad –– the kit was based on a 1966 anniversary replica produced by Zagato for Alfa Romeo. The engine was woefully underscale.

[DynoMight]

Great work. Oil pan looks great already.

[microwheel]

Man have I ran across kits like that before, where you had to do a lot of correcting to get it even close to looking like it should. But sometimes that's the fun of model building, taking something that bad and seeing it come together like it should have been. Nice start.

[codea]

Thanks guys for the encouragement, and yep microwheel, that's exactly what I am trying to do here. I did re enter the hobby with an ambitious start of scratch building an entire car. I learned very quickly that I need to consolidate some techniques, and chose a bigger scale and a "basic" kit to give me some elements to build on rather than completely from scratch.

That said, I have almost completely rebuilt the engine block so far.

I started with the view that the angle of the vee in the block was not even correct.

As you can see I had to further cut the block up into the upper and lower portions of each side, as changing the angle at the top to be steeper, left the bottom too wide to be in scale, and so I cut the lower portions off to re angle those, to get the corrected shape and angle, and still have the bottom of the block the right size so I didn't invent an oversized oil pan

Once I established that I worked out length and width of the block. This has been an education for me, that despite liking model cars, I'm not very mechanically minded, and so I first realised that the left and right banks of the block are slightly offset to allow for piston movement, etc, was a mini revelation.

Imagine my surprise when the kit engine didn't represent that offset

So then I spent a bit of time filling in the gaps, setting the right angle etc, and this is the result so far. The grey is the kit parts, the rest is my work.

And then I worked out that the front of the block, was not flat, but had a distinctive timing cover, and other aspects that I have attempted to recreate. To create the timing cover, I created the oval shape out of sheet styrene, then a circle and some inner arms to create the "peace" like symbol at the top of the cover.

I then added a couple of circles of plastic for the shaft housing and covered the whole thing in a foil, that you get at the top of "Milo" tins in Australia.It is thicker than aluminium foil, and when burnished down gently into the shape I've created it gave me the look of pressed metal, something that I couldn't recreate just with plastic, and I think the effect looks quite good.

I added some punched out hex bolt heads and added it to the front of the block, along with some details on the block include welsh plug holes - called something different in the states.

Note in the following that the left hand side of the block as you look at it has been hacked back to create the depth that I am building back up to represent that side of the block. As you can see between the two photo's I've added the fuel pump housing to the block on the left giving it that distinctive outline.

Some more images of the block so far, showing that not one dimension was close to correct on the block. But that is what I am aiming to learn how to do. In hindsight, I could have started with sheet styrene and created the block from scratch, but this has been very enjoyable to challenge myself so far.

Next I turned my attention to the water pump. As mentioned in an earlier post, my reference pictures suggest the excalibur I am basing this build on has a new higher performance water pump, and I am trying to suggest a car with attempts to remain as true to the original as practical.

Not being mechanically minded, I was told by someone who is a mechanic that water pumps do wear out, and it would be realistic to assume that the pump had to be replaced at least once, if the car was driven regularly.

So with that in mind I researched and came up with a style of pump that I think could have been put onto the car in this imagined scenario.

And here is my attempt at it. It's not finished but you can see the main structure in place.

And one of a comparison between my effort and that of the kit part.

Next up is to develop a bell housing, and gear box. However I have stopped the engine for the moment, to start on the chassis. I have no measurements of the chassis, and have relied heavily on the reference pics I have that include a number of the underside of the car.

In those images the front of the chassis has amore pronounced curve, so I cut and repositioned, glued reinforced and have started to fill in the gaps.

Further work on the chassis includes reducing the overall height of some aspects of the mid chassis, and filling the whole chassis in to suggest a boxed structure, plus some new straight cross members, to support the gear box etc.

That's all ahead.

[jaymcminn]

Interesting... I like where this is headed.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great premise behind the build. Looks like a great project.

[codea]

So boxing in the frame has taken some effort, with some grinding of the sides of the frames down mid chassis to closer match my references, plus filling in all the location points that are for the fenders etc, that are not attached to the frame above, but below, and bolted on, not incorporated into the chassis.

Some parts of the frame required some framing first, and other thinner sections were filled in with sheet styrene, and the first of the putty was applied.

The frame once boxed in will still need some modifications and some further cross bracing etc.

Areas to be ground down to get to a more accurate profile

And some of the boxing in work

[Danno]

Ambitious project. You're off to a good start. Will be watching.

[codea]

Just a quick update on the frame.

I've worked out the front part of the frame was both too wide and not angled enough up to the side rails, so first thing was to grind off the front of the frame, and cut it back to scale width.

Now to fill it in and blank it off like the rest of the frame.

Here is some progress shots of the chassis that I have blanked off so far.

It's taken a bit of time as the side rails had to be reduced in height and to achieve balance across both rails took time and care.

Also the curves at the back of the chassis were the wrong arc, so they too had to be carefully ground back and a steady hand and eye to make sure I kept them even as well.

[codea]

More progress on the frame. Keeping the flipping thing even is a challenge, but I've blocked out the remainder of the front of the chassis, and thinned out and removed a heap of material that was just plain wrong.

While I was waiting for the fourth lot of putty to dry, I started on the intake manifold.

I am basing it on the Edelbrock manifold as below

I thought I would share how I am going to make this part as the kit part is just sh$t

So I measured out and cut a section of styrene, scored both sides to give me the flanges, and filled the gaps with stretched sprue.

Then using the image I measured out the flange pattern and created a template in post notes and attached to the side of the piece and ground and filed the shape, then repeated for the other side.

It doesn't look to bad on the engine block.

From here I will build up the detail and add it to the bottom piece of the manifold.

[hgbben]

Very impressive. Following this

[Deathgoblin]

Nice work so far. Keep up the good work.

[Mannyp1980]

That is pretty awesome, nice skills.

[Chromecop]

"...I learned that the excalibur series 1 was based around the Chevy 327/350 engine, a homemade frame strengthened from the original Dart frame to accommodate the 327/350 Chevy small block, and some had super chargers etc."

First, let me say that I really look forward to see this build completed. The Excalibur is truly a very nice car!!!

However, the Excalibur S1 was NOT built on a "homemade Dart" frame, It used a somewhat modified Studebaker Lark Daytona frame. Later on, in 1970 the S2 was built on a special made "ladder frame" , 2" longer than the Studebaker Lark chassie and using Corvette components for suspension.

Here's an interesting link:

http://www.brooksstevenshistory.com/subcats/autos_details/excalibur_story.pdf

[codea]

Darryl, First off thanks for the interest and the feedback. Yes I found a similar scenario when I researched and came across the link you posted. What I found most interesting is that the original one off that was built for the show was based on that Lark chassis, and then the company started to invest in designing their own chassis as you correctly point out.

The kit is such a mish mash of parts and components that I was spending so much time trying to determine the history of the car, even to the point that I contacted what remains of Excalibur automobiles to see if they would send some information. I never heard back so I plowed on.

I stumbled across an Excalibur on Flickr that I decided had the best series of photos of a single vehicle. And so my project was born.

I aim to produce a later version of the first series of Excaliburs that has been driven enough that a full restoration has been undertaken.

The story I am to show with the model is that the small block Chevy remains, but some of the bolt on components have changed. I have a picture of the original supercharger and am contemplating scratch building one, but I will wait and see.

At this stage, life got in the way and I have not had much time to get back to this kit, and am still trying to scratch build an intake manifold. Once that is done then the block can be finalized, and mounted to the chassis so I can then run the running gear, gearbox, shaft, etc.

Your point about the Corvette suspension is noted, and I think the reference car I am using as a basis has corvette components just a case of reviewing my references again.

Thanks so much for the interest and I hope to do the model justice in the long run.

[Formex]

I just stumbled upon this post.  Anyone needing pix for their model that they cannot find online, I'd be happy to supply from an original '66 doorless roadster, like the Bandai model here, out in my garage.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Formex