Harry P. Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 The kit is molded in red, black, and gray. The wheels are red plastic, all in one piece, so detailing them means paint detailing. First step was to paint the whole wheel acrylic ocher. When dry, I dipped the wheels into a can of Varathane "Oak" wood stain, blotted the excess, and let dry. The wood stain over the acrylic ocher gives a pretty good "wood" look. Then I painted the rims and wheel centers, and there ya go... There is no windshield in the kit, but I wanted one, so I built one out of basswood, stained and varnished, abd "brass" details made of styrene strip and thin aluminum sheet. The "bolt heads" are tiny drops of 5-minute epoxy that I painted brass. The "gasket" is Evergreen U-channel, and the "glass" is cut from a sheet of thin Lexan (actually left over from another kit). The windshields in my reference photos are all different styles, no two are alike. I assume there were several aftermarket sources for windshields back then, so mine is a generic "could have been" design: I also replaced the kit dash with a scratchbuilt one made of thin wood veneer... The radiator was sprayed silver, then the tube corners and ends detail painted, then the whole thing given a few coats of Future/black acrylic wash. And I added a few missing details. The hood hinges are carved from tiny pieces of styrene and "glued" in place with Future. The hood latch handle is a sewing pin with a collar made of aluminum tube, and all painted brass: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramfins59 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Harry, that looks fantastic. As usual your detailing and scratchbuilding skills are top notch. Another great job Harry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Harry, that looks fantastic. As usual your detailing and scratchbuilding skills are top notch. Another great job Harry. Ditto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Ambrose Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Looks great. My daughter has this kit. Thanks for all the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeBee Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) There is no windshield in the kit, but I wanted one, so I built one out of basswood, stained and varnished, abd "brass" details made of styrene strip and thin aluminum sheet. The "bolt heads" are tiny drops of 5-minute epoxy that I painted brass. The "gasket" is Evergreen U-channel, and the "glass" is cut from a sheet of thin Lexan (actually left over from another kit). The windshields in my reference photos are all different styles, no two are alike. I assume there were several aftermarket sources for windshields back then, so mine is a generic "could have been" design Very realistic, back then Birmingham was full of coachbuilders that could have made you anything Edited March 23, 2014 by GeeBee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocherphile Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Beautiful, really like the colors, makes the little jewel sparkle........looking forward to top being installed and will follow your suggested method of making a top......cool idea. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apriliadan Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Very nice job, funny I thought till I seen the pictures above that the troubles related to opening the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 Opening the box was the easy part! Top has been installed onto the seat shell, top snaps installed, seat cushions installed. Now I have to make the top straps that hold the top tight when it's up, epoxy the seat/top assembly to the body, and connect those top straps. I should have this baby "Under Glass" this evening if all goes according to plan from here on out (would be nice!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 Ok... here's a little trick you would never have known about if I didn't show it to you, because after this point it'll never be seen again... I was getting ready to glue the seat/top to the body, so like a good little model builder I scraped the paint from the area that would get the cement. But I got to thinking that those two narrow ledges aren't very much surface area for the seat bottom to glue to... and besides, I didn't want any glue to ooze out at the joint. So I glued together a little stack of scrap wood pieces with Elmer's glue (they are actually parts of the wooden "sprue" from a laser-cut kit... I never throw anything away that might be useful somewhere down the road!)... made the stack to be at the exact same height as those little flanges when the stack was sitting on the floor pan of the model... spring-clamped it, and let the glue dry. Then I cut some grooves in the top of the stack in a criss-cross pattern with my Dremel and a cutting disc. Same deal on the bottom of the seat shell. Then I used CA to glue the stack of wood down into the body cavity. Now I have a nice, large surface area to epoxy the seat/top assembly to. And since there will be no epoxy applied to those little flanges at all, no danger of "squish out." The grooves I cut into the surface of the wood and the bottom of the seat shell will give the epoxy something to grip. Should be a very strong joint... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Nice thinking 'inside' the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 Well, the little bugger is finished and walking the runway "Under Glass." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Then I used CA to glue the stack of wood down into the body cavity. Now I have a nice, large surface area to epoxy the seat/top assembly to. And since there will be no epoxy applied to those little flanges at all, no danger of "squish out." The grooves I cut into the surface of the wood and the bottom of the seat shell will give the epoxy something to grip. Should be a very strong joint... There's nothing like a very strong joint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 There's nothing like a very strong joint. That's right, Cheech... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocherphile Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Well, the little bugger is finished and walking the runway "Under Glass." Ok........last photo was w/o seat and not top! Photo of completed work please......... Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocherphile Posted April 7, 2014 Share Posted April 7, 2014 Figured it out..........Underglass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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