Matt Bacon Posted October 2, 2022 Share Posted October 2, 2022 Journey of a thousand miles, and all: The rear deck of this racer is ready to carry a spare wheel, or not... Thanks to an error with the 3D printer files, the resin deck part as supplied in the kit is a mirror image of what it should be. The fuel filler should be on the right, the wheel mount displaced to the left. It's not a tricky fix, especially with the help of the 1:1 drawings in the instructions, but this is how it should look after surgery. The first major step is cutting away the rear wheel arches and flattening the back end of the chassis piece: You want to get everything level with the top of the ]-shaped raised bit between the arches. The medium-grey and black parts are from the original Aoshima kit (Airfix version). The paler parts are the C1 transkit. Body looks like this in primer: Very impressive, generally. A couple of bubbles and flaws to deal with at the edges, but mostly very well designed and cast. Thoroughly recommended. best, M. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afx Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 Looking forward to seeing this come together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave B Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 Looking good Matt, look forward to seeing this finished. Dave B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 Thanks, both. A bit of progress... Tamiya British Green spray, and Meguiars Ultimate Compound to polish it. The fit of the interior seems stellar... Tamiya Fluorescent Red for the highlights. The valance is press-fitted to the front of the chassis. When I assemble it for real, it'll be glued in place first, and then become the mating area as the chassis goes back and in to the body. I think adding the valance to the body first and then trying to flex the chassis into place front and back is a recipe for disaster... Minilites done. Stynlrez silver primer: a bright matt silver which seems pretty accurate for the finish on the real things. best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugatti Fan Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 Your MGC is coming on well Matt. I downloaded the instruction sheet from C1 some time ago and from what I could see it looks a very impressive transkit. So I will be following your thread with interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Rivard Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 Looking great so far. a very interesting build to follow, thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy D Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Great to see one of these being built Matt. Really nice body work there! Randy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustyMojave Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 (edited) Anybody have any input on why 8 lugs on the wheels? 1-ton truck hubs? Otherwise it looks very cool and I do remember pics of it at Sebring. Edited October 13, 2022 by DustyMojave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bainford Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Cool project, Matt. Looking good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Porter Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 19 hours ago, DustyMojave said: Anybody have any input on why 8 lugs on the wheels? 1-ton truck hubs? Otherwise it looks very cool and I do remember pics of it at Sebring. Not lugs, bolts where the hub of the wheel attaches to the spokes on the centre-lock style Minilites as opposed to four lug Minilites. I am really enjoying seeing the Sebring fender MGC go together. The C1 transkits are really first rate and I had nothing but a positive experience building my BGT from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustyMojave Posted November 30, 2022 Share Posted November 30, 2022 OK. American Halibrand wheels with center lock wheels use pins like smooth shank lug studs attached to the hub flange that stays in place on the car instead of splines. The pins pass through the wheel and the pressure plate (which is often part of the wheel). Americans DID use spline drives for wire wheels back in the 1930s. The car my dad used for a daily driver when he met mom was a Singer 9 with spline drive knockoff wheels. My brother still has dad's copper knockoff hammer. And the 1st pair of race cars I ever worked on had spline drive knockoff wheels. It was a matched pair of Lotus 11s with beautiful polished aluminum bodies. While my dad re-wired the crappy wiring job with positive ground and sketchy Lucas electricals, my job was to use my little 4-year old fingers to clean the brand new but filthy dirty English wire wheels. Why they would ship a brand new race car with so much attention to making the bodywork look great, then throw filthy, muddy, grimy wheels on it I still don't understand. I didn't know these MGs used centerlock hubs. But I suppose that wire wheels with knockoffs were an option on the production units. So not a leap for them to be approved for FIA racing. All the ones I saw using aluminum or mag wheels used lug studs for US sprint racing because under SCCA rules, if you used centerlocks, then you had to use wire wheels that went with centerlocks on the production car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted December 29, 2022 Author Share Posted December 29, 2022 Well, time to get this one back on the bench after a Scale Model World related hiatus and break for Christmas. That was fun.... not! Trying to wrangle 5 pieces of etch and some painted masking tape so the central ring is more or less over the wheel centre was quite a battle but we got there in the end. Finally got up the nerve to mask and paint the window chrome, which has been putting me off. The front and rear screens are relatively thick but tough clear sheet, and Chris provides templates to cut them to fit the recesses engraved inside the shell. The sheet is flat, but bends into shape when fitted. The Blu Tak is holding them in place for the first round of gluing with Formula 560. Once they are not going to pop out again, I'll go round and close the last few gaps. Chris provides new front and rear axles and springs which are direct replacements for the kit parts and give the required wider track and lower ride height. If you're building one, ease the fixing holes a bit and slightly slim down the tabs on the rear axle. The tabs needs to slide completely into the socket in the spring to get the width right... and the end of the spring with the block goes at the back! Test fit repeatedly before committing to glue... One of the things I'm slowly getting the hang of is that although this is a transkit with extensive instructions, it's not a kit. You still have to build the kit from the original instructions for everything that's not explicitly called out to be replaced. For example don't be caught out like I was by the timing of when the exhaust and rear brake actuators need to be fitted by focusing on the transkit springs and axle instead... The best approach (with hindsight) would be to annotate the kit instructions at each point a transkit part or assembly is used instead and do what in BASIC you'd call a GOSUB to that section in the transkit instructions... best, M. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smilesperhour Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 This is looking really nice. Have a 1980 rubber bumper GT so love these cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 Lots of detail work to do, but the interior is coming together now. The Aoshima versions of this kit (at least the old ones) have much nicer decals than the Airfix boxings, with decent dial faces, which I've made use of here. Note the rev counter, which was mounted rotated 45 degrees or so versus the standard position to put the redline zone at the top, making it easier for the driver to see. The tub is relatively simple, but Aoshima provides separate door furniture, handbrake and gear stick. This is Chris's replacement shifter, which is a lot sturdier than the long wand of the standard car. Pedals have been adapted with some foil from a scalpel blade packet... the real car had drilled steel pedals, and the large brake of the automatic. There's a little more to do on the dash, but I'm happy with how this looks. First test of the interior. The instructions tell you to dry fit the various elements and "make up a single unit" of the interior. I've exchanged e-mails with Chris, though, and he says that you do attach all the interior to the chassis before putting the body over the top (I thought you might fit the single unit of the interior inside the body before fixing the chassis) which is the same sequence as the base kit. Time to fix the back in place... best, M. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smilesperhour Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 Looking really good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 Thanks, James! Dash is finished: My attempt at the Dymo tape labels under alll the switches. They are, err.... "impressionistic", but I think they add to the "busyness" which is the effect I'm after... Roll bar is Gunship Grey, for variety. I drilled out a couple of shallow sockets for the main "legs" of the roll bar in the corners of the floor pan behind the seats. The seats are just resting in place, and there's a bit of fudging to do to fix them properly. I think the handbrake may have to be cut and fitted as close as possible to the transmission tunnel. There's a coaming ahead of the dash ready to fit, and I'll need to make and fix at least one 4-point harness before I can call it finished. best, M. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smilesperhour Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Interior looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 11, 2023 Author Share Posted January 11, 2023 I think the interior is now done: Belts made up with black wine bottle foil and Renaissance photo-etch hardware. The foil is a lot more tractable than ribbon, and stays folded when you fold it... A first test fit (nerve-wracking, so I don't want to do too many!) broke the dashboard coaming off, so I obviously haven't got that right. I think thinning it a bit where it joins to the dash, and making it fit horizontal or even a bit below horizontal is probably the answer. Easing the slots inside the body where the chassis clips in will also help, I think. Also very proud of myself that I remembered to drill the various holes through the body before closing it up -- resin swarf static-ed to the window would have been very annoying! Now for some fettling... best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Rivard Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Beautiful work Matt. The spare tire tie down belts look very realistic. Good inspiration for a similar setup needed for a build I am just starting. Cool build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 Right.... I can't avoid it any more: two must become one... I've decided to take advantage of the separate valance, and rather than add it to make a complete bodyshell which I then have to flex over the chassis, I'm fixing the valance to the chassis using the moulded tabs at the front which you can just see in front of the two ejector pin marks outboard of the three holes in the chassis front. Then I'm going to fit the chassis into the shell locating in the rear notches arrowed above, and use the big pins in the front valance to locate the front section as I bring the chassis down into place. At the front, you can see where I've cleaned the paint and sanded the mating surfaces of the front valance. The two circles indicate the "sticking points" where the body needs to be flexed outwards to clear the tub as it goes in. The arrow is where the plastic chassis is slotting into those notches at the back. I found it helped to get the chassis seated into the notches at the back at about this stage, and then tape the fuel tank on the chassis to the body rear to stop the chassis slipping forward and out of the notches as I folded the front end down and in. At this point it's time to apply glue to the valance joint, flex out the lower rear corner of the front wheel wells and close it down, No nasty sharp snap from inside as the dash coaming pops off this time, either. And here's where I am tonight. I'll leave the tape on until tomorrow... The tape on the sides will stay on until decal time.... it's stopping me getting fingerprints on the doors while I handle the car through the next stages. I find the Tamiya spray is much more vulnerable to that kind of damage than 2K clear. Hope this has been a helpful "how to..." or at least a "How I did it, YMMV...." best, M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaymcminn Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Great to see this all together. It sits beautifully! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 (edited) Time to get on with the details, now... Chris provides replacement main headlights, and four racing lights (only two are needed for MBL). The main headlights are shaped so they fit better under the Perspex cowls than the kit versions, but use the kit lens. He also provides lenses for the racing lights cast in resin. The chrome is AK branded Alclad 3, which works really well if you apply it in really light mist coats over Tamiya Gloss Black. This is 7 coats... You can see the transkit lens at the bottom of this picture... it's quite "cloudy." Fortunately, a rummage through the stash yielded some crystal clear polystyrene lenses for racing lights from a Mini rally kit which fit perfectly. (The Mini has an option for covers for the lights as well...). And here they are in place. Time to start working on the photo-etch grille, I think. Definitely got a purposeful stance, I reckon... best, M. Edited January 15, 2023 by Matt Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smilesperhour Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Really liking this, now I want to get out in the family b for a drive 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bacon Posted January 15, 2023 Author Share Posted January 15, 2023 (edited) I've used the "Hold n Fold" for quite a lot of Folding over the years, but here it's coming into its own for Holding... The grille is a stack of five layers of PE... grille, two frames, and two layers of badge. The grille and frames stack like a deck of cards, and the HoldnFold kept them in place while I applied thin superglue to the edges, which capillar-ied into place nicely, bonding them permanently in seconds. Flip it around and do the other end, and then thicker 30s-cure superglue let me position the badges precisely before it went off. Very neat, though I say so myself. best, M. Edited January 15, 2023 by Matt Bacon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
absmiami Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 Well played 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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