Mr.Zombie Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 (edited) I should finish my Merc, and my 59 Miller Meteor and then begin something new, but I just couldn't resist. A while ago I found this: It is a T on Model A frame, hoped up fourbanger, mechanical brakes all around and just dead beautiful. I have a 29 model A here, and T Tube was found aswell, and then I should have sat down and build what I see, but I searched the net further and found this: Now that's a hot rod! I don't have a Model A Coupe body, but found a 1925 T, and figured why the hell not? I glued the frame and suspension, figuring, if that what I am planing on doesn't work, I still can pot the Tub on the frame and have a "way out". The plan is as follows. Stock model A frame, just like these two on the pics, stock front axle, the stance will be defined by the wheelsize, no fenders, chopped 1925 T body, mechanical brakes where I will try to make the wires and fittings (now it's too late for changing mind anyhow, since I already drilled holes in the front brake drums), the engine will be a fourbanger with a Winfield head (if I manage to paint one of the two i have really pretty) but stock ignition (want to try these metalplates instead of wires), and two carbs, one sidepipe and yeah. Here, that is my main inspiration for the engine setup: Should be quite mad. The body will be oob. NOT. Unfortunalley the body I have is from a kit that has a Zed frame, and is missing the lower quarter of the boot lid, so I'll have to add that. I will be doing it in Aluminium that I have from a takeaway tray, so I can bend and dent it a bit, see most of these are welded there anyhow. Should add some reality, and I save myself tons of sanding and filling. Edited March 27, 2012 by Mr.Zombie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Now, that was the plan. Now let's see where I am so far. I glued the frame and the suspension, glued painted and dusted the wheels. I figured that one wheel without whtewall should add reality, so I painted one rim in tan, a common color for Ford rims back then. The body will be black, engine of course green. Sorry for the crappy pics. So? Whadaya think? Worth goin' in this direction? Or leave it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwrabbit Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 I like it! The old vintage racers (usually roadsters) sat tall like that. Keep going! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelbuilder Mark Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Very realistic wheels, great project in the making Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badluck 13 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 That wheel is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......more please!,I love the direction this is going...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 OK. More. Yesterday I glued on the lower quarter of the trunk, as I planned I used aluminum for that, bent it, shaped it and made some welds using a streched sprue that I soaked with plastic glue, put around the area where the real car would be welded and after it got soft I pressed the end of a No 11 blade to shape the welds. I added some filler here and there and spraypainted the whole thing with flat black to see where I am. After some sanding and filling I decided to get rid of the door handles, since the 29 came with chromed ones that'll look better than the molded anyhow. I painted some areas rust brown and masked them with maskol that I'll peel of after the final paint, and go from there with the rust, I want the body to be in reasonably good shape and want it to appear like it is wearing it's original paint. To achieve that I'll paint it flat black, sand down with fine paper and then I will polish the side panels, doors and so on. This way I will have absolutley smooth transistion between the faded paint on the top surfaces and kind of shiny, old looking on the sides of the car. I also painted the engine flat black and I will add some green using a preshade technique that I used for military stuff. This way I will have shadows wherever I want. Pics for today: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Since here is night when you have a day the previous post is where I was 24 hours ago. Today I had nothing to do at the office so I went home after 4 hours or so and since then I was building. I buffed out the painted body a bit, painted the engine flat black and then green. When that was drying I pained a Winfield head and a stock model A head silver, and added a dark wash. After that I felt that the stock head came out much nicer so I stuck with that, painted the sparkplugs and added the distributor. When that was drying I turned to the manifold and the header. Painted both flat black, and the header got a layer of rust made out of paint and pastel chalks in brownish colors. By then the head dried so I could go on with the spark... Things. I have no idea how they are called, but Model A's have these metal plates (copper?) that are acting as sparkcables. I made those out of some thin metal, bend to shape and glued on. Sounds easy? Well it wasn't. Originaly I decided to do them that way to set this one a bit apart of all the other cars that I and most of the people are building. And I thought that these would be much easier than wiring the engine (I hate that part of any build). In the reality it prooved just as tideous to cut out four equaly big pieces of metal, drill two holes on them ends and then bent them to shape so they are touching the sparkplug and the distributor. I could most likley wire 17 other engines with all those pieces that fell off my table (it was faster to do another one than to look for the lost detail). I still feel they could be a bit finer, but my sausagefingers are not able to do details like that much finer... After the head was ready I just wanted to clean the carbs, but ended up glueing them on the manifold and painting (I couldn't clean the air filters because they are one piece, and I can't chrome here). I drilled one hole in each floatbowl for future fuelllines, and another hole on the other side on the bottom for throttle mimic. I build them from scratch kind of eyeballing at Alyns work, and I was cursing the whole time. The mimic is made out of 6 pieces so far and it took me about 3 hours to glue that thing together. The carbs need a wash, a throttle cable, and a return spring then I call them done. Tomorrow I need something less annoying to do, maybe lights or a safari window. I dunno, something fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 It comes together the mean lil' coupe. I am very happy with the look of it. I love the proportions and the parts I used would make hell of a high school rod back in the days I think. That is it for now. More to come when I'm a bit further. I have to think now, since the wishbones are glued to the transmission, and them are hangin' on the front axe, I can't do the brake wires, although I'd like to paint them together with the frame, so no idea how I will do that, need to sleep over it. After this one I will build a Tamiya kit, I like the detail on the 29, but I am sick and tired of having to kind of sculpt every single piece by myself because the of the flash that virtually every single piece is covered with. And I still need a model A grille shell that was missing in the box... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albie D Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Ive heard of Raja Spark Plug Terminals, but they are the basicly a cable with and exposed terminal end (can you say radio interference? Hey what radio.) Never seen these before, look like grounding straps. Awesome detail regardless, thats real old school kool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybill1960 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Very nice little build, clean and sharp! thank You for sharing Later Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Well, here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27851952@N00/5005052617/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Not grounding straps but spark something... I have seen that it works, I have seen many A engines with those, but yea... No idea how they are called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantrix Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I'm really enjoying this build, keep it going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badluck 13 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I'm really enjoying this build, keep it going. I am with Rob on this,true roots to the "Hot Rod" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Setzer Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I like what you are doing with this build ! I like doing models of this type, and your's is looking great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Cranky Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Great inspiration material, and the model is getting some wonderful subtle touches. I like this one, keep it going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 (edited) I keep it going. After I sourced exactly ONE picture of a Model A frame from underneath (and that after I know four people who have those things, but each an every one rebuilt to juice brakes ), where you could see how the brakes are attached to the rest of the car, I built the mechanical brake system from scratch. I figured either today, or again in 100 years. First I bent myself the main bracket out of cooper wire, and attached it right behind the batterybox underneath the frame. You can clearly see the position on many pics. Then I made some latches out of foil that in a real car keep the whole assembly in place. Now, on a real car you push the pedal, then that main bracket turns forward, and that way it pulls the brakecables which then pull on a "9"-shaped bar mounted to the brake cylinder. Kind of werid to describe. Here is a good pic of a front brake: You can see the wire just above the steering rack, and the small 9 shaped "thing" that moves backward in the pipe sticking out of the drum. I was counting a bit and figured that since the whole steering is oversized on the model, I will not be able to build that "thing" fine enough (and I don't have the tools and abilities to do such tiny assemblies), so I drilled a hole in each drum, glued the front axle to the frame, cut a cooper wire a bit longer than needed, faded it thru the hole in the drum from the outside, found the right position by eyeballing and glued it with superglue. Then I took some very very fine tubing and glued it on top of the wire, where that "thing" sits. Then I glued some tiny pieces of the same tubing to the rear drums, and built the whole mimic at each end of the main bracket, which consists of 3 pieces each, upper arm, lower arm, and a bolt in the middle, with a tiny hole drilled in each end. After that I went back to front and used some super glue to "shape" the transistion between the tubing and the "pipe". Now the fun began. The idea was to take some guitar string (doesn't bend that easy), and cut it to pieces, again, just eyeballed and cut the string adding about half an inch on one end. Then I bent one end of each wire ("L" shape), and had tiny hooks. Now I took each wire with tweezers, carefully faded it thru the tubing in each drum "backwards" and hooked it in the holes in each arm in the middle of the frame. Glued in place and repeated four times. After the glue set, I gently pulled with tweezers on the "loose" end, right behind the drums, and glued it to the tubing /the wires don't hang this way, but are streched under tension). After all was dry I just clipped the half inch of wire sticking out in the front and back. Simple. Now for the numbers, the whole brake thing was done in just three hours, and I needed 19 pieces that I made from scratch. The reward is most likley the first mechanical brake assembly on this forum (in this scale I mean), and it looks amazing! I almost regret that I'll have to cover it with paint... Pics: Edited March 21, 2012 by Mr.Zombie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 (edited) After all that, there was one more thing. During the whole process, I forgot to check if the wires don't scrub on wheels. Well, the don't! Slamin' huh? Now I need to glue some short pieces of wire to each shock and each axle, finish the steering, and then It's going to paint hopefully tomorrow, then I have to finish the engine before I add the fuellines and other stuff. The Engine has to be in place in order to glue the whole suspension together (front an rear axles are just glued to the rest of the frame via leafsprings, so I still can take the engine out. But the whole thing is so ###### delicate, that I have maybe two tries on this until I damage something beyond repair... Edited March 21, 2012 by Mr.Zombie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Today I don't have much, because I mostly painted. The frame got ready yesterday night, and I was able to paint a flat black basecoat, the first layer of many that'll follow to age it properly. Then I ran into a big problem, and abigger one. The big problem is that I painted the engine with automotive paint that doesn't allow me to wash and do all that stuff that I usually do, because the thinner disolves the paint. And all that after I already glued on the carbs and the exhaust mainfold. So I had to work with acrylics, nevertheless the Engine is still a bit sticky, and each layer has to dry before I do something else. Horrible. The next problem is worse. After I put everything together I felt that the color I choose for the engine (and as the matter of fact, this is the color 90% of all A engines have) is too bright and too liveley for the rest of the car. I found a video on the net where the engine is more dull, kind of turqoise, and that would be a better choice. But now it is too late to change something, and I have to get over it. I painted lots of oil stains, to get rid of the strange green, It is not horrible, but kind of odd. I dunno. Maybe after everything is painted and in place, and aged properly, I will feel better about it. Two more words on aging. One of the reasons I didn't do much more today is that I decided that I want to replicate the excesive lubing that most of the A Hot Rods seem to get. So I used a mix of artist grade oil paint and dust to "paint" the trans and some suspension components with this mix. Now I have to wait till it dries, which mal take few hours or more... I finished the front wheels aswell. There'll be no more paint on them. In fact I am even thinking of blacking out the lugs on the black rim, not very sold on that five "points"... Pics! The grille shell will be chrome. Hopefully... This one is borrowed from a ready model that I have here for a "surgery". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluhead Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albie D Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Incredible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwrabbit Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Very nice!!! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 23, 2012 Author Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) OK, tiny update, but a giant step forward for me. I could not live with this horrible green that was hurting my eyes. Trying to age it just made it more annoying, toy like and shiny, and horrible. Tons of washes and drybrushing mistakes just made the whole engine look like "poo". So I washed the whole thing with dissolvent yesterday evening and made up two different solutions. A simple one and a difficult one. I went with the simple. I looked thru my folders with 300+ pics of Fourbangers in hot rods and found this one: You can clearly see that the engine is covered with old oil over rust, paint and cast metal. That should be doable in scale, and I get rid of that horrible flashing green that annoys me. Since I painted the starter, head, generator and other bits and pieces separate, I can age them a bit different and get that look. If that what I was goin' to do would work out. So at first I made myself some paste out of oil paint, dry pastels in brownish colors and some light grey dust color, and whatnot else. and used an old small brush to, well, not really paint, but more "tap" that mixture on the engine, varying the color and the moisture of that paste as I went (lighter on stuff that stuck out, darker in the shadows). I went over the whole engine body, and left the oilpan drity and rusty with some green flashing thru. To add some realism, I also painted that coolant leak on by the third cylinder, and scraped off some of that snot here and there with a scalpel to let the green come thru a tiny bit. Now I am quite happy. Engine is dull, dirty, structured, and most important MATT, and not shiny like dogs testicles... I still need to paint the oilfiller cap, and touch up here and there. Maybe a drybrush when it's fully dry? Where the starter be, I of course didn't paint that stuff on. It is also very difficult to make a good pic of how it looks like in real life so the first two pics are more the color, and the other two are more how the structure ended up being after all that stupid work. Now I have to build a third fourbanger, because I still don't have a green one... Bah... I am seriously considering this mudsplashes that the car on the first pic is wearing for this little hot rod. Any thoughts on that? Yay, or nay? Edited March 23, 2012 by Mr.Zombie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelbuilder Mark Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 I did not mind the green, but this really looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Zombie Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 It was annoying the hell out of me. Such a horrible, horrible color I choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybill1960 Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Z Man, this is one wild ass build !! I am loving ever bit of this!! I appreciate Your detailing skills!! Absolutely "FANTASTIC!!" Thank You so very much for sharing with Us here!! I "AM" watching this one!! Thank You very much!! Later Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.