microwheel

Thanks Jonathan, At first I wasn't gonna go with as much detail on this build as I had on my last couple builds, but the further into the build I get, the more it seems to dictate the amount of detail It wants. I hope to get the basic rear brake lines done in the next few days. I only had one set of disc brake rotors, so I had to order another set and they should be here any day now, once they do it should allow me to get most of the chassis work done. Then I can more on to the engine assembly. Jim

Once all the hardware was made and shaped to size, It was all glued together with medium CA glue and then the thread was cut to length and glued to the parts to make the cables.. then all this was tacked into place on the chassis.. Here is the final result before it was detail painted. In this pic you can also see the Metallic thread used as the cable. Once it was given time for the glue to cure, everything was detail painted using various shades of model masters metalizer paints. The metallic thread also got a wash of steel metalizer to give it more of a cable look. The flex cable from the mounting brackets to the rear brake assembles will get added once the rear suspension is added to the chassis. Next process will be to start work on the rear main brake lines. More to come as I get it done..... Thanks for looking guys...

Morning Guys, Personal issues have had me on my toes the past couple of weeks so build time has been few and far between. I do try to get out to the workbench and fiddle with a few odds and ends as time allows. That being said, I did get time last night and this morning to work on the e-brake setup for the corvette. I want to say right off the bat, excuse me if I dont listscale sizes of the materials I used. I'm not good at keeping track of stuff like that. But what I will do is try to use things in the pics to give you some idea of the sizes. If you compare tools and such to the materials for scale, it should give you a pretty good idea of the scale sizes of the materials. Also this process may take a couple of posts to get everything in, so if you pop into this thread and don't see the completed panted e-brake system, check back in a few minutes to give me time to complete the next post. These first 2 pics are reference pics to give you a idea of how the e-brake should pretty much look and the design I was going for. For the cables I will be using Sulky Metallic bead thread that can be bought at most craft stores. It's bright metallic in color but when painted makes for great brake cable. Sorry I forgot to include it in the pics of the materials used. In this pic you will see the tools and materials I used to make the basic hardware for the E-brake system. I used the smallest hole punch of a leather punch to make the pulley that mounts near the trans mount crossover. This was drilled out and a piece of craft wire was use to make the mounting bracket for it. A piece of scale plug were was stripped of it's coating and wrapped around a straight pin to make the return spring that mounts on the back frame crossover. A piece of evergreen plastic I beam was used to make 2 frame rail mounting brackets for the left and right sides. These were drilled out and shaped to sit in a angle in on the frame cross rail just in front of the rear suspension assembly. Next three pieces of evergreen plastic round rod were cut to different lengths and drill through to make the cable and spring mounting point hardware., one of these will also get a piece of piano wire that will work as the spring's pull rod. This will make sense when you see the pic of everything mocked up. Continued on in the following post..........

Thanks Guys Glad I had something to help ya out.

Hi Monty, and thanks. As for the red spindles, by the time the front end is permanently fixed in place, the spindles will be steel colored except for the very top and bottom of them as seen in the pic below. The reason why they arent done that way yet, is I still have to make the brake caliper mounts for the spindles yet and I want them steel as well, so the spindles will get done in steel when the caliper mounts get added, leaving just the top and bottom of the spindles red. This vette is going to be a 4 wheel disc brake and air condition optioned vette. Hope that helps ya understand where I'm going with it.

Hi Michael, I really couldn't tell you in MM what the wire is.. I can tell you that all I did was strip the coating off of some Model Care Garage scale red battery cable wire and used that as the brake line.

Hi Carl, After painting the inner fenders, and giving time for the paint to fully cure, I then scrapped the paint from the edges that would be cemented and applied good old testors model cement to allow the joint areas to weld bond.. once that was fully cured, I applied a little bit of CA glue along the glued seems to add strength and then touched up the glued areas with a little bit of semi-gloss black paint.. then the frame was test fitted into the body again to make sure everything was strong enough to hold up. It worked out just fine.

Thanks Guys, alot of personal issues the last two days have kept me from the work bench, but hope to be back at it in a day or two.

Hi John, you picked a nice subject to work on. I just finished up one of these AMT Baldwin motion kits myself not to long ago. As far as metallic paints go, if you want to be able to wet sand them out without having all the issues, I'll tell you what I usually do. Some on here may have better ideas, but it works for me.. I usually give any model I paint in a metallic color a few coats of clear coat paint after the base metallic sets up for 24 hours.. this allows you to wet sand the clear coat to get rid of the orange peel and gives a great shine without damaging the metallic. As for a make shift paint stand.. Im old school and use empty spay paint cans and even a small block of 2x4, both allow the body to fit over them and using the rolled masking tape described by Justin above. And also as described above, paint the undersides of everything first. Nice progress so far. Jim

Nice paint job, and cool graphics

Next up was to get the front brake lines done.. I used plastruct I-beams to make the frame line brackets.. I scratched made a brake line transition block out of evergreen strip plastic, and then using a piece of detail master scale battery cable, I stripped the insulation off of it to make the front brake lines with. This was bent to shape to match where it will sit on the frame.. Then using some photo etched sprue I bent it around a piece of piano wire and cut it to length to make 4 brake line mounting brackets. Here is the line bent to fit the chassis area where it will sit. Here is the line mounting brackets CA glued on the lines and test fitted in place The lines were then CA glued to their location on the frame. With the transition block painted brass the front brake lines are complete except running the soft lines from the frame brackets to the calipers, once I get that far.... Next up will be the back brake lines and Parking brake cable.. I'll post progress as I get work on it..... To be continued as I get more done..................

Got a little worked done the past couple days on the vette. Not a lot, but what I did get done was time consuming. First thing was to test fit the inner front fender liners and then paint and mount them to the chassis. I needed to get this done so I could start working on the front brake lines. It also helped me make sure the body was going to line up for the correct front wheel alignment.. It all worked out like it should on the alignment. Sorry no after pics of the painted fenders with the body. Continued in the post below................

The bolt detail was molded on to the chassis Michael. All I did was touch them with a tooth pick dipped in model masters metalizer aluminum paint.

Fantastic job on the interior so far my friend.

The paint is really polishing out nice Geoff

Here is a few more pics of the painted front suspension.. For now I'm uploading to google ..... More updates as I get them done....

Howdy Guys... I have been having issues with uploading pics to fotki all day, which is where I usually upload my build photos to. So fir now I used google's photo share to at least upload this pic. I will try to have some better detail shots of the front suspension since I finally got to time today to get it painted and assembled. For now here is a pic of the front pose-able suspension mounted to the chassis.. I did get the floor pan areas of the chassis painted in a dark grey that I custom mixed with tamiya acrylic flat white and flat black. It actually is a little lighter than the pic makes it look. I still have more detail work to do on the chassis and suspension yet, and hope to have better pics up of the front suspension as soon as Fotki's uploader starts working right again. More to come as soon as I can....

Thanks for the info Del, but like I said, I've never been a fan of metal axles. The reason I like using plastic to make my axle pins with, when doing alot of modifying, like I am on this build, is because if I use metal pins, and then later find that I want or need to add plastic spacers to move the wheels out some, the only way to get plastic spacers to cement to metal pins is with CA or epoxy glue, and more times than not, for me in the past, after a while, the CA or epoxy glue tends to brake down and loosen up on the metal pins causing the wheels to get wabbley. Making the pins out of plastic rod, means that any spacers I make out of plastic, will weld nicely to the plastic pins with just a drop or two of basic model cement, and then the wheels can be glued onto the pins with the same model cement, causing a weld bond that very seldom loosens up over time, unlike how most of the metal ones have done to me everytime I've used them in the past. And making a pin out of plastic rod that will allow for rotating wheels is about as easy as it gets... Just heat one end of the rod up and tap it on a piece of metal, and it creats a flat pin head.

Ditto I hear that Geoff... And when ya cut things apart it's even more important to square the wheels up.

I think this one is coming along just as nice as your other one Geoff. Can't wait to see more.

Just a few pics so you can see how the shocks look when slipped down in though the springs. They should stand out better once everything is paint detailed. That's pretty much it for today's updates guys. Thanks again for looking.

Thanks Geoff, and right back at ya. I Enjoy watching your builds as well. Especially how clean you build.

Thanks Michael, and glad I could share a tip with ya. I learned that one way back in the late 80's lol.

I'm now really sure of the gauge Tim, I bought it along time ago at hobby lobby. I know it's a medium soft craft wire that comes in a big spool. And it was cheap if I remember right.. So getting a few different gauges of it wouldn't hurt the pocketbook to badly if you want to get you some.

FInally the spindles were cut free from the suspension assembly and everything was mocked up to the frame to check for fit and function. Spindle Axle pins in a straight on position Spindle Axle pins turned to the left Spindle axle pins turned to the right.. With everything mocked up, tested and functioning, the parts were dissasembled and now its just some cleanup and then everything will be ready for paint. More to come as I get things done. Thanks for following along....