CrazyCrank

Morning gentlemen You could believe you've finished the preliminary job on the body, but it remains always an something to do you had forgotten ! Indeed, in my "haste", I forgot to modify the air intake grill that is just in front of the windscreen, and its housing on the body, which is not hollowed out ! So, I did this job this morning. I've removed the 3 parts of the grill that are supposed to represent mesh, keeping only the chromed frame. I've also thinned the part, sanding it from below, because it was too protruding from the body once in place. The meshed parts will be added later with some spare mesh from my Tamiya Mercedes 300SL or Revell 300SLR,,,,I've not yet decided. I've hollowed out the grill housing on the bodywork. The kit's grill, before and after the job: The chrome will be removed with bleach, an he grill carefully sanded in order to decrease the thickness of the frame before painting. The grill housing on the body, before and after the job The new grill in place on the modified body: You have just to imagine how it will look like with mesh by underneath See you later 😎

Many thanks, @afx 😎

Thanks a lot guys for you very kind words and praises

Evening chaps Well, I do think that the preliminary work on the bodywork is at last finished this evening: The doors have been adjusted and fits quite perfectly with the body. They open and close smoothly and all the gaps have been filled as much and well as I could. The fuel trap opens correctly , as well has the trunk lid. It remained for me, in order to be totally happy, to articulate the bonnet as it is on the true car. - I haven't modified the system Revell supplied, even if it is not the reflect of the reality, because that would have been possible but very risky to do it. - nevertheless, I've enhanced it, because with the Revell system, the bonnet wasn't correctly retained on the body and often detached from it. - But the best I've done is to add the opening and retaining linkage that exist on the real car ! Let's see what it looks like on different photos : So, it consists in 2 parts. The lower one is a slide rail; in which can slide the upper part. The 2 parts are articulated: - the lower one with the bodywork - the upper one with the bonnet Revell's kit supplies a part which could be a slide rail, but which is planned to be attached on the body AND on the bonnet, so tat no movement is possible. It is supplied to be used to represent the car with bonnet opened ! I've used this plastic part that I've cut, removing its upper part (about 5 mm) And I've closed the rail, glueing on it a piece of clear 0.18 mm sheet. At last, the upper part of the system has been fabricated using a 1.0 mm wide (0.2 mm thick) Nickel-Silver strip, that I drilled 0.6 mm on its upper end. The hole allow a 0.5 mm steel wire that I've fixed on the bonnet frame with CA glue, to thread into it. I've modified the fixing point of the Revell kit part (the plastic rail) on the body, cutting the plastic pin, and drilling a 0.7 mm hole into the stand in order to be able to thread into it a sewing needle And all this work gives that: Short videos to show you how it works : Hope you enjoy See you soon with the first primer layer on all bodywork parts 😎

Evening gentlemen Well, the shaping of passenger's door is finished . The last layer of putty has been sanded and the door is now ready for priming... which for sure could reveal some imperfections that I'll have to fix ! I've again improved a bit the inside panels of the doors: - They have two door pockets that you can open while pulling a leather strip. - On the kit, these "handles" are represented, but there's a lack of realism, because the strips are tightly fitted against the panel. - To give them more relief and realism, I've cut with a 0.15 mm Tamiya PE saw the bottom part of the strips, and lightly and carefully bend them towards the inside of the tub The driver's door has furthermore undergone the same modifications as the passenger's one. Its 2 panels have been cemented together with Epoxy putty, and this must dry at least 24 hours before I can fill the gaps between them. In the meantime, I think I should have a go on the hood and the mechanism which retain it when it's opened... The 2 doors fit perfectly and close smoothly, as I planned and hoped it would be 😎 And now, some shots of the whole bodywork at its current state: Stay connected if you like, guys and thanks for watching

Good evening guys I've finished to fill the gaps between body and tub around the driver's door and I'm waiting for the epoxy putty to dry on the rear, before I can shape it properly. No photos for this job, as it is the same as on the right side. I began to work on the passenger's door : - Yesterday I've glued the inside panel on the door with epoxy putty, and I've had to wait until this evening before going on with this set. - Today evening, so, I began to roughly fill the gaps between door and inside panel with pieces of styrene sheet. - And also, before closing the gap between door and inside panel, on the rear of the door, I installed magnets inside the door, right against the plastic panel that closes the back of the door, and of course on the body, behind the plastic panel that closes the door opening. So when the door is closed, it no longer has a tendency to open by itself depending on the position of the car, since the magnets keep it closed. - On the inside panel of the door, I drilled some 0.4 mm holes where on the real car there's stainless steel screws, and later, these holes will receive shorts pieces of Nickel-Chrome wire, with will simulate the screws. - At last, on the armrest of the door, I dug a groove that is supposed to represent the hollow that allows the hand to grasp the door when you want to close it once inside the vehicle. It remains to dig it deeper. Some photos of the job I did : Of course, all this isn't very sexy, I filled the gaps roughly with styrene pieces, since I've planed to enhance the result with Polyester putty 🙄 A short video : So, see you soon for next step

Morning guys Little update , but a lot of work ! I've put the set bodywork/ tub on the chassis to check that, once this was done, the doors could always open and close smoothly, and that they are always correctly placed ! Fortunately, it was the case ! So, I've removed the set of the the chassis and began to close the gaps between bodywork and tub with styrene sheet. I can say that is a time consuming and difficult job. All the parts have to be fabricated without any other guide than the eyes, and have to be cut out and adjusted little by little, what required a lot of tests fitting. The most difficult has been the piece that fill the space between the rear of the door aperture and the tub, because its shapes are a bit tortured . One important thing also has been taken in account to realize this job: When later on I'll put definitely the painted bodywork on the painted chassis, I'll have to spread the lower parts of the body, particularly at doors level, and so, all the filling parts I've made are only glued on the inside of the body, not on the edges of the tub, obviously to allow the spreading ! Some shots of the end of this job (sorry I forgot to photograph all the steps ) The job is done for the passenger's door and I've now to fix the little defects with epoxy putty. The inside of the door fits now correctly, and has to be glued on the door. Then the gaps between these two parts will be filled. See you soon for next update

Evening gentlemen Not without difficulty, I finished cutting the doors and installing the hinges. Of course, the first one, on the driver's side, found it clever to unglue partially of the inside of the door. So I had to fix that.... then the passenger door did the same to me. 😡 This was also remedied, but in the long run it became tiresome ! I thought that the curved parts of the hinges would not be a problem when installing the tub, but alas, that was not the case! So I had to use the Dremel with a suitable cutter to give some clearance for the hinges. The "damage" caused on the front vertical wall of the bathtub, on the right and on the left, will be repaired from the inside, by gluing a 0.18 mm plastic sheet. Also, the inner parts of the doors were bumping against the curved part of the hinges, so I had to cut off a little bit of the front part to give the hinges some room. The lack of material that this causes will be filled by the same plastic piece as for the vertical wall of the tub, and you will see later, that this little cheat is no longer accounted for. 😎 Now, it's time to fill the gaps between the bodywork and the tub.... Stay tuned for next episode

Thanks a lot for those huge praise @adamelvis and @Bullybeef 👍

Hello everybody The first hinge on the driver's door is definitely fixed on the bodywork and on the door, but remain removable The door position in the door aperture is perfect thanks to the method I used to place it ! - It's been positioned exactly, and checked repeatedly, and maintained with crystal tape on the outside AND the inside - When this done, I've marked the brass tubes position on the inside of the door with a fine point marker - And put on the places UV curing putty - Then I've spin the hinge until he tubes sunk in the putty, - And put more putty from above the tubes - At last, cured the putty with UV lamp during 5 minutes - And that's done ! The same method will be used now for the passenger's door, when I've cut it out... Stay connected if you like. 😎

you got the gist of that Trumpeter kit

Afternoon, guys Well, a final hinge has been fabricated and tested. All works smoothly and fit perfectly. Moreover, the hinge is adjustable and the door can be removed as many times it's needed . I've made the tests on the broken bodywork , and now, it remains to fabricate a second one for the right door. Then, I could begin to cut the doors out on the second body, one by one. I've used: - 0.8 m brass tube, 0.6 mm inner diameter - 0.6 mm steel wire - various twizzers to shape the wire in order to form the hinge - Adhesiv gum to fix temporarily the branches of the hinge inside the door - 2 mm square plastic rod, in which I dug a 0.8 mm groove on the milling machine, to trap the brass tube of the hinge inside the bodywork. - Masking tape to maintain the door in the right position, while I was adjusting the hinge by the inside Some photos in chronological sequence will explain you the process better than a long speech That's all for now, guys

Evening guys A bit of progress today: 1/ the tests for the 3D printing of the dash are finished And the surprise is that the first prints at 103 and 104 %, in 20 microns layers, shrank only by 0.8 mm in 48 hours, and 0.0 mm after. This is significantly less than with the prints in 50 microns. So, after 48 and 96 hours, they remain far too big fir fitting correctly in the windscreen frame. I launched 3D prints in 101 and 102 % a few hours after the previous print, but on a second and new printing plate. And after less than 6 hours, the base of the supports began to unstick from the plate. After 12 hours, all supports were totally detached from the plate. Nevertheless, I went on with the tests. And those print have shrunk a bit more than the 103 and 104%, which remained, them, strongly attached on the printing plate during the 48 hours I wanted them to be fixed. Luckily, there has been no twisting at all ! So today, after 96 hours drying, the 101% is too short, but, surprisingly the 102% print has almost exactly the length I expected : 54,25 mms vs 54.27 (on the drawing). It has shrunk 1.08 mm since the 102% drawing was 55.35 mm (54.27 for the 100% drawing), so exactly 2%. I have printed three 102% dashboards . One has been damaged when I cut the supports out, but I have 2 in excellent state. I've made a test fitting in the windscreen frame and it fits perfectly. It remains to complete the dash, to paint it and to keep it for the final state of this build, when I install it on the body. 2/ The tests for the door hinges progress correctly In fact, you just have to reverse the hinge, i.e. place the pivot point inside the body, and the fixed point inside the door, to reverse the movement. When the door is opened, its front edge moves away from the body, instead of going inside. It remains now to make 2 final hinges on the same principle, improving the shapes, the mechanical aspect and the aesthetics of the thing. The hinge, once the door is cut, will be precisely positioned and fixed in the body and will stay there during the rest of the assembly. The two horizontal metal extensions of the hinge shall be inserted with gentle friction on brass or aluminium tubes glued in the correct position inside the door. The door will be detachable from the hinge once the hinge position is permanently fixed; it can then be worked freely, improved, painted etc. It could then be easily glued in its final position on the hinge pins at the end of the assembly process. [ Stay connected if you like

Afternoon guys I publish always my builds on several sites, and a French modeler, friends of mine, pointed out that I was wrong about the door opening kinematics of the BMW 507 !!!! And, by the hell, he is right ! On his car, when you open the door, the front edge doesn't enter the bodywork as I thought mistakenly. On the contrary, the front edge of the door swings outwards when it is opened ! And he posted 2 photos and a drawing to show me how it worked on this car: It will be much more easy now with this knowledge, to fabricate the hinges and install them So I go back to my bench to fabricating theses hinges and test them on the broken bodywork Stay connected

I built it as a teenager, but lost it during my successive movings. I don' t remember to have seen such an issue, and have not yet measured the dimensions of the one which is in my stash. Asap, I'll do that on my kit and compare with the Pocher 1/8 size. I can see that your engine block is about1.4 inches so 3.55 cm. I just measured the length of the same part on my T50 Pocher 1:8, and I found about 10 cm, so 3.33 inches. I looks rather correct, don't you think so ? Obviously, this does not mean that the block is the right height, just that it is the same length

Sorry mate ! the T50 Bugatti is available as a Heller Kit in 1:24. I've one of them in my stash The kit is always continued by the brand, and you can find it either new (in France: Here), either second-hand (for instance on Ebay USA) Obviously the kit is sold at an insane price in US : almost $90 when it's 21 € in Europe) It would be cheaper to buy it in Europe and pay the shipping fees 😉

Thank you so much @drifterdon for this kind praise

You're as stubborn as le when you've decided something Nice job and finally good looking aspect ! It remembre me when I decided to drill all the holes of the gril of my Bugatti T50 Pocher 1/8 scale: I hadn't at this time any honeycomb mesh, so I drilled the plastic in the holes between the meshes: more than 1000 0.6 mm holes hand drilled. But the result was worth the pain

Afternoon guys While my tests on 3D printing the dash are going on, I've begun to think about the doors hinges. Initially, I thought I would be able to fabricate and install the door hinges after having glued the tub inside the bodywork , but my recent tests show that it will not be possible (for me) So, I've begun to work on them. My goal if to get an accurate and real cinematic when opening the doors, I mean, when you open the door of a car, its front edge enters the bodywork instead of moving away from it. I thought deeply and seen some inspiring videos on Youtube and ... let's go ! As a precaution, I'll do all my tests on the first broken body, which I reinforced for the occasion so it won't break again. And here is the current state The hinge has been fabricated with brass tube and 0.5 mm steel wire, a piece of styrène drilled twice 0.6 mm. The axle of rotation is situated on the inside of the door, on the front edge, that has been thinned of 50% (I've dig a groove at this place) The few point is inside the body, in front of the door. A lot of adjustments had to be done, and, temporarily, the position of the styrene piece which goes inside the bodywork has been modified and maintained with adhesive gum (UHU Patafix) It open smoothly, without catching ! Now, I've to improve the system, always on the broken bodywork, modifying the styrene piece (Increase its size, modify shapes) in order to avoid the adhesive gum and glue it in place definitely to test the system. If all's OK, I'll be able to fabricate 2 final hinges for the new bodywork in the same way BUT, there's always a but: I shall not leave the unfinished and unpainted doors definitely glued on the unpainted bodywork. Indeed, to finish the doors, with their inside face, le filling of the gaps on the front and the rear between the door and its inside, and to paint them, they must be free, and I must have glued the tub inside the bodywork BEFORE, in order to adjust correctly the inside of the door so it fit well with the tub. So, it's only once that done (the bodywork painted, the tub achieved and glued etc) , that l can put and fix the finished doors, and for that, I will only have a very little free space between the bodywork in front of the door, and the side wall of the tub at this level, to insert the two pieces of steel wire of the hinge into their respective holes on the styrene piece. It will be a difficult and painful job, assuming I get there ! If anybody see a better and easier solution to this problem, I'll be happy to have him exhibit It ! 🤔 See you later

Thanks for this comment @BVC500, much appreciated I'm going to make the part available for purchase. But, I'm still going on with my tries. After having measured the shrinkage of the prints when time passes for my drafts printed in 50 microns layers, I've just printed my final version V12 in 20 microns layers at 103 and 104%, percentages that seemed to be convenient . The print is absolutely perfect, just when I've cleaned it and after UV curing. BUT, there' always a "but"...After curing, the shrinkage was insignificant and 2 hours after curing, it's only 0.2 mm when it was about 0,75 mm for the drafts at 50 microns ! I've obviously to wait the next steps: 12 / 24/ 48 /72 hours drying to see if it will increase or not, and in which proportions. Anticipating a insufficient shrinkage with the 103 and 104%, which wouldn't allow to reach the exact size I need (about 54,3 mm +/- 0,2), I just launched a new print in 101 and 102% . Decidedly, 3D printing technic parts with 3D resin isn't an easy task ! So, @BVC500, you will understand that I can't sell these parts until I have found the exact percentage increase in size to be applied during the printing process so that after a long drying time of 72 to 96 hours under the conditions already described above, the part will have the required dimensions of a few tenths of a millimetre to fit the windscreen frame perfectly. Well, not a big problem, it's just a question of time and tries Be patient

Merci Pierre Yes it took two kits, as usual when I decide to over-detail my model, or modify their bodywork, if I make some irreparable mistakes... Nice to see here a Quebecer. My younger son live in Montreal too, and we visit him regularly, next time in January 😉

Wow !!! Splendid model and color chart ! Love it 😍

An utterly amazing model and your painting job does it justice. Congrats

Thanks a lot guys door your kind comments and interest for my builds Stay connected for the current one: BMW 507 😉

Thanks @Bugatti Fan yes it's a shame that Heller is so negligent in the molding of those kits, knowing that It's the only brand which is interested in vintage European cars ! Thank you so much for this huge praise 👍