Anglia105E

Your kind words are much appreciated David . . . During today and tomorrow, so Saturday and Sunday, there will be very little, if any work going on with my Phantom III build . . . This is entirely due to the fact that on Monday 13th May my annual holiday trip to Cornwall begins, which lasts until Sunday 19th May. Each year at this time I like to visit Falmouth on the south Cornwall coast, where I indulge myself by staying at a 4-star hotel, and relishing total relaxation . Of course, this means that there will be no work whatsoever going on with the 1:16 Rolls-Royce project, and consequently, you will not see any posts on this topic for a one week period . . . Down in Cornwall, and very close to Falmouth, I have a 19 foot sailing yacht called ' Relax ' and she is a Newbridge Navigator 4-berth trailer sailer built in 1983, originally from Falmouth . . . Sadly, I no longer have a vehicle, so I cannot launch and recover the boat myself, and in fact the trailer has deteriorated during the past 5 years, resulting in ' Relax ' not being on the water for at least 5 years . . . Previously, I did take her out to sea, and scared myself to death in the process ! . . . One photo appears below, showing my boat, with Mr Watson at the helm . . . David

Well David , your Polar Lights VW Love Bug has turned out nicely . . . Interesting background information regarding the VW copyright, and also the snap together aspect of this kit . . . I forgot to mention that my favourite number, and in fact my lucky number, is ' 53 ' . . . This is for several coincidental reasons, one being that I live at house number 53, then I was born in 1953, the latitude of my home village in England is 53° N, and from the year 1970 when I passed my driving test, finished school and started work, up to the year 2023 as I reached 70 years of age . . . is precisely 53 years !!! Congratulations on finally getting those pesky decals done and dusted ! David W.

Instead of using matt brown enamel paint for the roof light bezels and the vanity mirror frames, I chose to use a brown Sharpie . . . Then matt white enamel was mixed with a small amount of matt yellow enamel, and applied to the roof light lenses. Both right handed and left handed vanity mirrors were mounted on the interior rear three quarter pillars, using PVA glue . . . The two roof lights were then mounted on the underside of the roof, using styrene glue . . . This was done on Wednesday, but on the following day, Thursday, I realised that the liquid chrome as applied over the thin white card, was not shiny. This is not at all surprising, as the chrome must be applied over a high-gloss surface . . . Consequently, I have applied a single coat of Yacht Varnish to the lower panels of the vanity mirrors, directly over the liquid chrome that was applied 24 hours previously . . . Once the yacht varnish has been allowed a further 24 hours drying, I shall be able to apply the final coat of liquid chrome . . . David

Those stripes and numbers are giving you one hell of a fight David, but I have a feeling that this self-adhesive vinyl set is going to be your best effort yet ! Good luck with a successful result . . . David

Thank you Ken . . . Certainly this is a beast of a kit indeed, and it is not something that you can take on lightly. This Phantom III is my first Gunze Sangyo kit, and only my second 1:16 scale model . . . So far, I am enjoying the project enormously and I do appreciate all of the encouraging comments on this forum. David

Two of the following photos show the windscreen glass from the outside, and also the back of the dashboard, which will not be visible once the firewall is in place . . . Then moving on to the vanity mirrors and vanity roof lights. The mirrors were cut from thin white card, while for the roof lights I am using a pair of Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud headlamps that are from the 1:24 scale kit . . . Sprue cutters were used to remove the lugs on the back of the headlamps, and the chrome was scraped off with a scalpel knife. Pencil lines were drawn on the vanity mirrors to mark out the areas for painting . . . The frames of the mirrors and also the bezels of the roof lights will be matt brown enamel, then polished gold acrylic will be used for the upper section of the mirror, and liquid chrome for the lower section. The roof light lenses will be white enamel with a small amount of yellow enamel added. David

Well that's annoying with the cracks David . . . I would be inclined to agree with Len, and my guess would be the ink jet printer produced decals are likely part of the problem. Maybe some chemical in the clear has reacted with the chemicals in the ink ? . . . Rather than be forced to go out and buy a laser printer, which are not cheap, perhaps the stickers from the kit box could be the way to go . . . David W.

Glad to hear that you approve so far ! . . . I must be honest, there are some stages in this build still to address further down the line that concern me. One would be the ignition plug lead wiring, conduits and tubes, another would be the wiring of the lights, and the most scary one is the bringing together of the main sub-assemblies. These include the upper body, the lower body, the floor board, the division, the doors and door post assemblies, the luggage area, the firewall and bonnet panels, front and rear seats, and even the steering column . . . Each one of these separate sub-assemblies has to interlock perfectly on the day . . . This is why I need a holiday, before even attempting that particular stage. There will be no work done on this build from 13th May to 19th May while I am away from the bench . . . David

The luggage compartment bay was test fitted into the upper body today, and this is almost ready to be glued in place . . . The boot lid was fully closed, with the luggage bay taped inside with blue tape. Then the boot lid was carefully opened fully, to reveal the luggage bay and the two scratch built suitcases . . . Turning my attention to the windscreen once more, this has been glued in place with Crystal Glue, after having a small notch cut out of the lower centre, which is to accommodate the interior dashboard mirror . . . Before the luggage bay can be glued into the upper body, the two vanity mirrors need to be scratch built, painted and glued in place on the rear quarter pillars . . . David

Thanks David . . . I do have a good feeling about this one ! David W.

Cheers, and thank you Dann . . . This Phantom III build is at a very interesting stage now, and the further I get, the more I am enjoying the process . . . David

It was time to dismantle the mock up of the body components, so that I could work on the windscreen and the dashboard . . . The windscreen glass was removed from the upper body, because one side had become detached anyway. The screen needs to be cut down by a small amount in order to fit between the dashboard and the roof . . . I managed to glue the dashboard in place, which was not a particularly good fit. The dashboard mirror stalk became detached while I was handling the dashboard, but this was no big deal because the mirror stalk is too short. David

With great respect to yourself David. the more I see photos of your VW beetle build, the more I think the car looks loads better without the stripes and numbers . . . I shouldn't imagine for one minute that you have any intention of abandoning the ' Herbie ' idea, but what do you think of that possibility? Having got this far, you are of course commited to the 53 Love Bug Herbie concept . . . This suggestion of mine would be like you suggesting that I abandon the Phantom III colour scheme of black and cream, and go with the two-tone gold instead . . . David

I used to own and drive a 1960 V.W. beetle that was bright orange, and one day I remember driving rather too quickly round a sharp bend . . . At the time, I had two passengers with me in the car and as we negotiated the corner, the passenger side door flew open, and my passenger was thrown onto the pavement . . . Thankfully my friend was not hurt and we continued on our way ! David

With the mock up of the body components still intact, I particularly wanted to have a close look at the orientation of the inner door post on the driver's side. This was done by attaching a short length of balse rod to the base of the door post, using double-sided tape . . . I was able to see clearly how the door post meets the roof, and also the floor. Then, allowing for the fact that the outer door pillar on the driver's side is bent outwards, I closed both the front and rear doors. Surprisingly, the doors are actually quite a good fit . . . Returning to the suitcases and after applying Humbrol Satin Cote over the black wash, I applied dots of Liquid Chrome to the hinges using the pointed tip of a cocktail stick, so two on the top part of the hinge and four on the lower part. Moving on to the ' A.J.W. ' monogram, this was hand painted using the same pointed tip of a cocktail stick, and Vallejo Polished Gold acrylic paint . . . You can see from the photos below that the lower suitcase monogram has turned out better than the upper suitcase. The two luggage labels have been attached to the handles of the suitcases with white cotton thread, to represent the string . . . The suitcases are now completed . . . David

Yesterday I produced four hand drawn hinges for the two suitcases. Initially, the intention was to paint the hinges with gold enamel, but then It was decided that gold Sharpie was a better option . . . Once the gold hinges (brass) had been cut from the thin card with a scalpel knife, these were mounted on the upper section of the cases, using super glue. Having cut out a luggage label from paper, 7 mm x 3 mm, the top corners were cut off at an angle and a black dot represents the hole for the string. White cotton will be used for the string . . . Today, the black enamel wash was applied to both suitcases, and also the chrome slats area of the radiator grille . . . Using some pointed cotton buds the idea was to wipe the black enamel wash from the chrome slats that are open, leaving the black spaces in between the slats . . . Some reference photos show the Phantom III radiator grille fully closed, while others show half the slats open and half of them closed, and some show the slats fully open. The fully open aspect is the one that I prefer, so this model car has all the slats in the open position, with black spaces in between . . . David

That is a very nice build David, even before you add the stripes and the numbers . . . The sun roof is particularly good, also the window mouldings, the lights, the rear louvres. the wheels and the tyres and the paint finish. The thought crossed my mind that at this point, you could decide to make this a standard V.W. beetle, and not make this model into a ' Herbie ' love bug . . . That would be a difficult decision for you I would imagine ! David

I like the term ' ' FrankenBeetle ', which conveys the process that you were explaining ! I haven't read the book ' Small Wonder ' but I shall keep an eye out for it . . . We have a very good bookshop in our village, and that would be just the sort of book that you might find there. David

Today was all about reducing the depth of the upper suitcase of the two cases, to enable the boot lid to close fully . . . I fabricated two handles for these cases, by crimping the ends of a short piece of red rubber piping, and super glue was applied inside the end of each tube to keep the shape. Then the top suitcase was cut down by 8 mm in depth, and glued back together as a box shape . . . both of the handles were glued to the each of the suitcases, and having checked that the cases fitted nicely into the luggage bay, the Humbrol Matt Brown 186 enamel paint was applied in a single coat. Once the matt brown paint has been allowed to dry overnight, there will follow a coating of black enamel wash for the cases, and a final coating of Humbrol Satin Cote . . . The plan is to add a couple of brass hinges to each case, along with ' A. J. W. ' monograms hand painted in gold enamel, and possibly a destination label tag hanging from the handle on a string . . . David

I forgot to answer your question regarding the bent door pillar . . . I assume this is due to the age of the kit, and certainly not an engineering feature ! David

You are right there David . . . When the time comes to actually fit this door post assembly, I shall need three hands, numerous plastic clamps, pegs, probably lengths of tape, numerous wooden blocks and a huge amount of good luck . . . The test fitting was difficult enough, but the final assembly will require five or six main assemblies coming together at the same instance. This will be the one stage of the build that is not made at all clear in the Gunze Sangyo instruction sheet, as they seem to think that the one big assembly stage is broken down into separate smaller stages at different intervals . . . Myself, I can clearly see that such a method of assembly is simply not possible ! This is why I shall wait until after I return from my arranged holiday trip in May, before attempting the ' BIG ' one . . . David

Your extensive work on the trunk insert has paid off David . . . That most recent photo showing the open trunk lid shows what a really good V.W. beetle this has turned out to be. I used to own and drive a 1960 V.W. beetle that had 6 volt electrics, and I always thought it was a good idea to have the spare wheel and tyre in the front trunk, to balance out the car with the engine in the rear . . . David

Having used a black Sharpie on the outer edges of the two number plates, the front plate was mounted on the front of the lower body, attached by a single Bostik glue dot . . .These number plates will probably be brushed with Satin Cote enamel wash at some point. Now it was time to test fit the driver's side outer door pillar and doors assembly. A weight was placed on top of the roof, and a mirror was placed on the floor of the car . . . The top end of the pillar and doors assembly was then carefully inserted into the roof socket, while the foot of the pillar was inserted into the floor socket. The upper section of the driver's side outer door pillar is badly bent outwards, so for this reason alone the doors cannot yet be fully closed. Later, the outer door pillar will be glued into the inner door post and clamped, in order to straighten the pillar without breaking anything . . . The positioning of the inner door post and the outer door pillar will be critical to aligning the outer door edges with the upper body frame, in order to close both front and rear doors cleanly. David

Yes, the London Black Cab kit is of interest to me, and more than once I have looked at the kit on Ebay and nearly purchased one . . . I did wonder why Aoshima show a red London taxi on the box art, and then describe the model as a ' London Black Cab ' ? I do have a 1:24 scale Revell version of the London black taxi, and also a 1:24 scale Welly diecast version of the model car. At the time when I purchased these, I was really wanting the older FX3 version of the taxi, and not the later FX4 version. This is because I needed the taxi to be 1958 for my diorama, which was the Hooper & Co. Coachbuilders diorama . . . I think you will enjoy building the London Black (Red) Cab because I do know that Aoshima produce nice quality kits . . . Good to hear that you are continuing to follow my Phantom III build, and I shall try to keep the topic interesting ! David

Thank you Bob for your encouraging comments, and I can appreciate that this type of model car is not everyone's ' cup of tea ', so to speak . . . I am pleased to hear that you are following my Phantom III build . . . During the coming three months this car will reach completion. David