Anglia105E

Taking David G.'s advice, I stepped away from the issue with the body misalignment for now, and turned my attention to a different part of the build. There are four sill plates supplied as stickers in the Gunze Sangyo kit, and they bear the name ' FREESTONE AND WEBB ' . . . These have been cut out as plates, with the backing paper still attached. One reason is that 40 year old stickers may not stick all that well, and also I feel that the thickness of the plates is more correct if the backing paper is included . . . I used PVA glue to attach the ' plates ', which dries colourless overnight. David

Having allowed the two rear number plate lamp bezels 24 hours for the Liquid Chrome to dry before handling, these were fitted to both sides of the number plate . . . Also, the rear bumper has been fitted, and this will need the ' RR ' plaque to be PVA glued in the centre. The front bumper has also been fitted in the same way, which will need the ' RR ' plaque to be glued in place . . . Much of the day was taken up trying to get the doors assemblies to fit, and as yet they are not fitting well at all . . . The upper body is refusing to fit onto the lower body, particularly at the rear of the car . . . Although the door pillars seem to be engaging with the sockets on the underside of the roof, there is quite a gap between the top edges of the door frames and the lower edges of the roof. The gap between the rear wheel arches of the upper body and the lower body is even more noticable . . . I am not sure what is stopping the two main body parts fitting together, and this has caused a significant problem. Getting the door assemblies to fit properly, as well as opening and closing properly is now seriously holding up progress. David

With the chassis components barely raised above the surface of the flat pan, you have done wonders with just applying the paint David ! David W.

Cheers David . . . Always nice to receive words of encouragement ! David W.

Not a great deal done today, as non-model building things got in the way . . . The exhaust tailpipe was re-fitted, and I test fitted the fog lamp and lens. It seems that a working fog lamp is not going to be possible, as there is not enough space behind the lamp, so in front of the radiator shell, in order to accommodate the wiring that has to have a horizontal approach . . . Under the front of the chassis there are some steering components, so a vertical approach for the fog lamp wiring is also not possible . . . I did manage to glue the wiper arms and blades in place, after carefully drilling out the holes immediately below the windscreen. The wiper blades have been given a coating of black Stabilo pen . . . Both rear number plate lamps have been coated with red Sharpie on the back of the lamps, and I shall need to apply Liquid Chrome to the bezels before fitting . . . The problem with the visible wiring that you can see between the spare wheel casings and the headlamps continues to bother me . . . There may not be a solution to this I fear . . . David

I always think it's great when you find something in the ' parts ' box that will do the job . . . Those headlight lenses for the dome instruments are a perfect example of this. Keeping lots of left over parts from previous builds has to be one of the most useful and practical aspects of our wonderful hobby . . . Your interior work has come together nicely, and I think the black sits alongside the green / pale turquoise rather well . . . David W.

As I had predicted, the tail lamp wiring and fitting did prove to be more difficult than the headlamps, which is puzzling really . . . The two chrome plinths fitted into rectangular holes in the rear wings, and these have holes into which the pins on the two tail lamp lenses push into. However, in order to fit the red LED bulbs, it was necessary to drill larger holes at an odd angle. I wanted the bulb wiring to enter the rear lamps from a horizontal direction, and this was achieved . . . Once the bulbs had been super glued into the plinths from the inside, the tail lamp lenses were then glued to the plinths on the outside, using styrene glue. With the clear lenses coated in red Sharpie, the light emitted from the bulbs seems to be about right. I had a look at the test fitting of the V-stay that runs along the top of the engine bay . . . With hindsight, this V-stay should have been fitted before the bonnet panels, but at the time there was so much going on, with headlamps and spare wheel mountings, that this was overlooked. The fitting of the V-stay is possible even with the bonnet panels in place, but just a little more difficult . . . David

Okay thanks Bob, and I shall have a look what is available in UK . . . The company that I did find online is ' Captain Jacks ', and they dispatched my order very quickly. The product was reasonably priced and seems to be good quality, exactly as described. https://www.captainjacksmodels.co.uk/ David

Both of your suggestions are helpful Bob, and as you say, food for thought ! . . . The lighting kits came to me pre-wired, which was a good thing because I am not great at wiring, bulbs, connectors and stuff. Just to let you know where I am now . . . The headlamps are in position and working, the tail lamps are almost in position and working, while the wiring is routed underneath all of the chassis components, as viewed from under the car . . . Changing to a smaller gauge wiring setup at this stage would be a bridge too far for me I think . . . I was aware that rigging up working lights for this Phantom III was always going to be a challenging experience when I first embarked on the idea. David

Thanks David, and I was quite surprised at how close the fit appears on those bonnet pieces. The driver's side is actually better than the passenger side. Don't worry about the visible wiring, and maybe I can come up with some brilliant idea ! David W.

Well, that was my intention Bob . . . How exactly that is going to happen is waiting for a flash of inspiration on my part. At one point I did even consider painting both the black and red wiring with cream acrylic, thinking they might blend in with the cream bonnet panels . . . Not sure ? David

During Sunday, which just happened to be Father's Day, the decision was made to tackle a difficult part of the assembly . . . The radiator outer shell, the cooling hoses from the radiator to the cylinder heads cooling rails, and the two headlamp mounting bars between the inner front wings and the radiator shell all needed to be glued in place at the same time . . . As if this assembly was not tricky enough, I had overlooked the fact that the bonnet panels must also be in place at the same time. The central hinge rod was slightly too long at the front and the rear, so this was cut off at both ends by a small amount. Having the metal hinged bonnet panels in their precise location ensured that the radiator shell was vertically aligned, and also that the headlamp mounting bars were horizontally aligned . . . All this coming together of vital parts seemed to go as well as I could have expected, and I then moved on to the fitting of the spare wheel mountings as well as the fitting of the headlamps to their mounting bars . . . To allow for the side bonnet panels to lower fully, it was necessary to provide semi-circular cutouts, so that the wires could pass through the bonnet panel, and then pass between the legs of the spare wheel mounts. Those cutouts are similar to those you would find on pre-war cars that had exhaust pipes exiting in that manner. Once the spare wheel mounts were in place, and the headlamps were glued to their mountings, I checked that the four hinged bonnet panels could be raised and lowered properly. The panels are able to pass close to the Spirit of Ecstasy, when the mascot is turned through 90° as on the real car . . . Next up were the two large spare wheel casings, which sit in their wells within the lower body. I do realise that you can see some short lengths of twisted red and black wiring, which you would not expect to see on the real car . . . I could paint the red wiring with black acrylic, or perhaps there are MCM members out there who might have a more clever solution? The wiring underneath the car and also the mounting of the working tail lamps may well turn out to be more difficult than the front end lighting . . . David

Some good masking and paint application going on there David, and I can sense that you are pleased with the result . . . David W.

Yes, and this was why I didn't choose the pure white alternative . . . It won't be necessary to paint the inside of the lenses, which are now glued in place. Also, the idea to locate the battery holders inside the the suitcase, and inside the luggage compartment was abandoned, in favour of a more accessible location under the running boards . . . There will be a second battery holder and switch under the passenger side running board, which will supply power to the central fog lamp at the front. One lighting kit provides two warm white LED's. snd two red LED's, so the second kit is required to supply the fog lamp. David

These following photos show the progress made with the working lights on the Phantom III, specifically the large Lucas P100 headlamps . . . I began by drilling 2.3 mm holes in the centre of both headlamp bowls, and the holes were gradually enlarged using an Italeri diamond round file, until the LED bulbs were a snug fit . . . These bulbs are 3 mm in diameter and no glue is necessary to hold them in place. The battery holder, which has an on / off switch, fits perfectly under the driver's side running board of the car, and the part could almost have been made to fit this model . . . Testing the headlamps, with them positioned roughly where they will be mounted later, produced a very satisfyling glow. The pale yellow beams are just what I was hoping to achieve . . . While the model was on the table, I test fitted the radiator grille and also the headlamp mounting bars. I think the process of concealing the wiring as far as possible will be somewhat difficult, but I am hoping to to do a reasonable job of hiding most of it. Thanks for looking guys ! David

One year of commitment and lots of hard work has resulted in a truly wonderful model motor car François . . . You should be very proud of your model engineering skills Sir ! David

Thanks again David G., and anyone who is following this topic . . . The Phantom III was wheeled out into the sunshine yesterday, and A. J. Webb had the opportuntiy to cast his expert eye over the car. He noticed that the radiator grille has turned out better than expected, and the resulting finish is more realistic than the standard kit chrome . . . The large headlamp bowls are being prepared, along with the headlamp mounting bars, the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot and the twin horns. The mounting bars are quite complex parts, and these fit between the radiator grille shell, and the inner front wing . . . The radiator, with it's two cooling hoses, has been glued inside the radiator grille shell, after carefully inserting the ' Flying Lady ' mascot into the space provided . . . The horns are in two parts, and these have been glued together. Before the radiator grille and headlamps can be assembled, there needs to be holes drilled into the bowls in order to accommodate the warm white LED bulbs . . . If the bulbs are found to be too bright, I may paint the insides of the lenses with matt white enamel (thinned). David

I might seriously consider buying a 1:1 full size Fiat 500, Carlo . . . It would have to be one of the more modern ones, so I don't know if they are any good, as compared to the older ones ? I am located in England, U.K. Nice build you have there, and the 1:12 scale Italeri kits are usually very good . . . David

Having glued the division glass back in place and allowing 12 hours to set, it was time to bring together the upper body and the lower body . . . This was more difficult than I had expected, but once the dashboard was carefully eased behind the steering wheel, and once the luggage compartment was prised gently behind the rear seat parcel shelf, the roof section was lowered into position . . . Some further difficulty was encountered as the top edge of the division glass frame was persuaded to slot into the channel on the undersdide of the roof. Everything seemed to click into place at some point, but this is a very precise operation . . . As you can see from the following photos, there is a slight gap between the upper body rear arches and the top surface of the rear wings. I managed to test fit the doors and outer pillar assembly on the passenger side, but the driver's side was reluctant to fit, mainly because the outer door pillar on this side is bent outwards . . . Several photos show the trafficator in the raised position, on the passenger side of the car . . . Two lighting kits have been delivered today, and each kit contains 2 x warm white LED's, 2 x red LED's, 2 x battery holders for 2 x CR2032 coin cell batteries in each holder. The pre-wired LED's and battery holders with on / off switches have a good length of wiring, using two plastic wiring blocks to each kit . . . My plan is to wire up the two large headlamps plus the two tail lamps using one kit, and the front central foglamp will use the second kit. These battery holders will fit nicely into one of the two suitcases inside the rear luggage compartment. Of course, I am fully expecting this wiring setup to be very challenging, but I really would like to provide working lights for this model . . . The four wiring blocks, along with the wiring will need to be covered with black electrical insulation tape on the underside of the chassis. This is quite a large car, but I do wonder if I might have taken the build to rather an advanced stage before tackling the wiring of the lights. Certainly, the drilling of access holes would have been easier before bringing the lower body and chassis together . . . Although the two components are not glued together, the fact that the steering column and steering box is glued to the chassis, and passes through the floorboard and lower body means they cannot be separated now. David

If there was one manufacturer that could produce a newly tooled kit for this car, that would be Moebius for sure . . . David W.

It's okay Peter, I understood that you were simply explaining how the original paint finish on the real car might have been produced using ground up sea shells or fish scales, and I wouldn't expect anyone to attempt such a thing with a model car !!! . . . I do like the idea of a paint finish appearing to be either white, pale blue or pale green, depending upon how the light catches the surface of the bodywork . . . Similar to how they create a paint finish on modern cars that shifts from blue to purple to red, or green even . . . David

Absolutely spot on David . . . the inner door pillars would have no positional awareness on their own, so they could have been slightly too far forward or backward, or slightly too far to the left or right. The division partition was precisely located in two holes on the floorboard, so this part cannot be out of position. Later, I shall post an update regarding the working lights for this car . . . David W.

Thanks for your comment Bob, and I do agree with you regarding kit instructions . . . These days, I tend to follow the instuction sheet up to a point, and then my years of model building experience takes over, and I always examine the method as instructed by the kit manufacturer / designer, before proceeding with my own chosen sequence of operations . . . Thanks for looking in on my topic Bob, and I understand this is not your type of build ! David

David G. . . . I agree with Jim, that '50's motor cars generally look good in two-tone paint . . . David W.

I realised that with absolute certainty, the division for this Phantom III must be fitted FIRST, that is to say before the inner door posts. The Gunze Sangyo instruction sheet clearly shows the posts being glued to the chassis, before the division is added afterwards . . . The more I have thought about this, the more convinced I have become about the correct order of assembly . . . The division is actually right at the very centre of this car, and everything else around the division is supported by the part, as each further part is fitted. This turned out to be one of those very productive days, when model building becomes a sheer delight . . . Once the division was firmly set in place, and the two door posts were upright and square, the front seat was positioned in front of the division, and glued to the door posts at the inner corners. The rear seat was also glued in place, and I moved on to the division glass and frame . . . This was rather tricky, but I managed to glue the division glass frame into the right place, although the glass itself popped out of the frame. The glass is only held in place by Crystal Clear glue, which is not particularly strong, but I can replace the glass at some point . . . Some brown Sharpie was applied to the gear lever knob and also the handbrake lever knob, which looks better than plain black. While I was on a roll, so to speak, I glued the steering wheel onto the top of the steering column, and also the central hub controls . . . When the upper body is mated with the lower body, during the next day or so, it remains to be seen whether or not the sockets on the underside of the roof interior are going to line up with the top edges of the door posts, and consequently, will the front and rear parts of the upper body sit squarely onto the lower body? . . . My plan is to place the upper body on it's roof on a soft cloth, and hopefully I shall be able to see the sockets aligning with the door post tops ( or not ) . . . !!! David