Anglia105E

Yes, I can appreciate the ' fixed wheel ' approach now that I think it through properly ! Productive update will be posted later today . . . David W.

Cheers, Noel ! David

Having embarked on a process of pressing, twisting, sqeezing, forcing and persuading the components of the chassis to conform to some semblance of what it should be, I have arrived at a better place . . . The floorboard and chassis seem to be in a state of tension, whereby they are pushing against one another, and neither of them wants to give ! Anyway, the end result is good enough to proceed with the assembly of the body parts. During the physical struggle between model builder and model, the passenger side rear wheel has dropped off the stub axle, and I cannot find a way of attaching the wheel so that it rotates, as do the other three wheels . . . Now I think about this, maybe if one wheel is glued in a fixed position then the model car cannot roll off a not quite level surface, and plunge to it's death ! The wheel is glued on, and setting overnight . . . David

I think Peter is probably right about the ground up fish scales, but your choice of Tamiya TS-60 Pearl Green is far less complicated, and an excellent choice. It does sound like a very interesting paint scheme, and actually a very interesting car . . . You know how to pick 'em David ! David W.

I can fully understand your quest to build a model replica of your Dad' car Kyle, as it is something that I have done myself . . . Like you, I only had one old and faded photograph to work from, plus my own memory of course. You are lucky to have multiple versions of the Pontiac GTO kit, and it sounds like some of your kits are better than others ! I am sure you will find this build most rewarding, and you are off to a good start . . . Hope you don't mind me adding this photo to your topic, which is a 1:16 scale FROG kit of a 1963 Ford Consul Cortina, thanks . . . David

Thanks Noel . . . Your good humour is much appreciated. This one will not be easy, that's for sure, but there is always a way ! David

Here are three photos showing the severe distortion at the rear passenger side of the chassis . . . The second photo was my first assessment of the problem, and the third photo was taken after some adjustment. As you can see, the chassis is far from level at this point, and both edges of the floorboard are not actually glued to the lower body ( fenders / wings ) . . . During the tricky process of bringing the main components together, I did apply glue to the outer edges of the floorboard, but these surfaces are no longer making contact. Currently I am referring back to the drawings of the chassis that appear at the very beginning of the instruction sheet, in an attempt to work out what might be causing this issue . . . David

Yes indeed Skip, I did find the front suspension in particular was rather fragile as you say . . . This fragility is compounded by the addition of working steering. For the most part, I would say that Gunze Sangyo have achieved a good balance of accuracy and strength, within the constraints of the original design . . . David

Thanks very much David, and each hurdle overcome is one more step nearer to completion . . . There were 727 Phantom III motor cars produced during a four year period between 1936 and 1939, so roughly 181 cars per year. Remarkably, around 650 of these have survived to this day . . . I shall post a few more photos later today, which show the rear end of the chassis . . . There is a serious distortion of the chassis frame going on, specifically the passenger side rear . . . This requires further investigation before proceeding ! Rolls-Royce managed to produce 15 cars per month, and so far my one build has taken 5 months . . . David W.

Thanks Noel, and this is what led me to take on this older large scale Rolls-Royce kit . . . The modern stuff does not appeal to me at all . . . David

Success !!! . . . At last I was able to achieve the fitting of the steering column part . . . The solution was to move the model to my kitchen table, where the overhead lighting was much better, and also to make use of a handheld torch to align the steering box in relation to the chassis . . . I could just about make out the hole in the side of the steering box, so this was filled with Revell styrene glue. Also, I could just make out the pin on the side of the chassis member, and following a lengthy and careful manipulation of the part I managed to locate the pin in the hole . . . This relatively simply operation took me around two hours, but the end result was extremely satisfying . . . Some time later, I was even able to test fit the steering wheel onto the top of the steering column, along with it's central hub and controls. I was quite nervous about the floorboard being in the correct position, and especially nervous about the precise position of the firewall, but as far as I can see, these two component parts appear to be located correctly . . . David

That is good thinking on your part Dennis, thank you . . . You could say that is thinking outside the box ( pun intended ! ) Thinking outside the steering box. I was already toying with the idea of cutting the column from the box, and I did start thinking along the lines of inserting a metal pin into the box . . . Anyway, I am pleased to report, on Tuesday evening it all came together at once, and the steering box with column attached is glued in place. The solution was to move the model to a table in my kitchen, where the overhead tube lighting was much better, and I used a handheld torch to align the steering box hole with the pin on the chassis member and it all fitted beautifully ! Thanks again for your constructive suggestion Dennis, and I shall post a full report with photos later today . . . David

Thank you Thomas . . . David

You are right there David, this is indeed quite a puzzle . . . I would be interested to know if any of the Gunze Sangyo designers actually completed a build of one of their kits. They have done a marvellous job of putting the whole thing together, which is no easy task, so I would rather not criticise any aspect of the build . . . As far as possible, I have followed the instruction sheet with this Phantom III and then used my own common sense when I can see that a certain method of assembly cannot realistically work. I am confident that I can overcome these temporary setbacks, and of course this is all part of the learning process I guess ! The subconscious solution has often worked for me, because it seems that when you ' sleep on it ' , the problem does not look so scary the next day ! David W.

For a large part of today, I was attempting to align the steering column and steering box with the floor board, firewall and chassis. This is actually proving to be extremely difficult . . . There is a hole on the side of the steering box which has to be glued onto a pin that potrudes from the side member of the chassis, close to the engine block. The pin for the steering box is only just visible from above the chassis, as there is a plate below the chassis that obcsures the view . . . Then it gets interesting, and challenging. The lower body goes into position, and this has an upper plate that hides the steering box completely. According to the Gunze Sangyo instruction sheet, the floorboard is glued to the lower body, before the steering column has to feed through the hole in the floorboard . . . My difficulty with this, is that once all five pieces come together, including the firewall, I shall have no means of making sure that the steering box is glued onto the chassis pin, as I can neither see it nor get at it . . . There has to be a certain amount of up and down movement to allow for the steering column to feed through the floorboard hole, but the lower end must be glued onto the pin ! This will not be the only difficult stage in the assembly, as there will be a similar coming together of around six pieces when I attempt to assemble the division, the inner door posts, front and rear seats and the upper body . . . all of which must mount on the floorboard, lower body and chassis. I can fully understand the instruction sheet, and I have carried out countless test fitting exercises, but these two stages of the build in particular are the most worrying for me . . . I really want the car to be quite strong and therefore easy to handle, but many of the attachment methods seem to be too flimsy from my point of view . . . David

Okay Noel, and point taken . . . The vertical slats are Gunze Sangyo original chrome (40 years), and the upper section of the grille is my Molotow Liquid Chrome applied with a brush . . . I noticed the price on the C1 website is £12.00, so cheaper than eModels : https://www.c1-models.com/c1-metalizer I shall let you know how I get on with the C1 powder if I give it a try ! David

Thanks Noel . . . I see eModels are based in Stoke-on-Trent, and they seem to have the C1 product priced at £13.49 . . . The issue that I have at the moment, is basically what to do with this Phantom III radiator grille. One fellow MCM forums member has suggested stripping all of the chrome off the radiator grille part, using the ' purple pond ' type method, and then starting from scratch by coating the part with liquid chrome. This would mean that the work I have already done on the vertical slats has been a waste of time, and would need to be redone later . . . I am still trying to find a an alternative way of dealing with the problem, without resorting to a complete stripping of the chrome, although that may turn out to be the only option, I fear . . . David

Okay Noel, I will have a look at C1 directly . . . Thanks David

Nice to see the Lincoln Futura directly alongside the Batmobile, and that is a good choice of paint colour, sort of a pale Turquoise . . . I guess it is not a huge leap to transform the Lincoln into the even more futuristic Batmobile, which is what George Barris must have realised back in 1966 David W.

Thank you Noel . . . I just Googled ' C1 Polishing Powder ' and I found two suppliers, but one is discontinued and one is not in stock. That does sound like an interesting product, so a shame it is not currently available . . . Two photos below . . . David

As I was feeling rather despondent about the radiator grille chrome issue today, I chose to put together a mock up at this stage, which was more of an exercise to familiarise myself with the assembly order . . . The lower body was fitted onto the rolling chassis, followed by the floorboard and firewall . . . Then the upper body was lowered onto the chassis and floor assembly, without adding the seats and division components at this point . . . The hinged bonnet panels were placed over the firewall, and the radiator components were added. Guiding the driver's side doors assembly into place was tricky, but they are roughly where they should be. To complete this mock up, the two spare wheel casings were inserted into their wells . . . A. J. Webb was on hand to supervise the mock up procedure, which has served to provide a useful preview of the whole car. David

Mr Webb is happy now ! . . . Regarding your suggestion to use a product like SuperClean, I do have an oven cleaner product somewhere in my loft space that was very good at removing the chrome from the Minicraft Silver Cloud parts. I shall give this matter some thought, and I do know that Molotow Liquid Chrome produces a nice finish when sprayed through an airbrush. This is an acrylic paint also, well to be precise it is an acrylic ink product . . . The following photo shows the radiator grille viewed from the front of the car, as a mock up exercise . . . See the following update as a daily report . . . David

Now that is a good observation on your part Skip, and well spotted ! . . . Yes, I have plenty of felt material remaining from fabricating the carpets, so I should be able to cover the lower panel of the interior doors. To be honest, I hadn't picked up on this detail, so thanks for pointing it out to me . . . The following photo is actually a Sedanca De Ville body, but it is the same for the Sports Saloon that I am building. The blue carpet can be clearly seen on the door lower edge . . . I do think this is worth getting right, because when the doors are fully open the carpet is very visible at the bottom. David

It was time to move some of the components of this build, from my downstairs room that was being used throughout the Winter period, up to the loft space on the second floor . . . This included the rolling chassis with the V12 engine, the floorboard assembly along with the front and rear seats, the division and glass, also the steering box, steering column and steering wheel . . . I noticed that the exhaust tailpipe and also the silencer had become detached from the chassis, so I super glued these parts back in place, Two of the three foot pedals had also become detached from the floorboard, so these were swiftly glued back in place, using styrene glue. Having examined the chrome radiator grille closely, after 24 hours the Liquid Chrome application has not been successful . . . You are absolutely right by the way David G., this radiator grille is THE most important component of the entire motor car, and as such, it does need to be perfect. I am thinking that the only way to deal with this issue is to scrape off the chrome and redo the part from scratch . . . This is not how I had intended to proceed, but there does not seem to be an alternative . . . I took the opportunity to test fit the firewall and how it aligns with the floor board, and also test fitted the steering column at the same time. Started polishing the front wings of the lower body, and further polishing is required before lowering the body component to the chassis. David

This build of yours is very interesting David G. . . . For some reason the 1955 Lincoln Futura reminds me of the early Batmobile !!! Your use of micro magnets just makes me want to use mine for some aspect of the Phantom III build. Those ' little marvels ' have been sitting immediately to my left as I sit at the workbench, and I am waiting for the right moment to incorporate the magnets in my build . . . Maybe the opening doors or the bonnet panels? I understand how you feel about the figures for your Lincoln not being permanently fixed, and your solution with the removable steering wheel is pure genius . . . Regarding the paint colour for this car, I do agree that pale green is much more suited to the car than white, and one possibility might be a two-tone pale green and white paint scheme, which would be so 1950's . . . David W.