Anglia105E

Having examined the chrome radiator grille for the Phantom III, there are clear signs of damage to the surface of the front face, on the driver's side. This has been caused by several failed attempts to remove black enamel wash from the 40 years old chrome, using enamel thinners . . . I decided to deal with the vertical slats of the radiator grille first, by applying Humbrol Matt Black enamel with a fine brush, between the slats. Then, using the pointed end of a cocktail stick, rather than a cotton bud, the excess matt black paint was carefully removed from the chrome slats. This seems to have worked quite well . . . Once the black paint has been allowed to dry overnight, I shall attempt to cover the damage to the chrome area at the top left as you see it in the following photos, using Molotow Liquid Chrome applied by brush . . . Fingers crossed ! David

Brilliant work on the soft top Francois, and I can see that was not an easy task . . . You deserve the break having got this far ! Nice set of photos . . . David

Cheers, David G. . . . I shall be turning my attention to the front end of the car shortly, including the chrome radiator grille and the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament. The grille mascot supplied out of the box is a standing figure, and I did notice that most of the Phantom III cars had a kneeling figure . . . David W.

Thanks very much Bob . . . The best is yet to come, so keep watching ! David

The luggage compartment fitting appears to have been accomplished successfully, and seems to be correct. The boot lid opens cleanly, the two boards hinge freely, the boards lower onto the boot lid as they are intended, and the suitcases sit well. The luggage bay has stuck firmly too . . . Here are some photos of the rear area of the car, with AJW in attendance ! By mounting the upper body onto the lower body, this spreads the rear wings to position correctly, now that the luggage compartment is fitted . . . Test fitted the rear chrome bumper and also the rear bumper mounting bar to the upper body rear. David

Sunday was quite a productive day, at a nice steady pace . . . The sub assembly comprising the tools tray, the two hinged boards and the boot lid itself, were brought together by lowering the tools tray into the inner base of the boot lid, and this was glued in place. There is a clear warning from Gunze Sangyo on the instruction sheet ' Do NOT allow any cement to come into conatct with the hinges ' . . . Then, with the outside of the boot lid taped onto the upper body, the inner luggage compartment bay was carefully aligned and glued into place, complete with the two suitcases inside. Leaving this to set overnight, I shall examine the inside of the luggage compartment tomorrow from the outside, with the boot lid open . . . David

Thanks David, and I forgot to mention in my last post . . . Here in UK we have Ebay sellers who offer packs of three Tamiya Polishing Compound . . . All three grades are available in one pack, which is what I usually purchase online because we do not have any high street stores selling Tamiya products. David W.

I particularly like the open door and the curtain hanging out over the window ledge Erik, because it is these sort of details that really interest me for any diorama. This is nicely done in 1:87 scale, and I hope you find your pocket notebook sketch ! David

Good to be back yes, but part of me is still down there in Cornwall . . . The four inner door panels have now been glued in place onto the outer door panels, using Revell Contacta Professional, and the rear number plate ( license plate ) has also been glued in place using PVA glue for the thin card. David W.

Well, I just returned from my annual holiday trip, which extended to 10 days as things turned out . . . Within 24 hours I was back at the workbench, as progress resumed on the Rolls-Royce Phantom III . . . Like a dedicated model builder I was determined to press on. Today was all about applying Tamiya Polishing Compound to the outer cream door panels. The inner door panels have not yet been glued in place, because I needed to grip the doors firmly in order to apply the polishing compound properly, and the chrome door handles would have been easily damaged. I used all three grades, so Coarse, Fine and Finish, and I can see a significant improvement . . . With the doors polished, I set up a simple mock up of the passenger side doors with the upper and lower body. Also, test fitted the inner door panels on the driver's side. David

Nice to exchange interesting sailing stories ! Cheers and Au Revoir, David

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