Anglia105E

Once the the paint finish has been allowed 4 to 5 days to cure, I shall apply the three grades of Tamiya Polishing Compound, Coarse, Fine and Finish. For this Cortina build I am keeping to Tamiya products, right through from primer to polish, with lacquer in between. David

Thank you kindly, Ray . . . Happy days at the workbench ! David

Having attempted, and failed, to print a 1:16 scale road tax disc for the windscreen (road fund license), I decided to cut out the one from the decal sheet and glue it on the inside of the screen, using Crystal Clear glue. These decals are 60 years old, so I didn't want to risk the water slide decal not working. My HP printer cannot print anything as small as a 4.7 mm diameter paper disc. All the external body parts have been given two coats of Tamiya TS-10 French Blue over white primer, and allowed to dry for 24 hours. Today I removed all of the masking material to reveal the paint surface. The following photos show the Cortina with the roof, bonnet and boot lid resting in place, so nothing glued yet. I am generally happy with the result, and I do like the colour. There is quite a lot of work to do yet, which is mostly chrome work and further detailing, including bumpers, number plates, lights, wipers, bonnet and boot hinges and window glass. The sliding driver's door window will be in the lowered position. David

Thank you Mike . . . The whole concept of carefully assembling and painting a precise scale model of an actual car, only to release the model into oblivion by actuating it's electric motor, sending it into reverse at high speed, as it launches itself off the end of the table is beyond my comprehension . . . Now Radio Control would be a very different matter . . . but a simple battery operated electric motor with a couple of plastic gears . . . No control ! David

Yes Noel, the five Frog car kit moulds went to Novo, and the kits that they produced were nowhere near as good as the Frog kits for quality. There were only five car kits . . . one was the E-Type Jaguar, one was the Morris 1100, one was the Dennis AV Ambulance, one was the Vauxhall Victor Estate, and then the Ford Consul Cortina . . . By far the most rare of these is the Dennis Ambulance, and if you still had that one it would be worth a lot of money today ! Occasionally, and not very often, the odd Frog car kit does appear on Ebay and the prices are always high. The Vauxhall is almost as rare as the Dennis and will fetch a big price at auction. Working on this Cortina kit, I have discovered that I really like 1:16 scale, even more than 1:24 scale ! David

This Heller Delahaye 135 is certainly fighting back and giving you a hard time Pat . . . I seem to remember the build of this model proving to be problematic on a daily basis, and I was relieved to get it finished at the time. The whole kit feels alarmingly fragile, so not one you would handle much after completing. I do hope it doesn't give you too much grief, now that you have reached this advanced stage ! David

Absolutely ! It was indeed very tricky, but all looks good now. David W.

I do agree with you Noel, as regards keeping a rare vintage kit in the original box as a collector's item. Personally, I would much rather build this 60 year old kit, very carefully and with respect, than hoard it away out of sight. Very often I see an item listed on Ebay, which appears to be a low price . . . and then when I read further it states ' Box Only ' ( no car or parts inside the empty box ) . . . I never throw my kit boxes away, and this FROG kit box is in quite poor condition, but I shall still hang on to it. I wouldn't consider selling a ' BOX ', but then again I can't put it in the bin either ! David

Thanks Greg . . . The body colour should be going on today, all being well. My Dad hired a Ford Consul Mk 2 for a family holiday trip to Wales back in the day, which was a 1959 car I believe. The '68 Lotus Cortina would have been a very sporty car to own at the time, and still is today as a classic. I did drive a 1972 Ford Cortina MK 3 to Devon during the early '70's, and I liked the American body style. Having driven MK 1, 2 and 3 Cortinas when I was younger, I didn't drive the MK 4 or 5 . . . David

The steering column, dashboard, bulkhead and steering wheel have all been assembled as one unit, and no issues. I have discovered that the parts of the FROG kit fit together so well, that I would say they are as good as modern day Tamiya. Monday turned out to be a very productive day, and I made some really good progress. The front end assembly was giving me cause for concern, and I was fearing the worst. I wanted to follow the order of assembly as detailed in the Frog instructions, so I glued the large R.H. side panel in place, which was then followed by the front panel. This proved to be extremely difficult, so I decided to glue the L.H. side panel in place onto the chassis / floor pan, before tackling the front panel. Also, I decided to use super glue rather than styrene glue for the front panel, which turned out to be a wise decision, as I would never have done it otherwise. Using a lot of patience and ingenuity, I eventually achieved an excellent fit for the front panel. The next part to add was the engine bay and inner front wings, and this went in surprisingly well, and is not even held in place with glue. The rear panel also clipped in without glue, and the roof section clipped in place without glue. I added the engine part, again no glue required. The following day saw the rear panel glued in place between the rear wings, along with the exhaust tailpipe which was glued to the floor pan. Using some green PVC refuse sack, and some orange tissue paper the interior area was masked off, also the the wheels and tyres were masked off. Tamiya Fine Surface Primer White has been applied to all of the exterior panels of the car, which was two coats with five minutes between coats. Once the primer has dried over night for 24 hours, the Tamiya TS-10 French Blue will be applied over the white primer. David

Some interesting ideas that you have there Noel . . . I am constantly looking for clever ways to model a 1:24 scale Spirit of Ecstasy, and the twisted thin wire suggestion sounds feasible to me . . . David

Welcome to MCM Forums, Igor . . .

I forgot to mention last time, but as you are having difficulty in getting the boot lid to fit . . . What I do with every Silver Cloud build, is to cut a length of cocktail stick or bamboo toothpick if you like, and insert this under the two boot lid hinges from the inside of the body. This takes out all of the slack from the sloppy fit, and the boot lid hinges up and down quite nicely. There is still a bit of a gap actually, and I noticed you intend to glue the boot lid in the closed position. These photos show the hinge ' stick ' modification. David

Certainly, those joints where the front wings meet the doors and the windscreen pillars are a difficult area of this body to fix. You are doing a fine job, and the joints have to be almost seamless . . . As regards the spare wheel David, I found there were 5 wheels and 5 tyres in every kit that I purchased, so I always put a spare wheel and tyre inside the boot. Maybe the kit that you bought only had 4 wheels and tyres? Here are four photos that show the spare wheel setup, which includes a scratchbuilt panel that is not in the kits . . . David W.

Over the past few days the interior of the Cortina has been painted, and also the dashboard. The paint colour is Vallejo Prussian Blue acrylic. Another mock up was necessary to see how the steering column assembles with the bulkhead and the dashboard. I placed the two side panels and the engine bay roughly where they need to be later. The front inner wings being part of the engine bay might be problematic, as they have to align cleanly with the outer wings of those large side panels that run the length of the car. Two coats of Tamiya TS-10 French Blue have been applied to both the engine bay / front wings and the bulkhead where it becomes part of the engine bay. The paint caps show the difference between the Rust-oleum Spa Blue and the Tamiya French Blue. David

Nice test fit photos David . . . As you can see now, from the test fit and also the application of primer, there are many issues with these kits. Two things to keep in mind . . . The aperture for the windscreen is slightly too small, and consequently the windscreen in the kit box is too small. My solution to this involved enlarging the aperture at all four edges, and then you can either cut a piece of clear plastic from something like cake box packaging, or you can use a windshield removed from the 1:24 scale Franklin Mint Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud . . . The other thing is that the rear window should have a matt black surround to represent the rubber seal, and there is no chrome surround to the rear window. Franklin Mint did add a chrome surround to their diecast model, which is absolutely not correct. The proportions of this motor car were designed to such perfection by the Rolls-Royce company, that the dimensions of the windscreen have to be very precise for the whole car to look right. This is why just one millimetre out on the scale model will make a massive difference. To give the Minicraft people some credit, they did manage to produce an accurate body, which for the most part has good proportions. That is what motivated me to go to great lengths to build a good model from this kit. David

The Magnum 500 wheels that were available in the US at that time, were called Ro-Style wheels in the UK, and they were fitted to the Ford Cortina 1600E , the Triumph Stag sports car and MGB sports cars, among others. The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud 1955 - 1959 was 17.5 feet in length, while the 1968 Pontiac Parisienne that I used to own, was 18 feet in length. I can see that your Silver Cloud build has the chrome strip along the centre of the hood, where the two bonnet panels join and hinge upwards. Some of the very early Silver Clouds of 1955 and 1956 did have a chrome strip like that, which is probably why Hubley / Minicraft / Revell included the chrome strip. in the kit. Possibly those early Silver Clouds were exported to the US. David W.

I have considered doing it that way Stu, as you suggest . . . However, having examined the build only this morning, there are maybe four or five body parts that need to align all at the same time before glue is applied, and to make matters more difficult, the two large side panels that include the front outer wings must be held with strong rubber bands. This is because the side panels are straight, and they need to curve inwards at the front end, so that the edges of the outer wings can attach to the edges of the inner wings. Those inner wings are part of the engine bay part. Because this is such an unorthodox way of assembling a kit body, I need to think it through carefully ! David

Thanks Andrew . . . There were five kits produced in 1:16 scale by FROG, and these were the Ford Consul Cortina, the Jaguar E-Type, the Morris 1100, the Dennis AV Ambulance and the Vauxhall Victor Estate Car . . . All these kits are now 60 years old, and hard to find. The Dennis AV Ambulance is almost impossible to find. David

Thanks Jerry, and I hope you find the work in progress interesting as it moves forward. David

Oh I see what you mean Bill . . . The electric motor under the back seat of the Frog model does make it a Hybrid I guess ! Even though the motor is working on my build project, it seems to go in reverse only, and powers one wheel only. This car will not be motorised. David

I shall give the Tamiya grey primer some thought and consideration, based upon your ' professional model builder ' advice !!! I was led to believe that 2K paint products are dangerous, and require wearing a mask that has an oxygen supply ? You are right about the masking Michael, because I shall need to glue the window glass in place, inside the roof part, and then carefully mask off the windows while I am spraying on the Tamiya primer and top coat. The wheels and tyres will need to be covered with paper, particularly at the front end while paint is applied. Sounds like you have enjoyed an interesting working life making money from your hobby, which is something I could not do successfully. David

I don't know about ' Hybrid ' vehicles Bill, but I remember well the Ford Anglia, Ford Cortina, Ford Corsair, Ford Escort, Ford Consul, Zephyr and Zodiac, also the Ford Consul Classic and Capri . . . Happy days ! David

Yes Ulf, I think the Russian made Frog car model kits are by Novo . . . The NOVO company was British, but they had the products made in Russia, using old FROG tooling moulds . . . We do need a good 1:24 scale Fod Cortina, maybe Ford Escort and others. David

Thank you Michael for your comments, and also your questions . . . In order to assemble the body, the two side panels have to be glued to the edges of the floor and chassis assembly, then the front panel and engine bay have to be glued to the side panels . . . The engine bay includes the front outer wings, and then the roof that includes the window frames must be glued in place. Only this way can you line everything up correctly and squarely. At that point, the gaps where the body panels join together have to be filled and sanded before painting can begin. This would mean that the window glass part would not have been glued inside the roof. As regards the primer Michael, I was only going to use Halfords grey primer with cellulose automotive paint, and only Rust-oleum primer for Rust-oleum paint, so in this case I am using the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer White, which a professional model builder who lives locally tells me is the best primer in the world. The topcoats will be Tamiya TS-10 French Blue, so I am keeping to paints from the same brand for both primer and topcoat. How about this kit for the Opel Ascona https://www.scalemates.com/kits/belkits-bel-020-opel-ascona-400--1170892 David