Anglia105E

Thanks Les, and I did consider cutting separate pieces of foil at first, which is how I would usually tackle this job. For some reason I settled on the one piece foil method, which has not gone well at all . . . David

I found some sheets of 2000 grit wet & dry in my loft, so I will test this on one of the three body shells that I am not using for the build. Also, I will have a look at Albion Abrasives on Amazon as you suggest . . . David

Yes John . . . That is something that I like, problem solving. Before I retired seven years ago now, I was a self employed technical support engineer, so working with all aspects of ' fixing computers ', both hardware and software . . . Each kit that I build these days leads me through a process of assembling the model and tackling every problem along the way. Such an absorbing hobby for that reason alone . . . Whenever I have purchased BMF over the past few years, this has been through Ebay sellers usually, so not directly from BMF and it does vary in quality. David

Having watched the whole of the tutorial, start to finish and including the comments, I see this as a fascinating alternative to BMF ( and kitchen foil / PVA ). Some of the chemicals and the procedures are putting me off trying silver leaf very slightly. I did notice the water based size as an option. Personally, I have to admit to being rather clumsy, and especially with my hand movements ( hand to eye co-ordination ). You may ask why have I chosen to build scale model cars, mostly those that are smaller than say 1:12 scale ? . . . I have always been interested in everything to do with cars, and I have been interested in model cars since I was around 8 years of age. The very thought of me handling wafer thin silver leaf conjures up all sorts of nightmares ! David

My narrow orange tape is 1/4 " in width, so if I can get hold of some 1/8 " or even 1/16 " wide tape that would be good . . . I do have chrome and silver Vallejo acrylic paints, which might go on nicely with the right brush. Thanks for the information and also the encouragement, which I do need at this stage ! David

Thanks for the tips John, and I did try to get the cheapest kitchen foil that was available locally, but it could be too thick as you say . . . Certainly foil adhesion is the issue here mainly. I can have a look at silver leafing, and gather some information about that method . . . Now that would be entirely appropriate, silver leaf for a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ! David

Today I attempted to apply chrome to the driver's side rear door window frame, which has turned out to be the worst bare metal foiling that I have ever seen. Although I say Bare Metal Foil, this was not done with the BMF product . . . I applied PVA glue around the window frame perimeter, and also inside the frame. Then I measured and cut out a rectangular piece of aluminium kitchen foil, 40 mm x 22 mm, and placed this over the window frame area . . . Leaving the foil to sit awhile, I returned later to cut away the centre portions of the foil with a scalpel knife. The edges were folded over onto the glued areas. Despite smoothing the foil carefully with a cotton bud and also the rounded end of a cocktail stick, the overall result is messy and ragged. I am not happy with the result . . . Just as you would expect a real 1:1 scale Rolls-Royce motor car to be presented with a high quality finish, my feeling is that a 1:24 scale model of this car should also be of the highest quality possible. I cannot accept this poor representation of chrome plating, so I need to rethink the whole approach to this build . . . Previously of course, Molotow Liquid Chrome would have been the product of choice for me, but I am not able to use this now due to my medical condition, and particularly with regard to the cleaning solution for the brush, i.e. Isopropyl Alcohol. I shall examine the body shell tomorrow morning after overnight drying, and maybe clean off the PVA residue to see if there is any improvement . . . David

Very nice colour combination, British Racing Green and Butternut Yellow ( almost cream ) . . . David

The following two photos show the Silver Cloud body after I have applied a small amount of WD40 spray. This was done outdoors, and then rubbed gently with a cotton bud . . . What I intend to do next is to use some kitchen foil and PVA glue to chrome the window frame of the rear door, and also to chrome the strip that runs along the side of the two doors, immediately below the windows . . . This will allow me to examine the area of the body shell that has been affected by the silver Sharpie spillage, and therefore to determine the overall appearance. David

Wow Mark . . . 6000 grit to 12000 grit is way finer grade than 1000 grit to 1200 grit !!! Not sure if my local supplier will have such fine grades in stock.

Okay thanks Jose . . . Will get hold of some finer grades locally.

Yes, I have 1200 grit wet & dry, and also 600 grit . . .

Thanks Mark . . . Maybe someone can remember ? . . . I have used WD40 on the Sharpie mark today, and it worked quite well. I can try the wet & dry sanding paper with water on the roof scratch later. David

I am a little nervous about using sandpaper and water on the body surface, but if this body shell is ruined anyway then I don't have anything to lose by at least giving it a try out . . . You are right about the Dremel, and in my case the Blackspur mini grinder, they do overheat the plastic pretty quickly ! David

Having tried various different methods to remove the silver Sharpie marker spillage from the bodywork close to the rear quarter light of the Silver Cloud, there were only two options remaining . . . One was to use hand sanitiser, which is basically rubbing alcohol, and the second option would be to use WD40. The first photo of the following batch of photos shows the area of damage after I had tried hand sanitiser. This has actually removed a small amount of the blemish, but not completely removed . . . Then I tried using a buffing pad with my mini grinder tool, but I might have inflicted some additional damage to the plastic. Maybe the buffing pad was spinning too fast, or maybe I exerted too much pressure. The Sharpie marks have not been removed satisfactorily. The only remaining method of removal that I can think of, would be WD40, but I cannot find my can of WD40 anywhere. I shall probably purchase a new can at some point, but I am not hopeful that it will have any effect . . . I have considered using a different body for this build, and I do have four bodies to choose from. However, each of these four bodies has a scratch mark in the plastic of the roof, and due to the fact that I need to polish the bare black plastic rather applying paint, this means that I cannot use any of them. Work on this build has halted, while I come up with Plan B . . . if indeed there is a Plan B. David

The steering column was removed from the dashboard and I enlarged the hole for the mounting tube, so that a different steering column could be mounted. This one has a steering wheel that is smooth, with no cutouts inside the rim . . . The steering wheel was touching the driver's seat cushion previously but does not touch the seat now. Having picked up some grey felt material today, I used my boot carpet template to cut out a piece of carpet. This was then test fitted inside the boot floor, and the spare wheel black surround panel was also test fitted. Both look good . . . I printed out two number plates for the registration plate ' BD 12 ' in white on black, and cut them to size 22 mm x 5 mm. One of the printed plates was then PVA glued onto the rear number plate plinth and left to set overnight . . . David

As the following photos show, I used some baking powder toothpaste applied to the leaked silver Sharpie on the bodywork, and this was followed by wiping off the area with micro fibre cloth and distilled malt vinegar . . . Then I had the idea to apply a small amount of Meguiars Carnauba Wax polish to the same area, which was again wiped clean with the vinegar. Although this process has removed most of the Sharpie spillage, the end result is not perfect by any means. This area of damage is simply not good enough for a Rolls-Royce . . . Maybe as I have five body shells for the Silver Cloud available to me, I should use a different body altogether? The last two photos show the difference between the two tyres, which is the one on the left being a Minicraft tyre and the one on the right is the tyre that would be found in a Revell kit or an Entex kit . . . The Revell / Entex version of this tyre is much more realistic in appearance, and has more of a rubber look to it than the Minicraft version, as well as being slight bulkier . . . I realised only this evening, that the dashboard is not right . . . I have moved the position of the steering column from LHD to RHD, but the speedometer gauge is on the left of the three gauges, which is correct for a LHD motor car, but the speedo should be on the right of the the three gauges for a RHD motor car. Not sure yet how I shall rectify this error, but there must be a way, there always is . . . David

Yes, I will be looking for those signs . . . Many articles suggest checking underneath refrigerators, and behind as well as underneath any furniture that never moves, including beds . . .

I hope your health continues to improve John, and I shall take steps to overcome this bacterial attack on my property !

Thanks John . . . This is the first time in eight years that a Sharpie pen has leaked in the same way that a Molotow Liquid Chrome pen would do. Yes, I do have three packs of Bare Metal Foil, but they are well past their sell by date so not sticking well. I do like the BMF product, but at the moment there are suppliers in the UK showing no stock, or the price is too high for me . . . So I now have some aluminium kitchen foil, which I shall try with PVA glue. I am beginning to believe that the problem inside my house is more than likely going to be mold ( or mould ) and of course I need to deal with that possibility. My first course of action will be to spray white vinegar all around the areas where there could be mold, and then I will take it from there. Really, I don't want to come into close contact with whatever is causing my lung condition, even with a protective mask . . . David

Thanks for the tip Jose, but Isopropyl Alcohol is one of the chemicals that I cannot use . . . I think it would remove the metallic silver Sharpie. The only other option that I have is my baking soda toothpaste ! David

I managed to get a full refund for the faulty Sharpie set, and also I was able to purchase a replacement set of pens . . . It was time to set about changing this Silver Cloud dashboard from LHD to RHD, so I used my saw to remove the steering column support tube from the dashboard. Then I measured and cut out the location for the same support tube to slot into it's new position . . . I found that by using the narrow orange tape instead of glue this was sufficient to hold the steering column in place nice and firmly. Once the top half of the hole in the dashboard is enlarged slightly the steering wheel will not be touching the driver's seat . . . With the dashboard mounted into the interior seating tub, the orange tape and also the cut out on the left side of the dash are not visible. Using the fine pointed tip of a cocktail stick, I applied a tiny amount of Vallejo acrylic white paint to the detail on the speedometer gauge. The incredibly tiny control knobs on the dashboard were given a touch of silver Sharpie, using the new pen this time . . . David

Earlier today I picked up a set of three metallic Sharpie marker pens, one Gold, one Bronze and one Silver . . . Working on the actual body shell for this build, I began to apply the Silver Sharpie to the driver's side rear window frame of the model. This was after I had masked off the surrounding area of the body shell with my narrow orange tape, because the Sharpie product is difficult to remove as it is permanent. To begin with, the Sharpie went on smoothly and with hardly any effort and no excessive pressure. Just when I was thinking this will look good, the fine point nib of the silver Sharpie began to leak badly. The almost chrome liquid ran along the frame of the door and collected in a blob. Fortunately, this was on the tape, and not on the surrounding body. I have never had any Sharpies do this to me during eight years of model building. The liquid is escaping from the nib and running down to the pointed tip, or at least it was for five minutes, and the the pen stopped working altogether. I did manage to coax a little bit of silver grey out onto a piece of card, but it was not possible to apply any silver Sharpie to the window frame of the model . . . As an experiment, I applied the gold Sharpie to the rear window frame of the test body, and there was no problem. Also, I repeated the process with the bronze Sharpie on the front window frame of the test body. Again, no problem . . . So it is only the silver Sharpie that is leaking. There isn't much point in me claiming that one of the three pens in the pack appears to be faulty by contacting the supplier, so does this mean that I have to contact the Sharpie company directly? My previous pack of three metallic Sharpies is probably around five years old, and both the gold and the bronze still work fine to this day. The silver pen ran out early in the first year, five years ago. I was wondering if any other MCM Forum members had experienced any problems with the silver Sharpie pens? David

Thanks for the information Mark, and here is a link to one that I found on Ebay here in the UK . . . https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/316245272621?chn=ps&_ul=GB&var=614903943724&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1vVp9eJgrQcuKEBmQz9kw1g26&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=614903943724_316245272621&targetid=2425733423477&device=c&mkt They don't seem to be at all expensive really, from what I have seen so far . . . David

The Retro Orange emulsion paint by WILKO was still slightly tacky after 20 hours drying overnight, which is surprising for emulsion paint in my experience. This did not matter too much really, because I intended to scratch the surface of the paint anyway for this dashboard. The gauges of the dashboard and a few other areas were scraped clean of orange paint, to allow the black plastic to show through, using the pointed tip of a cocktail stick . . . Then I used a brass bristled brush to stipple the surface of the paint quite firmly, so as to create a burr walnut effect . . . So far, the dashboard looks pretty good and I shall add white acrylic detail for the gauges, also applied with the tip of the cocktail stick and not a brush. David