François

Many thanks to everyone for the positive feed back. I'm almost down to what I consider to be the most difficult part of this build, covering the boby and finishing the interior. This is where this build becomes a real show piece or remains a very nice model. I received a thin lamb skin leather sheet, it's only .3mm thick (.01in). I think it will do nicely to simulate the rexine. It's very flexible, thin enough for all the curves (I hope) and has just enough shine to it. I have an image in my head of what the final setup will be, model and display case. I'm just not exactly sure how I'll go about it, after all I've only been thinking of this for 18 months !! But I'm confident I'll figure something out.

First time on all 4's! 4 out of 5 tires are mounted on the wheels, I had a little problem with the 5th and had to reprint it. The tires on my ref car have a little shine to them (armour all maybe?). I know it's not period correct but again, I'm aiming to reproduce a car built in 2019 so I but a little bit of floor wax on mine to give them a shine. I am more than satisfied with the result.

Thank you Philip As requested, here are a few pictures of the finished wheels. Just need to mount the tires. I'm affraid it might prove to be quite difficult since I printed them with a hard resin. If they don't fit properly, I guess I'll have to get the quite expensive rubber resin.

Finaly finished lasing the wheel, they are primed and ready for paint.

I still have many loose ends to tie up. One of these is the engine top cover. Again, the kit cover, while being ok, is not great. For one thing, the breather plates and mesh are moulded in and not well defined and the 6 mounting bolts don't have the correct shape nor do they have the lockwire holes in them. So I decided to model it and print it. Here's the kit's cover with everything moulded in Here's my print. It's hard to see but all 6 studs have a tiny hole on It's tip for the lockwire The kit's moulded breather plate next to mine which has a micro mesh My cover chromed and with the vents installed, still need to paint the contour of the letters in black and to install the lockwire Another loose end was the gas cap. Having already done the radiator cap, it was easy to just modify the cad a bit to make it bigger and to print it. The kit's cap My cap closed With handle opened And lid opened last thing I did today was to paint the tires and a new set of wheel rims. I should be ready to lace them tomorrow.

I think I'm getting pretty close to a good tire. For now, it's printed out of regular resin and painted with Tamiya's rubber black. I will eventualy print them will rubber resin. Left side is kit's tire, right side mine The finished fenders And temporarily mounted on car

Thank you Philip, this model is actually not all that rare and has been around since the 70's and probably even earlier. It was produced by many manufactures, Airfix, MPC, Heller, Union, Tsukuda and possibly others that I don't know. I'm building the Airfix kit, or at least that's the kit I started with. By the time I'm finished, it will be more 25% Airfix, 75% me. I haven't done the seats yet so not to sure what you are refering to. Keep looking, more fun stuff coming.

Bugatti fan, the printed rods are stiffer but they are still plastic. The 2 major benefits of printing the fenders are that by printing the rods directly with the fender, it make assembly much easier and assure a proper fit identical on both sides. It also permited me to better copy the real setup since the kit mist a few details and got some others completetly wrong.

Ok, so I think I have a good tire print but I'll now for sure once I paint it. My 2 first test prints were blackened with a permanent marker, it looks a bit like an armoal coverded tire. I found a black rubber paint made by tamiya. If the paint gives a good enough rubber look, I'll print a 5 tires with regular resin to start and may print them again with rubber resin later on. Here, in order, are pictures of the kit's tire my firts test print my second test print my third a real Blockey tire and the black rubber paint I've also started work on the fenders. The kit's parts are ok but no more. The mounting rods are very flimsy and don't fit good, especially at the front. So me being me, I 3d modeled them and will test print to see if I can do better. It will be print in 1 piece, the fender with the 2 mounting rods instead of 3 separate pieces. I might need to reprint a few times to get the rods in the correct location but by printing them it's easier to add missing details like rivets, bolt holes... Kit's rear fender Kit's front fender The 3d model A rear fender ready to print

Thanks. If I do decide to print them, I'll use a flexible resine. If soft enough, the weight of the model should compress the tires a bit. Althougt my original plan was to show case the model on 4 stands in which case a flat spot won't be necessary. I just complete the new hood straps in leather. Much better than the previous ones. Now I can tension the straps for a more realistic look.

Finally finished the radiator and I'm very satisfied with the result. Even the angle ajuster mecanism I made worked great althougt I barely needed it. I'm redoing the hood straps one by one in real leather so once that's done, the front end will be complete. Here are a few shots of the finished radiator along with a fun picture of the model next to the ref car. I also did a test print of a tire. But since I don't have any rubber resin yet, I had to make it in 2 halves. It came pretty good for a first try. Here what the real tire looks like And mine

Oldrevellfan, I think it's a combination of 2 things. The anchor point for the strap is at a small distance from the side panel which creates a slight angle and the fact that the straps aren't tensionned. I'm making new ones with real leather that I'm skiving to .02in think. I should be able to stretch these new ones more than the other ones. It should help... maybe...

Finished the hood straps today. I'll let the radiator cover dry for a couple more days before handling it. So the front end should be pretty much done by the end of the weekend. I also installed the foot step. Next up will be the 4 fenders. I still have the wheels to finish but that can be done just about at any time.

the bigger the part, the better the surface finish has to be to get a smooth surface, otherwise, any defect will show (lower red circle). And It can do strange things (upper red circle). Also, the quantity of paint applied per coat is a factor 2 to 3 light coats are better then one heavier, it's a auto leveling paint so don't panic at first and resist to put on too much. Hope this helps. compared to good one

There's a saying that goes like this " Third time's a charm"... Well in the case of the radiator cover, it's the fifth that charmed me!! I finally got the chrome right! Now, all I have to do is install the front grill whitout damaging the chrome... yeah right... Installed the hood clamps (I'm using a dummy hood while a new coat of paint dries on the good one). 20240213_165816.mp4 Started work on the hood straps, made tiny buckels and the 2 top straps are done. This is what the kit provides (black rubber)

I printed the new radiator cover. I incorporated the bottom trim directly instead of being on a separate part. That way, I'll be able to directly fit the front grill inside the cover. Here's the newest version. I also made the 2 hood clamps, they are actually spring loaded and somewhat functional. Exploded view of a clamp Both clamps assembled Test fit on the model

Not water based but yes, available and at different duro. It's quit expensive so I'll have to be 100% sure of the design before printing with it. Being seldom satisfied with what I do right off the bat, I modified the radiator cover to better reflect the reality. The nose radius was too small. Before After The reality

It took a few tries but I think I got the new radiator cover right. Now all I need to do is to chrome it (gulp!!). Good thing I made 2... Here are some shots. Before sanding After sanding And again, model vs real car

Well, I really messed up this morning. I didn't like the chrome on the radiator so I tried to remove it. By doing so, I sorta melted the plastic, the part is now unsusable. I spent many hours modeling the radiator cover and it is printing as I write this. I modeled a working hood latch. It consists of a tiny spring loaded cylinder with a finger ring at the of the piston rod. This thing is micro. I'll have to fabricate a .05in od compression spring. I'm using a small brass nail for the rod (leftovers from a wooden ship build) The real one

All 4 hood panels are painted, I should be able to install then along with the radiator next.

Thanks absmiami I just painted the radiator cover, not sure it's ok yet, I'll let it dry first. I also started painting the 4 hood panels, still some sanding to do before the black finish.

Like I mentionned before, I've made so many modifications/add-ons on this model that I have to take certain measures to assure correct fit and alignment. I tackled 2 of these measures over the weekend. Since I printed new thinner hood panels to replace the bulky looking ones from the kit, one problem I'm face with is to try and maintain the correct curvature of the 2 top panels. When a part come out of the washer after printing, it is still very soft and can be deformed a bit just by manipulating it. So I made a curing fixture to conform the panel during curing. The fixture has the exact shape of the top panel as there are once installed on the model. I incorporated holes that align with the hinges, that way, the panels are firmly held in place at exactly the correct relation. Here are a few pictures. The fixture worked perfectly and held the panels during curing. I'm designing a similar fixture for both side panels as well. The second measure was a bit more tricky to figure out. It's the alignment between the radiator and the hood panel. I want to hava as close to an even gap as possible between them. But, since almost everything in this section of the model is new, the gap is not parallel. In the following pictures, I want the angle show as close to zero as I can get it. to achieve this, I designed a mecanism that will permit me to ajust this angle once the radiator and the hood are permanently in place. I made a sleeve that fits inside the radiator cap. This part will be glued in place once the ajustement's done so it will be painted black to look like the radiator filler tube. At the end of the sleeve, I added a small stud that as a .035in excentricity. This means that when the sleeve rotates, the stud move on a .07in diameter circle (2x the excentric). I also added a hex socket on the inside the drive the sleeve with a small allen key. To work, the excentric stud is engaged in a slot I made in the radiator core, the slot has the same width as the diameter of the stud. By rotating the sleeve, the stud move the radiator cover in relation to the core and since the cover is mounted to the core via a pivot point at the bottom, the angle between the 2 parts varies. Here's the design The sleeve, you can clearly see the excentric stud. The slot seen thru the filler cap The hex socket And the key Here you can see the stud in the slot And finally, a little video showing how it works 20240204_204438~2.mp4 I hope my explanations are clear.

I worked a bit on a more accurate tire model. I might try to print it with a flexible resin to see if it could better fit the wheel. I also reprinted the hood panels with a curing fixture ( on right side of print plate). The idea with this fixture is to try and conforme the curved panel while curing.

Absmiami, is that a good sigh or a bad sigh?

Ok so it's hood update time. So far, the 4 panels have been 3d modeled with better details than the kit's and incorporated hinges. I modeled the lifting handles and the latch. I even modeled the straps (I'll fabricate real straps, not printed ones). The 3d model look pretty good. But this is not a cad model forum, it's a scale model forum. So here's where I'm at with my real model. I printed (again) the hood panels, this time with a thickness of .03in, up .005 from the last print. I'm very happy with the result but I think I could do better. I might up the thickness another 005. to give them a little more rigidity. I also need to tweak certain de curves a little but aside from that, l pretty much there. So here are some pictures. Please remember that the radiator is not uet fixed in place, that's why it's a little off. Printed panels before supports removal Right side panel down Right side panel up Left side panel down Left side panel up Latch And finally, real car vs cad model vs scale model