François

I received my ABS filament coil for the printer. It's alot harder to use then the PLA but the results are pretty good and, being styrene, it's easy to trim and sand. I redid some rear brake parts and althought it's far from being finished, we can already see that the brakes work. 20230625_210732~2.mp4 I also started to study the front brakes mecanism. There are a lot of pivot shafts with levers mounted on them. It's really hard to find good pictures of the different components. I did find a drawings that has some good info. What is not there, I'll need to improvise. Hers is the old drawing of brake pivot shafts and levers configuration. First print test of cross member with pivot shaft housings. it's not bad but the wall is too thin. I'm slowly advancing the cad model of the full brake system. Bentley sure loved pivots and levers!!

I've read a bit on the different plastics normaly used with a filament printer. There seems to be 2 popular types, PVA (or polyvinyl) and ABS (also know as styrene). I've been using PVA since it what I got with the printer. It print ok but is very hard to sand and it's also hard to gloss. ABS on the other hand, being styrene, is much easier to sand. Styrene is what our plastic models are made of so I figure that any part printed with ABS should be easy to glue using any model glue. And, as a bonus, ABS can be glossed using acetone. So I've ordered myself a roll of ABS gray filament. I guess I'll be reprinting all the rear brake parts again. Oh well, live and learn !! The result is still nice with the PVA, I'm very curious to see if it will be any better with the ABS.

So, the fuel tank fabrication is done it's pain painted, and ready for final assy. all 4 leaf springs are ubolted painted and rope wrapped. I've been testing the 3d printer a lot and althought it's not precise enough for certain parts (like the internal engine parts) it's good for less complex and detailled design. So I decided to greatly improve Airfix poor excuse for brakes. When I started this build, my intention was to create all brake linkage and possibly have it move a bit like on the Alfa. But I'm going a few step further and 3d print new brake shoes, brake shoe mounting plate (with added details) shoe actuating cam, rod, lever and mounting bracket. Now seeing how it's going since I started printing these parts, I'm pretty confident that not only will the brake linkage move, the brake should actually work. Well, at least that the plan. And being the mecanical nerd that I am, I also decided to drive the rear wheel from the engine. At one point, this kit had an electric motor somewhere so the drive shaft and certain other parts where moulded with square ends or square sockets, depending. This will permit me to transmit from the front of the blower all the way to the differentiel casing. But it's an empty differentiel casing you say, well yes it is but I'm adding 2 gears to correct that. It won't be a real differentiel per say but still, the rear wheel will turn. Now, hiw that for geeky! Here are a few pictures of this endavour. 3d cad model 20230620_154131.mp4 Airfix brake shoe representation and mine(not final parts) My shoe plate and actuating arm bracket the differentiel parts That's it for now.

Wrapping on one leaf spring is done. I'm very happy with the result. Also, I received a Ender 3 filament printer today as a father's day gift. It's used and not worth much but it was a gift so I want to try my best to make it work. It's very easy to use but so far the results are a bit sketchy. Anyone Know how to properly set up this printer?

I'm done with the ubolts and nut on the leaf springs. Alot of bending, cutting and fitting but I think it should look alot better. I'm going thru my printed nuts and bolts too fast and they're expensive to get. I'll draw them up myself and have them printed locally at a fraction of the price of buying having them shipped from germany. It's off to print and after that, thread installation, that should be fun!

I started work on the rear leaf springs today. I've seen a few different version of how it was done back then, some were left bare (you could see the separate leafs), some were wrapped with a cloth of some sort and some were wrapped with a rope. I had to search thru all my ref car pictures but I eventually found a picture that shows a very small portion of the front leafs wrapped with a rope. Althougt the picture in question is of a green car (my ref is black), being they were all built pretty much at the same time I opted for a rope wrap. Ref car What Airfix gives, you can see that they moulded a rop wrap which is not too bad but the ubolts are really bad. my first try, all I had was a red nylon thread, l'll have to get a thread in a beige/natural color and perhaps in a smaller diameter. I also made a proper ubolt. This is just a mockup, but at least now I know what to do.

No problem Noel, but I must warn you, the wings are extremely fragile. I'll modify the part a little bit first by making the wings à little bit thicker. They represent a 1/4dia nut ar 1/12 scale, is that ok?

Well actually, one of the employee has a printer and does small jobs for clients. Quite convenient.

Thank you Bugatti fan. The cutter comes from Amazon and the wingnut, same as most 3d printed parts I but in my models are designed by myself. I get them printed at my local hobby shop for what I concider to be a ridiculously low price. I basically pay for the material.

The engine inner parts are just about ready to print

David, if you haven't seen my post on the Alfa I did, go check it out. You'll see it is quite possible to do? http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/181906-italeri-112-alfa-romeo-8c/

I received my 3d printed wingnuts for the tank. Boy those things are tiny but impressively detailed. I also started 3d modeling the inner parts of the engine. The idea is to create a working crank shaft with connecting rods and pistons as I did on the Alfa romeo. The difference is that the Alfa is an 8 cylinder while this one is a 4. The crank will be much shorter and should be a lot easier to print. I also included the overhead valve train (non working) that should be visible by removing the valve cover. The crank,rods and pistons should be visible by removing the pan cover... I hope... A real valve train my rendering of it how it should work 20230611_222550.mp4 where it should all fit

Did a little bit of assembly on the tail lights. So far so good... I think the real thing

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Hello everyone, Well I'm done with the scratch building of the gas tank, the easy part for me, and I'm starting the paint which is not so easy for me. On my Alfa projet, I used Tamiya rattle cans and was very satisfied with the result. Then again, the paint was flat so very easy to achieve a good result. This car will not only be gloss, it will be gloss black which in my opinion is much harder do to. I've already painted a few small bits and this is how I proceded. All metal parts, brass and aluminium were first primed with Tamiya metal primer, then all parts, metal and plastic received a coat of Tamiya gray primer. I then applied 2 coats of Tamiya gloss black. All this in the rattle can format. The finish is ok but I'm wandering if a clear coat should be added. Should I use flat black instead of gloss and systhematicaly apply a clear? Is the product I'm using the correct one? There won't be namy large surfaces to paint, the largest being the front hood and the 4 fenders. All other parts have alot of features on them, nuts and bolts and wire mesh... so buffing of these component is out of the question. And the largest part of the car, the body, will be coverded in fabric so no paint there. Any thoughts/comments/hints would be greatly appreciated.

So, here's what has been done on the fixtures today. Let me remind you of my goal. And here's what I did. After drilling out all the holes, I inserted 3 small sleeve, 1 per hole, that will give me a shoulder for the lenses to sit agaist. next, I made the buld socket with knurled nut, rubber grommet and wire. I'm pretty sure the this is how it would be in real life since the buld would be unreachable thru the lens hole. I also made sure the buld is fisible once installed next, using a disk cutter, I cut the lenses out of a red sheet protector. I increased the red effect using a Sharpie pen. Getting the correct diametre was a bit of a pain but I eventually got it. and this is how it looks with buld and lenses installed. This is only a trial fit, the fixture will be painted gloss black besofe final assy I also did the exhaust support bracket

Not much done today, I drilled out the light fixtures. Next up will be to make 3 small red lenzes per fixtures using a red mylar of some sort .

Thank you, not sure what it is but, it's very fun!!

I did the tail light brackets today. For those interested, here's how I proceed with the fabrication of a small sheet metal part. First I 3d model it using the sheet metal section of my cad program which provides me with a flat pattern (part before bending) of the part. 3d part Flat pattern I then print it 1:1 on a sticky back paper and stick the paper to a sheet of aluminium. I can now cut it and drill the holes by simply following the print then comes the bending and voila, a nice little bracket Test fitted

Did a bit more work today. I made a sort of closing latch for the gas cap. I glued 2 tiny (.020 dia) styrene rod, 1 on the cap and 1 on the spout. The cap, when pushed in place makes à very satisfying click. Next up will be the tail lights assembly. Here's what will be done. Fabricate the mounting brackets Modify the light itself by drilling 3 holes to create an inner cavity and adding a light bulb (fake) inside Make the wire connection with braided line, rubber grommet and knurled nut. Here's what I'm aiming for Here's what the kit provides (yikes!!) First test with wire

Thanks, after bleach and draino which worked as well as water, that's exactly what I wanted to tfy next. I'll let you now if it works.

Wow, thank you. That's a really nice thing to say.

Thanks again

Yes, I know of Mr Wingrove. Quite an impressif builder. If possible, I will try to get his books. I use Inventor (also from Autodesk) which is specificaly made for mecanical design. Oh and by the way, I'm not an engineer, I'm a technician which made my job all the more fun. I would design the machines (the fun part) and let the young engineers do all the sizing (the boring part, at least for me).?

Bugatti fan, Nickl does some great work. Althougt I will go the 3D printing route when needed (parts to small or to complicated) I tend to prefer fabricating myself. For me, I find this much more satisfying. That said, I would really like to have my own printer, being a mecanical designer by trade, I've got half the job done!!