
kensar
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Everything posted by kensar
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Jaguar XK120 Race Car
kensar replied to Pierre Rivard's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Perfect pose and appearance! -
Alan Mann Racing F3L/P68
kensar replied to Dave B's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Looking promising. This car seems to appear quite different from different angles. -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
That's a great tip, Big John. I did a test and it works perfectly. Fortunately, I had the right size tubing already. -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
The fun is not over yet. I spent most of the day scratchbuilding a new steering rack. The kit one has huge gear teeth on it to connect the steering wheel to the front wheels, but I will be making it more scale like. First make the rubber boots by winding some 0.022" beading wire around a screw to get a coil shape. Then I cut some small sections of tube that fits over the 0.125" steering rack body. This will be part of the boot. Then made the steering column connection housing. There is also a diamond shaped access port at the steering column connection. I found a PE exhaust header that was the right size. CA'ed it to a square piece of styrene and shaped it. Then drilled a 1/8" hole just below the end and separated it. This will let it sit on the steering rack body correctly. Test fit Next, needed the rack mounting bolts. I will use straight pins to attach the rack to the chassis. 1mm brass tubing will come in handy. I milled some indentations into the rack body tube and CA'ed them on. The rack is mostly done except for painting and coating the coils with Micro Crystal Clear, or canopy glue (white glue) to form the rubber boot. (Also made styrene pieces to form the other end of the boots). This may need to wait until I am closer to mounting the parts on the chassis to get the right length and angles of the connecting rods to the wheel hubs. -
Maserati A6GCS Spyder
kensar replied to absmiami's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Very nice work. Scratchbuilding an engine is something I have yet to do. The acorns look good. -
Jaguar XK120 Race Car
kensar replied to Pierre Rivard's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Super work! That engine looks great. The spark plug boots really set it off. -
A little sanding and those exhausts will look like they were molded.
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Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Thanks everyone for the comments. It really is motivating when your work is complemented. Tarheel - the fourth pedal is a foot rest, as Mark IV posted. 4knflyin - I did grind out what I could on the back window panel, but it wasn't enough for clearance. Pierre - thanks for the complements. I really have no secrets and I'm glad to share how I do things. I hate buying aftermarket parts as it just adds to the cost of a model, so I use some imagination and tips picked up over the years to detail stuff. Thanks again, everyone for following along and commenting. One day I'm going to finish this thing! -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
I wasn't quite satisfied with the instruments so I made some Stewart Warner-like bezels on the lathe and added a few screw heads, so now I'm considering it done. Then finished detailing the doors. I found some thin leather to make the pull handles. Also added some styrene on some door edges to correct wide gaps with the body. Now taking a look at fitting the body panels. Getting them all to fit with reasonable panel gaps is no small task. After I complete this, I will take the main panel off the chassis and start painting and detailing it. I had to flatten one of the exhaust pipes to make the back panel fit - I wasn't surprised I needed to do this. Thanks for following along. -
Those headers are looking great! I have never tried this method of making headers. Thanks for showing us. What brand of styrene are you using? Evergreen, Plastruct, or something else?
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Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Marcus - Thanks for commenting. The hinged box does fold in on itself. I made it that way to be able to move all the stuff easily. Mark - You accomplish a lot for what you have to work with. In this update I am focusing on the dashboard, but I did work on the inner door panels, which are painted gloss black with the door panel painted flat black. First I painted the outer panels blue, then masked them. Then painted the fuse panel gray and masked that. Next painted the whole dash gloss black. The dash on the GT40 I was using for reference has a textured black finish. I masked the instrument locations and then painted a textured black (a Rustoleum spray paint). Then started detailing. Fuses are made from stretched clear sprue and the ends painted with a silver paint marker. Dash switches are made from beading wire that was flattened at the end to make the toggle switch. A PE hex bolt was used as a base for the toggles. Short pieces of stretched clear sprue were used for the indicator lights on the panel. The main on/off switch was scratchbuilt from styrene. The kit instrument face decals were used and then coated with clear 5 min epoxy for the lenses. A few small decal pieces are used for the labels. I think a couple of PE screw heads are still needed for detail. I'm still working on the doors to get the best fit I can. -
Jaguar XK120 Race Car
kensar replied to Pierre Rivard's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
A perfect shade of red for red leather. -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
I couldn't find a good place to post pictures of my workshop, so I'll put them here. I am uploading all my pictures so they will be suitable size for messaging boards through Postimage. I don't know how to post them directly to the site as it only accepts the BB code, as far as I know. I have two main work areas, a 'dirty' one in the garage, and a cleaner one in my basement man cave. The man cave is where most of the work is done, pictured below: I work on a desk with the modeling tools and paints in easy reach. The cardboard box on the shelf is my paint booth! I made it myself about 15 years ago and it works fine. I direct the exhaust hose out the window that is behind it. It has a flourescent light on the top, shining into it so I can see what is going on, although a strip of LED lights would be better. Here is the main work space. In addition to the pictured area, I have a couple of other book case shelves with tools and supplies. It's ironic that 95% of the work is done in a 18" X 18" area on the desk and all this other space is just for storing stuff. The dirty area is pictured below: Here I have a lathe, mill, drill press, scroll saw, and belt sander out on the benches. I also have a grinding wheel and a lathe tool grinder. The one machine I use by far the most is the belt sander. All this is a lot and I'm grateful that my wife puts up with it. Many years ago, I decided I had too many kits - too many to build myself, so I changed focus to invest in my own skills and machine tools instead of a lot of kits. Now I could make a model of anything and not be constricted by what kit manufacturers make. Now if only I had a 3D printer... -
Impressive detail continuing. I hope painting all that detail doesn't present a problem.
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Nice looking engine turning. Can you tell me more about the X-Y table? Where you got it and the height from the bottom of the base to the top of the table?
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Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Thanks for looking in, everyone. The doors are getting a lot of attention. I can't find anything drastically wrong with the design, but it needs a lot of test fitting and small adjustments. I plan to add a wire reinforcement running up into the roof area of the door to get the top to fit closely to the body. So far the doors are fitting well. -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Time for another update. I'm now getting into the more personalized modifications on the body and chassis. I'm moving the cooling air intakes to behind the radiator like was done on the Mk.IIb. I guess the cool air coming from the front of the car was cracking the brake discs. I used the kit air pickups and put them on the radiator shroud. I also covered up the intakes on either side of the radiator opening. I also worked on the front clip. On the kit, this is posable open or closed. I will hinge it, although not like the typical GT40. I also filled in the hatches on the front clip as this is not a 24 hour racer, these would not be needed. I will leave the right side fuel filler as this is common to most GT40s. I abhor these screws that are in a lot of big scale kits. Most of the time they are completely unnecessary with proper kit engineering. I will remove or hide most of them. Thanks for looking in and following along. -
Jaguar XK120 Race Car
kensar replied to Pierre Rivard's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
The finish looks pretty good in the pics. I guess its too late to add some yellow trim to set off the green. Just the same - an excellent model in the making! -
Jaguar XK120 Race Car
kensar replied to Pierre Rivard's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Nice progress on this, Pierre. Have you decided on a livery yet? -
Alan Mann Racing F3L/P68
kensar replied to Dave B's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
So, the parts are coming together. This is one to watch! -
Trumpeter Ford GT40 with my twists
kensar replied to kensar's topic in WIP: Other Racing: Road Racing, Land Speed Racers
Yes, Mark, I'm always looking for the easy way to do things - but the end result must look right. I got the cockpit tub straightened out with some hot water and then painted. Then did a test fit to look for fit interferences and note what the assembly sequence needs to be to make sure everything will hookup correctly. Doing so many modifications usually creates some fit problems. Found no current fit interferences but the left upper tie rod mount is close to the ignition coil and will need to be installed before putting the rear cockpit wall in place. Also need to put some hoses on the water pipes as I won't be able to access that area later. I need to paint the side pods before putting the interior tub in. Overall, things are looking good. Thanks for following, everyone.