Scale-Master

The rear end needs a good amount of clean up too. After several hours of clean-up and rescribing I got most of the lines somewhat trued up. The headlights fit pretty well, but are bit more yellow than the real car. The exhaust pipes didn't clean-up too well so I drilled them out and made new brass ones.

This is a 1/43rd scale resin Starter kit from the mid 90's. I've intended to build it several times, but the body casting had so many issues I repeatedly put it back in the box instead of trying to clean it up. After having good luck with a set of small chisels on another one of these older resin kits I built, I decided to see if I could salvage this one. It's more of a side project to do while another larger project is having moments of dry time where it can't be worked on. The front spoiler was warped and broken but still attached to the body. (It should be flat against the surface it's sitting on.) Being so thin and brittle I made a new one and cemented it to the bottom. The extra thickness is acceptable considering the other shortcomings of the kit I won't fix. The left side door was sunken in and the body trim piece was not only wonky, but partially detached. The right side is not bad in the same area, but it has issues too. I reworked it with sheet styrene to fill the depression and made a new trim piece after removing the partly detached one.

I dirtied up the bottom a little bit more.

Just a repaint with some decals I made. Yes, it's a little Hot Wheels. It's also a test vehicle for larger scale "real" models.

After I lettered the spare I was really wishing these were Avon or Toyo or some other shorter name brand tire… Those outlines make for a tedious time too. I tried the sort of new Tamiya LP-4 Flat White lacquer and found it to be quite workable.

Tow hook; machined aluminum. The lock nut is a separate piece. (Sorry for the poor photos, gotta work on it when I have time…) Anodized red. Installed.

While there is a heavy screen built into the grille opening in the body, I added this fine stone guard screen too. The machined petcock has been installed, and I made a mask and stenciled LOLA onto the screen. A couple more fittings were machined and installed in this area as well.

These are the latch handles for the front hood section. Different design for a different application. There are some people who assume that when parts are machined they just come out looking like they can be used as is. In some cases they can be, but in many cases some or a lot of hand finishing is needed, as in these latch handles. This is what these parts looked like after machining but before the hand finishing. The difference is the hand work.

Aluminum, milled then polished.

It will not be a Morgan... I made the engine cover latch handles. Machined each as a single piece.

It's changed a lot since we moved here decades ago too. And that is 1/6th...

I finally balanced the wheels/tires. Instead of using my little balancer (for real) I copied the weight sizes and placement on my real C6's wheels. The tape that holds them on collects grime and dirt so I copied that too.

The Brock Buster 510 did not have the iconic BRE side stripes. I built one many years ago for an MCM article where I added them in black, and I considered adding them to this one too. But I decided to channel the 510 more more correctly on this one. I kind of wish I had done the taillight panel in black as the 510 was, but with the black rear spoiler I wasn't sure if it was too much.

Thank you Noel! That seems appropriate since I'm in Huntington Beach... I have a 1/6th scale project I'm looking forward to once this is done, something simple by comparison. I might build another Super 7 too; but of course it will be something different and possibly unexpected...

The engine cover has a good amount of mass and to keep it from over-opening I made a "leash". Machined and then hand shaped brass ends for the elastic cord. The Remove Before Flight Ribbon is a custom decal and a reminder to not leave the cord under the cover when closing it. Machined aluminum knobs were added to the engine cover and the rear bulkhead. The bracket for the one on the bulkhead is formed sheet brass with aluminum hardware.

Inspired by the Brock Buster 510. WIP:

Inspired by, yes, but not the same colors. And it will not have the lettering.

Ready to mount the body to the chassis. I had to tape the hood closed to keep it from getting damaged from flopping around. The glass fits very well in this kit, especially the windshield and back light.

They never came in yellow. Only white and silver.

Again, I was happy to see all the planning to get the engine cover to fit and operate on its hinges and to latch closed worked after everything was painted and all the tight fitting things that could interfere didn't. I also re-test fitted the wheels to see where I am. Too bad it was an overcast day.

I printed some plates to work with the PE parts that come in the kit.

Thank you Pete! And thanks for making the 88 mile trip. Looking forward to seeing you in the not too distant future. See what I did there? (It's an inside joke folks.)

I started painting the window trim satin black, but decided a dead flat sheen better provided the high contrast look I wanted. The panel lines were done with Tamiya Accent.

I planned to use both the front spoiler and the oil cooler, but upon reading the instructions I saw they were either one or the other. Since I'm keeping this one out-of-the-box I bent up the PE oil cooler bracket to move the cooler up and forward. Still OOB and I get to do it the way I had envisioned.

I wound springs from 0.003 armature wire that had the insulation removed and made welded on hooks from brass for the exhaust. I did a little weather and wear discoloring too. I installed the last two carburetor parts; the two outboard synchronizing screws for each bank. The inboard hinges for the engine cover have been installed as well. The loose black line is the wire loom for the taillights.