Rolls Royce "balloon car"

[Harry P.]

While I am undergoing cancer treatment, I can't work. With all the constant doctor and/or hospital visits, there's no way I can keep a normal work schedule or make deadlines, so I am basically "unemployed" for the foreseeable future. But I can still build models, time permitting. So here is my latest project...a 1/16 scale 1908 Rolls Royce "balloon car."

This is the box...

Some background on the car... in the early 20th century hot air ballooning was a popular pastime with the upper class. Charles Rolls himself was an avid aviator and good friend of the Wright brothers, hosting them when they visited England in 1909. Rolls made the first fixed-wing return flight over the English Channel in 1910, in a Wright flyer. To accommodate his interest in hot air ballooning, Rolls had a Silver Ghost chassis fitted with custom coachwork that included an extra long rear deck, which could be used to haul around an uninflated balloon.

Unfortunately, Rolls' interest in aviation cost him his life in 1910, when he crashed his plane during an aviation show.

Over the years several recreations of the original "balloon car" have been built, with varying degrees of accuracy. Details vary, including wheels (wooden "artillery spoke" wheels vs. wires, brass hardware vs. nickel plated, upholstery color, etc.). And it is unsure exactly what the original coachwork looked like... this model is apparently based on one of the recreations of this car.

This kit is typical of Japanese large-scale kits of classics, having been released under various brand names and different box art. This happens to be the Entex version.

Pros: Good detail, high parts count, realistic "wire" wheels that the builder makes by stringing thin vinyl "string" on the rims using a supplied jig.

Cons: Mismatched left and right sides of most parts due to the mold halves not matching up exactly, leaving a lot of mold seam lines that must be cleaned up; no positive locator pins/holes on engine parts that requires the builder to try and align engine parts exactly before cementing in place.

 

 

 

[sjordan2]

The wheel wire is vinyl? Seems different from the Mercedes SS wire. Will it assemble tightly?

[Harry P.]

The supplied material looks to be some sort of vinyl or maybe nylon "thread"...

[Harry P.]

Hmmm... something weird happened and this topic was posted twice. I deleted the other thread and will continue here.

As you may know, I tend to skip around and not necessarily follow the instruction sheet building sequence. So here we go beginning with the front axle. In order to make the wheels poseable the molded-in axle stubs have to be removed like so...

Then the spindles were attached, being careful to keep cement off the pivot points. Finally, new axle stubs of styrene rod were glued to the spindle faces.

 

[Harry P.]

I drilled holes in the tie rod and the spindle arms, and used small brass pins as pivots. Now the front wheels are poseable...

[Harry P.]

I always assemble parts that are molded in halves, or assemblies that will all be painted the same color, first... then smooth the seams, etc. afterwards, then paint these assemblies as a unit. Much easier than painting the individual parts first and then assembling...

 

[Harry P.]

The engine is fairly detailed but there are a few quirks. For example, the cylinders, which should be black, are molded to the block, making them difficult to paint (keeping the edges where the cylinders meet the block clean, straight and sharp). Also, the flanges of the various pipes and manifolds that attach to the heads are molded to the heads and not to the pipes and manifolds themselves! Therefore I had to carefully detail paint the molded-in flanges "brass," so that when the pipes are installed the flanges will look like they are a part of the pipes, not part of the heads. Here you can see the beginnings of the engine, detail painted to give the appearance of more separate components than there actually are...

[Harry P.]

There are no spark plugs supplied in the kit; you're supposed to just stick the ignition wires into the holes on top of the heads. That will never do... the plugs are very obvious and visible on the real engine, so I had to scratchbuild 12 of them (two plugs per cylinder).

What I did was use some thin styrene rod as the "insulator" part of the plugs. Then I drilled a hole into the middle of some hex-shaped styrene rod, cut off slices of that rod to create the hex-shaped steel part of the plugs, then glued a hex slice onto a length of styrene rod to create 12 spark plugs...

 

[cobraman]

This will be another great build I am sure. So nice to see you working on a model again. I hope that all is going well for you. Please keep us posted.

[Harry P.]

Next, I painted the hex-shaped part silver and installed the plugs into the heads...

[CrazyCrank]

Very well done, as usual, Harry 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Definitely following.

[Harry P.]

I made ignition wire terminals by crimping the end of some small diameter aluminum tube with pliers, drilling a hole to fit over the plug's electrode, filing the end round, and cutting each terminal off the tube by rolling it under my X-acto blade to score the tubing, then just snapping each terminal off...

[Eric Macleod]

Harry,  best wishes with your treatment and recovery. 

The Rolls llooks great so far. I built one of these as a high school student.  It was by far my most challenging but enjoyable build up to that point in my life.  I'll follow along with interest. 

[Harry P.]

Slowly but surely adding more engine details...

[slusher]

Harry, that a good looking engine for 1908, I would have never guessed it to be in a car of that era. Looks way better then a model T engine..

[bobthehobbyguy]

Beautiful work as always. Nice scratchbuilding. You always have a good sense at what to add.

[Tom Geiger]

Interesting model Harry.  There is a hot air balloon that flies around here,  I'm meaning to track it down and see if we can take a flight.

Hope working on a model can occupy your mind and make you feel better!  

[Harry P.]

Interesting model Harry.  There is a hot air balloon that flies around here,  I'm meaning to track it down and see if we can take a flight.

Hope working on a model can occupy your mind and make you feel better!  

Exactly. Working on a model isn't physically strenuous (which I can't do)... and it keeps my mind occupied so that I don't sit around thinking about the "C word" all the time.

[Danno]

Another beautiful build emerging.  Engine looks great, Harry!

[sjordan2]

That water manifold is quite detailed -- is it straight from the kit?

[Harry P.]

Yes, just paint detailed.

[blackbeard]

Looking good harry

[Richard Bartrop]

I have one of these that I want to turn into an armoured car.  I'll definitely be following this build.

[peteski]

Another model of an oddball vintage vehicle from Harry - I love it!