Airfix 1/12 Bentley Blower

[François]

Made good progress on the design of the meshed screen and windshield today. Some of these parts will be interesting to make, especially the meshed screen. 

Here are some fun shots of the 3d model compared to the real car. 

[François]

Continued on the body components.  Today, I tackled the soft top frame.  They are very few ref pictures of the  frame and even fewer of a top in place. I could only find one. So there is a lot of "modelers leeway" in the design.

Here's the frame so far. 

And the only pictures of a top up

I'll try to 3d model the top itself, not easy to do.

[François]

The top is modeled and it was effectively not easy to do.  Hopefully I'll be able to do it for real. 

Here's my 3d model 

And a real top

I've worked hard on printing the different windscreen components and as predicted, some were very tricky to do. I've dry fitted the meshscreen with it's mounting frame and I'm very pleased with the result.  The difficulty with the mesh screen was to figure out the proper shape of mesh to cut. Since the mesh is not flat ( it has a fairly prononced bump to clear the oil tank cap), it's shape is not a rectangle but rather a mix of straight and curved line. I tried to determine the shape using good old geometrie but I've been using a 3d cad system for so long the my basic draftman's skills are very rusty. So I took the easy way out and printed a 2 piece male/female press to conform the mesh. All I had to do was to cut the mesh following the contour of the press. I then had a correctly shape mesh that could be inserted in the frame. Easier said than done. It took me about 1 hour but I got it in! Too bad I'll have to disassemble it for paint but I  know it fits. 

Here are some pictures. 

The male/female press

The mesh in the press ready yo be trimmed

The mesh inserted in the frame

Scratch built clamping screws 

The real one

The mesh screen installed in the mounting frame

My assembly next to the kit's 

The aftermath...

Next up, the foldable top frame.

[oldrevellfan]

Will the foldable top wil work?

[absmiami]

no  -   the question is ...   will it leak ??

[François]

Yes to both question... this is a british car and they leak from everywhere. 

[François]

Up date time. 

I'm slowly advancing the body. I made a full wrapping test using a 4 way stretch fabric. The result was pretty good but installation was very difficult. First,  it needs to be glued using a spray on contact ciment.  So once on, that is pretty much it.  The edges once wrapped around don't hold very well since the material is so stretchy and contrary to leather, it doesn't react to well to ca glue.

Here's what it looks like.

So I went back on the web to search some more and stumpled on a material called a vinyl car wrap which is basically  a vinyl menbrane used to wrap over a car when you want to change color.  And it just so happens that a big player in the car wrapping business is about 25 min from my house. There are many positive features to this product. First, it very cheap. 15$ for a 12in x 60in piece, big enough for at least 7 to 8 tries. Second,  at only .005in (1/16in scaled up) , it's half the thickness of the 4 way fabric I tried and much more to scale.  Third, it has heat activated glue on the back so I can reposition it as much as l like and once satisfied, apply heat to bond. And fourth,  it's heat shrinking so once wrapped over the edges, you apply heat and it hucks the edge. I found a piece that is satin black that I think should look pretty good. 

Here's a test I did on a door

I should be wrapping soon. 

I reprinted a body with all mounting holes in it. It's now primed and ready for wrapping.  Since the interior will be upholstered in red leather, I painted certain areas red in case the leather doesn't cover everything. I even incorporated hex nuts to screw in the foldable top frame.

here's my body collection so far

I found a nice piece of red leather for 5$. It's a bit thicker than l like but I should be able to skive it.

 

I started 3d modeling the interior finishes. I modeled the door latch based on the few pictures I could find.

The latch inspiration 

My 3d model 

And finally,  I made some bending test for the foldable top frame. 

Here's another comparison shot of my model and the ref car 

And another video of the running engine because it's just fun to watch.

 As a side note,  I was asked to design and print some parts for a 1/18 scale diecast C8 Corvette. The guy has the real one but his diecast model didn't have the correct wheels, rear spoiler and was missing a few other parts.

Here's the real car 

the wheels I printed

And all the parts 

 

Edited April 27 by François

[François]

Dry fitting of  the left side door latch

[François]

Tried my hand at lining the interior of a door with leather. It's not perfect but it's only a test so overall not too bad. Also tried the hinges and they work ok. This door is too tight in the body opening but the newly printed doors and body should provide more clearance.

Here's a list of things still to do

- vinyl wrap body and doors

- line interior of body and doors with leather, do piping, make storage pockets

- make wood floor 

- make rear seat (perhaps with removable seat cushions for storage

- make front seats with seat rails 

- make foldable top frame 

- make fabric top

-install windscreen and windshields

- make oil tank filler cap 

- make dash with gages

- install lights in display case

- install plexi sheets on display case 

- grab a beer to celabrate end of build...

[François]

Today, I fabricated the foldable top frame out of brass. I was a bit nervous about making it, it's not an easy part to make. It has to be fairly precise and as close to symmetrical as possible.  It turned out pretty good. 

 I finaly found a good piece of red lampskin. I got a complete skin for 10$. At .015in thick it's pretty much as thin as I can get without needing to skive and being lamb, it's very supple and stretchy. It will do nicely for the seats,  and I  can use the back side to simulate the carpet as certain areas like the back of the front seats seem to have carpet instead of leather. 

[François]

Well, after many tries,  I've trown the towel on the boby wrapping. Althougt the results were relatively good, it just didn't look like it should at 1/12 scale. So I decided to paint the body instead. I pretty happy with the result and most pleased with the door gaps.

I also started working on the interior upholstery. I did a few test on the rear seat back cushion.

 

[absmiami]

Looks great - brass folding top a big challenge - what body paint did you finally use - looks like you mixed something to get a very slight sheen …

[François]

Thanks absmiami,  I used Revell's satin black straight out of the can. Aside from the revell chrome,  it's the first time I use their canned paint. It applied well but the can is ridiculously small for the price.

[François]

Today, contrary to what I thought would be, turned out to be a very productive day. I did alot of upholstering. The rear seat back cushion, both walls and piping are done.  On rhe real car, the bottom half of the walls are carpeted while the upper half is covered in leather. I used the back side of my lambskin to simulate the carpet and the result is quite nice. I'll do the same for the back sideof the front seats. I used two different piping size, a small .6mm dia styrene rod to do all curved edges and a larger 1mm dia rod to do the straighter edges and also where the gap is too big for the .6mm rod.  Not to toot my own horn but I really did not think it would have turned out this good. Believe me when I say that pictures do not do it justice.  

The rear seat back cushion fab

Styrene ribs glued to styrene back wall

Ribs coverded with a thin felt liner

And covered with red leather 

Walls upholstering 

Bottom of side walls carpeted 

and upper portion leathered

Body mounted on frame

I still have a small piece of carpet to install over the center rib after which I'll do the wooden floor planks.

 

[François]

Worked on the wooden floor today. The rear floor is finished, complete with lifting strap to access the battery.  The front floor is glued up but I still need to make the brake adjuster and shifter cut-outs. I also made 2 storage pockets as found on the real car. 

Rear floor 

Real storage pocket( you can just see a hint of the B embossed on tge flap)

my storage pockets 

[cifenet]

It is super sweet, the reproduction is simply impressive!  

[François]

I started the front seats. The kit's seats, aside from being different from the ones on the the car, are too big so they don't fit. The kit's body was moulded with thin walls compared to the real body so airfix made the seats to fill the space, ense they don't fit in mine. So I designed and printed new seats that I will cover in leather.  I printed them with an upholstered pattern more like that of the ref car. I also designed and printed the seat rails so the seats can be adjusted. My only problem is that,  althought I took in account the thickness of the leather and made the seats smaller, it seems like I didn't make them small enough.  They fit now but once upholstered,  they won't.  So I'll have the reprint smaller using a scale factor, something like 5% smaller should do. I also printed the rear seat cushion but it too is à bit oversized. Lastly,  l installed the top foldable frame.  Here are some pictures. 

The kit's seats 

Kit's seats In my body

The different components of my seat

The seat rail

My seat (right) next to the kit's 

(The the cut-out on the front left corner is to clear the shifter,  only on the driver side)

And in the car

i

The real seats 

the top frame

real top frame 

[oldrevellfan]

Great work!

but once, I think the kitseat have a more realistic shape.

[François]

Althought I hâte to admit it oldrevellfan, you're right.  This should be better.

[François]

I have... again... modified the shape and curvature of the front seats.  The 3d model doesn't show the leather texture nor the piping but I think that once coverded with the leather and piped,  they will look pretty close to the real ones.

The 3d model 

The ref car 

[François]

I upholstered the rear seat complete with a bunch of springs underneath.  I have no idea if this is how a 1930's seat would have been made and have used a lot of 'modelers leeway' but it was still fun to do. I also modified the rear seat back cushion by making it thicker, my first try was too thin. 

next I upholstered the front passanger seat. I'm very pleased with lower seat, with the ajustement rail and ajustement lever. Not so pleased with the seat's back. It's ok but I think I could do better.  I've reprinted thinner back parts and will retry. 

[absmiami]

Great

[François]

The fronts seats are done and i'm very happy with the result. I've also installed the windscreen. 

My seats next to the kit's 

In the car

Windscreen up

And down

[François]

I'm not sure but I do believe that this is a first for the 1/12 scale bentley blower. 

 

[François]

I added a few more details,  the front side markers,  both windshields and both doors.  

Side marker

Windshield and passanger's side door 

driver's side door 

now this leaves me with 2 final things to do. The dashboard, which is a project in it's self and that I will do last. And the soft top. Which I will do next. As the name implies,  the soft top is soft, so made out of a fabric. To be able to conform to the top frame, It will be made of several pieces clued together.  I did a first test with a center piece going from front to back and quickly realised that I wont be able to figure out the shapes of the different pieces directly on the model because it will involve too many manipulations and trials and this portion of the model is too fragile. So I took the 3d model of the soft top I did, scaled it to 98% to compensate for the material thickness and 3d printed it. This gives me a "form" on which I can try as many different shapes as I  want without fear of breaking anything. 

Here is the test I did 

And here is the printed top that will serve as a form