Airfix 1/12 Bentley Blower

[DonW]

Absolutely stunning modelling, Francois, Your choice to include the two cooling fans is interesting as these were not original fitments and look to me like a much more modern modification. They are beautifully done and the model will replicate your chosen subject as it is now, nothing wrong with that! I love your choice of black as the colour.

Well done!

-Don. 

[François]

Oops, sorry bugatti. Zoet, on Amazon.

Thank you very much Don. Just so nobody thinks I invented the double fan set up, here's a shot of my ref car with the fans mounted. (Sorry for the fussyness, it was taken from a video)

[peteski]

I didn't think anybody is accusing you of inventing the dual-fan setup.  Since  the prototype car you are modeling has them, your modeling is accurate.  But it is a modern modification since I'm sure the original Bentley had a large single fan mechanically driven by a belt from the crankshaft pulley (like most other cars of the day).

Edited October 27, 2023 by peteski

[Anglia105E]

François . . . This is scale model engineering at the absolute highest level . . .

David

[François]

Worked on the blower feed tube today. I removed the moulded features at both ends of the part. 

These moulded features represent a rubber coupling with 3 hose clamps and tie rods.

This is the real thing. 

And here is mine without the clamps

And once finished 

Next. I tackled what seems to be the oil filler neck. 

it's this thing. Pointed in red is the filler tube, in blue the cap release lever and in green the cap pivot assy which has a pivot shaft and 2 levers connected to extension springs. 

I 3d modeled it the best I could considering the bad picture and lack of info I have. This is what I have.

I'll print the cap and levers, the rest I'll either modify or build from scratch. 

I also finished modeling the magneto linkage.  

 

 

[Bugatti Fan]

Francois, thanks for coming back with the chrome marker information.

[François]

Continued on a few more engine details today. 

Did the oil level indicator.

Installed the rev counter with rev cable and tiny cable clamps 

I started to tinker with the water rail, it's this copper tubing.

I would like to make it from scratch using a lenght of lead, colored with a copper patina acid and a brass tubing to represent the jonctions. Not sure if it will work but I'll give it a try. 

[François]

I fabricated the water rail but instead of using a piece of soldering lead colored copper,  I used brass tubing, both for the main tube and for the jonction couplings. After cutting all the parts, 11 in all, I tried to glue them together.  That did work so good. I decided to solder the joints as on the real thing.  So I started by making a welding jig. Which is this.

On my first try, I used small steel pins to hold the 5 small vertical tubings but after soldering, the pin were stuck inside the tubes. So that didn't work either.  This was the result. 

I then replaced the small steel pins with aluminium pin and applied much less solder. This is what came out of the jig.

much better. And after cleaning i got this

Test fitting to make sure it would fit with the exhaust manifold 

and after a quick polishing, got this.

I'm very happy with the result,  it came out a lot better than expected. Now I just need to go get a few hex bolt (I'm missing 1 at each end) and to figure out how to make the jonction to the rad.

 

 

[absmiami]

Super - even with all of the skill you’ve developed with 3D design / printing - the engine still required some last century black-smithing for certain critical parts …. 

[François]

I discovered that on the new old bentley blowers built in 2019, there's a pipe connected to the water rail going down to the water pump. Back in the 30's, this pipe was used only on the non blown car, not on the blowers.

Here's the pipe on one of the 12 new Blowers.

So I added it to the rail setup.  I also added the tubing that will connect to the top of the radiator. I also added the starter motor which is actually a micro gearmotor. 

Edited November 2, 2023 by François

[Pierre Rivard]

Formidable research, design and fabrication work. Anything from the original kit still in this model? Seems like you are making everything new and significantly upgraded.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Incredibly precise, fantastic modeling! Thanks for sharing all this W.I.P. Great stuff.

[François]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:24 AM, Pierre Rivard said:

Anything from the original kit still in this model?

Pierre, most of the original parts are used althougt most are modified to some degree. Pretty much all printed or fabricated parts where not in the base kit and are add-ons.

I've been working on the oil management system which is not present in the base kit.  Aside from a hose on the underside of the engine, that seems to go from the oil pump to the sump, there's nothing. 

I had already made the oil level dip stick but I didn't like it so i made a new one.  I'll also add a modern type oil filter, the oil pump, an oil distribution hub that will connect to the cam shaft among other things. The one part that is in the kit, the hose under the engine, will be modified by replacing the plastic hose by a real rubber hose plus I'll add another hose from the pump hub to the distribution hub.

I also added the cooling fans.

Here are a few pictures. 

Only part present in kit

New dip stick 

Oil on stick

3d modeled components to be added

Cooling fans in place

 

 

 

 

[François]

I did the accelarator.  It's a welded brass assembly.  The pivot incorporate a compression spring as on the real thing. I also started the link rod that goes from the pedal to the carb lever along with the springloaded return rod that goes with it.

Here's what the real thing looks like. 

and my version 

 

 

 

 

Since I'm waiting for a bunch of resin printed parts,  I decided to do a bit of ground  work on the wheels. First,  I drilled the rims using the drill jigs I designed and  printed last summer.  They worked great.  Then I printed a lasing jig to hold the rim and hub in relation during lasing. And did a bit of test lasing to get the feel of it. It should turn out all right. 

Drill jig in use

 

Lasing jig

 

lasing jig in use 

 

test fit on car

 

[peteski]

As usual, superb job François!  The wheel assembly jig is very clever.

I also like to mention that in English the joining technique you used on the brass parts of the accelerator pedal is called soldering (soudure), not welding (soudage).   Welding actually melts the metal bring joined.  Soldering uses a lower temperature metal (solder) to join the parts together. That is a distinct difference. Looks like in French those 2 words are very similar.

[François]

Thanks peteski,

Soudure, soudage...soldering,  welding...ahhhh, l'm getting a headache!

 

 

[François]

Received a bunch of printed parts for the engine. 

I test fitted the oil filler tube.

Installed the oil filter along with a small connection hub and oil line to cam shaft. 

made 4 spark plug cable pass thru bloc

Installed plug cables and magneto on drivers side. 

the real thing

[Bugatti Fan]

This build is really getting busy now.

[François]

The plug wires are done on the passanger side and with the installation of the oil filler tube assy, the oil management system is now complete.

I'll try to complete the magneto linkage next. I really wanted these linkages to work but I'm not sure l'll be able to.  In order to respect the scale,  the levers are very small ans fragile.  They break very easily.  The worst case will have them glued in place and for show only.

In other news, I had to redesign the wheel rim drilling jig. When I first modeled the wheels,  I copied the lacing pattern of the Alfa romeo wheels but it turns out that the number of holes between a given pair of wires is different so the drilling angle is different.  I also had twice too many wires on the inner most part of the wheel. I'll continue the wheel lacing as soon as I finish the engine. 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by François

[François]

I worked on the magneto linkage and after some tweaking and lever reprinting, I was able to assemble a functional mecanism.  Now, it still needs to be connected to the stator shaft on the steering column but that will be much later. Here are a few pictures. 

 

 

[François]

Ok, so I'm just about ready to install the engine on the frame but before I do that, I need to rout the fuel lines from the tank all the way to the front. So I decided to finish the fuel tank install and go from the tank to the fuel pump and to the from. On the real car, the fuel lines are coverded with a cloth tape that I imagine is fire proof.  I tried many different type of tape but nothing worked until I remembered a medical tape used on a WW1 plane I did last year. It's called Hypafix, it's seems to ge made of some type of fabric l, is very thin and flexible. It did the trick. This is the tape.

This is what I was aiming for.

And here what I made.

 

[LaughingIndian]

Amazing François … this is a bunch of levels above anything else I’ve seen.

Thanks for sharing with us!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Stunning, spectacular, museum-quality automotive art doesn't really express how impressed I am with this whole process.

Don't know how I missed it up til now, but sure am happy to have found it.  

[François]

Thank you LaughingIndian and Ace-Garageguy, your comments are much appreciated.  When I started this build I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go with it but frankly, I didn't think I would go this far. 

Like I said in my last post,  I'm just about ready to install the engine but I've hid a catch-22. I can't install the engine before finalizing the hose/tubing/wire routing, but I can't finalize the routing before installing the bulkhead assy, but I can't install the bulkhead before installing the ingene... see my dilemma? So I figured out an assembly sequence that permits me to get everything in place.  It's tenions and complicated but doable. But first,  I have to finish wiring the dashboard. Here I hit another snag. To do this wiring, I need to install the dashboard on the bulkhead assy but if I do this, I won't be able to eventually install the body because the dashboard is to wide. On the real car that's the way it's done but for some reason,  I can't.  It's probably due to the fact that I based my bodywork on the kit's body that might not be 100% accurate. So the solution I came up with is to print a dashboard back plate that is narrower so the body will fit and that has holes in the back to receive the different wires. The finished dashboard will be installed only once the body is in place.  I might even glue the board to the body,  that way I could remove the body to better show the details. Here are some pictures.

Dashboard on bulkhead assy (real car). You can see the ton of wires and hoses. 

My bulkhead assy with a fraction of wires and hoses. 

The almost completed 3d model of the dashboard,  the board will be made from aluminium.  I'll try to replicate the swirl patterns on the front face. The bezels, switchs and knobs will be 3d printed. 

The body doesn't fit if the dashboard is already in place.

Back plate solution,  the body will fit over ity

Back plate in place, you can see the small holes to receive wires.

I made new higher candles to be able to flip the car once the engine and bulkhead are in place. 

here are some more pictures of the fuel line snd fuel pump install. 

[Bugatti Fan]

Your Bentley developments and the ones that Nick at Unobtainium are doing have taken this well tired old kit into another dimension altogether.

Look forward to seeing what parts both you guys will be marketing eventually.