1:16 Gunze Sangyo 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sports Saloon

[Anglia105E]

7 hours ago, David G. said:

That's a lot of progress David.

The interior is coming along nicely, I'm sure the body work will follow suit.

David G.

Yes, good progress so far . . . The exterior body painting will be quite a slow process, due to a shortage of warm days and also leaving the cream paint to dry and cure for 5 days . . . The gloss black will also cure for 5 days, before applying semi gloss black to the canvas roof panel, and then a further 5 days curing . . .

Today I applied two more coats of the TS-7 Racing White to the 8 parts, making 4 coats in total. The cream seemed to be showing some grey primer through it, so I wanted to arrive at a richer cream . . . I didn't use white primer because I wasn't aiming for a pure white colour overall.

David

[Anglia105E]

Lots of recent work here, including interior fittings such as the dashboard mirror, three foot pedals, gear lever and hand brake. There was a delivery in the post of the Tamiya TS-29 Semi-Gloss Black, which will be for the canvas roof panel later.

The division now has a winding handle for the division glass, and I was able to set up an important test fitting / mock-up of the two inner door posts, as well as the division and the driver's seat . . . This assembly was supported by glue dots and has given me a really good understanding of the structure of the door post assembly as a whole . . .

Then . . . Bad news !

I decided to examine the division glass window part, and not having opened the bag containing the transparent parts sprue, I was shocked to discover that there is a large crack or scratch on the division window glass part . . . Further inspection revealed that every one of the window glass parts has at least one crack or scratch on it, and some have several . . . Out of eleven window glass parts on the sprue, only three small quarter light windows are undamaged, so eight of the window glass parts are damaged . . . This includes the division glass, the windscreen glass, rear window glas and all four door glass parts.

I haven't yet been able to work out if these are indeed cracks, or maybe scratches . . . Clearly ( no pun intended ), should this damage turn out to be cracks, there is nothing that can be done . . . However, if they are scratches and not cracks, maybe I could polish them out ?

David

[kenlwest]

Or maybe just use the originals as templates, and cut out new ones from a thin pc of clear plastic?

[Anglia105E]

21 minutes ago, kenlwest said:

Or maybe just use the originals as templates, and cut out new ones from a thin pc of clear plastic?

Thank you Ken . . . That is actually a very good idea, and I hadn't thought of doing that as a third option . . .

Previously, I have cut out windscreens for my Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud builds, using Coke bottle plastic or good quality clear plastic from M&S cake packaging . . . Should this damage turn out to be cracks and not scratches, then I shall seriously consider your suggestion !

David

[Bainford]

Just catching up on this build again. Lots of great work here David. The interior is fantastic and your burl is stunning. Too bad about the glass. 

[Anglia105E]

5 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Just catching up on this build again. Lots of great work here David. The interior is fantastic and your burl is stunning. Too bad about the glass. 

Thanks Trevor . . . Yes, I am rather pleased with the result of the burr walnut effect, and also the leather look of the seats. Immediately following the satisfaction of test fitting the division, door posts and front seat today, came the shock realisation that most of the window glass parts are either cracked or scratched . . . I suppose that's how model building goes sometimes.

I might try toothpaste as a mild abrasive on one of the smaller windows . . .

David

[Pierre Rivard]

Those clear parts need some love. If only scratches that can be polished out (I once even removed a wiper molded into glass that way). Coarse to fine then compounds and last a coat of Future. If cracked then go to food container clear plastic. Pretty easy since the glass pieces are flat on this car.

[Anglia105E]

22 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Those clear parts need some love. If only scratches that can be polished out (I once even removed a wiper molded into glass that way). Coarse to fine then compounds and last a coat of Future. If cracked then go to food container clear plastic. Pretty easy since the glass pieces are flat on this car.

Okay Pierre, I am hoping to be able to salvage these clear parts, one way or another !

Thanks a lot for your words of encouragement . . .

David

[David G.]

The interior is coming along quite nicely David!

It's an unfortunate turn with the clear parts but I agree with the consensus. The marks may polish out. If not then the parts seem to be fairly flat so they should be easily enough to replicate.

David G.

[Anglia105E]

9 hours ago, David G. said:

The interior is coming along quite nicely David!

It's an unfortunate turn with the clear parts but I agree with the consensus. The marks may polish out. If not then the parts seem to be fairly flat so they should be easily enough to replicate.

David G.

My next post will explain why the sanding and polishing option has not worked, so as you say, the window glass parts are fairly flat and should be straightforward to replicate in thin clear plastic . . .

David W.

[Anglia105E]

I found a 1:24 scale Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud windscreen from a Minicraft or a Revell kit that had no damage on it. Using an Excel knife and a Swann Morton scalpel knife, I scored two scratches in the surface of the screen . . . Following a well documented process, I cleaned the part with Isopropyl Alcohol, then sanded the screen horizontally with 1200 grit wet & dry, applied wet . . . then after washing the part in clean water I sanded vertically, also with 1200 grit wet & dry, and washed again . . . This was followed by using Tamiya Polishing Compound in three stages, Coarse, Fine and Finish, applied in a circular motion . . . As you will see from the following photos, the scratches are still visible so the process has not worked.

These ' scratches ' are actually ' cracks ' inside the glass, so polishing is not going to remove them. I have now painted the frame of the division glass part with Humbrol Matt Brown 186 enamel, and once this has been allowed to dry overnight I shall carefully cut out the central glass pane, while the part remains attached to the sprue . . . My plan is to precisely cut out a piece of thin clear plastic, then apply black Sharpie to the edges and carefully glue the new glass window into the painted frame. After removing the division glass part from the sprue this can be placed into the division itself.

David

 

[David G.]

That's unfortunate about the cracks in the glass. It's good that the pieces are mostly flat and should be fairly easily replicated.

It may even be less time and effort to replace than to repair them.

David G.

[Anglia105E]

Okay, so following a busy few days, this is the result . . . Extracting the central portion of the division glass was difficult, mainly because the kit plastic is very strong. Eventually the damaged (cracked) window pane came out, leaving the matt brown painted division glass frame intact and undamaged . . .

Inserting the new window pane that I had cut from thin clear plastic was also problematic, as the glass needed to be precisely the exact size . . . After many hours struggling, the new division glass was done. Crystal Clear glue was used to hold just the four corners inside the frame. Patience and persistence won in the end . . .

I have test fitted the new glass part into the mock up within the car itself, and I can say that I am pleased with the end result. From the following photos you can see how the glass would wind down into the gap between the driver's seat and the division casing in the rear compartment.

I managed to get a new windscreen part made today, so only six more of the eight clear glass parts to fabricate . . .

David

[David G.]

Nicely done!

Best of luck with the rest of the glass fabrication.

David G.

[Ulf]

17 hours ago, Anglia105E said:

 

 

 

Stylish notes 

[Anglia105E]

6 hours ago, Ulf said:

Stylish notes 

Thank you Ulf . . . Here is a photo of the notes, now that all of the 8 clear glass parts have been cut out . . .

David

[Anglia105E]

11 hours ago, David G. said:

Nicely done!

Best of luck with the rest of the glass fabrication.

David G.

Thanks David . . . The glass fabrication did go well, I am pleased to say, and here are the resulting parts . . .

David

[Anglia105E]

The lower body was separated from the rolling chassis today, and the floorboard with the division mock-up still in place was mounted onto the rolling chassis. All the parts that will require spray painting with Tamiya TS-14 Black have been taken up to the loft area, where they will be prepared for painting.

There is a weather window on Sunday 31st March during the afternoon, when the outside temperature should reach 13°C . . . Hopefully, I should be able to apply two coats of the gloss black to the exterior body parts. Some interior heating can bring the inside temperature up to around 17°C just before I have to open the Velux window in the roof for ventilation. . .

All of the 8 clear glass parts have been cut out and test fitted, including the rear window, the four door windows and the one quarter light. The remaining three quarter lights do not have any cracks in the glass . . . Alongside my notes and diagrams, these photos show the clear glass parts all ready for use, with the other two parts being the division glass and the windscreen . . .

David

[David G.]

Hi David. I think the windows you made for the build look better than what the factory gave you. I'm glad that it worked out well for you.

Best of luck with your paint session. I guess I'm rather spoiled with the weather in North America's desert Southwest.

As I write this at about 0500 local time it's currently 12°C with a projected high of 25°. I sometimes have the opposite problem in the summer with the weather being too hot and dry to paint. If I'm not careful, the paint will dry in between the time it leaves the nozzle and hits its intended surface and I end up "painting sand".  Spray cans aren't usually too bad but an airbrush is almost unusable as the temp gets close to 40° with relative humidity in the single digits.

Cheers,

David G.

[Anglia105E]

3 hours ago, David G. said:

Hi David. I think the windows you made for the build look better than what the factory gave you. I'm glad that it worked out well for you.

Best of luck with your paint session. I guess I'm rather spoiled with the weather in North America's desert Southwest.

As I write this at about 0500 local time it's currently 12°C with a projected high of 25°. I sometimes have the opposite problem in the summer with the weather being too hot and dry to paint. If I'm not careful, the paint will dry in between the time it leaves the nozzle and hits its intended surface and I end up "painting sand".  Spray cans aren't usually too bad but an airbrush is almost unusable as the temp gets close to 40° with relative humidity in the single digits.

Cheers,

David G.

I would agree with you David, the new window glass does look quite good . . . The kit windows do have a thickness that is probably correct for 1:16 scale, so my windows might actually be too thin. The kit window thickness is around the same as you find in 1:24 kits, which is way too thick at that scale.

Your expected high of 25°C is what we would expect during June here in England . . . I see your problem with the paint drying between the nozzle and the surface of the model car, which must make the painting process difficult at best !

Most of the painting for this Rolls-Royce is being done with Tamiya spray cans, and of course brush painted Humbrol enamels. I don't usually have much success with the Vallejo acrylics, apart from the figure painting, where these paints seem to be more suited . . .

David

[Anglia105E]

The underside of the lower body has been coated with Plastikote Black Primer, which is somewhere between matt black and satin black once it has dried.

Turning my attention to the four quarter lights for the door windows, I have cut to size one quarter light glass, which is the only one that has cracks in it. From the first photo below you will see there is a chrome quarter light frame part, then to the left of it there is the kit part for the glass, and the next one to the left is my fabricated glass part . . .

I decided to apply the Tamiya TS-14 Black paint during Saturday afternoon, rather than wait for the Sunday, because the outside temperature was 13°C for two hours on Saturday, but only 12°C for one hour on Sunday . . . All the masking was done by early afternoon, with the canvas roof panel area taking the most time. The dividing lines between the black and the cream are defined using some narrow orange tape, while the remaining areas to be masked off are covered with wide blue tape . . . A fan heater was run for 20 minutes just before the paint spraying, which brought the temperature in the loft up to 22°C.

Once two coats of the gloss black had been applied, with five minutes between coats, the parts were placed under cover overnight . . .

The following day, so 24 hours later, all the masking tape was carefully removed and the result is pretty good. The next stage of the painting process will be to mask off the area around the grey primer of the canvas roof panel, and then apply two coats of Tamiya TS-29 Semi Gloss Black after the five days curing period . . . There will be a further five days curing for the semi gloss black.

David

[David G.]

Beautiful masking work! Clean and tight, nicely done.

David G.

[Anglia105E]

2 hours ago, David G. said:

Beautiful masking work! Clean and tight, nicely done.

David G.

Thanks a lot David . . . Always nice to receive a compliment !

This narrow orange tape that I purchased some time ago was one of my best purchases ever. The tape sticks well, does not leave any residue on the paintwork, peels off nicely when the job is done and always provides a clean precise line . . . You can write on it, bend it around corners, cut it easily and I just love it . . . I seem to remember the tape being a bit pricey, but then again it is intended for professional car painters, full size cars that is. I purchased two good sized rolls of the orange tape, so if they stop producing the product, I am okay for years to come (hopefully) . . .

David W.

[Anglia105E]

Today was all about ' Trafficators ' . . . The Rolls-Royce Phantom III, like many British motor cars of the 1930's, had the trafficator arms that were raised and lowered electronically as opposed to the later flashing lights front and rear . . . These trafficators were located on each side of the car, where the central door pillars form part of the body. I particularly wanted to modify the kit parts to enable these trafficator arms to pivot, as on the real car . . .

The shape of the trafficator arm is moulded into the outer door pillar, and the trafficator lights are on the sprue for chrome parts. As you can see from the following photos, I fabricated two tiny pieces of thin styrene sheet, that are 5 mm x 3 mm, and super glued them to the door pillar with a space in between. Then I placed the trafficator arm / light between the two pieces of styrene and drilled a hole through all three parts horizontally, using my Revell hand drill.

The piece of long brass rod fitted through the holes perfectly, so I cut a short length of 3 mm rod to act as a pin to hold the trafficator in place . . . The pin has super glue on the outside ends to prevent it from falling out of the brackets . . . At this point I realised that the trafficator could not pivot through 90° from the vertical lowered position to the horizontal raised position. This issue required the removal of some plastic material from the door pillar part, and once this was done the whole thing worked as it should . . .

The second trafficator was made in half the time, now that I had worked out the correct method . . . The orange lenses of the trafficator arms were touched up with Revell Orange Gloss enamel, as the paint had rubbed off the surface of the chrome while handling. I am actually rather pleased with this result, and I think once the door pillar and also the styrene brackets are painted black gloss, the modification will not be too visible, except on close examination . . .

The first photo shows the trafficator as fiited to the real Phantom III . . .

David

[David G.]

Most impressive work David!

David G.