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

[Anglia105E]

23 minutes ago, David G. said:

Most impressive work David!

David G.

Thanks David G. . . . Although not an easy task, I feel it was well worth the effort.

David W.

[Sam I Am]

Just saw this thread. I have one of these in the stash, and will definitely follow along.

[Anglia105E]

13 hours ago, Sam I Am said:

Just saw this thread. I have one of these in the stash, and will definitely follow along.

If you get time to build this kit Sam, I would say that you will not be disappointed . . . Yes, there are almost 300 parts, and some of the assembly procedures are rather unusual, but this kit by Gunze Sangyo is one of the best that I have had the pleasure to build . . . From the beginning of this project I have allowed myself at least 6 months to complete the model, and at the moment this looks like extending beyond 6 months I would say . . . Having reached 13 weeks into the build, I have managed to get the paint finish applied, and the polishing process is under way. The only reason the painting wasn't done earlier in the build was due to cold Winter temperatures here in rural England.

During May my annual holiday trip will interrupt the workbench activity for one week, so this is a further short delay . . . The assembly of the four doors of this car is a significant task in itself, with metal hinges that need to be heat sealed in place, and also a complex door pillar setup that initially had me baffled. The four bonnet / hood panels also have metal hinges, and the sequence of assembly steps that bring together the upper body, the lower body, floor board, firewall and rolling chassis does require a careful approach . . .

The Rolls-Royce Phantom III in your stash is just waiting for you to find the courage ! ( and the time of course ).

David

[Anglia105E]

Lots of workbench time over the past few days, and nice steady progress . . . The pack of three new tubes of Tamiya Polishing Compound arrived in the post, so polishing is now under way, starting with the boot lid and also the spare wheel casings . . . I decided to assemble the spare wheels and casings, which have 7 parts to each side of the car.

The masking tape has been removed from around the canvas roof panel and the contrast between the semi-gloss black against the gloss black is good. There were three very small areas of grey primer showing along one edge of the roof panel and near two of the corners, which have now been touched up with brush applied Humbrol enamel gloss black . . . Two stickers ( not decals ) represent the chassis number plates that have been placed on the firewall, and rather than try to use 40 year old stickers, I cut out the plates with the stickers mounted on the backing card. This gives them more depth and therefore appear more realistic . . . As well as taking the spare wheel up to the loft to photograph them in the wells on the lower body, I took the opportunity to photograph a mock-up of the upper body, lower body, two doors and the spare wheels . . .

David

[Pierre Rivard]

I'm happy you decided to keep the cream/black theme as it looks very very good. I can see it on the lawn at Ascott...

Curious about your polishing. Do you wet sand a bit or go straight to the compounds?

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, Pierre Rivard said:

I'm happy you decided to keep the cream/black theme as it looks very very good. I can see it on the lawn at Ascott...

Curious about your polishing. Do you wet sand a bit or go straight to the compounds?

Thanks Pierre . . . As regards the polishing process, I don't do any wet sanding. The three grades of Tamiya Polishing Compound are applied in sequence, so Coarse, Fine and Finish . . . Sometimes I might repeat the process if I feel it is necessary for a particular part, and I might also finish off with Meguiars Carnauba Wax polish to bring out the mirror finish that we all strive for !   I like to polish in a circular motion, rather than laterally . . .

I really like the black and cream paint colour scheme for this car, which when combined with the dark brown interior colours, captures the essence of the 1930's period . . . certainly on the lawn at Ascot, as you say.

David

[Anglia105E]

The two black wire-spoked spare wheels now have chrome hub caps . . . Gloss black touch up paint has nearly dried around the canvas roof panel, and the firewall has been test fitted with the upper body . . . Meanwhile, the interior door panels were test fitted on the inside of the door panels, and these will hide the brass hinges concealed within.

Mounting the upper body onto the rolling chassis showed me how the inner door posts and the division are going to look later . . . I have marked the level above which the inner door posts will be painted in the headlining colour, which is Humbrol 103 Matt Cream enamel and these will be brush painted . . . 

The chrome windscreen surround moulding was glued in place today, using Revell brushed adhesive, and I noticed afterwards that the centre lower edge of the part was not making contact with the body. This was dealt with by applying a small amount of super glue to the gap between the parts.

Last job for today was to glue in place the windscreen glass that I had fabricated previously . . . This was done using Crystal Clear white glue, which needs a good 12 hours setting time overnight . . . Once the rear window glass has been fitted tomorrow, the headlining can be brush painted inside the roof.

David

[Anglia105E]

Now that the rear window glass has set overnight, I was able to get the headlining painted inside the roof . . . Using a wider brush than usual, the matt cream enamel was applied in two coats. This will be allowed to dry for 24 hours overnight . . .

The front and rear doors on the driver's side of the car were taped together and test fitted into the upper body. There are 9 sections of the instruction sheet for the assembly of the doors and hinges, out of a total of 61 sections. These 9 sections represent a large amount of work, and of course it is very important to ensure that the four doors open and close correctly. There are many brass hinges that have to be heat sealed to the door panels, after bending the hinges and fixing together with tiny pins.

David

[David G.]

Wow, you been going to town on this one! 😮 

Excellent work across the board. Everything looks great, Just as as one would expect it to.

Thanks for continuing to post the progress updates, I always enjoy seeing them.

David G.

[Anglia105E]

9 minutes ago, David G. said:

Wow, you been going to town on this one! 😮 

Excellent work across the board. Everything looks great, Just as as one would expect it to.

Thanks for continuing to post the progress updates, I always enjoy seeing them.

David G.

Thanks again David . . . Your Cadillac Ambulance topic has generated a great deal of interest, and I am looking forward to seeing your hearse project when you get there . . . There are only two areas of my Phantom III project that I have not yet made a decision about, one of these being the spark plug leads, and the other being the possible wiring of the lights. As you can imagine, the intricate assembly of the plug leads, aluminium conduits and tubing is not for the faint hearted ! . . . Secondly, I would very much like to wire up the headlights, side lights, tail lights and fog lights to work from a 9 volt battery, or maybe a CR2032 coin cell battery . . . The battery would fit inside the luggage compartment, and there are plenty of options for routing the wiring under the chassis. Some model builders aiming for museum quality might also consider wiring the trafficator arm lights and the interior vanity mirror lights.

David

[David G.]

Impressive ambitions David!

It would be fabulous to work those into your build, especially lighted semaphores!  😮 

It's difficult to imagine more worthy subject for such a lighting project.

David G. 

[Anglia105E]

All four doors for the Phantom III have been polished, using Tamiya Polishing Compound grades Coarse, Fine and Finish . . . The process was repeated for the cream painted areas as well as the black painted areas . . . Then it was time to have a serious look at the doors section of the instruction sheet, and I managed to assemble the eight metal hinges. Each hinge assembly has two metal plates and a tiny metal pin that must be inserted into three sets of eyes. Two pairs of hinges were then test fitted into one of the two outer door posts . . .

Moving on to the door glass fitting, I decided to have one rear door on the driver's side of the car with the windows in the open position. Meanwhile the three remaining doors will have the windows in the closed position . . . The quarter light frame has had two notches cut into the top edge and the bottom edge, so that the quarter light glass could be super glued in the open position. The main door glass has been cut down to a height of 7 mm so that the glass appears to be in the lowered position . . . The last of the following series of photos shows the open glass windows of the real car.

David

[David G.]

Wow David, those hinge assemblies look like they would require a keen eye and a steady hand. And patience, lots of patience!

I I like your idea of modeling the side window and quarterlight opened. It's a nice added touch of "lived in" character.

On the whole, the doors look great.

David G.

[Anglia105E]

4 hours ago, David G. said:

Wow David, those hinge assemblies look like they would require a keen eye and a steady hand. And patience, lots of patience!

I I like your idea of modeling the side window and quarterlight opened. It's a nice added touch of "lived in" character.

On the whole, the doors look great.

David G.

Much appreciated David, and thanks for your continued interest . . . The eight tiny pins for those door hinges were in a tiny sealed transparent packet, and inside the packet there is some sort of sticky grease-like substance. The only thing holding the pins in place seems to be the sticky grease, so otherwise the pins would drop out when in their assembled vertical position . . . The Gunze Sangyo instruction sheet states that the pins need to be ' nipped ', once they have been inserted. There isn't any material to be ' nipped ' as the pins are fitted flush with ends of the hinge, so I am baffled as to what they mean.

The idea of having lowered door windows worked well for the 1:24 scale Silver Cloud build, and I thought it would be nice to have the quarter light window in the open position as well on this Phantom III . . .

David

 

[Anglia105E]

All the glass has been fitted to the doors and quarter lights, followed by the fitting of the chrome moulding strips on the outside of the doors, as well as the chrome door handles . . .

A good deal of time was spent today sorting out the door hinges . . . The tabs on the inside face of the hinges were bent over and clamped tightly to the outer door posts on both sides of the car. Then the four pairs of hinge holes were placed onto the locating pins inside the front door and the rear door on the driver's side . . . Some blue tape was used to hold the hinges in place while I observed the whole assembly and photographed the arrangement of parts. I was able to determine where the joining line needs to be on the door posts, between the black paint and the cream paint.

Once these small areas of painting have been dealt with, all four door hinges can be heat sealed onto the inside of the outer door panels. The interior door panels will hide the metal hinges when these are glued in place later . . .

David

[David G.]

I was wondering how those hinges would be mounted and secured.  I must admit, I didn't imagine that solution!

That method looks like it should be more than adequate for holding those hinges true and secure. I'm impressed by the elegance of it.

Your work on this is top tier, as always. This kit is certainly getting the proper attention it deserves.

David G.

[dino246gt]

Man your work on this has been inspirational!

Makes me want to pull that old built junker I have and re-do it!

Isn't THAT what us modelers looking at the internet is all about?

Inspiration!!

 

[Anglia105E]

7 hours ago, dino246gt said:

Man your work on this has been inspirational!

Makes me want to pull that old built junker I have and re-do it!

Isn't THAT what us modelers looking at the internet is all about?

Inspiration!!

 

You can do it Dennis !

Happy to have provided you with the inspiration that could lead to an interesting project for you . . .

David

[Anglia105E]

8 hours ago, David G. said:

I was wondering how those hinges would be mounted and secured.  I must admit, I didn't imagine that solution!

That method looks like it should be more than adequate for holding those hinges true and secure. I'm impressed by the elegance of it.

Your work on this is top tier, as always. This kit is certainly getting the proper attention it deserves.

David G.

Thanks David G. . . . . I have never come across this type of door mounting before, but then again I haven't tackled metal hinged doors previously.

The whole assembly seems to work as it has been designed, so my respect goes to Gunze Sangyo for their ingenuity . . . I am finding that for every small mistake that they make with their kit instructions, which are only minor irritations really, there is something that they do that is remarkably good. Many of their ideas are very clever when you sit back and think about them . . .

David

[Randy D]

This continues to be one of the most fascinating builds on the forum David.  You are displaying wonderful skills in all areas of construction and finishing.

 

Randy

[Anglia105E]

9 hours ago, Randy D said:

This continues to be one of the most fascinating builds on the forum David.  You are displaying wonderful skills in all areas of construction and finishing.

 

Randy

Your words of encouragement are most welcome Randy . . . Certainly, this has been my most satisfying and enjoyable build to date, and it is almost as though I don't want this model car to be completed !

I can understand why other model builders on this forum have had similar feelings, when they have descibed how the process of assembling, painting and researching the model is of much greater interest to them than reaching the final hurdle and ' Under Glass ' . . .

David

[Bugatti Fan]

You are right there David! 

It is often the challenges of a longer term build, adding details and refining kit items that give the most satisfaction.

My personal main interest is in building models of older cars and why I am following this particular build. It is really coming along well and fascinating to see how you are overcoming things and tackling it generally. It certainly will be a very nice model to be proud of when it is finished.

[Anglia105E]

17 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

You are right there David! 

It is often the challenges of a longer term build, adding details and refining kit items that give the most satisfaction.

My personal main interest is in building models of older cars and why I am following this particular build. It is really coming along well and fascinating to see how you are overcoming things and tackling it generally. It certainly will be a very nice model to be proud of when it is finished.

Thank you so much for following my Phantom III build Noel . . . We have a shared interest in older motor cars and I do find modern cars quite boring by comparison. My previous builds tended to be from the period 1953 to 1959, and were mostly but not entirely Rolls-Royce cars. The two Hudson Hornet builds turned out to be particularly rewarding for me. This time I have chosen to build a car from 1937, which has a lot of nice, pre-war characteristics. There have been some odd issues that have puzzled me, but overcoming those issues was a really challenging test of my model building skills.

I must say, I do like working in 1:16 scale, and this Gunze Sangyo vintage kit is extremely well put together . . . Wouldn't it be good if there was such a thing as a 1:12 scale Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, or maybe a Phantom I, II or III  ?  That would be my model building dream !

David

[dino246gt]

David, thanks to your amazing build, I DID start trying to restore mine!

I found a few interesting facts, first I build it in 1977!

But, I was a terrible builder back then, LOL.

I twisted parts off the trees and didn't sand off the nubs, or mold seams.

I used WAY too much tube glue.

I painted it with enamels, and extremely poorly.

It's not on the top of my "to-do" list but it sure was a blast watching your build and so far, just between 1/24th builds, I'll be playing around and start my own thread.

Thank you again for the inspiration!

[Anglia105E]

1 hour ago, dino246gt said:

David, thanks to your amazing build, I DID start trying to restore mine!

I found a few interesting facts, first I build it in 1977!

But, I was a terrible builder back then, LOL.

I twisted parts off the trees and didn't sand off the nubs, or mold seams.

I used WAY too much tube glue.

I painted it with enamels, and extremely poorly.

It's not on the top of my "to-do" list but it sure was a blast watching your build and so far, just between 1/24th builds, I'll be playing around and start my own thread.

Thank you again for the inspiration!

That is good news Dennis ! . . . Looking at your photo I can see that one of your rear leaf springs has broken in two, but that should be an easy fix for a seasoned model builder like yourself . . . 1977 vintage.

Funny that you should admit to those early failings . . . I used to bend the parts off the sprue connections back in the early '70's, and I used far too much glue, and I painted brush enamels badly. The paint was thickly applied and I used to get styrene glue over much of the window glass parts , , , Each model car was built in a ridiculously short time, usually less than a week.

Nowadays, it takes me anywhere between 2 months and 6 months to complete a build, and of course I use sprue cutters, apply paint much more thinly, which is usually rattle can or airbrush applied . . . Older but wiser springs to mind !

David