Door handle indents ...

[Foxer]

I have to create the door handle indents for the side doors on the van I'm making. A photo of them on the 1:1 is shown. I was planning to just use a piece of strip styrene for the handle which would be more detail than is on the kit. The indents really are needed for the look as they are very obvious. I have considered a few methods of making these but I'm interested in suggestions from people here. How would you do it? Just carving it into the plastic would be difficult to control as to shape. If I have to, resin casting is not out of my options as I think I'll be casting the hinges from other doors to make the 4 required on the new side doors I scribed

Here's a photo of the door handles on the 1:1 van:

If you need to see the plastic, this page of my Workbench thread has a photo of the kit body where you can see the front handles I need to copy to the side door.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=35282&st=40

Thanks for any suggestions ... I can use everything you all can come up with to contemplate this item to model.

[charlie8575]

Mike,

Probably the easiest way to do this would be to go hit one of the wreckers out there, or see if spot a G-Series van on the road, used car lot, etc., and measure up the door-handle recesses. Fortunately, these van because of their high production, are still fairly common both on the road and in junkyards.

Once home, using a ruler and compass, draw a more-or-less rectangle approximately where the recesses are. Then, using a compass with a long leg so you can point the pointer on cork or whatever substrate you have handy, use the compass to radius the corners slightly. If you feel adventurous, you could try it free-hand.

Once the layout is completed, if you have a Yankee twist-drill or a pin-vise, drill a series of holes around the perimeter using as small a bit as you have, especially at the corners to help keep them rounded slightly. Use one of the razor saw blades that attach into a #1 X-Acto handle and cut of the plug.

If you feel ambitious, you lightly file the edges to both smooth them, and done properly, suggest the slight curvature.

Back these holes with thin plastic sheet, and give the body one final coat of paint.

Charlie Larkin

Edited November 29, 2010 by charlie8575

[MikeMc]

That sounds good....I might add glue some .30 styrene behind ..that will give you enough depth

[Foxer]

I like your suggestion, Charlie ... cutting the shape thru the door and building it back up. It's easy enough to trace and transfer the shape from the front door. The method you suggest to cut it out is actually how I cut the windows out. The recess is pretty small, maybe a quarter inch at best, so I'll just drill a hole close to the size and shape with files. A backing plate of styrene and I think a little putty shaped into the edges with my finger will give the tapered shape into the recess. If I can locate the Q-tip shaped sanding sticks I have it will be easy to smooth it all out.

This is just what I needed to get my thoughts together. Thanks for the responses.

[Danno]

That would work, but you'd be trying to make several tiny holes ... and the sculptured buckets they create ... match.

To me, it seems it might be easier to resin cast a larger area of the door/s including the doorhandles, cut out larger squares or rectangles from the body sides, then glue in "patch panel" style the resin pieces with doorhandles. Then all you need to do is fill and blend the joints and you'd had perfectly matching doorhandles. That's just me ... I always think it's easier to replicate a kit doorhandle and make several copies than it is to scratch up several matching ones; and I always find it easier to do body work on larger areas than in tiny spots.

Just thinking ...

[Chuck Most]

Here's how NOT to do it... try grinding out the indent with a variable speed Dremel. Maybe you could do it with the right bit and speed, but I sure can't, and I speak from experience on that one! My hand just isn't steady enough.

[Foxer]

Here's how NOT to do it... try grinding out the indent with a variable speed Dremel. Maybe you could do it with the right bit and speed, but I sure can't, and I speak from experience on that one! My hand just isn't steady enough.

that was MY first thought! ... and I came to the same conclusion as you.

[Foxer]

That would work, but you'd be trying to make several tiny holes ... and the sculptured buckets they create ... match.

To me, it seems it might be easier to resin cast a larger area of the door/s including the doorhandles, cut out larger squares or rectangles from the body sides, then glue in "patch panel" style the resin pieces with doorhandles. Then all you need to do is fill and blend the joints and you'd had perfectly matching doorhandles. That's just me ... I always think it's easier to replicate a kit doorhandle and make several copies than it is to scratch up several matching ones; and I always find it easier to do body work on larger areas than in tiny spots.

Well ... I'm liking this. I did consider casting it but got stuck on how to add it. I never thought of cutting out the whole area. Neat. There is only one handle on the side doors so matching isn't a problem, but casting the whole thing seems like less work and, as I said, I have to cast the hinges anyway.

This van keeps escalating ... nothing new!

Edited November 30, 2010 by Foxer

[Foxer]

Thanks for all the responses. You all have given me many ways to skin this cat and I've decided Danno's idea of cutting out a hole and patching in a casting of the handle is the easiest and will be the best looking in the end.

And, now that I've made the molds to cast a door handle, I think, why didn't I just cut out a door handle from the spare body??!! Oh well, we'll see how the castings look and that's always a back up plan!

Edited December 7, 2010 by Foxer

[Danno]

Good luck, Mike. Let us know & see how it turns out.

[Foxer]

Done. I cut a handle out of another body and patched it in.

[Danno]

There you go! Looks good.