joemac Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 (edited) As more of a matter of practice than anything else, I decided to finally assemble a kit that I received as a gift, some twenty-something years ago. It's a 1:25 kit of a VW Beetle, made by Revell, called Penny Pincher. As far as resin kits go, I think it's pretty bad, but I'm only doing this to practice my unused skills and try out a few things. I've had to modify several things, such as removing the flares from the fenders and some flashing/bad spots/poor molding and just tidying things up. Being a VW tech from the sixties, I've rebuilt/repaired thousands of these air-cooled engines. I can picture every component and detail. The engine that is supplied in this kit leaves much to be desired, as far as completeness and detail. I decided to change a few things and one item I had been thinking about was the heater hoses that connect the fan housing to the heater system. On the real thing it is a pair of lengths of two-inch paper/foil/paper flexible hoses, usually black on the exterior. The surface has a texture, formed by the groove that is there which affords the hose its stretch-ability and flexibility. I thought about how I might replicate the effect. The "hoses" in the kit are totally unacceptable I thought I would try something. I was so pleased with the result that I just had to come here and post it. I took a small piece of black sprue tree and chucked in in my cordless drill. It wasn't perfectly round, so I spun it and held a small file against it until it was acceptable. I tapered the tip, slightly. Then the fun part: I spun a 3mm x.5mm die onto it and carefully worked it up and down the piece and, voila! I now had a perfect representation of what I was trying to mimic. It far exceeded my expectations. A little heat from the side of a candle flame and some careful bending and it's perfect. Any time you need a piece of what looks like black flex hose, that's how you do it. I would imagine different sizes would also work, depending on the scale you're working with. I tried taking some photos, but my camera is only 3.2 meg, so the detail becomes somewhat lost. Edited January 6, 2011 by joemac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Very handy tip. Here's another method, but I'd like to compare yours and this one side by side for realism. http://www.italianhorses.net/Tutorials/FlexHose/flexhose.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draggon Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 The wire and teflon tape is a great idea for brake ducts, but no way do they resemble VW heater hoses. I like your idea of running a die over sprue! Thats pretty ingenious. I bet it looks just like the real thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Well, I thought the tread was about flexible hose in general. Draggon, what are you replicating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 As more of a matter of practice than anything else, I decided to finally assemble a kit that I received as a gift, some twenty-something years ago. It's a 1:25 kit of a VW Beetle, made by Revell, called Penny Pincher. As far as resin kits go, I think it's pretty bad, If it's a Revell kit it ain't resin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joemac Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 My bad. Styrene, then. BTW sjordan2, nice job on the Teflon ducting. Tres cool. My son came home and we took a couple of pics with his 5 meg camera, but I couldn't upload them, for some reason. I just got an announcement that I was unable to load such files. Jpegs, they are... (?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougp Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Instead of usning teflon tape, try using heat shrink tubing. You can get it in almost any size. The only limitation is how small of diameter tubing/sprue you can wrap with wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyjim Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Way back when I used to make radiator hoses by taking the kit hose and wrap it with some very thick black sewing thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjordan2 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 My bad. Styrene, then. BTW sjordan2, nice job on the Teflon ducting. Tres cool. My son came home and we took a couple of pics with his 5 meg camera, but I couldn't upload them, for some reason. I just got an announcement that I was unable to load such files. Jpegs, they are... (?) Thanks, but that's a link to Alex Kustov's tutorials at italianhorses.net Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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