Scratch Building an Aussie Ford Falcon **New update,15/1/18**

[Danno]

I've been following since near the start and must say what a fantastic job of engineering as well as building you are doing.

I've seen injection molded kits that don't look anywhere near as nice in regards to parts in general and overall fit.

Dittos!

[FullTimeHobbiest]

Absolutely fantastic work!

[JTalmage]

Wow.... wow.... wow.... just... wow.

[Daddyfink]

This is model building! Awesome!!

[Wonderbread Kustomz]

Man I love this! Beyond amazing

[ShawnS]

Hi guys. Merry Christmas to all. It looks like I have totally forgot to add the last update from a couple of weeks ago so I'll attend to that now. I have finished the final detailing of the curbside chassis with some brake and fuel lines and the handbrake mechanism as well as the rear swaybar.

The rear swaybar is two parts that are inserted into holes that I drilled into the diff and pinned to brackets on the chassis rails.

I have pre-made the brake and fuel lines for easy installation after painting. I didn't manage to find any really good reference pics for the layout of each pipe so I just made it as best I could.

I had to remake the mounting system for the chassis and this is what I came up with. Two holes with two pieces of rod.

A slab of wide Evergreen strip with two holes glued to the underside of the bonnet.

Looks like this when done.

to be continued...

[ShawnS]

I made some low detail front suspension parts and added springs.

I also fabricated up some inner wheel wells to stop the daylight coming through the other side.

I also blanked out the rear wheel wells.

The last of the details all together.

There is one thing left to do before I start the painting process and that is to get a rough texture on some areas of the underbody.

I have been playing around with some fine modellers casting texture sand but I haven't yet nailed the correct consistent finish. If any one has any ideas please speak up I would be happy to know a good way to recreate the rough texture finish.

Cheers for now

ShawnS

[spotarama]

for replicating that rough texture area (which is a kind of rubbery/flexible paint) maybe the rubber masking agent from (i think) gunze, thinned with whatever thins that stuff, might work? brush/stipple onto the masked off areas, demask while still wet to avoid pulling up any edges then primer/topcoat over the whole area to seal it down.

or a couple of coats of the faux fabric paint?

flocking mixed with paint or superglue? the paint would dampen down the fuzzy effect , the superglue will dry and leave a slightly more 'spiky/ripply' effect.

hope this helps, awesome work all round for the last 21 pages, and especially the trailer which looks like every trailer in an aussie backyard

Edited December 25, 2013 by spotarama

[fractalign]

I am just wondering if you will be releasing these under your own name or through another producer ?

[Shardik]

Try some "Mr. Dissolved Putty" from Gunze, applied with a piece of foam packing material. You can vary the texture by using different densities of foam or using repeated applications. I used it for the cast texture on this Bentley axle housing:

Bear in mind that this is 1:12 scale, so it would read as much coarser in 1:25.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Shardik

[Agent G]

Shawn I use Rustoleum Texturized paint for anti skid areas on modern 1/35th scale armor. Not sure what you'd have for an equivalent in Oz, but you cannot beat it for ease of use. I mask with Tamiya tape and liquid masking agent and never had an issue.

G

[Agent G]

Here's a pic.

G

[ShawnS]

Thanks for the tips guys. It looks like I have some shopping to do. I'll keep an eye out for some of that textured paint, I think it'll be useful in a few other areas too.

[72 Charger]

Shawn firstly fantastic work . Secondly it looks like the falcon is a Ford granada underneth are you planing to do the changes for europe?

[aaronwert]

I just discovered this thread...you've heard all the comments but amazing work! I've been building models for over 15 years and never have been really good with scratch building. This work makes the current projects I'm working on look like baby work but inspires me to keep trying. I would love to have a copy of your model...if you decide to cast them I'll have to get one from you.

[Armornv]

The quality of your work is just plain awesome. This whole build has been a real treat to watch. As far as texture, there used to be a product called cast-a-coat for armor modelers. Never tried it myself and have no idea how well the scale effect would translate but I've heard a lot of people say they really liked it. Just a suggestion though of course. Not my favorite car in the world but I would totally buy one of these if you released it. Top notch.

[ShawnS]

Hi all, It's been a long time since the last update and after some time away from the bench I am back into the swing of things.

I have solved the issue of the texture for the chassis. I found a product called Black Lava made by Vallejo, It's just natural stone mixed with a black pigment. It's water based you just need to brush it on and it cleans up fairly easily if you over do it. I used it on a reject resin chassis

I have put the curbside version aside and have resumed work on the full detail version. My first task was to fix an issue that I noticed during a test fit. The edge of the chassis wheel well was a bit too visible.

I glued a strip of Evergreen to the top of the wheel well with a large quantity of CA glue.

I used my Dremel and some sand paper on the inside of the wheel well.

Problem solved.

I had an issue with the chassis flexing too much causing old joins to crack so I cut a channel on the back where the chassis rails are and superglued a thick stainless steel pin on the back to give the chassis some strength.

Then it was time to move on to finishing off some of the work that I haven't done.

I finished off the rear sway bar the same way that I did on the curbside version.

To be continued......

[James2]

Always nice to see progress on this one...

[ShawnS]

I also finished the exhaust system. It just needs some bolt heads on the clamps.

Another problem that needed to be solved was how to install the springs and shocks after the diff was in place. Due to the high level of difficulty when it comes to getting the diff into position it isn't possible to put the springs and shocks in first so I had to devise a plan to install them from the top after the diff is in place.

I put some holes in the chassis that are the same diameter of the springs. I just need to put the springs in,

drop the shocks in and the put the caps on top to hold it all in place.

The next issue was the rear of the chassis wasn't sitting still and flat. To solve that I drilled a hole under where the tank sits,

the tank will have a rod that will reach to the bottom of the bootlid,

into a bit of tube that I glued onto the underside of the bootlid.

When the chassis is in it's correct position it should stay there without too much more movement.

To be continued....

[ShawnS]

Thanks James.

The next bit of work was on the aircon plumbing. It's made up of T2M copper wire, T2M 1mm nuts, T2M hose joints, T2M heat shrink tube, Detail Master hose connectors, Crazy Modeler hose clamps, K+S aluminum 0.8mm rod and some Evergreen bits.

The T2M hose joints in the back of the compressor.

How things go.

I had to remake the condenser because it interfered with the front bumper too much. It's slightly smaller than it used to be.

The plumbing route is a bit of a compromise and isn't typical of the real thing. The important thing is that nothing touches or interferes with anything else in the engine bay.

There was a few other things that I worked on that will help with future work on the build and I'll show them to you as the build progresses.

That will do for now and I promise the next update won't be 5 months away like this one was.

Thanks for looking,

Cheers

ShawnS

[hgbben]

Words cannot describe this build

[pharr7226]

It's truly a pleasure just to watch you work. The spring and tank solutions are very clever.

[Duntov]

This is truly amazing ----

This whole build is a phenomenal series of "mini-models" --every single element is a highly detailed model in and of itself ---

I especially like the curb-side chassis approach ----

[always painting]

Dude your work is sick too death. Absolutely amazing. ....

[David G.]

I'm glad to see this one float back to the top.

Awesome work!

David G.