New Model T series

[Paul H]

Details of the 1912 T roadster kit (including pics of the sprues) here:

http://www.icm.com.ua/news/371-model-t-1912-roadster-american-passenger-car.html

[lysleder]

That is neat! Looks like the steering wheel rim and spokes are molded separately! It could be a challenge just to get the rim out of the tree without breaking it

I also note that the tires are made out of off-white (I suppose) soft plastic. I applaud having new manufacturers venture into car territory bringing with them new ideas on how to do it.

[Art Anderson]

That is neat! Looks like the steering wheel rim and spokes are molded separately! It could be a challenge just to get the rim out of the tree without breaking it

I also note that the tires are made out of off-white (I suppose) soft plastic. I applaud having new manufacturers venture into car territory bringing with them new ideas on how to do it.

I doubt the tires are soft plastic, given the sprue. As for "white tires", those are a modern misconception: Early automotive (and even bicycle) tires were made from natural latex rubber, which is a cream color until vulcanized, which turned it a very light buff, or a "creamy tan" color. Carbon black only began being added to latex rubber about 1910-11 or so, which didn't make the latex rubber black, but rather a gray color, the darkness depending on the concentration of the carbon added.

Camera film, even the black & white emulsion used on glass plates for photography back then, tended to photograph otherwise colored objects with very stark contrasts between light and dark, mostly due to the slow speed of exposure. That made those buff-colored tires stand out as starkly white in photographs, while the colors of cars, regardless of how bright, came out very darkly, some almost black.

Now, over time, with exposure to sunlight, those old latex tires would bleach out nearly white, but by the time they did that, the rubber was so dried out, deeply checked, that the tires were unusable anymore.

Art

[Art Anderson]

That is neat! Looks like the steering wheel rim and spokes are molded separately! It could be a challenge just to get the rim out of the tree without breaking it

I also note that the tires are made out of off-white (I suppose) soft plastic. I applaud having new manufacturers venture into car territory bringing with them new ideas on how to do it.

As for any difficulty removing that steering wheel rim from the sprue--the Opel Admiral kit steering wheel is made in the same manner, but I had absolutely no problem removing the rim from the sprue surrounding it.

This feature will make painting the steeering wheel correctly very easy, BTW. Very early Model T's had steering wheel hub and spokes in a one-piece brass casting which was later replaced by a forged iron unit. The brass spokes and hubs needed regular polishing, where the forged iron unit was painted black. The wheel rim itself is made from segments of wood, glued together with dovetailed joints, I'm not quite sure how the wooden rim was finished, but at any rate, they ended up a pretty dark brown in color.

Art

[charlie8575]

Impressive.

Charlie Larkin

[Art Anderson]

GREAT NEWS! The ICM Model T's are in-country. Ordered two of the kits yesterday, from Squadron.

Art

[carsntrucks4you]

On Tuesday I got my Model T from ICM. It is a great kit but with a big mistake. The brass parts of the original car are chrome . Why!?

[Art Anderson]

On Tuesday I got my Model T from ICM. It is a great kit but with a big mistake. The brass parts of the original car are chrome . Why!?

I wondered about that from the pics ICM has on their site. Easy fix though! Airbrush with Tamiya Clear Yellow--polished brass.

Art

[Atmobil]

I wondered about that from the pics ICM has on their site. Easy fix though! Airbrush with Tamiya Clear Yellow--polished brass.

Art

Now thats a nice tip, must try that one some day. I belive you do get brass colored paint aswell so one could strip the chrome and paint it.

[Art Anderson]

Now thats a nice tip, must try that one some day. I belive you do get brass colored paint aswell so one could strip the chrome and paint it.

Clear yellow over chrome plating equals polished brass, Atmobil. It always has for me. In fact, that is how it's done with model car kit plating where brass parts are needed.

Art

[Atmobil]

Now I learned something new today aswell Thank you

[carsntrucks4you]

I wondered about that from the pics ICM has on their site. Easy fix though! Airbrush with Tamiya Clear Yellow--polished brass.

Art

I'll dechrome the parts and use Alcad brass in stead of yellow

[peekay]

The ICM website, while showing a chrome-plated tree, also mentions "bronzed details", so maybe these will be appropriately coloured for production.