Building season is back! 1904 De Dion Bouton

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great job on the wheels. Great way of doing them.

[Cato]

They look great Harry and thinking 'out of box' on the stain is great.

But how does the craft acrylic adhere to the bare styrene without a spritz of primer?

[Harry P.]

They look great Harry and thinking 'out of box' on the stain is great.

But how does the craft acrylic adhere to the bare styrene without a spritz of primer?

It adheres well enough to do the job. Sure, it will scratch off the bare plastic easily, but these wheels aren't going to be subject to any wear and tear. All they have to do is look nice on the model...

[Cato]

It adheres well enough to do the job. Sure, it will scratch off the bare plastic easily, but these wheels aren't going to be subject to any wear and tear. All they have to do is look nice on the model...

Hmmm, I can just picture a set of artillery wheels finished like that on a 1/8 scale---say--29 Rolls Phantom I converted to a military utility vehicle. Made by a company that starts with a 'P'.

HINT, HINT, hint...

[GeeBee]

Looking nice Harry, I love watching your build up's on these old timers ....

[uncle potts]

Nice to see you back at the bench, Harry. Love watching your builds, the wheel treatment was very creative, and looks really good. Nice job, and thanks for the tip....

[Harry P.]

More progress...

The firewall and toe board are made of basswood, stained with the same stain I used on the wheels, then sprayed with several coats of Rustoleum 2x Gloss Clear. I made the brass edge trim on the firewall/dash out of 1/16" square K&S brass rod. I surprised myself by bending it to shape perfectly on the first try!

I flowed a tiny bit of CA between the edges of the firewall and the brass trim, then sprayed the unit with more Rustoleum 2x Clear Gloss to help "lock" the brass trim in place.

The kit has no decals for the instrument faces, so I found gauge faces online and printed them to size and glued them to the kit gauges. I added bezels that are rings cut from K&S brass tubing, and the "glass" on the gauges is clear 5-minute epoxy. The "brass" sill plates on the sides of the floorboard are gold BMF.

[Jaguar man 21]

Amazing work Harry looking forward to more

[Ramfins59]

You "Da Man" Harry. Excellent detail work as usual.

[Nacho Z]

Said it before and I'll say it again. I love following these great WIPs. Thanks for taking the time to photograph and write them up.

[Cato]

Beautiful Harry.

But you really got square brass rod to bend 90 degrees without fracture?? Did you anneal?

[Harry P.]

Beautiful Harry.

But you really got square brass rod to bend 90 degrees without fracture?? Did you anneal?

No. I just bent.

[Cato]

No. I just bent.

You're just hateful Harry-hateful...

[Harry P.]

You're just hateful Harry-hateful...

I think you tend to overthink things a bit.

My modeling rule is if there's a hard way to do something, or a simple way that gets pretty much the same end result... I pick easy every time!

But seriously... there are different types of brass, some much more prone to snapping or cracking when you bend it. The brass parts included in Pocher kits is the brittle kind that snaps and breaks if you try and bend it. And if you bend it and then try to straighten it back out and re-bend... forget it. It'll break. But I've found K&S brass to be much more malleable (is that the right word?), and you can bend it way past 90 degrees and it won't crack or break.

On the Pocher Alfas, they supply you with brass rod that you are supposed to bend into shape according to the diagrams in the instruction manual to form the oil lines. That's where I found out about the brittle Pocher brass. My first attempt was off a bit and the oil line wouldn't fit. But when I tried to straighten out a bend to try it again... SNAP. It broke. So I replaced the Pocher brass rod with K&S, which is much more forgiving and can be bent and re-bent many times without breaking.

[Cato]

I think you tend to overthink things a bit.

My modeling rule is if there's a hard way to do something, or a simple way that gets pretty much the same end result... I pick easy every time!

You will see just how correct you are when I post in my RR thread later today.......

And yes, the brass I used from the kit, I had to anneal every time. But the K&S (round) brass rod I've used did not provide much resistance and didn't work-harden.

I was just surprised the rectangular you used did not deform cold.

[cobraman]

Just a nice shelf model he says. Looks pretty detailed to me. : )

[sjordan2]

Just a nice shelf model he says. Looks pretty detailed to me. : )

You should see his shelf.

[Harry P.]

The radiator was assembled from the four kit pieces. I sprayed the part with the cooling fins silver and then blackwashed it to define the fins. Luckily this was a separate part; that made detail painting it easy. The "brass" shell was sprayed Rustoleum Metallic Brass and then Testors Transparent Window Tint. I added the brass line on the side (brass rod, "nut" cut from styrene hex-shaped rod and drilled out, and real rubber "hose" (hollow rubber tubing found in the jewelry making aisle at HL), and BMF "hose clamps." The De Dion Bouton logo was found online, printed to scale, cut out, and attached to the radiator with Future.

As a reference, the radiator is about an inch wide.

[Harry P.]

Just a nice shelf model he says. Looks pretty detailed to me. : )

No engine in this kit, it's a curbside (it does have a basic "block" that's visible from the underside, but nothing under the hood). So no worries about detailing the engine... the hood gets glued shut. Just a nice shelf model...

[Harry P.]

I was just surprised the rectangular you used did not deform cold.

But remember, it's very thin... only 1/16" square.

[clovis]

I am certainly no metallurgist, but I wonder if the K & S brass has a higher copper content, allowing it to bend easier than the Pocher kit brass?

[Harry P.]

I am certainly no metallurgist, but I wonder if the K & S brass has a higher copper content, allowing it to bend easier than the Pocher kit brass?

I'm no metallurgist either, but the two types of brass must have a different composition, because they react to bending very differently.

[clovis]

Interesting read about brass on Wiki, if you are interested.

[Harry P.]

The kit has rear brake drums, but no linkages, so here are a few scratchbuilt components for the brake and shift linkages (the black painted parts are kit parts). The brake rods will be made of brass rod once I have the linkages painted and installed... and I can measure for the rod lengths:

[Harry P.]

The license plate was made in Adobe Illustrator, printed out, and attached with Future. I also added the firewall support brackets (styrene strip with slices of hex-shaped styrene rod as bolt heads) and the steering column hand controls.