1:12 scale 1966 Ford GT40 , 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and 1:18 scale 1967 Ferrari P4
- Thread starter P A D
- Start date
P A D
Western Thunderer
Many thanks Richard. Hopefully next year I can get back to my bench propper and return to loco kit building.
Max,
I'm talking 1/12 scale kits and Fujimi is only 1/24. CMR do a nice 1/12 model, but it's only a curbside model and in any case, I want a kit to build it. I was tempted by the P4 berlinetta version from MG but it doesn't have opening doors and for @ 275 quid it falls a bit short in value to my mind. The MG kits are no longer made but Bluerace24 have one each of the spyder and berlinetta in stock if anybody is interest. Be nice if Tamiya would bring one out in 1/12, but they have a very limited range of sports cars these days so I don't know if they are backing away from addition to the range in this scale. The Tamiya Lola T70 pops up on Ebay from time time and I may pop for one of them some time if the price is right.
Cheers,
Peter
Max,
I'm talking 1/12 scale kits and Fujimi is only 1/24. CMR do a nice 1/12 model, but it's only a curbside model and in any case, I want a kit to build it. I was tempted by the P4 berlinetta version from MG but it doesn't have opening doors and for @ 275 quid it falls a bit short in value to my mind. The MG kits are no longer made but Bluerace24 have one each of the spyder and berlinetta in stock if anybody is interest. Be nice if Tamiya would bring one out in 1/12, but they have a very limited range of sports cars these days so I don't know if they are backing away from addition to the range in this scale. The Tamiya Lola T70 pops up on Ebay from time time and I may pop for one of them some time if the price is right.
Cheers,
Peter
P A D
Western Thunderer
Save your money and go for the Hiroboy version...you know you want to!
Stop it Max!
Too cold for spraying in the garage so the Fort GT has gone on the back burner and I've cracked on with the Alfa. Painting it will be a lot less complex than the Ford and I've been able to more or less assemble the whole thing without the need to paint anything. Here's the rear axle prop shaft and springs.
Assembly is a mix of gluing and screwing.
Here a start has been made on adding front suspension.
And both sides complete. Anybody know what those gizmos outboard of the springs are? Some sort of damper perhaps?
They are assembled from these 14 pieces.
Here's a view of the springs and hangers before the gizmos were attached.
After that I just cracked on with the rest of and got to here. It's only screwed, taped and blue tacked together for now and will be stripped down for airbrushing. The bonnet will be openable to show the engine, the front wheels steerable and the wind shields can be raised or lowered. Here the glass has been masked off ready for spraying the frames.
The wind shield brackets are etchings and are supposed to be superglued to the body. They come with holes etched in the bases so I drilled through into the body and added some brass rivets to make the bond stronger.
A view from the t'other side showing the exhaust. The seat looks like a two seater sofa when out of the cockpit. A sofa in your car - luxury!
There are lots of chrome detail bits to go on after painting and I'll be adding a few extras that are not included in the kit.
Heres a view of the underside showing the bottom of the engine and brake details. I'll post some pics of the engine before painting once I've stripped it down. There's a tank to go under the floor on the left hand side that can only be added after painting.
Here are the wheels after assembly of the three laminates. The tyres will be removed for painting as I'll be doing them in red same as the body. The spokes are a little on the thick side and although I've see a few videos on YouTube on how to replace them, I've decide to live with them.
Heres a closer look of a wheel in place on the car. The inside of the wheel will have the outer face of the drum brake added after painting and then the wheels will be permanently fitted.
The piece de resistance of the kit is the etched front grill and Alfa Romeo signature. The etched grill is super glued into the chromed plastic surround with the signature super glued to the grill. At the minute it's just blue tacked into the front cowl and will be removed before spraying. The mesh on the radiator behind the grill will be black after painting so the signature will show up even better. The front lamps are just push fitted to the brackets for now as they will be painted separately so that I can then paint the chrome bezel around the perimeter and also chrome paint the interior. I'll be using the Molotow chrome ink for that, probably by brush, although I may offset line the bezels using a spring bow pen.
The engine is a nice little model in it's own right and I'll post some pics of that later.
Cheers,
Peter
P A D
Western Thunderer
PS.
If you like model cars, have a look at this website.
Suber Factory Homepage - Suber Factory
This guy makes superb bespoke model cars but there are no prices mentioned so I guess they don't come cheap. There's a 1/12 Ferrari P4 in there somewhere. I reckon the Model Factory Hiro kit would build to somewhere near this standard.
This is a 1/8 scale model of the Alfa 8C engine by Fred Suber.
If you like model cars, have a look at this website.
Suber Factory Homepage - Suber Factory
This guy makes superb bespoke model cars but there are no prices mentioned so I guess they don't come cheap. There's a 1/12 Ferrari P4 in there somewhere. I reckon the Model Factory Hiro kit would build to somewhere near this standard.
This is a 1/8 scale model of the Alfa 8C engine by Fred Suber.
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
The "gizmos" are friction dampers.
Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen
Western Thunderer
Peter,
You're a bad influence with this thread
.
I've just placed an order for a 1/12 Porsche 908/3, the 1970 Targa Florio winning car of Siffert/Redman.
all the best
Tim
You're a bad influence with this thread
.I've just placed an order for a 1/12 Porsche 908/3, the 1970 Targa Florio winning car of Siffert/Redman.
all the best
Tim
simond
Western Thunderer
Peter,
the front spring mounting looks rather odd.
I’m not even close to familiar with this car, but I’d not expect the front springs to have swinging hangers at both ends, as that would allow the springs & axle to move fore & aft, which doesn’t help braking or cornering.
Having the swinging links “up” rather than the normal “down” might mitigate, but I think I’d be looking for photos...
or there might be some links providing extra stability?
Happy New Year!
Simon
the front spring mounting looks rather odd.
I’m not even close to familiar with this car, but I’d not expect the front springs to have swinging hangers at both ends, as that would allow the springs & axle to move fore & aft, which doesn’t help braking or cornering.
Having the swinging links “up” rather than the normal “down” might mitigate, but I think I’d be looking for photos...
or there might be some links providing extra stability?
Happy New Year!
Simon
Focalplane
Western Thunderer
I lost sight of this thread in the last few weeks of mega-gardening in the grounds of the motor house with bungalow attached, but I recently discovered a link to an article my restoration partner of old cars wrote for Thoroughbred and Classic Cars in 1980. This was about our Jaguar XK-140 FHC we restored in Singapore during 5 years of relatively sober life in the 1970s. A posting above mentioned the XK 140 as one of the most attractive sports cars and I tend to agree! I found a copy of the June 1980 issue on eBay and it was delivered today. Here is the full page photo which I have scanned:
My semi-professional eye has noticed a few things that are not quite right (the doors, which I rebuilt as the wood frame had rotted don't reflect as perfectly as they should!) but the photo was taken 40 years ago when I was only 35 and we had run out of time and funds to do better!
The car was sold and is reportedly back in the Far East, in Indonesia. It has a C Type high compression head which gave terrific performance.
My semi-professional eye has noticed a few things that are not quite right (the doors, which I rebuilt as the wood frame had rotted don't reflect as perfectly as they should!) but the photo was taken 40 years ago when I was only 35 and we had run out of time and funds to do better!
The car was sold and is reportedly back in the Far East, in Indonesia. It has a C Type high compression head which gave terrific performance.
simond
Western Thunderer
thanks Max
not something I’ve seen before. I wonder how the axle was controlled.
Happy New Year
Simon
P A D
Western Thunderer
Hi Tim,
Not sure if you are ordering kits or models and who from. Please can you clarify?
Simon,
Thanks for the comments. I've no idea as to the influence of the swing links but they are built as per the instructions and are correct. This image from t'internet shows the spring above the front hanger and below the rear. On the rear axle, the spring is below both hangers.
This image of the underside shows the tie rods from the V brackets to the front axle which I assume are to mitigate the possible movement you mention.
Max,
The image in your 1st link shows a nice variant of the car with the more elegant mudguards and running boards. According to Wikipedia " Initially, Alfa Romeo announced that the 8C was not to be sold to private owners, but by autumn 1931 Alfa sold it as a rolling chassis in Lungo (long) or Corto (short) form with prices starting at over £1000. The chassis were fitted with bodies from a selection of Italian coach-builders (Carrozzeria) such as Zagato, Carrozzeria Touring, Carrozzeria Castagna, Carrozzeria Pinin Farina ( later Pininfarina ) and Brianza, even though Alfa Romeo did make bodies". The second link is the Italeri Monza version of the kit and is the one that first caught my eye before I decided to go for the Ford GT.
Thank you Paul. I assume the degree of damping could be fine tuned by tightening the screw with the handle.
Here's a peak at then engine with the hood up. The rocker cover is only placed for the photo. If I can get it to look anywhere near Mr. Suber's model I'll be well pleased. There are still lots of bits to be added after its painted.
Cheers,
Peter
Not sure if you are ordering kits or models and who from. Please can you clarify?
Simon,
Thanks for the comments. I've no idea as to the influence of the swing links but they are built as per the instructions and are correct. This image from t'internet shows the spring above the front hanger and below the rear. On the rear axle, the spring is below both hangers.
This image of the underside shows the tie rods from the V brackets to the front axle which I assume are to mitigate the possible movement you mention.
Max,
The image in your 1st link shows a nice variant of the car with the more elegant mudguards and running boards. According to Wikipedia " Initially, Alfa Romeo announced that the 8C was not to be sold to private owners, but by autumn 1931 Alfa sold it as a rolling chassis in Lungo (long) or Corto (short) form with prices starting at over £1000. The chassis were fitted with bodies from a selection of Italian coach-builders (Carrozzeria) such as Zagato, Carrozzeria Touring, Carrozzeria Castagna, Carrozzeria Pinin Farina ( later Pininfarina ) and Brianza, even though Alfa Romeo did make bodies". The second link is the Italeri Monza version of the kit and is the one that first caught my eye before I decided to go for the Ford GT.
Thank you Paul. I assume the degree of damping could be fine tuned by tightening the screw with the handle.
Here's a peak at then engine with the hood up. The rocker cover is only placed for the photo. If I can get it to look anywhere near Mr. Suber's model I'll be well pleased. There are still lots of bits to be added after its painted.
Cheers,
Peter
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
A bit late to the party but I had the good fortune to be in the presence of 10 or 12 classic cars (most of which were racing cars) just after the November lockdown was eased.
They are owned by the gent who owns DJH and it turns out that he lives in the Dales not too far from us.
We were invited along primarily to view his layout which is housed in the loft of a large farm outbuilding. To get to it you have to pass through the garage where the classic cars are on display. I don't claim to be knowledgeable on what's what with classis cars but there was an example of an 8 litre supercharged Bentley , a Bugatti, 2 E Type Jags, a Rolls Royce Cabriolet and several others that I didn't remotely recognise. Neil, the gent who owns them, used to race them and the Bentley had a brass plaque on the bonnet proclaiming it as a record holder.
A bit of Googling has turned up that the car YX5121, is the famous record setting Forrest Lycett car, which as late as 1959 set the flying kilometer record of 141mph at Jabbeke, Belgium
I have to confess that I was more interested in the fact that off to one side of the cars was one of the nameplates from LNER A3 'Shotover' mounted on a replica splasher.
I am not sure just how big the layout is, but to give an idea Neil has a model of Evening Star pulling 70 wagons which didn't make anything look crowded. Although primarily pre-group NER/Midland and LNWR Neil also has a few guest locos which are examples of his favourites from more modern times, hence Evening Star.
They are owned by the gent who owns DJH and it turns out that he lives in the Dales not too far from us.
We were invited along primarily to view his layout which is housed in the loft of a large farm outbuilding. To get to it you have to pass through the garage where the classic cars are on display. I don't claim to be knowledgeable on what's what with classis cars but there was an example of an 8 litre supercharged Bentley , a Bugatti, 2 E Type Jags, a Rolls Royce Cabriolet and several others that I didn't remotely recognise. Neil, the gent who owns them, used to race them and the Bentley had a brass plaque on the bonnet proclaiming it as a record holder.
A bit of Googling has turned up that the car YX5121, is the famous record setting Forrest Lycett car, which as late as 1959 set the flying kilometer record of 141mph at Jabbeke, Belgium
I have to confess that I was more interested in the fact that off to one side of the cars was one of the nameplates from LNER A3 'Shotover' mounted on a replica splasher.
I am not sure just how big the layout is, but to give an idea Neil has a model of Evening Star pulling 70 wagons which didn't make anything look crowded. Although primarily pre-group NER/Midland and LNWR Neil also has a few guest locos which are examples of his favourites from more modern times, hence Evening Star.
Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen
Western Thunderer
Hi Peter,
I've ordered the Model Factory Kit from Hiro. I checked out a couple of builds for the 917 and decided that one of their kits might be fun!
all the best
Tim
simond
Western Thunderer
I am reassured, but remain confused.
The longitudinal position of a (semi-elliptic) leaf-sprung axle is normally controlled by having the forward end of the spring fixed to a bush pivoted in a dumb iron rigidly located to the chassis - the rear of the spring is supported by a shackle, which compensates for the length change of the spring as it straightens under increasing loads, or curves more as it is unloaded.
In this case it appears that both ends of the spring are supported by shackles. It’s possible that the front shackle is somehow rigidly fixed to the chassis, (perhaps splines or a dog) but such a joint would be quite heavily loaded, as braking loads in particular would tend to try to rotate the shackle around the transverse fixing screw.
And any fore-and-aft movement of the axle relative to the chassis is likely to affect the steering, depending on the angle of the link between the steering box and the axle, which might make life difficult for the driver.
I’d love to understand!
Atb
Simon
The longitudinal position of a (semi-elliptic) leaf-sprung axle is normally controlled by having the forward end of the spring fixed to a bush pivoted in a dumb iron rigidly located to the chassis - the rear of the spring is supported by a shackle, which compensates for the length change of the spring as it straightens under increasing loads, or curves more as it is unloaded.
In this case it appears that both ends of the spring are supported by shackles. It’s possible that the front shackle is somehow rigidly fixed to the chassis, (perhaps splines or a dog) but such a joint would be quite heavily loaded, as braking loads in particular would tend to try to rotate the shackle around the transverse fixing screw.
And any fore-and-aft movement of the axle relative to the chassis is likely to affect the steering, depending on the angle of the link between the steering box and the axle, which might make life difficult for the driver.
I’d love to understand!
Atb
Simon
Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen
Western Thunderer
Simon,
This photo shows how the spring is anchored at the front which will give an element of spring control.
atb
Tim
This photo shows how the spring is anchored at the front which will give an element of spring control.
atb
Tim
Focalplane
Western Thunderer
These model car kits seem to be more complex than the real thing and the engines don't even work! They say that when you work on a car restoration you need three times the space of the car when its together - one third for the body, one third for the chassis and one third for all the other bits. I visited a friend in France recently who lives in a chateau. He has four cars, three in bits and every room has some of them laid out on the floor. Being married I am not allowed to contemplate such a logical approach!
I really like this thread!
I really like this thread!
P A D
Western Thunderer
Hi Tim,
Can you feel my envy? By the sound of it you were already checking out MFH kits so you can hardly blame me for having laid out all that cash.
Enjoy!That's a lovely shot of the front suspension and not an image I have come across in my Googlings. If you have any more you can share please put them up.
By the way, on the Alfa there are numerous fastenings around the bodywork linked by wire. Do you know their purpose? Were the cars prone to shedding bolts and shaking to bits? I intend to add these but only have hex bolts so I may have to order some square brass rod.
Cheers,
Peter