Italeri Manx Norton 1/9

This is a project I shelved years ago as I simply didn’t have the know how to do what I wanted to do. As usual with these old kits the spokes in the wheels are 1mm, scaled up that’s 9mm and it spoils the model having double thickness spokes. ~you don’t have a chance of fooling anyone its not a model
As usually Italeri has chosen to use a picture of the real thing and not their model on the box

Anyway, I have built about 20 wheels now for cars and bikes, some scratch conversions using the original hub and rim and others using after market.
Even now i dont really know how i will do this, 99% of online builds of this kit have the original wheels and i can see why



You can see here a typical spoke pattern (half wheel) which should be easy, note alternate spokes attach to the hub, inside and outside.



But turn the wheel over and the lip on the hub is a fraction of what it should be so if you drill the holes for spokes on the outside, they will come through the hub itself on the inside.
With a lathe you might be able to reduce the dia of the inner hub. Another build i looked at has actually drilled the 20 holes needed around the 1.5mm lip...

I do have a set of generic resin hubs and rims but warning to all. Resin hubs are incredibly weak around the spoke holes



Those of us that have used resin will know its brittle and to he honest with the spring in steel spokes the edge of these hubs will break off as you try and assemble.. The rim on the other hand has possibilities being the correct 40 spoke and the correct dia for the kit rubber tyres.



So far all i have done is make a crude jig to hold the resin rim with the hub centred



I know its not very professional but i am hoping having spent the whole of yesterday puzzling over this, that if i make a start, the problem might solve itself as i go on.

You'll get it figured out Paddy

I dont know this time Bob
I just scrapped one of the resin rims :-( fortunately i have several more.

The spokes on the front leave the rim at a hell of an angle and obviously you have to drill the hole in the rim at that angle



Then i found a picture of the real thing to use as a reference as you do.



and the spokes are nowhere near that angle so this is what i think would be correct



This makes the rim drilling a bit easier as the spokes and the spoke nipple holes are much nearer 90 degree to the rim.

None of this helps with the hub though

Reference, reference, reference, that is what makes all the difference. I always find it amazing that with the internet, all the postings for references available, that in this day and age manufacturers don't bother to do diligence and make valid attempts to do shit right. So far Trumpeter is one of the worst offenders followed by Italeri.
Have never like Italian much anything since the Alpha Romeo I had years ago. POS.

Some good news today



this out of focus indexing head arrived today with Humbrol pot to give scale but it a 48mm chuck that rotates 360 degree with a Vernia display on the front that reads to 1 degree ( or less by eye) Nicely made, smooth operation and comes in its own wooden box. £96.00 from Proxxon

The info craftsman table on their fine adjust vice is good but it doesnt allow you to revolve round as centre point because obviously a 2 jaw chick doesnt hold diferent dia central to a drill as only one jaw moved.



The standard infocraftsman dill will not take the above set up without a larger base and taller pillar as seen above so i have the std base and pillar spare. You can see its small than the new one behind.



The really good news/luck is the throat of the spare base and pillar just allows me to centre the drill to the chuck. although i did shave 1mm of the pillar clamp above just to give working room.





I will now permanently fix this indexing head or technically a diving head, to this base and then its easy to just swap the drill head from base to base



the purpose of this is i can now drill a ring of evenly spaced holes round any dia up to about 2.5" and lets face it who has ever got through a day without needing to do that :-0

Proxxon has some good stuff but you should send it back if it's out of focus!

They say its in perfect focus, its just the rest of the world needs glasses ?