Beware the Mephistopheles FINISHED

[paddy]

there are 12 little screws in this out of focus picture. Why ??
Who desided to build these things with screws ? next one of these i build i will get some plastic rod of the right dia and glue the whole thing together.
The problem is , screws have a slot head and nothing on these old cars had a slot head and also the screws wind themselves into the plastic by basically expanding the hole. This causes the boss you are screwing into to split more often than not.
I get that a screw might be stronger but these are models, we are not going to be zooming them round the floor making engine noises .

 

[moon puppy]

, we are not going to be zooming them round the floor making engine noises

Wait what? We don't??

 

[paddy]

Well we do but dont tell anyone

 

[paddy]

Chassis basics are done.

this is a strange model, its marketed as one of the set of between war Italian race cars by Italari but the quality of this one compared to the Alfa i built a few months ago is awful. The basics are there to build a good model without a doubt but the flash, sink marks, attachment points etc are really 1970's, the use of dozens of unnecessary screws and the brittle plastic used , do this model no favours. It leaves you thinking at £150+ its not as good as the 50 year old airfix Bentley for less that 2/3 the price.
airfix new high detail 1/24 spitfire is out now at £90 nearly half the price of this !

A lot of cleaning up on most parts

 

[moon puppy]

 

[Rhino]

What might a 1/24 scale Spitfire pilot drive to his flying field?

 

[paddy]

Only one car for RAF at the time, The MG TA.

Douglas Bader in his

 

[Rhino]

Did the MG TA ever find itself equipped with a blower? (He said, shamelessly fishing). In 1/24 scale, perhaps?

Our old family friend had an MG like that. It was green. I could ride in it, but he said "You have to turn your hat around backwards like Lincoln Beachy."
Dr. Dominic "Old Geezer" Pellegino was old enough he might actually have known Lincoln Beachy. I still have the old stroker hat he gave me to wear. God Rest him.

 

[paddy]

Rather a strange weekend making a part i didnt really need

I decided i would cover wood parts in balsa. so the floor and firewall/bulkhead which are supplied in a sort of red brown plastic like this

I basically just covered the parts

then trim the balsa to the plastic and stain

Same for the rear floor

However i suddenly though, this bulkhead would be almost black with oil and grime so the above shows the plastic just coated in oil paint burnt Umber.

Initially i was going to cover the bulkhead in Balsa but it would been be too thick. The answer was to make a thinner plastic bulkhead and cover that in Balsa.......Yea you can see where this is going

I cut out a new BH in paper thin plastic sheet

covered it in Balsa and gave it a thin strip like the original round the edge and it did fit the body

I then ran into problems putting holes in the balsa, its just has too slack grain and splits down the grain. It was at this point it suddenly occurred to me this doesnt need to match the floor as it would be oil soaked anyway so i scrapped that and oil painted the original part
a wasted Sunday but actually quite fun all the same

 

[moon puppy]

What a nice upgrade. Not sure what to tell ya about the holes.

 

[paddy]

My Dad used to build balsa Gliders and i think he used to burn holes with a hot nail.

 

[jknaus]

Love the wood work. Maybe a better alternative if you need to cut holes would be some basswood? No matter, it still looks so cool.
James

 

[paddy]

the instrument panel is a bit odd ?

I realise now the curved bit n the bottom is part of the Sprue ;-) however the circles/finish i think is an attempt at what they call engine turning.
I doubt that would e accurate because this is a one off home made car and crude ( I'm being polite)

Anyway it had to go and this is my aluminium replacement

and once the instruments are added along with three toggle switches thins look a lot better.

As has been mentioned the restored car is the pattern for the model however in 1925 thy didnt have modern toggle switches

 

[moon puppy]

Hey, I don't see the Smiths logo on that Tach mister!

 

[paddy]

Body is currently just Matt but i will add a good degree of weathering/oil stain etc

 

[Rhino]

Total loss lubrication system would make Her gooey indeed! What sort of oil did such a Sled use?

 

[paddy]

In the aircraft i think they used caster oil ? i imagine the aero engine in a car would use the same . Pilots were known to have 24/7 diarrhea from the blow back of oil from the engines in flight

 

[paddy]

Added the bulkhead, phase nearly done, the work starts with the engine which is 75% of this build TBH.
also added some oil blow back

one

 

[moon puppy]

Love it!

 

[paddy]

Looking over some parts for the engine the valve gear needs some work

this is a mock up of what you get

and this is what it should look like

so the kit has no valve stems or spring caps, at this point even the springs look a little feeble.
Because this right on top of the engine it needs to be put right, i just need to figure out how to do it with such small parts
Interesting to note that instructions say these rocker arm housings are brass but the original shows they are probably bronze, i wonder what happens if i mix brass and copper alclad ;-)