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Italeri Fiat 806 GP racer 1:12

So this is my end of year round up on this

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I was searching on line for ideas about wheels for this and as luck would have it i found several people doing rims and hubs for the Airfix Bentley 1/12 that were listed as suitable for the Fiat 806 and the fiat Mephistopheles which was a result so i contacted the guys in Ireland who did the 3d printed wheels for my Bentley build years ago and they are sending a set for the fiat :)
I have found the way to build these kits is ton use the screws to hold it all together than remove the screws one by one and replace with a super glued MFH alloy hex head and stem. What they call a hex head rivet. even now screws left tightened over night maybe loose and in a cracked fitting over night. I have solved this to an extent..... the screws supplied at mostly countersunk but the holes aren't so as you tighten the screw its acting like a wedge in a log and splitting the plastic so i have bought some 1.4mm flat head screws , not countersunk and that has greatly improved things.

Happy new your to everyone here :cool:
 
I'm a fan of Loctite on screws but I really don't know if it will work in our world. I don't think a touch of CA would help, too brittle. Sounds like you got the fix though.
:popcorn
 
If they were machine screws I would have probably bought taps and pre-threaded the holes. I guess these are like mini sheet metal screws though. It probably could be possible to make some kind of tap for these as well but what a pain in the can.
 
You can guess the price of a good quality 1.4mm tap :) probably more than the kit .....
I have some std quality and they act like reamers giving a perfectly smooth hole as as the cut and strip their own threads : 😂
As i say the real problem is actually the kit is designed to be metal and the plastic parts just dont have the strength or wall thickness for threads.
 
I have made up a mount for the magnetos and put the left side plug leads on and connected the magnetos to the camshaft drives.
Its actually been the most difficult part of the build so far scratching the leads and bracket and the reworking of the magnetos themselves. Only problem that needs addressing before i do the right side is the bright colour of the leads themselves.

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I got the other side done last night, i struggle working with 2 pairs of tweezers, for some reason as soon as i hold tweezers my hands shake
:)



Thanks guys, you are too kind
I got the other side done last night, i struggle working with 2 pairs of tweezers, for some reason as soon as i hold tweezers my hands shake :)



The reason i am messing about with bits that will not be seen is i have decided to build this as a cutaway. Originally i was going to just leave the body off and display it separately but that just takes up twice the shelf space. so now i am thinking i will cut the body right down the centre line.

It throws up its own problems like the instrument panel is mounted on the half i want to cut off.....lol :)
 
I hope this will work.....there is no turning back now :).............................(without a lot of glue )

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The project will need a frame . I dont know if it had one in real life, no one does but its going to get one now as i need some sort of base to build on from now on. I got some U section brass from the model shop, a bit of a gamble as i didnt know if it would bend, some brass is very crisp and snaps but i got away with it quite well

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somehow i have to fix it the chassis and the half body now

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I think its called winging it :)
 
So this is a first pre build to see if the parts fit

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I dont think i can leave body frame brass. it looks ok but they would never have used Brass for a job like this so as its a continuation of the Chassis i think it will be semi gloss black . The interior panels will be aluminium finish, they probably would have been black but using artistic licence :) i dont want to turn the interior in to a black hole you need a torch to peer into :)

i wish i had bought a couple more lengths o the brass channel and i could have made a third frame look behind the seat. its a 70 mile round trip to the model shop so i will see if i can get a length on line.
 
I agree about the black interior. New cars now a days have all black interiors and it looks like a black hole. Hate that look. Gary S.
 
Well i fired up the micro lathe and no joy.
TBH its pretty useless for what i need.

no adjustment to centre the tail stock to the chuck except via the gibs but you need to use the gibs to lock the tail stock so even if you set it up it wont stay there if you keep tightening and slackening the gibs.
Although you would think boring would be a basic use of a lathe , on this machine if you mount a boring bar in the tool post the cross slide doesnt allow you to get the tool post far enough across to reach the centre of the work.
You need 2 hands to operate the chuck (no spindle lock) this means its very hard to hold the work in place while you tighten the chuck as it needs 2 hands to tighten ...... and a third to hold the work in position while you do so and i only have two :).

I could go on and on so what is really the issue ?
Basically haven given it some thought having spent a life time building prototypes from peoples ideas in engineering, what they have done here is scale down a lathe so its still in proportion but this approach never works for example halving the thickness of something that is bent for strength reduces that strength x8
in the case of this lathe the tool post takes 8mm square tipped tools. a reduction of lets be generous and say 50% but things like the bed width and length have reduced by 80% approx. there is simply not enough room around the work for the tools but more importantly not enough range of movement on the tool post around the work.

long and the short of it is its now on ebay but i already feel sorry for whoever buys it unless they want to to alter it to suit their needs by making a much smaller bespoke tool post and their own custom small tools, i would suggest tool stock of no more than 5mm square, they will have the same problem i did.
 
On a lighter or brighter note the Innocraftsman micro drill is excellent, especially if you want to drill a 1mm hole up a 2mm screw...and lets face it, who doesnt want to do that :)

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