MHF Crocker FINISHED

[paddy]

So whats it all about then ?
Model Factory Hiro is a Japanese company that makes white metal kits, very much the same as a plastic kit but, you guessed it, in white metal.
They mostly make cars and motorcycles but i think there has been the odd Tank and ship.
https://www.modelfactoryhiro.com/SHOP/322676/list.html
I thought i would post some info as i dont think everyone has seen these kits before and they are quite expensive.
Basically it works like this, you send Mr Hiro approx £360 or $425 and he sends you a nice thank you note

And a bit of origami

Oh and he includes the kit you ordered as well.....
Parts are mostly loose in bags all are white metal with the exception of the seat cover, tires and a few other parts of wire and clear , Decals and a sheet of PE

Wheel rims and mudguards

Frame and handlebars

And assorted engine and cycleparts

Wheel spokes bottom left and Spoke nipples middle right

a few close up pics to show quality of castings, very little flash or cleaning up to do but i am not sure about surface finish at the stage re: getting a smooth paint finish

Carb body, note this is 8mm long

Crank case casting

Name plates for fuel tank

Exhaust silencer end

Ball point pen has 0.8mm ball for scale/size.

So thats it, what could be simpler ? should have it done by lunch time.

truth is i dont know where to start and i am a bit intimidated by it

 

[Rhino]

A "Big Tank" model?! For just a moment, I thought you had gone off your chum.
I'm better now.

 

[paddy]

One of the problems with bikes is the small fuel tank and lack of range unless you are going along a major route with gas stations at regular intervals, hence large and small tank versions. Small tanks even today on Harleys are about 2 gal so you are not going more than 50 miles

 

[Sharkmouth]

Wow! Like Swash Designs from Japan and their 1/35th scale motorcycles available in civilian and military releases!

 

[moon puppy]

Vrrom baby
Looking forward to this. What is the melt point of white metal? I don't think any soldiering will be done will it?

 

[paddy]

I doubt it Bob there is some good advice on their website and i think thick CA is the route to go down.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Might I suggest a "NICE" set of escapement files. I am not talking about needle files, but watchmaker escapement files. They are crisper, thinner, finer cut and I use my set ALL THE TIME. Rarely do I ever mess with one of the "needle" files that are commonly around.
They are NOT CHEAP, but, once you have a set and use them, you will never go back.

Here is a link to Cousin's UK page of watchmaker escapement files.

Or here is a link to Otto-Frei here in the US.

What you will want is the #4 cut which is fine, but does super well on plastic and metal. They have gone up in price about $100 a set since I bought my set a number of years ago. Yeah, pricey, but my go to files all the time.

 

[paddy]

hmmm, thanks for that. I think i will buy if i need them during the build but not in advance because of the cost.
Its hard to find details about dimensions in particular thickness and at £250 a set ($300 ) it might be better to buy singularly as i suspect as with my needle files , out of a set of 12 there will be 3-4 go to shapes every time
Thanks for the heads up all the same.

 

[paddy]

First thing to do i think is identify the parts. The instruction have a number for each part but the parts are not numbered so you need to down load a parts list from MHF so you can identify whats what like this

Then you can bag up the parts and number them

So far i have 40 bags

 

[paddy]

Another thing i need to sort out is how good a finish i need to get on the parts.
I decided to experiment with the mudguards as they are the largest parts and easy to work on.

These are pretty good, obviously they have a seam but no dents or pits or holes.

the seam is easily removed with just a sanding board

Holes are clearly marked and can be drilled out however there are lots of different size fixings so you need to identify these first, hence the bags, so you can drill the correct size

Finally i gave them 20 minutes in my fine tumbler to smooth of edges etc.

Next i will paint these and then i can see if this is the right way to go, if not they will easily strip with some thinners or acetone being metal.
This is the only way i can see to do this. I need to be sure i can get a paint finish on this surface before i go any further.

In another world it would be interesting to just stick the lot in the tumbler for and hour and assemble it all in shiny bare metal to see how it looks but i am going for as new real as i can get here. I predict an hour of prep for each 2 minutes of assembly/paint

 

[Heavens Eagle]

hmmm, thanks for that. I think i will buy if i need them during the build but not in advance because of the cost.
Its hard to find details about dimensions in particular thickness and at £250 a set ($300 ) it might be better to buy singularly as i suspect as with my needle files , out of a set of 12 there will be 3-4 go to shapes every time
Thanks for the heads up all the same.

If you do decide to buy individually I can give a bit of advice as to which ones I use the most.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

What kind of media do you use in your tumbler Paddy. I was given a decent one at work and for now it just sits in a closet. I know there are a bunch of different medias that can be used, thus a quick question from someone that is already having good success with it is a good start.

 

[paddy]

Tumbling is a try it and see thing, results will be different for every user depending on speed, size of barrel, amount of media, amount of water and so on
I use 4mm x 4mm ceramic triangular chips. I use an 8" dia barrel. The recommended set up is a third full of water/chips/ parts so the whole top can actually drop in side the barrel as it turns, Add in more chip[s reduces the drop and softens the action , going for a third full and adding 2/3 water and washing up liquid again softens the action and you get more rub than cut for a better finish. and so on.

half full with chips and parts and cover the lot with 2/3 full of water is a good starting point.
Really you can experiment with old parts with anything from silica sand to crushed walnut shells but remember what ever you use will get into and holes especially blind holes so i tent to use the 4mm chips on anything with smaller than 4mm holes, i have 10mm chips as well for things with larger holes.
I have always used this set up for carburetors so i am still experimenting with soft things like white metal and plastic.
another thing worth pointing out, i use this probably once a week for various things and the chips are now 30 years old and were probably 20 years old when i got them from my old place of work ....ie: they last forever unlike say walnut shells or some plastic chips

 

[paddy]

As with most builds research is everything
I have been confused by the pictures i have found of ~Crockers as they are all customised to a point a million miles away from what was produced in 1938. No 2 are the same and then today i found this

"Every Crocker was built to order, and no two are the same. Engines could be ordered from 1,000cc all the way up to 1,490cc".

Now this makes perfect sense as i have not even found two the same colour

I sprayed the mudguard i was practising on and its not good.

There are quite a few problems here but most stem or are amplified by being Gloss black.
Note the edges are showing white. What happened is.... The clear coat activated the black coat and the black flowed off the edges.
Also black is notoriously difficult to get a good finish because it contrasts so highly with reflections which are usually white or very light.

the answer will be either a better surface finish or a different colour. Now i see they are all the colours under the sun i am happy to choose my own

 

[moon puppy]

Yeah let's get a different color Paddy.

 

[paddy]

I am going to try and old automotive trick next using a filler primer ...

 

[paddy]

So the black sripped off in less than a minute, a huge advantage with metal bodywork, a splash of acetone and its clean again.

you can kind of see the problem here around the 2nd and 3rd hole down from the top, on the side.

I have now given this part 3 coats of filler primer which looks promising. It needs 24 hrs in my heated box before i can carefully rub this back with something fine, probably a 4000 grit pad.
Its important i get this right before i start building this thing proper.

if you would rather i just cut to the chase later just say, this may not be very interesting for most ..

 

[moon puppy]

I like seeing the process.

 

[paddy]

I let the Filler primer harden and lightly rubbed it back with 3000 grit You can see here its given it a slight gloss finish which tells me its pretty smooth

this is a much better way of getting a finish as the filler primer does what it says on the tin and fills small ripples

Anyway i am happy with this and i will now look at drilling some holes. Everything has holes marked but its up to the builder to drill them and work out what sizes ( as you can see in the mudguard above with 0.8mm holes)

PS the red above has not been cut back yet so i will get some of that orange peel effect out. I didnt want to go too far at this stage as this mudguard will have double tramline pinstripes eventually, these will be decals and so need to be under the gloss coat.

 

[paddy]

I knew this would be a learning experience I have been told tonight, what i need to do is completely build the engine using super
Glue so you know you have all the holes and everything in the right place and everything fits.. Then drop it in a bowl of acetone and unstick it all, then and only then, paint it who would have thought ?