DocRob

Thank you Chris, it hasn´t been an easy kit so far, but the engineering and detail is absolutely fantastic and I hope, I can fight my way through the build. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and Carl, I started with the belt drives and transmission and next will be the wiring. Main problem will be to insert the wires into the per drilled rubber connectors in crammed space. I tried the first and most complicated one, but gave up for breakfast. Luckily it´s not a 12 cylinder engine . Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, well the figures. I like the mechanic, but he´s far from perfect. The bug eyed boy, err, ... On the other hand, the figure of the boy gave me the story line from the first view in some online shop. Cheers Rob

Wow (Little) Chris, what a beauty and well worth the extension of the GB deadline. If this F4 is not to your standards, then I´m really eager to see what is . Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and indeed, the final assembly steps were a bit higher on the cuss scale. Next will be the wiring, which won´t be easy too, but the detail MFH supplies is well worth a bit of suffering. Cheers Rob

The engine got near finished, lacking the ignition wiring and the belts in front. To mount all the carburetor parts into the tub was extremely difficult, done by the manual, it would have been impossible. I spare you the details, but you should put in the four carburetor blocks at the same time, only connected with a fragile steering rod and then add the coil spring mechanism with no wiggle room. It took some thinking and manipulating of parts to get it right. The carburetor housings were beforehand accentuated with black panel liner. I also added some decals onto engine parts. Cheers Rob

Great display case, congratulations Kevin. Cheers Rob

Ready to go, Peter. All the prep work looks great and will ensure a nice and easy paintjob. Cowlings look good to me, it´s bent sheet metal with a bit of structural parts on the real thing and will never sit perfectly. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, I don´t know what happened with the holes in the PE. Maybe MFH chose to change the bolts, but forgot about the PE. Generally spoken, the Crocker kit had been a bit more refined, but maybe it´s easier to work metal only. Luckily it´s no major issues until now. The stainless steel PE makes sense with the kit, as it is visible and doesn´t need to be painted. Brass would have been more work in the end. Cheers Rob

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Hubert and Carl. I finally got the tubes cut and precisely to length, luckily. I thought about using the cutting disc on my Proxxon, but it would have been much more difficult to hold the tube in place and cut it exactly to measure. I would have put it on a brass rod for support, but luckily I got it finished in my mitre, without flying tube parts. I have lots of Albion tubes, but most are brass tubes and I want to keep the tube material visually as thin as possible, which means without painting. Aluminum tubes, I have only for WW! turnbuckle diameters, but I guess the thickness of the material would have been also too much for me in aluminum. Brass and aluminum tubes cut easily rolling under a sharp blade, but the stainless steel tube from MFH was a bit of a beast. Cheers Rob

Today, I prepared all the carburetor parts and finished assembling the first pair, which consists of almost thirty parts. The inox pipe in the middle of the funnel was pretty rigid. It had to be cut from a tube and the manual suggests rolling it under a sharp blade. I tried, but no success. I took out my mini mitre and razor saw and managed to cut eight parts, while loosing all the teeth on the blade. Again the holes on the PE parts were to small, to accept the bolts and needed to be re drilled. Pretty annoying, given it´s not brass, but very rigid stainless steel. I also added the distributor, where tiny rods of steel rod are glued into each connector for accepting the tiny rubber isolators. These needed to be drilled wit a 0,3 mm bit to later (hopefully) accept the ignition wiring. Cheers Rob

Thank you Scott, yup, this engine looks very similar to mine. I found pictures of exactly my car with slightly matte covers and black engine block. Cheers Rob

sorry for the multiple post, my system wasn´t responding and showed the post as not saved. Cheers Rob

Sorry to be the fire starter, Hubert . The 917 is indeed a true icon and somehow a statement of a past era. Personally, I prefer the short tail versions, but that´s only shape wise, without any historical or sentimental reason. @BlrwestSiR Carl mentioned yesterday in my Cobra Coupe build log a company producing 3D-printed car kits in large scale. They also have a 917 in 1/12 scale available. Maybe it´s an option for you as well. Modelparts for Sale! - mezzo-mix-models-modeling (jimdo.com) Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, exactly those gaskets (ah, that´s the correct terminology ) gave me a bit of struggle. The holes for the bolts were to small and had to redrill them. Aligning the PE to the holes in the block and inserting the bolts, without causing a CA mess was not so easy and the too small holes were very un-MFH. Thank you for showing the Mezzo-Mix site. The Escort would be my choice as well, but I have one from Belkits in 1/24. The kits look absolutely fantastic and if they build up well, they would be a good representation of the originals. 1/8 Porsches, geez. Like you said, the pricing seems very reasonable for what is on offer. Cheers Rob