DocRob

I´d like to have an espresso somewhere in Rome and hear the sound of the Cinquecento´s. Your build has all the right ingredients for that feeling. Nicely done. Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris and Peter for your best wishes, we also hope the best for our dog, but until now, his condition hasn´t changed. I never heard about the liquid metal and have to check if this stuff is available here. Cheers Rob

Thank you Scott, unfortunately the Cobra Coupe kit is sold out, but maybe some retailer out there still have one. The kits are expensive, but if you are really interested, it might be an option or in case of the Cobra Coupe the only option, at least in 1/12 scale. Like all the holes of the kit, the positions are only marked and you have to drill them yourself. Building a MFH kit means drilling a lot, in fact some hundred holes, in this case 0,5 mm to accept the PE fitting for mounting the ignition wiring. You see, the level of detail and the way it is engineered is outstanding. If you grab one of the god ole Tamiya 1/12 formula one kits, which most sell for crazy prizes right now and add all the Top Studio galore in PE and resin, you may have to pay more than for a MFH kit, with the detail level even, at best. Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris and Pater, good to have you around for the ride. It will be a bit bumpy, at least for me, as my beloved dog is seriously ill at the moment and I have to take care on him, seeing doctors and all that. The rocker covers are much worse than other white metal parts of the kit, I guess due to their shape. There is a lot of pitting and it was even more without me putting a lot of elbow grease in it. Unfortunately they are very prominent and filler is not an option, as I like to have them in polished metal finish. Back to the bench for them and sanding some more... Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter and good to have you onboard for the Cobra Coupe ride. I´m expecting a bit more of problematic areas with the Cobra, but lets wait and see. Cheers Rob

Like others mentioned, check the needle and nozzle with a magnifier. I had slightly bent needles, which was barely visible with the bare eye and once I had a tiny split in the nozzle front. I hone my needles from time to time with a very fine Japanese sanding stone. Another reason for spitting can be a change of temperature, humidity or air pressure changes of the compressor, which lead to pigments drying on the tip of the needle and cause spitting. Thinning or reducing the air pressure may help here. Cheers Rob

Is there liquid into the bubbles or just air, Chris? Is it possibly a reaction of the clear coat wit the decal? I usually mist a very thin layer of clear lacquer over the decals and let it dry for some minutes, before seriously sealing them in with a proper layer. It may help to apply a bit of heat from a hairdryer, but carefully. Cheers Rob

Only to show, that I´m actually working on the Cobra, I made some mock up shots with the prepared main engine components, which will be airbrushed next. The resin body needed quite some adjustments to fit properly and there are about 100 holes drilled into these parts, to accept other accessories. The cast quality of the rocker covers is unfortunately not very good, with a lot of pitting. The photos show the state after two hours of sanding and polishing. The pics exaggerate the effect a bit, but the covers won´t do like this as polished finish, so some more elbow grease is needed. Cheers Rob

It´s not often, that you get the chance to see two Cutlass´s being build. Now that you showed us your new beautiful cave, there is no way around progress . It will be interesting to see, how Scott and you tackle the problem areas of this demanding build. Landing gear bay looks nice and busy. Cheers Rob

Great solution about the landing gear axles, Chris. The F4 is rolling now and only a few bits until there is smoke coming out of the your fantastic looking bird. Cheers Rob

There are some resin sprues in the kit, to not loose contact to the plastic modeling world, Chris . The Cobra Coupe is a beauty and I already bought some jars of body color, which is from Number 5 and is called Cobra blue. I don´t expect many AM investments with that seemingly complete kit. Cheers Rob

Hehe, a bit of the decision to start the Cobra was, because you so much wanted me to do, Peter. There is indeed a lot of parts involved, but hopefully all goes together well. I will not rush the build, which will help to reduce errors. Cheers Rob

Good to have you onboard, guys. Actually the Cobra Coupe is a two seater, but the second seat has no safety belts. Lets see, how this will work out, I started with cleanup and drilling on engine parts and there was more to do, than with the Crocker, maybe, because there are more resin parts involved with the Cobra. @BlrwestSiR: Unfortunately the kit sold out pretty fast, but sometimes MFH re-releases kits. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil, the white metal is very good to work with and allows for different types of surface finish. Only cleaned, it looks like aluminum, but you can give it a brushed or polished finish as well. Building MFH kits is quite different from normal styrene kits, but given the right tools and a bit of understanding about how to work with metals, it´s not overly complicated. The chain was a challenge, the rest was fun, but you have to maintain a proper building sequence, thinking ahead and test fit a lot. Well the price tag is hefty, but the MFH kits are special. I purchased all my MFH kits directly from the producer and found it to be the cheapest way by far. Cheers Rob

Hola friends of American heavy metal, My next project will be the famous and fantastic looking Shelby Cobra Coupe from Model Factory Hiro in 1/12 scale. Only six of these cars were built in 1964 and 1965. It was a successful design and incorporated early aerodynamic aspects. My build will be the second build chassis with the number CSX 2286, which competed in Le Mans, but didn´t finish due to clutch problems. I may add a bit more history later during the build. I purchased the kit directly from MFH in Japan and after one week of record breaking shipping time, it appeared on my doorstep as my second MFH kit after the Crocker. I will show some pictures of what is in the box, but I will not unwrap everything, therefore the quality of some of the pictures is a bit sub optimal, but I will show everything during the build. First of all there is the magnificent two part resin body, with the hood and doors and back will be openable. Casting quality is fantastic and only a minimum of cleanup will be necessary. There are aluminum turned rims, which later receive cat metal inserts and fantastic tyres with producer print and blue hairline. Three plates of photo etched parts: A bag full of multi media accessories, like turned headlights and funnels, clear resin parts, screws and coil springs, cables and tubes, seat belt material, ... The windshield and headlight covers are clear vacuum formed parts, which need to be cut out and the rear window is tinted brown vac style (not shown) For the side windows, there is a flat clear acetate sheet, with cut and drill markings and a rubber framing for the windshield. There are decals for four different cars all in the same Shelby Guardsman blue. I hope the white stripes are opaque enough to not let show the blue underlayer through. And then there is a heap of cast white metal parts, which I cleaned with my magnetic tumble polisher and 0,3 mm polishing needles for about an hour. After picking the parts out of the dirty black water, I spread them on paper towels and started the tedious process to identify all the parts, sort them into box compartments according to the parts list and manual for double checking and after two eye straining days found, all parts are there, phew. The last box contains bits like screws, bolts and rivets, smaller parts, which will be used in different steps of the build and lastly the parts used for other chassis. So far for now. Cheers Rob

Over on ModelShipWorld, a member asked for some daylight shots and here they are. Cheers Rob

Coming together nicely, Peter. I also use to wipe down the entire kit with some alcohol before priming. Cheers Rob

I like the worn leather finish as well, but don´t know if there ever were Topolinos with leather interior. Who cares, if it looks good, which it does. I once simulated worn leather with applied cigarette paper as a base layer with oil colors on top. I guess, the method would also work for fabrics. Cheers Rob

Thank you Hubert. The model is indeed of the highest possible quality. If you are aware of the number of kits, MFH produces and the process of designing these, you can understand the hefty price tag. I´ve seen some very good kits over my modeling career, but these are in league of their own. Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike. I actually sent the pics to MFH, as they have a customer gallery. Lets see, if they accept my entry. If it does kick their sales, I cannot say, but I became a willing customer . Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, FA and Paul, this won´t be my last MFH kit for sure. I have some others in stash and may start with the Cobra Coupe in 1/12 soon. Cheers Rob

For the price you have to pay for the 1/12 Tamiya McLaren, I would go all in and buy a Model Factory Hiro one, which I considered, albeit a MP4/5b. The Tamiya kit with some extras comes close with it´s price tag. I have several tempting 1/12 car kits and my favorites right now is the MFH Cobra Coupe. For 1/12 F1 kits, I only have the Tamiya Brabham BT44b at hand with some goodies, as well as the MFH Williams FW16. Cheers Rob

I may do that Phil, it´s resting in the box for now and possibly, I will pull it out again, build it closed up and forget about it. Cheers Rob

Due to my fault, I lost some parts, like the bezel glasses and the very prominent spring fork adjuster, which flew away during polishing and was never seen again. I emailed MFH and a bit more than a week later, I had spare parts along a hand written note, encouraging me to finish the Crocker, nice touch. Today, I added the saddle and the cockpit, after polishing said adjuster and can call my first MFH build finished. It was a pure pleasure build of a well constructed kit, with the chain, being the only troublesome area. It was a fantastic variety to work mainly in metal and be able to not paint everything, instead sand and polish or leave a natural metal finish. As a sidenote, I would like to have a `Finished Cars and Bikes´ section, like @Martinnfb suggested lately. This is not a tank by far. Cheers Rob

Like Peter says, Mom firs, Chris. The F4 will not run away. I doubt, screws are a solution to mount the resin wheels. I guess the LG axles are relatively thin and won´t take a thread without disintegrating. Maybe you can strengthen the assembly using brass tubes, one fitting onto the axle and the next larger one fitted into the hub. Albion makes ´slide fit´ brass tubes, which actually slide into each other with minimum tolerances. Cheers Rob