DocRob

Thank you amigos, I´m happy that the glazing is almost done, as there is no real second chance, when something goes badly wrong. Other than many companies, MFH provides only one set of vac parts and these are easily scratched and polishing out scratches is nearly impossible. The seal was great to work with. It was something like a 3D-decal, somewhere between stiff and flexible and was perfectly shaped to fit. I only wish, MFH would have said how to work with it in the manual. Cheers Rob

Lovely detail there with the cockpit framing, Carl. Cheers Rob

Thank you for taking us with you, Carl. It seemed to have been a great show. I especially like the relatively great amount of off the trotten path kits shown. Cheers Rob

Thank you Count, this is valuable information. I found cutting as close as possible with a pair of good scissors made a finer cut, than sanding, which caused lots of burr. Cutting precisely with scissors might prove difficult with 1/43 parts, but with 1/12, it´s preferable, where possible. Sanding was done with sponges, but the most difficult part was to get rid of the burr with a scalpel and sometimes fingernails. Cheers Rob

Thank you Hubert and Martin. My mind was blown as well sometimes during the build. I try to recover and get the Cobra over the finish line soon. Cheers Rob

I continued with the glazing, starting with the windscreen. This is again a clear vacuum formed part, which needed to be cut to fit. There is a tiny sill, where the screen sits recessed into. After fitting it properly, I used transparent adhesive double sided tape of 1 mm width again (best stuff ever for these cases) and with a deep breath pushed the windscreen in. There are two possibilities supplied with the kit for the sealings, one made by rubber (upper) and another, which the manual calls UV print. Never heard of, but luckily found a descriptive video build from Pooh´s on YT, which described it as a kind of decal and this seems to be the case, maybe like the Quinta sets. After removing the protective foil, it looked like this, not very appealing. ...but it worked very well. I dampened the backing paper and after a minute, it came loose from the sheet and was easily applied onto the windscreen. Thanks again to Pooh, because nothing about the how to with this part was mentioned in the manual. I was on a roll and added the bubbly plexy side ducts behind the door´s windows, again with double sided tape and in this case with some rivets. Most of the glazing is done now, except for the vizor screens on the side of the windscreen. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, I´m happy with how it came out. Next will be the windscreen, which hopefully will be a bit easier, but then there are more clear parts to add in form of wind vizors and air ducts, phew . Cheers Rob

I liked the look of the hatch without the rivets, when you see the whole car, nice and sleek, but after applying the rivets, I thought it´s the cherry on the cake. Cheers Rob

That´s the benefit of these vac form parts, Chris. They are thin, distortion free and absolutely clear. Cutting them to fit can be difficult and they scratch very easily. Many companies provide two sets of vac parts, MFH is none of them unfortunately. Cheers Rob

Beautifully done, Chris. Detailing and weathering blend for a beautiful model. I have no idea about the XVI antennas and wiring. On your pic, I can detect a line going up from the middle of the spine. It can easily be a scratch in the pic or a wire leading to nothing, because the photo was retouched not very professional. Could be the explanation for the missing stains as well. Cheers Rob

Wow, cool photos, which make your splendid build look alive. Paintjob and weathering look so real. Cheers Rob

Looks like a sure winner to me, FA. I love what you did with your painting and weathering, which make a potentially boring scheme very interesting. All the details catch the eye. Good luck with your contest. Cheers Rob

Today, I started the next nailbiter sequence with glazing the rear hatch. This is a tinted vacuum formed part, which needed to be cut to fit and then applied onto it´s framing and "secured" with rivets. Shockingly, there was nearly no visible marking on the vac part: With a strong light and Kabuki tape, I tried to mark the borders as good as possible. Then I cut to shape little by little and effectively a bit too much at the lower end, where the marking still showed some excess. Next, I drilled all the rivet holes with a 0,6 mm drill bit and applied 1mm wide transparent double sided adhesive tape (red tinted cover paper) around the framing, exactly over the line of rivets, covering the pre drilled holes. I took great care, not to touch the tape and leave fingerprints on it, which might later show. On with the clear part, one deep breath, steadying the fingers and go. There is only one attempt and it has to sit correct. Finally I did the riveting job. I used a steel needle to mark the still visible holes on the vac part and drilled them with a 0,6 mm drill bit. The adhesive tape got pulled into the hole by the drill bit, which was exactly what I was after, as it will hold the rivets in place without further gluing. On with the magnifier and the sharp tweezers and applying about 40 of the tiny rivet buggers. Now I have to relax my eyes and am happy not to have scratched the clear part. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl and Chris, there was so much fun throughout the build, but during the final steps there is an accumulation of fearful tasks. This is mainly caused by my lack of experience, I think. I´m a bit out of my comfort zone right now, but I´m on the final pages of the manual and that means, there is a finish line in vicinity, which feels good. Cheers Rob

I finished the front section today, what a relief. I feared this step and I was right, as it was extremely difficult. The result wasn´t perfect, but it had to be done with the first attempt. The lower (fog?) lights received a flat acetate cover. My sheet was scratched (my fault) and I tried half successful to polish the scratches out. I glued the three angled PE parts into the light housing with ca and then applied double sided clear adhesive tape onto the fronts. Then I drilled the 0,6 mm holes for the rivets and applied the clear cover onto the adhesive tape. Last were the rivets. Sounds easy, but isn´t. First prob is working with the acetate, sanding it to contour leads to a massive build up of burr, which need to be removed with a sharp blade. Drilling is equally difficult for the same reason. Never use a PCB drill for thin acetate sheet, the burr is enormous, better use a classic HSS drill with appropriate angles. Alignment of holes in PE and acetate is also an issue. Next were the plexy covers for the headlights, again vac parts, which need to be cut to fit. You have to be very precise, as there is only a tiny edge to glue the clear part onto the body. Before I did this, I marked the holes for the rivets with a needle and drilled off the model. I used Revell Contacta Clear for gluing as it doesn´t fog the acetate. I suspect, it´s a kind of PVA glue, thinned with water. From the distance the front looks ok and I´m happy to got it done. Cheers Rob

A late Wingnut Wing . The stand looks great, Kevin, but I would add some padding onto the supporting parts. Chipping is also nice, as it is visible in the markings as well. Cheers Rob

If there are relatively flat surfaces, Hubert, here you go. MFH has two different styles of these as adhesive sheets. I have the finer one here and if you are interested, I can supply a photo. 糊付極薄アルミシート [金属きさげ加工模様 ]/Adhesive aluminium sheet [ Circular brushed metal texture ]. The Bugatti is tempting, but it is also made by Italeri. I have two of their large scale car kits and will buy others, only after building one and get an idea about the quality. I´m more than a bit hesitant with Italeri kits. Cheers Rob

You are absolutely right, Count, after race finishes are charming as well, but opposite to planes or tanks, should be weathered onto decent paint jobs imho. I will experiment with this kind of finish later on, when I have a bit more experience with car kits. For now, I have to live with wear and tear due to abusing my Cobra during final assemblies, which was supposed to look newish . Cheers Rob

Thank you Mike, don´t sell yourself short, I´m sure you are absolutely able to build a MFH kit to absolute beauty. I´m just the guy, who sometimes likes to be in the water first while surfing, which the others usually call the current dummy . My experiences with car builds are sparse as well, but I like challenges. You are right about the car finishes, which need to be as close to perfect as possible. Even with a weathered and abused rally car, the base should be a good paint job as with the real one before the start. Mass production war machines don´t cry for a perfect surface finish or even perfect surfaces. De nada for the detailed build logs. I like to show my approach, my successes and my fails as well, because I think this can be helpful to others. I rely on build logs as well, like in this case the YT build log from Pooh´s modeling works, which show the Cobra build really detailed. Cheers Rob

Well, the stars Kevin, it´s only a kit, but a certainly not very easy one. If I wouldn´t be generally criticising myself, I wouldn´t have had the skills and cojones to even start Cobra build . Cheers Rob

Thank you FA, I really appreciate a challenging build, small or big and try always to learn new techniques and hone my skills during my projects. I don´t build for exhibitions or competitions or for club meetings, etc., which means, I´m my fiercest competitor and I can be really hard that way, because I detest fails. I even dislike to redo certain steps during a build due to errors, because it means, there wasn´t proper planning or execution performed. Anyway, I still like the Cobra and will make my peace with the build hopefully. Cheers Rob

Thank you Carl, sometimes it happens to everyone, I guess . I thought hard about my options, but couldn´t find a proper solution. I think, it´s generally a problematic area of the build, like I read in other build descriptions. There are so many parts involved into fitting the hood, it´s nearly impossible to foresee everything. Right now, I will concentrate on the remaining steps, wich are demanding as well. There are numerous vac parts to apply for the headlights, wind visors, air ducts windshield and rear hatch window, an area, where don´t have a lot of experience. Most of the parts will be hold in place with tiny rivets . Cheers Rob

Thank you for your sympathy and support Chris and Hubert. It´s not the worlds end to me and I really enjoyed most of the build, it´s only a degree of frustration, not be able to solve a problem, I had foreseen through the whole build. Usually, I find solutions for these kind of things, but this time I failed, but I will try it again. My next MFH build will be probably a Formula 1 car, which I suspect a bit easier to build. The Cobra was possibly a bit too much for my minimal expertise with these kind of kits. The engine will remain accessible, if everything works like planned. There will be two tiny rivets to be pulled out with a pair of tweezers, to open the bonnet. I have some more MFH kits in my stash for training purposes, so maybe one day, I roll one out, which i don´t consider a fail . Cheers Rob

The Cobra build will go down as a fail for me. Nonetheless, I will finish it, but my attitude towards the build has changed and it doesn´t feel good, as I gave my best and am sure, it´s only my fault and not the kits. What happened. From the beginning, I feared the fit of the huge bonnet to the body to be critical and spent numerous hours in dry fitting and manipulating parts to reach that goal. When I finally came to the last dry fitting, after marrying the chassis to the body, I hit the wall again, it was not possible to close the bonnet properly. After hours of searching again for the obstructive parts, sanding, routing and grinding them to fit, I gave up and cut the bonnets hinges, the final measurement, which made the build a fail to me. I will only be able to remove the bonnet, but never with it´s purposed function. Nonetheless, I continued with outfitting the bonnet. I added the front coolers and headlights. These have a cast metal socket, bolted on from the inside and consist of finely turned aluminum reflectors. The bulbs are clear resin and I decided to paint them with clear yellow for a dot of color. The headlights then receive a PE and cast framing and were glued in from the outside. The lower lights got a tiny polished reflector glued into the middle of the clear part. I will skip the internal wiring, to leave the bonnet removable. Cheers Rob

If you mean beside here, no Cheers Rob