DocRob

Thank you Martin, the build was a chore sometimes, but most was outright fun. I´m happy, that the beast is nearly done. I felt, I had put on a bit too much onto my shoulders with the late stages of the build. I think, it was the hardest build of my increasing MFH stash. Cheers Rob

Peter Brock designed the Cobra Coupe from a sketch on some spare paper to the final design. He developed the car parallel to the normal Cobra Roadster racers under his own responsibility. It proved, the fast development was successful, as the Coupe was much faster and fuel efficient than the Roadsters. The Dodge Viper shown, well, there are some similarities, but it lacks all the aggressive elegance of the Cobra Coupe with it´s bulbous 90´s design. Where the Cobra looked modern for it´s time, the Dodge Viper looks like yesterdays newspaper . Cheers Rob

Thank you FA, the sidepipes looked very white on the original car as well. It´s maybe hard to see on the pics, but I added a bit of depth, using two different shades of white. I haven´t used any panel liner on the outer shell of the Cobra and may find the contrast a bit too harsh on the exhausts. Cheers Rob

It was a menace at it´s time, Carl. The Coupe was developed for better aerodynamics, which was necessary to compete on European circuits, like Le Mans or Spa, where higher speeds were reached. Different drivers, new to the Cobra Coupe achieved immediate lap records during training sessions. My example driven by Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant in Le Mans 1965 some days after my birthday. They did not finish though. Cheers Rob

Thank you Count, guilty as charged . What car would that be? Cheers Rob

The Cobra Coupe is almost done, what a relief. Last steps were adding the exhaust sidepipes, adding the wheels, mounting the wiper and also doing a lot of touch up work. The exhausts were fiddly to attach, but again, clever design by MFH helped a lot and with a little wiggling they snapped in place, without breaking the manifolds loose, which would have been very bad. The wheels were a joy to assemble and easy to attach with their turned and threaded aluminum axles and fitting nuts. The nuts also received the three winged securing nuts and a tiny PE logo in the middle. The wiper was a multi part affair, made from cast white metal and several bended PE parts. There are only a few parts missing now, which I hope to find during cleaning the bench. Last and most dreaded was the assembly of the hood. I cut the hinges and was only able to close the hood perfectly with a tiny bit of force. I added two tiny aluminum rivets with 0,5 mm diameter to secure the hood in it´s appropriate place, phew, done . Some outdoor pics will follow later, when the sun is shining and all the touch ups are done. Cheers Rob

I know it is slow, Count, because I started with 400 grit and then went to 800 grit, but still, lots of nasty burr. Cheers Rob

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