Cobra Coupe - Le Mans - Model Factory Hiro 1/12

[DocRob]

51 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I haven't had much time at the bench lately. Last night was the first time in almost two weeks where I was able to get to spend time there. Of course, I ended up starting something(s) new...

26 minutes ago, HubertB said:

After my own hiccup with my compressor blowing a connecting hose, I have resumed the painting of my Cutlass.  I have chosen a NMF finish of VA-83, with a blue and white chevron on the fuselage, and blue wing tips and fins’ leading edges. It is a lot of masking, and re-masking, so nothing secret, but nothing spectacular to show, yet … Soon, though …

That was not meant as a critique, Carl and Hubert, I was only referring to Kevin´s post. Everyone has it´s own schedule and personal live to carry on. I also have times, where I don´t post a lot due to different distraction. There have always been busy and lazy times here.

What I really criticize, is the GB handling here on LSM. I think, I attended five, but only one of these was officially finished (Wet GB) and one was preliminary finished (Twins GB) without ever being finalized. The Sandbox GB is also pending since month and I came to the resolution, not to attend future GB´s or attend but extract myself from competition.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

57 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

The steering wheel looks great as do the rims. 

Good idea on leaving the glass out until you can sort the body fit. Hope it doesn't require too much tweaking. 

 

42 minutes ago, HubertB said:

I love your progress, Rob, even with the hiccups, which I’m sure you’ll overcome. The kit is challenging, but most likely, given MFH’s reputation, it has been designed to be doable …

Thank you both, this is the most critical phase of the build and I will take my time to sort it out. First thing, I had to reassemble the rear hatch again, because you cant reach it´s hinges with the body mounted onto the chassis. The hinges are hold in place with tiny screws, which wore out the resin. I had to fill the holes with CA and redrill, a task, I fear, because the body is thin, where the hinges are and I don´t want to drill through the rooftop.

The glass won´t be too difficult to add later, I hope. At least, it makes no difference, when to add the windshield to my eye. The rear hatch may prove a bit more difficult, as there are more than twenty rivets to add through the vac clear part into the frame. I don´t want to pre drill, because I don´t know for sure, how the vac parts markings for the rivets align with the framings hole indicators. I will use double sided clear adhesive tape for installing the clear part onto the frame. This way, I can drill the 0,6 mm holes for the rivets and the tapes residues hold the tiny rivets in place, without the necessity of adding CA and mess things up. At least, that´s the plan .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finalized the rims with installing the painted and polished center parts into the turned aluminum rim. I also added the air valves, but didn´t add the tyres for now, because I fear, the CA fumes might affect them.







Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

10 hours ago, DocRob said:

BTW: Wasn´t there a Sandbox GB ending some month ago, without any results? Well the Twins GB wasn´t officially ended either.

Yeah I just figured something was going on in Ernie's world been alot of weather issues in Texas the past six months.

[HubertB]

21 hours ago, DocRob said:

That was not meant as a critique, Carl and Hubert, I was only referring to Kevin´s post. Everyone has it´s own schedule and personal live to carry on. I also have times, where I don´t post a lot due to different distraction. There have always been busy and lazy times here.

What I really criticize, is the GB handling here on LSM. I think, I attended five, but only one of these was officially finished (Wet GB) and one was preliminary finished (Twins GB) without ever being finalized. The Sandbox GB is also pending since month and I came to the resolution, not to attend future GB´s or attend but extract myself from competition.

Cheers Rob

 

12 hours ago, KevinM said:

Yeah I just figured something was going on in Ernie's world been alot of weather issues in Texas the past six months.

To be fair, even though GBs are labelled as « LSM competitions », I never took them as anything more than an opportunity to model with my buddies along a theme, a bit like an extended club meeting … And there was no promise of any gain in the last two GBs, but the finalisation of the previous two ones never took place either …

From hearsay (because I am not - and will never be - on FB), it seems our friend Ernie is very busy on FB, but not for modelling issues … So be it … Everyone is entitled his « days off » from LSM, and there is no reason why we should expect anything else from our moderators …

Hubert

[KevinM]

Thanks Hubert I don't do anything but forums no other social media myself.

[CANicoll]

Rob, been following along and am still amazed at the quality of your work.  Even if the fuel cap is (ONLY!) 18 parts, that it is workable is amazing to me.

The wheels look fantastic.

One suggestion on the fogging: run a fan while the CA cures.  Sometimes I put the parts in my spray booth and turn on the fan to extract the CA fumes.

[CANicoll]

1 hour ago, HubertB said:

 

To be fair, even though GBs are labelled as « LSM competitions », I never took them as anything more than an opportunity to model with my buddies along a theme, a bit like an extended club meeting … And there was no promise of any gain in the last two GBs, but the finalisation of the previous two ones never took place either …

From hearsay (because I am not - and will never be - on FB), it seems our friend Ernie is very busy on FB, but not for modelling issues … So be it … Everyone is entitled his « days off » from LSM, and there is no reason why we should expect anything else from our moderators …

Hubert

Periodically I wonder about the GB's but like you all said, I figure it's another avenue to share a build and see what great work you all are doing.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, HubertB said:

To be fair, even though GBs are labelled as « LSM competitions », I never took them as anything more than an opportunity to model with my buddies along a theme, a bit like an extended club meeting … And there was no promise of any gain in the last two GBs, but the finalisation of the previous two ones never took place either …

From hearsay (because I am not - and will never be - on FB), it seems our friend Ernie is very busy on FB, but not for modelling issues … So be it … Everyone is entitled his « days off » from LSM, and there is no reason why we should expect anything else from our moderators …

I´d like to see things finished properly, Hubert. I don´t like to have a looming shelf of doom and unfinished GB´s fell into the same category. Like you, I generally enjoy a themed group build among fellow modelers most, there doesn´t need to be a winner or prize. That is why I said, I may attend to future GB´s but off the competition, if there is one, not eligible for winning or prizes. 
I´m also not on FB and other social media platforms and never will be.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

7 minutes ago, CANicoll said:

Rob, been following along and am still amazed at the quality of your work.  Even if the fuel cap is (ONLY!) 18 parts, that it is workable is amazing to me.

The wheels look fantastic.

One suggestion on the fogging: run a fan while the CA cures.  Sometimes I put the parts in my spray booth and turn on the fan to extract the CA fumes

Thank you Chris, the rims were made of near polished turned aluminum and it would have looked wrong to not polish the inner parts and having a sharp contrast between the two.
Your suggestion on the fogging issue sounds good and I will try it out. Unfortunately, about everything on this build is glued with CA and this on permanently base. I have to see, how practicable the spray booth or ventilation is. Most of the fogging arose hours after application of the CA, strangely.
I also looked into the VMS CA descriptions. They claim to be a bit less aggressive, but have a longer curing time, which I don´t like, because often it´s so difficult to hold the parts in place long enough.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I had the second attempt with adding the body to the chassis. Yesterday, I tried to identify the obstructing parts and gave them a little workover. This is not like you can pull the body off the chassis as often as you like. All the tolerances are really tight and it involves a lot of bending causing nasty sounds to get it right. When the body was halfway into position, I used a lot of finger force to push everything carefully into place and added screws into pre drilled holes. There were not too many damages to report, only some more scratches and one or two parts knocked off.
It´s hard to describe, but there are so many elements all around, which have to fit, I expected worse, but it was no walk in the part and it´s about make or break with the Cobra. The engineering is fantastic, I don´t know how they are able to do it, this is not the average " I close the fuselage of my plane job".

Attentive readers might see, there were parts removed from the firewall. This is necessary due to the preparation for installing the exhaust system, the next obstacle in this confined space. There is an additional sheet in the manual, showing the sequence of every part, but I couldn´t make it properly during test fitting.

Anyway, I´m lucky, I managed to marry the body to the chassis without too much fuzz. The bonnet is only laid on and the doors need some fine tuning later on.









Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

Wow, Rob that looks stunning. If it was on jack stands, you could pass it off as the real thing. 

I'm glad it's moving forward with fewer issues. 

[CANicoll]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Chris, the rims were made of near polished turned aluminum and it would have looked wrong to not polish the inner parts and having a sharp contrast between the two.
Your suggestion on the fogging issue sounds good and I will try it out. Unfortunately, about everything on this build is glued with CA and this on permanently base. I have to see, how practicable the spray booth or ventilation is. Most of the fogging arose hours after application of the CA, strangely.
I also looked into the VMS CA descriptions. They claim to be a bit less aggressive, but have a longer curing time, which I don´t like, because often it´s so difficult to hold the parts in place long enough.

Cheers Rob

Ahh, the base.  Maybe even just directing a small fan at the car while the CA cures would help?  Get some ventilation?  Your pictures look terrific!  This is such a beautiful car and you are doing it total justice.

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Wow, Rob that looks stunning. If it was on jack stands, you could pass it off as the real thing. 

I'm glad it's moving forward with fewer issues. 

Thank you Carl, I should keep your idea about the jack stands in mind, when I´m not able to install the exhausts or roll cage parts in the back , which seems to be very difficult, due to the confined space and limited accessibility, but lets see. 
As a "reward" for adjoining the chassis and body, I poured some champagne with self made raspberry vodka, a signature drink of the Ritz bar in Paris from the 30´s of the last century for my wife and me 
 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

5 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Ahh, the base.  Maybe even just directing a small fan at the car while the CA cures would help?  Get some ventilation?  Your pictures look terrific!  This is such a beautiful car and you are doing it total justice.

Thank you Chris, I´m always astonished, how long this car looks and is. I hope I can finish it without causing anymore damage. There are countless areas for touchup accumulating and especially those with body color will be problematic.
I will keep the ventilation idea in mind and will experiment a bit. It is so weird, because all of the used primers, colors and glue are the same, I used for a long time with nearly no issues.

Cheers Rob

[CANicoll]

Hmmm..  That is strange that you have used all of the products before, with no issues.  One problem I have had with fogging is that the CA gel I use seems to put off fumes for a long time.  I didn't realize it until I started using it in confined areas like wheel wells and cockpits (attaching small parts and resin parts).  I was getting the tell-tale white power residue after a day or so.

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Hmmm..  That is strange that you have used all of the products before, with no issues.  One problem I have had with fogging is that the CA gel I use seems to put off fumes for a long time.  I didn't realize it until I started using it in confined areas like wheel wells and cockpits (attaching small parts and resin parts).  I was getting the tell-tale white power residue after a day or so.

I will try to monitor the situation further on. Surely, the Cobra cries for a lot of CA everywhere. Since I´m working on the interior, I have lots of chalky residues and there were no windows hatches or doors mounted at the time, so a relatively good airflow was allowed. The residues occur mainly on Tamiya LP-5 semi matte black and yes, this type of residues show best on black background.
Working on the chassis, which is along all the fairings and framework airbrushed with the same color, I didn´t had these troubles. Work on the chassis was done in the end of summer with potentially far less humidity in the air, which is now about 90-95 percent.

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Rob, amazing work!  This is a really stellar build, but I have to admit I was very disappointed that the gas cap only had 18 pieces...

On the VMS products, I haven't used them enough to learn how long it takes for them to cure.  I don't think I noticed too long a curing time, but I'll have to go back and take notes.

Probably a bit too late, but instead of CA, have you tried two part epoxy?  I've used the 5min and 30min cure time versions in the past, but was curious and saw that there are some that are 1min cure time.  Only problem is that the bond is super strong, so you better be sure that the parts are in the right position.  I don't know if those products off-gas though.

For metal priming on my PE heavy builds like 1/700 warships I've used these metal primers from Mr. Hobby.  They work nicely.  Paint sticks much better.

 

VMS also seems to have a metal primer:

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Rob, amazing work!  This is a really stellar build, but I have to admit I was very disappointed that the gas cap only had 18 pieces...

On the VMS products, I haven't used them enough to learn how long it takes for them to cure.  I don't think I noticed too long a curing time, but I'll have to go back and take notes.

Probably a bit too late, but instead of CA, have you tried two part epoxy?  I've used the 5min and 30min cure time versions in the past, but was curious and saw that there are some that are 1min cure time.  Only problem is that the bond is super strong, so you better be sure that the parts are in the right position.  I don't know if those products off-gas though.

For metal priming on my PE heavy builds like 1/700 warships I've used these metal primers from Mr. Hobby.  They work nicely.  Paint sticks much better.

Thank you Mike, yeah the tank filling cap issue, now that I counted the parts, I´m a little disappointed too .
I may order some VMS CA, but usually I really like my Colle 21 very much. It´s not too thin, bonds very good with everything and has the perfect curing time for my liking. The epoxy, I have to try and I´m sure, it works great. The downside, you need it permanently, mostly in small doses so has to prepare it, while getting the CA bottle is fast. My reduced experiences with epoxy is, that it often pulls strings (don´t know of a better term in English), which can be fatal.

I tried to source some metal primer. All of my usual online shops have it in their portfolio, often different brands, but none are available. I will ask a friend, who is a car mechanic and body repairman about it.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I decided to let the implications of the exhaust system stew for a bit and went to the rear interior area. There is an internal framing down under the tank, which is connected with the chassis as well as the body and it fits like a glove. The framing holds the tank, which I only painted in aluminum without detailing, because it will never be seen again. Next, the right and left rollcage bars were added, not too easy, but they also fitted perfectly, which shows how good the engineering is.
The difficulty with these parts, it´s all black in there and you have to use an extra light for proper orientation. 



Now the tank got covered with a two peace (smart) flooring, which also has a lot of fittings for the seat belts and seat supports as well as rivets added. I then added the wiring for the backlights onto the rear air ducts. Unfortunately not enough yellow cable was supplied and I decided to drill a hole and let the cable end there. Last was the small oil tank with it´s tubing and now it will be time to install the spare wheel. But this will be done after some touch ups.

Cheers Rob

[CANicoll]

Rob,  Definitely coming together and looks terrific.  I have not tried any of the epoxies so can't off any experience there.  The rivets look super on that two-piece floor.  You are right, all that black makes it hard to pull out the details.

[GusMac]

Rob, I've used the Bob Smith 5-minute epoxy on the Viggen and Attacker as it works great with resin and I've had no problem with the 'strings' although it might depend on the applicator used. It also dries like an absolute rock. However, you're right in that it is difficult to mix small quantities with any consistency and I did tend to CA for small parts.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, GusMac said:

Rob, I've used the Bob Smith 5-minute epoxy on the Viggen and Attacker as it works great with resin and I've had no problem with the 'strings' although it might depend on the applicator used. It also dries like an absolute rock. However, you're right in that it is difficult to mix small quantities with any consistency and I did tend to CA for small parts.

Thank you Gus, I searched for Bob Smith epoxy and - who would have guessed - came up empty for my rock in the sea. I will try to get something similar though. I used 2K epoxy from Pattex in the past, which worked well for some cases, but pulled said "strings". When I´m building the Cobra, I often need a drop of CA every ten minutes, which makes working with epoxy really uncomfortable. For larger parts, it may be doable.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The rear section got finished with the spare tyre rack. I´m not sure about the rope and have to find some pictures of the real car to verify, but this is, how it is shown in the manual. I don´t want to have a collision with that huge heavy tyre behind my head.



Next, I started to prepare the exhausts. The manifolds are made from white metal, which has to be fitted into the confined space of the engine compartment. The side pipes are produced from resin and the exhaust ends are 3D printed which added PE- and rivet fittings. Every time, little coil springs are involved, it gets creepy. These buggers are really hard to fit into the PE fittings properly and you don´t want them airborne. Anyway, here are the end pieces.



Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Nice little assemblies Rob.  I'm really amazed by the detail of this kit!