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

[BlrwestSiR]

Sorry that you couldn't find a solution to the fit of the hood. It's a spectacular looking build so I'm glad to hear you're going to finish it. 

 

[FullArmor]

You have done a great job👍.

I have noticed that you learn more new things from the biggest projects. So don't be too critical of yourself.

I hope you will share your experiences/buils in the future too.🙂

[KevinM]

18 hours ago, DocRob said:

The Cobra build will go down as a fail for me.

To get the stars to align in the correct formation in the heavens happens only on occasion Rob while we are our own worst critics.  

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Sorry that you couldn't find a solution to the fit of the hood. It's a spectacular looking build so I'm glad to hear you're going to finish it. 

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

[DocRob]

6 hours ago, FullArmor said:

You have done a great job👍.

I have noticed that you learn more new things from the biggest projects. So don't be too critical of yourself.

I hope you will share your experiences/buils in the future too.🙂

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  

[DocRob]

59 minutes ago, KevinM said:

To get the stars to align in the correct formation in the heavens happens only on occasion Rob while we are our own worst critics.  

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

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Rob, don't beat yourself up my friend.  Your build is spectacular!  And how often are you going to open the hood when it's in the display case?  

I have a few MFH kits in the stash that I want to eventually build after getting a little more experience with building car kits.  Cars may seem much easier to build as opposed to planes, ships, etc., but I find them to be more difficult in a lot of ways.  You can't fudge the paint job by weathering like you can with planes - the finish has to be pristine.  And things have to line up perfectly or the model just looks off - more so than other subjects I think.  

You're quite the master on paint jobs, complicated fittings, etc.  I hope to one day get close to your skill level!  

I also just wanted to say thank you for posting your detailed build logs.  I always learn a lot from them, especially when you show the difficulties and how you approached them.  

Mike

[Count0]

On 3/19/2025 at 7:48 AM, Landlubber Mike said:

the finish has to be pristine

Not always. They can be finished as "post race" dirty and beat up. My Porsche 911 RSR will be finished this way. I have a reference book of photo's taken post race so all the dirt and wear is documented. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it will be fun.

[DocRob]

On 3/19/2025 at 2:48 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Hey Rob, don't beat yourself up my friend.  Your build is spectacular!  And how often are you going to open the hood when it's in the display case?  

I have a few MFH kits in the stash that I want to eventually build after getting a little more experience with building car kits.  Cars may seem much easier to build as opposed to planes, ships, etc., but I find them to be more difficult in a lot of ways.  You can't fudge the paint job by weathering like you can with planes - the finish has to be pristine.  And things have to line up perfectly or the model just looks off - more so than other subjects I think.  

You're quite the master on paint jobs, complicated fittings, etc.  I hope to one day get close to your skill level!  

I also just wanted to say thank you for posting your detailed build logs.  I always learn a lot from them, especially when you show the difficulties and how you approached them.  

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

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, Count0 said:

Not always. They can be finished as "post race" dirty and beat up. My Porsche 911 RSR will be finished this way. I have a reference book of photo's taken post race so all the dirt and wear is documented. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it will be fun

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

[HubertB]

If you’re into large scale iconic cars, I have seen that Italeri just released a 1/12 Bugatti 35 B.

The only difficulty will to reproduce the corked aluminium look of the engine block, a staple feature of the Bugatti engines 😉 …

Hubert

[Count0]

7 hours ago, DocRob said:

should be weathered onto decent paint jobs imho.

Yes. Race cars, like super models getting ready for the cat walk, are fused over by their various servitors (40K, please forgive. lmao) So they are as perfect as possible before they get clipped by another car, or trip over their own dress, and ruin everything...

Overall, then, it needs to start at clean, glossy finish. Which differs from a WW2 aircraft which I doubt, and have proof that, they didn't have perfect finishes.

In both cases you could use a bit of grunge to hide a sin or two. But the car should start off looking as pretty as possible.

[Count0]

The other thought, and I have seen it done, mostly on 1/43 scale cars, is a dead flat paint job. The idea being that you wouldn't see the shine at the scale viewing distance. Idk, maybe you don't buy scale distance, but I have seen some nice race car models with a flat finish.

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, HubertB said:

If you’re into large scale iconic cars, I have seen that Italeri just released a 1/12 Bugatti 35 B.

The only difficulty will to reproduce the corked aluminium look of the engine block, a staple feature of the Bugatti engines 😉 …

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

[DocRob]

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

[BlrwestSiR]

Some challenging work there Rob but it looks good. 

[CANicoll]

Nice fit and with incredible detail.  Whew!

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Some challenging work there Rob but it looks good. 

 

7 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Nice fit and with incredible detail.  Whew!

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

[DocRob]

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

[CANicoll]

Awesome Rob!! Looks just like glass.

[Count0]

The rivets really are the final touch on that piece. it looks so plain without them.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Awesome Rob!! Looks just like glass.

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

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Count0 said:

The rivets really are the final touch on that piece. it looks so plain without them.

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

[BlrwestSiR]

That rear glass looks stunning. Lots of work to get a perfect but worth it. 

Carl

[DocRob]

7 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

That rear glass looks stunning. Lots of work to get a perfect but worth it. 

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