sharknose156 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Hello Gentlemen. this is a brief WIP of a fascinating car. The Fiat Mefistofele of 1923. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephistofeles_(car) Built and assembled, by Sir Ernest Eldridge in 1923 with bits and pieces of the most advanced speed producing technologies and engineering available to him, sparing no expense or creativity. http://www.bigscalemodels.com/cars/fiat_mefistofele/mephistopheles.html There are several beautiful and very impressive builds of this monster car on this galant scale modeling forum and others and in various languages. Each of these builds invariably gives credit to the beauty and the infernal bestiality of this car one way or other, for which i am very thankful as it has greatly inspired me. i have learned from each of these builds and tried to incorporate some of the techniques. Some modeling details i have not yet seen on this car - i am not very good at web search - and therefore have tried to incorporate some ideas in this one, copying the original car, to the limit of my ability ( and eyesight). Hopefully as these other builds have inspired me, i hope this WIP will inspire others to further improve the final results and one day a beautifully identical Eldridge Fiat will result in 1/12 scale. Every car is supposed to take us from A to B. This one however belongs to mythology and was immediately baptized with the name of a Demon no less. Imagine the sheer infernal noise, fumes, power, smell, and the way it jumped with indiscipline on the old uneven and tree lined roads of the time, while its "mad" but athletic driver struggled to keep it straight and fast. The car broke speed records reaching 234 KM/H ( 146 Mph ) which are already impressive speeds in any modern car and on wide highways. this is the model i am trying to build: there are many excellent pictures available ont the web. My main source of information is coming from these two videos taken in 2001 before the Goodwood festival of that year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1qvH085rKY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQKSOcT2zTU ---- when you open the Italeri Box and inspect the part, you can see there will be minor challenges good for putting average skills like mine to the challenge. A bit of filing and adjusting after cutting from the thick sprues, filling the ejector marks with cyano or putty does the trick. The only personal remark i have is that i found the plastic to be a little rubbery. I had some trouble even after priming the chassis with black primer, it still came across as plastic 'look and feel' and not as the heavy "steel' of 1924 when "men were men". before we start i would like to say that i see my challenge to be in the final painting stages, subtle weathering of the car and not in the mechanical build. Although some 'plastic surgery' will be required on various stages as you will see below and later if i really want to be faithful to the Eldridge car. Note : Although it is a Fiat thoroughbred chassis and engine, i think we owe it to Sir Ernest Eldridge to include his name in the name of the car. With all due respect, it is not 'Agnelli" or one of his engineers who had the idea of this car and had the brass b.... to drive it. 1. The chassis: Very straight forward. Some adjustments of course to the screws and fits are necessary, but this is scale modeling not playing with 'lego'. Comparing the dampers provided in the kits and the ones in reality, i decided to add the missingbolts and nuts etc. this picture below shows the rear right damper. Note : the chassis painting is not finished. First, i have primed it with alclad black, and then to try and give the semi-rough look of the original chassis on the car, i then hand painted it with flat black, a little semi gloss black, some chaos black, some very very faint dry brushing with metallic colors on the bolts and nuts etc. i have hidden the italeri screws on the chassis with punch died nuts. the tip of the dampers were painted with citadel colours; boltgun metal, chainmail, black mixed with chainmail for the screws and all little weathered with vallejo dark wash to bring out the nuts and bolts from each other and trying to copy what is on the original car 2. Riveting the body and adding plastic card to the bonnet covers and inside the cockpit: straight forward drilling and placing rivets. i was well advised by JnKm13 (thanks Jeremy) who has produced a very neat model of this same car. So i have used different sizes, all resin or made from plastic card. Every body has a boss who inspects and raises quality control : Edited March 7, 2016 by sharknose156 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) a little more : 3. adjusting the radiator grill. As seen on several other builds. One has to be careful when sawing the grill away from the brass frame, not to damage the FIAT letters. this will need a bit of putty on the side to reproduce the soldering. it will be done later at the painting and priming stage. 4. Placing balsa wood on the floor simple and strait forward. i think the floor of this car is a historical signature of the all the oil and soot and every time this car took the road in anger ( must have been only in anger). Some of these planks look quite old. i don t know how old they are. But i decided to give them particular care. According to Wikipedia, Mr Jon Cooke, is one of the experts on this car and so i have recently written him to ask about the history of restorations. The Fiat museum in Turino has not replied yet either. Wisely, some distinguished members of this forum; Little Andy and Banny have advised me to leave it at that. i am stil pondering to add the fine vains one sees on the real car real car. Some inverted V shaped veins are missing and it is bugging me, but i know they are right; less is more !! a little dry fit : if interested follow this space for the future installment : Priming the body and choosing the correct red/orange for body color ! Thank you for reading ! any critics and comments most welcome Sam Edited March 7, 2016 by sharknose156 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Sir Ernest was a distant ( very ) cousin! Chris Eldridge 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnuts Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Great work loving this will be watching with great interest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vontrips Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Very nice WIP Sam. Good heads up on the damper tips. Thought I'd done my research, but this one had escaped me completely! ;-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Chris : i hope you share many of his genes, and you built the car (?). kpnuts : Thanks. Von Trips : Thanks. Did you inaugurate your new giant painting booth yet ? it looks like the McLaren wind tunnel ! (in fact they may be interested to rent it.) Edited March 6, 2016 by sharknose156 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vontrips Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Von Trips : Thanks. Did you inaugurate your new giant painting booth yet ? it looks like the McLaren wind tunnel ! (in fact they may be interested to rent it.) LOL...being Mother's Day I value my testicles far too much to go near the Mancave today! ;-) Edited March 6, 2016 by vontrips 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Chris : i hope you share many of his genes, and you built the car (?). kpnuts : Thanks. Von Trips : Thanks. Did you inaugurate your new giant painting booth yet ? it looks like the McLaren wind tunnel ! (in fact they may be interested to rent it.) It's been a long long time since Sir Ernest's family and mine shared anything but the name. My ancestors left England sometime before the American Revolution. Soon after the Revolution, they left the new United States and moved to Nova Scotia, Canada. That's were I was born and grew up. In 1980 I moved across the country to Northeastern Alberta. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jnkm13 Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Wow...excellent WIP Sam! I'm sure you are finding this kit a blast to build and superdetail. Love your work on the wooden parts. Regards, Jeremy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 Apologies the explanatory slides appear too small. therefore, i have edited the post and added all the pictures appearing too small on the explanatory slides, in their natural sizes below each slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 (edited) Wow...excellent WIP Sam! I'm sure you are finding this kit a blast to build and superdetail. Love your work on the wooden parts. Regards, Jeremy Yes Jeremy, this car is a joy to build as you said once. Not difficult but many details. My challenge will be in the painting and weathering. if i am to respect the look, it has to be painted probably by hand, with several shaded reds/orange with a final top coat with the airbrush to uniform the look and feel. The final look has to be shiny but not the glossy or satin shine. It is too uniform. if you look at the body, you can see the hand paint strokes. Also,these car were never given a top gloss coat like modern cars. The paint was already a bit oily. they were kept clean and dusted off with a cloth, probably an oily greasy cloth. also, another challenge is try to represent the stressed steel sheets which made the body covers between the rivets. you see it on the top of the bonnet. So i am currently experimenting with techniques used for airplane modeling, but i amy abandon the idea if i am not sure it will not be 'natural' looking.... Edited March 7, 2016 by sharknose156 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
activexp Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 By 'eck, outstanding attention to the finer details, can't wait to see the finished build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Hello everyone, and thanks for watching this build, it keeps me a notch more attentive. In the last days not much progress, i have been working on the radiator grill, an essential part of the Mefisto look, and it has some challenges if one is to respect the authentic look ! The Italeri radiator grill frame is a too square for my own taste. One can see the one on the real car is more rounded at the top. I thought i take the challenge and cut through a little with a dremel - it took about three hours of very progressive work ! 1. Cut through with dremel with the aim of making the frame more rounded and progressive. I used different rounded or elongated polishing tips and very slow speed. 2. Getting confident, i then tried to reproduce the little 'dent' in the brass on the left side.... also used the dremel's tip heat and a polishing at speed ... i leave you be the judge ! 3. Placed a 1 mm styrene frame around the cut grill, and painted it "steel" with AK waxes. 4. Painted the frame with AK wax "brass" color. On the picture it is not yet buffed, i am waiting for it to dry a few days. 5. I added a copper tube, 1 mm on the left side of the grill. i thought the copper wire provided inadequate. 6. The little soldering marks on both sides of the real frame were reproduced using AK wax 'iron' colour'. i think the wax is great to recreate the little soldering inequalities. 7. I repainted the front grill black and gave it a dark wash on the bottom sides to make it stand out better inside the steel ( styrene ) frame i am also working on the inside frame, using a somewhat paler colored brass in some areas as well as the regular colour to reproduce the vintage effect. The soldering marks are also painted with AK waxe 'iron'. Will post pics when finished Thats it for now. Am working on the sub assemblies for inside the "cockpit" ; pedals, wires aluminium plating etc. and the dashboard. photos soon. thank you. below : the top part of the frame is too square so let s try some surgery this is the intended look this is the result after painting with AK waxes ; brass, steel, iron ( for the soldering marks ) then reproducing the frame with styrene below : then adding the copper rod also you can see the little dent on the right side . final result before buffing a little to increase the shine. have to wait till it dries a few days. I was not sure the small steel frame also exists where the copper rod is placed, so i went ahead and made it all around. now looking at the two comparative pics, i think it only exists on one side and i have made a mistake... Edited March 15, 2016 by sharknose156 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vontrips Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Nice tweak and very well executed! Well spotted...that squareness has bugged me since I first opened the box! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 15, 2016 Author Share Posted March 15, 2016 hello VT ! yes in fact it is easy to do just requires patience. it can be done by hand as well but the FIAT letters will take a hit. i hope i can get it to shine like it came out for the Goodwood photos ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) Slow progress on the sub assemblies.... but a little hair pulling trying to reproduce a decent dashboard... looking closely on few pictures one can see the turned aluminium on the dashboard.... but faint and almost eroded with time and polish so i tried to reproduce some eroded turned aluminium: the challenge is that it is not regular and must look over polished and only existant in some places. After experimenting with different solutions, i opted with putting a mesh wire over the dashboard and spray it with airframe aluminium from alcald. The base color of the dashboard is polished aluminium. But i had some issues with sanding the dashboard and almost decided to reorder one from Italeri... but my budget convinced me otherwise. You can see it when zooming in but when fitted in the cockpit one can not see te scratches. Then i decided to go for the black RPM and NOT the black and white plastic looking speedometer provided by Italeri... so i made my own decals : it is not perfect, but in scale it will do fine. i also fooled around with the oil pressure gauge, not really sticking to the model entirely : then decided to add a sliding tube for the fuel pump. simply two brass tubes, a little dremel and cyano. added a few rivets here and there as in the pictures of the original : not ideal, specially of you zoom in, terrible paint job. I used waxes and hand paint. next time i ll spray extreme metals. i think the waxes are great for bigger surfaces. if you use an airbrush here, the grain will be finer. in addition to the rivets ( some are one size too big ) i removed the silly switches and added four switches closer to to reality. voilà , thank you for watching Edited March 22, 2016 by sharknose156 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jnkm13 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Looks fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 Today small detailing of the firewall on the inside, since it will be still be visible on the model. Added some mesh and details on the pedals, a few rivets and lead wires to the wooden firewall. Some parts will need to be made at the time of assembly so they fit right. However, my frustration stems from the differences between the Italeri model and the real car. Will see how i resolve this at the time of putting all together. have replaced the link between the floor and the firewall with copper, weathered and repainted to bear a little resemblance to the real stuff. This is where i want to go : this is what came out of the bench so far : thank you and see you soon. Please c & c welcome ! Ps Jeremy; what are you building now ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jnkm13 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Sam, I faced the same dilemma as you when trying to detail the firewall. Although it's visible, not that much can be seen once the steering wheel and seat is on. I'm currently finishing up the 806. Had to scratch build a new seat. Will have some pictures to update the gangshow thread soon. After this, i'll start on the Airfix Bentley. That'll be a long term project, maybe 6 to 9 months, depending on the number of screw-ups. Regards, Jeremy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Jeremy, i intend to make the steering removable as in the real Mefisto. It was the first car to integrate this option back in 1923, before all the F1's. for that reason, i am detailing the inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 (edited) Happy Easter everyone, Time to pay attention to the engine...probably the most fascinating part of this monster. What a feast of esthetic beauty, colors, noble metals, fire, explosions, clever solutions, no ...ingenuous solutions ! Please excuse my fascination with this car... so, as you may have guessed, i will try to detail a few parts of this monster engine, and give it a little time and respect. First i will work on the basics, as in the picture below: 1. Will add 4 hex nuts to the 4 corners of each spring box cover, to be painted a light steel color. ( picture below and further down on the execution). 2. Will drill two holes on each side of the cover to simulate the axle of the spring arm, which is painted dark metal. 3. Will add a circular cap on the top of each spring... the Italeri one is too small and not correctly placed....this is to be painted light aluminum, the Italeri solution is too Mickey Mouse and not conform to real the springs. 4. Will paint the base of the cylinders black, as in the real car, including half of the basis's profile. To mask the rest of the engine block, i cut a 5 mm Tamiya masktape down to 2.5 mm and circled the sunflowers, then painted it all semi gloss black. 5. After painting the nuts on the sunflower silver metal, i drilled a small hole in the middle of each to simulate the bolt and nut effect. Gave it a black wash to increase the contrast. 6. i made new thicker springs, rolling 0.7 mm metal wire on a 2 mm rod, to replace the anorexic springs supplied by italeri.... not at all conform to the real monster's springs ...ahem... 7. after painting the engine block in stainless steel color, i gave it a very subtle black wash on the recesses, on which i will add a brown wash later on. On the pictures these engine parts are kept very clean. below masking the sunflowers. Not difficult with the right tools. drilled a hole in the nuts and gave them a black wash to simulate the effect of the bolt. Achtung ! the nuts below are not yet retouched and given a wash so they are still messy and the silver paint is still spilled in places Below : added hex nuts and circular caps to the new springs. On the right, solo, the Italeri anorexic spring... This is not ingenuous at all, no new techniques here - sorry - very straight forward modeling, but time consuming and FUN ! and i hope the results will be good, every time i will look at this engine when it is finished and know the details and hair splitting... Voila., it will rain tomorrow, so i will devote a couple of hours to paint the caps and nuts 'steel' and then place them... more to follow on the engine parts... the spark plugs, brass cable supports and the beautiful and aged copper distributors .... thank you for ideas and comments ... Happy Easter Edited March 26, 2016 by sharknose156 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vontrips Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Nice work! First thing I thought when I opened the box...those valve springs have got to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted March 27, 2016 Author Share Posted March 27, 2016 yes, i can t believe they supplied such stupid springs. i wonder how they were in the Pocher kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larchiefeng Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 This was and is a beast of a car! I can't imagine the b...s it took to get in that thing and drive it flat out wheel to wheel on a race track. With it being mostly all engine and hood up front steering it on those skinny tires must have been an adventure! Nice work on doing the heart of the beast justice! All of you guys are doing a great job on this car! It would be cool to see a group photo when they're all done. I know at least three of you are somewhat close to one another or, can you say photoshop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jnkm13 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 (edited) I replaced the springs with a spring set from Wave. They are black springs so saved me the hassle of painting them. Sam, your mefistofele is coming along real good. Edited March 27, 2016 by Jnkm13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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