Pascal Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 A collector asked me to build this car, using a Hotwheels 1/18 model.The Hot Wheels model and some PE from Tremonia :And some parts and decals from Legende Miniatures :I took about an hour to take the model apart :I got rid of the paint and used my Dremel to trim off the metal on the sides. Before :After :The original car has large air-inlets on both sides :My Dremel made short work of the zamac :I cut out a gap for the resin NACA duct :Sanded the louvres on the left side and added plasticard to change the shape of the headlight housing :Cut away some zamac, added some plasticard and added another NACA duct :SincerelyPascal 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 I took a look at the rims and tires, and decided to use the original Hot Wheels tires because they fit the rims better :The tires look a lot better after some sanding :I found a way to fix the rims to the suspension. First I cut off the brakes and sanded the plastic brake discs to the same diameter of the PE ones :Three little pieces of tubing for the front rims :The front rims are to wide :The diameter is to small for the Hot Wheels tires :I glued a pieces of tubing to the rear rims :A dryfit : This is how Hotwheels made the cockpit :The cockpit of the real car looks like this :The seat has some plastic rods on the sides :These were cut off, and will be replaced :With my Dremel (What else ?) I removed the left sidewall :With a couple of pieces of plasticard, I extended the cockpit bathtub :Dryfit :I made a new sidewall :The suspension "arms / bars" (what's the name of those things ?) are overscale :Made my one from a brass tube and rebuild the gearbox :All my work is inspected by my cat : It took a lot of work (and patience) to build the rear suspension from brass tube and copper plate :Fixed together with a soldering iron :Dryfit with the wheels :The construction is hold together by 2 brass tubes inside the gearbox. It will be glued after painting :There still a lot of sanding work left on the headlight housings, and I have to find a way to make the headlight covers :The exhausts have given me a lot of headaches. But after much trial and error I found a method that works for me.I don't know how many times I build and rebuild the exhaust tubes, but here's some pics of the different versions.Electric wire :Solder wire :Leftover plastic (sprues) from a 1/35 scale tank :I modified the engine in order to fit the exhaust tubes :And the finally I found the right method to make the exhaust, a mixture of sprue, solder wire and aluminium wire :Let's compare it with a reference pic :YES, were getting there !!SincerelyPascal 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shood23 Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Not everyone's cup of tea was this car but for me I love it, a proper ferrari sports car with some f1 traits. I have never tried to modify a die cast as of yet but from what you have shown so far the work you have put in is top notch, I will be following this till the end Shaun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roymattblack Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Some really outstanding work here on what began as little more than a toy. I can see a superb model coming out at the other end. Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPARKER Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Awesome work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
injidup Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 A fascinating project and it's nice to see something a bit more unusual. Thanks for sharing this with us! Is the large text on the bottom of the photos really necessary, though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted June 27, 2016 Author Share Posted June 27, 2016 Thanks for the replies. The large text on the photos is a watermark (sort of), normally you wont see them on the photos of future updates. Next set of updates. After a lot of hours of bending, cutting, sanding and dryfitting the left set of three inner pipes is ready : The engine compartment has a big airscoop. I opened up the hole in the front and glued the inner part with CA which was covered with flour : The Hot Wheels version looks like this : The real one looks like this (this is not a picture of the car that won the race, but it has the same type of airscoop) : I used my dremel to cut a line that will hold the top horizontal frame : Step 1 : Step 2 : More work on the big airscoop. I started by glueing the white plastic strip on the bottom of the airscoop (the silver paint is there to spot any gaps and cracks) : Glued some plastic strip on the top of the engine to fill the gaps : The airscoop now fits perfectly and without gaps on the engine : The yellow strip will get roughly the same shape as the grey one : I've added about 0,75 mm to the grey strip because it was to narrow : Should look something like this : Update. Fuelpipe : first thing was to make the connector between the body and the pipe. I was a question of trial and error to find the right dimension and the postion of the holes : The pipe was made from a knitting needle, the rings are drilled out pieces of sprue : Dryfit : Hotwheels has made the windows and the frame in one piece, these will be replaced : Step 1 : Make an cutout in the body and and drill a hole for the brass tubes : Step 2 : Cut the brass tubes to size and insert a piece of copper wire : Step 3 : Glue pieces of plasticard to give the brass tubes the correct angle : Step 4 : Dryfit : This is the Hot Wheels electronics panel : It's not wide enough and I don't like the details. After a couple of hours of sanding, drilling and dryfitting, this is the result : I mad new electronic connectors with pieces from a lighter : It was cut in three and then was sanded to size and reassembled : The sidewalls of the cockpit need further modification. I've done some work in the past, but the walls weren't high enough. Now they run all the way to the underside of the body : These are the first pieces I made for the battery and its housing : The goal is to acheive this : I spend about 3 hours making the bracket for the battery. The bracket is scratchbuild and has 7 parts (5 brass, 2 plasticard), it's 5 x 3,5 x 3 mm : A coat of primer shows that there is a bit more sanding to do : Sincerely Pascal 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 I guess this is not everyone's cup of tea. Ah well, time to show some more. Update : Started with the Hot Wheels brake disc : Looks better with a PE brake disc : But those are to small, ordered some larger ones from Legende Miniatures : Added a piece of plastic tube to the hole in the middle : Did some modification (must be the fifth or sixt) to the copper plates : These parts are needed on the inside of the wheels : Then I turned my attention to the shocks. Hot Wheels made them like this : Nice, but there's a lot of room for improvement. Started making the shocks from parts found in lighters and a brass tube : Assembled (the nearest one has the selfmade copper wire spring, the other one has the spring that came from a ballpoint pen), I will use the one with the spring from a pen : More cutting. Before : After : Still some work to do to have it look like this : 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spookytooth Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 A thoroughly re-build of a die cast well carried out. A lot of fine detailing going on. Simon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 Thanks for the reply Some reference pics of the gearbox :First thing I made were the brackets that hold the shocks :Dryfit on the gearbox :Will add 2 tiny triangles on both sides of the brackets later.The cooling duct for the rear brakes, is a donut shape piece :This I made from (left to right) a brass tube, an alu tube and a part of a ballpoint pen :Glued and sanded :Dryfit :The copper plate I made earier was shaped to clear the brake caliper :Now the donut shape cooling duct fits inside the wheel :Started working on the drive shaft. Lousy picture :Better :Made the wheelnut by drilling the center of a brass hexagonal nut :Dryfit :Brackets that will hold the suspension arms are made from alu sheet :SincerelyPascal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterhamnut Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 wow - really nice. I like the idea of using die-cast as a base (doing the same with a Caterham - one day!) and really cool to see all the steps. Some great tips - I like the use of lighter parts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Moon Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 This is awesome!! Amazing metalwork, I especially with those electronic fasteners and components. It'll look very nice next to those 12 F40s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpion Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 Just discovered this thread. Amazing work. Looking forward to seeing the final result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Some serious re-engineering of what's basically a toy going on. Should look superb when you've finished with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harfoot Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 STUNNING! incredible reading Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noeyedears Posted July 15, 2016 Share Posted July 15, 2016 brill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 (edited) Thanks for the replies.  Been a while, but here's an update.  After all the modifications the gearbox looked like this :   The tiny brass tube is also on the real car, it holds a bolt that attaches the gearbox to the engine :   I used CA + flour to make the gearbox a little wider :   My little helper took a break :   I've filled in the holes that held the brass suspension bars (that was from a previous modification) and glued the alu brackets in place :      But then I ran into a serious problem. With all the mods I did, the arm for the rear wing no longer fits properly :    The plastic is also very thick :   Time for a powertool :  Afer a few minutes the hard Hotwheels plastic got a lot thinner :   But I needs some plasticard to make it fit nicely onto the gearbox :    The inside of the airscoops was hollowed out, these need to be filled in at the front but that's for later :   Added some more pieces to the gearbox, two tubes that will hold the springs of the suspension and two very small rectangles (2,3 x 8 mm) :     Sincerely  Pascal Edited September 27, 2016 by Pascal 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted October 5, 2016 Author Share Posted October 5, 2016 Judging by the number of replies, I guess it's still not everyone's cup of tea...  After the plastic of the support for the rear wing was sanded, it was time to make it a little wider. I cut the support in half, added a piece of plasticard in the middle and one on both ends to give it a bit more rigidity. I also removed the plastic tube from the support. This tube was used to screw the rear wing onto the support. The tube is not on the real car, so it had to go :  At the front end of the support I added some tiny pieces of plasticard to get the right shape : I made the support arms for the suspension. Brass was used for the bottom arms (these need to be strong), plastic for the upper ones : Dryfit : Made an airjack from pieces of alu tube and 2 rivets, thread was cut in the alu tube. The plastic one is from Hotwheels :  Took me a few hours to glue the brass arms to the copper plates. The angles have to be exactly right to give the wheels the correct stance. One of the arms was a bit long, I cut it in half and reconnected it by soldering : Used a burner for the soldering : Now the arms are the same length : A bit more sanding and polishing and the spot where the arm was soldered it no longer visible : Dryfit with the gearbox :  I very happy with the result.  Sincerely  Pascal    Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCrank Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 An amazing scratch building....love it too much ! Congrats ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterhamnut Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 Fantastic scratch building - so many tips! ...and that cat you made is incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 Thanks for the replies.  Update :  Wasn't happy with the little brass tubes that I made, these had to go :  They will be replaced by these brass bolts. The one on the right is what's left after the modification :  Did some work on the brake discs, started by cutting of the calipers : Brake calliper is sanded and received a small strip of plasticard : The PE part with the logo will be glued on top of the calliper :  I couldn't find PE brake discs that looks like the ones on the real car :  So I decided to use the ones from the model. The lines were scribed using a needle in a pinvise and a panelscriber : Made a template from plasticard : Attached the template with a piece of brass tube to some pieces of wood : The lines are very fine (but the macro photos make them look huge). I sanded the brake discs to make the lines visible for the photos :  The outer side of the brake discs were a bit more difficult because of the ring in the center, but with the help of my template it worked out all right :  Made the upper suspension arms. Was quite a bit of work to get them to the right length and to glue them in the correct angle :  Dryfit : And for the first time since januari 2013, the car is back on its wheels : Still needs a bit of fiddling to get everything straight :  Dryfit with the body : And the wing :  Sincerely  Pascal  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Pascal,  Great ingenuity and creativity. lots of lessons for me in there. will read this many times i think. Thank you for positing such good quality pics as well. look forward to the painting of the metal and more  cheers, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 As things get more and more complicated, the time between updates gets a lot bigger.  This is were I was last time around :   And after I added a few more details :    A dryfit :    Couple of detail shots :    Next phase is the fitting of the shocks. The shocks are connected to this kidney shaped triangle. The black tube will be fitted to the suspension arms :   This side will be fitted to the arms :   A dryfit :    Some reference material :    The shocks that I made earlier are a bit to long, they will be shortened by a few millimeters :   Sincerely  Pascal 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Codger Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Beautiful work Pascal. True race car construction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caterhamnut Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Yep - fantastic to follow! Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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