Malc2

Hi KP, I have the 1990ish Monogram boxing of this, will be following with interest. Can I ask that you take and post some detail shots of the red 904 from the workshop? Interior, suspension, engine bay, underside of the car etc. Cheers! Malc.

That looks really nice - in less than 2 weeks! M. (still resisting)

This is just simply amazing to follow. The results are stunning. Fingers crossed we get to see it at Telford this November? Malc.

Wow, fantastic finish, so clean! Great job on both models. M.

That's a demonstration of real skill and patience right there. I bet you are pleased now its done! M.

I think you should give up those wingy things and stick to cars! I must not get one to follow along, 1/32 is not my scale. Really. No not at all. Really really. Nope. M. (secret aeromodeller)

This is great, I am taking lots of notes for when I get round to mine! M.

Hi Matt, Great job on this, you have captured the colour of the steel brake disc faces exactly! M.

Morning fellow plastic bashers! Time for another update Rear brake ducts, this is what Hiro thinks they should look like and having perused my image collection, I am inclined to agree. This is what ya get in the kit So I sliced up a piece of Ureol. I could have plunge moulded them, but that’s a right faf. Prototype in the middle to check proportions, outer two are the blanks Finished parts with the prototype on the left So when I said all the body needed was another coat of primer, well not just yet. Holding the ducts in place confirmed something else I had vaguely been aware of since I made the rear roll bar, the rear deck is too short. It should cover the rear roll bar, the mounts of which extend up to support the rear body and currently it was a bit short, holding the brake ducts in position confirmed my fears, as they were miles away from the rear deck edge. I extended the deck by 5mm and added some strengthening tabs underneath and a skim of filler on the top. Top view prior to sanding the filler. So looking at that view above, there is only one more thing tickling my OCD that remains to try and improve, and that is the louvers on the rear deck. They are misshapen uneven and I plain don’t like ‘em. LHS RHS is no better Previously I had made several attempts to reproduce them with Litho plate but with not much success. I need 17 parallel louvers at 1.2mm pitch. So I started to look at the delightful ICM 1/35 1920s and 1930s trucks which have parallel louvers along the bonnet sides, the thinking was if that the pitch was correct, I could cut out and use a section. So I needed to find and look at a selection of ICM kits to see if they were suitable, but a trip to the LHS is out until the foreseeable future, and I can’t wait that long, so I phoned my mate and he said he had a built 1/24 Tamiya Lancia Stratos with bonnet louvers that were the right pitch. Two problems, the Lancia louvers were innys rather than outies and potentially worse, as it’s the first model he made it had a high sentimental value, so clearly I could not cut it up….. So he agreed I could borrow the model - provided I did not damage it. So having taken socially distanced delivery, and having looked at it in detail, an idea formed that I could take a sort of brass rubbing and use that. So you need a piece of one of these Plus the donor Stratos Here they are in all their inny magnificence Cut a strip off the baking tray, hold in place and rub away with a pointy stick After making some duff ones and two good ones, hey presto, 100% better – whaddaya think? At this point I was confident enough to sand off the original louvers. Fill the back of the finished piece with 5min epoxy, stick em in place and Bonjour mon Oncle Bob. Quietly pleased with that. Cheers Kevin, could not have done it without you! Stratos returned intact and undamaged. Thanks for looking Comments welcome! Malc.

Thanks both, motivation goes in fits and starts and also depends on what else is happening - in this case not a lot! Nick - I ought to mention I just bought the Meng nuts and bolts sets A and B and they are great, can't recommend them enough for what you and I are doing. Werner, apologies for the language mash up! Malc.

Superb, a pleasure to follow the build. Malc.

Hi Saberjet, Wow, what an amazing transformation - from the first photo of the nose covered in flash, to the second photo in the last post! I you have probably just boosted the sales of this kit! What happened to the front indicator holes, did you fill them with sprue, or just sand until you reached the bottom of the hole? Looking forward to the next post. Malc.

Thanks both. Welcome to this weeks update! When grinding out the inside of the gear lever bulge, I also thinned the inside of the cockpit sides some more, this left a large gap each side of the seat. On the real car this gap is filled with the inner corners of the body tub. I was not sure how to best resolve the shape of the tub which should fill this gap, in the end the solution was simply to build up Milliput on the seat sides, the instrument panel was moved a bit nearer the driver at the same time. The drivers knees were protected by padding on the underside of the dash and cockpit sides, nothing in the kit for this, so pads made from Milliput. The gear change linkage was not long enough so a new one was made and the guard made from a scrap piece of PE ‘sprue’. Old Vs new in progress The lever has to be fitted to the rod after the guard In place in the car, fitting the gear mech showed that the new sides of filler needed more sanding to allow for the rod to pass through a hole at the side of the seat. I made the missing (oxygen bottle/fire extinguisher?) cover that fits below the seat. A piece of tube rounded off with Milliput, glued to a square of 10thou card which was sanded to an oval to form the flange. I was never really happy with the floor where it joined the bottom of the sidepod wall, as the resulting non scale join would be highly visible on the outside of the finished model. I finally realised I need a rebate to disguise the join. Strip of plastic added to the body and the floor narrowed to suit. Both sides done Floor fully home Apart from a couple of smears of filler, I think the body is ready for another round of primer. Well the smear of filler turned out to be a great big lump after I spotted the shape of the rear of the nose in some reference photos. With the bluff nose there were two styles, one that was completely open across the back and one which was closed, the closed one included the curved piece made from filler you see below, I could not do the open one as the edges made of filler would just crumble away, I need to try automotive filler, as suggested by @Bengalensis! Underneath, just a bit of final tidying and ready for paint, oh no, wait…… the rear deck But before that, I addressed the issue of the front tyres which are a bit shrunken in the middle, I cut a strip of 30thou card and bent it in to a circle with the help of some hot water And fit it inside the tyre making sure the ends butted together Push the tyre back on the rim and almost gone, just need to sand away the mould line. Quick spin on the lathe and the mould lines were removed with some coarse grade sandpaper Pre scrubbed and ready for use Next week, I finally get round to the rear deck and those there right horrible louvres. Thanks for following. Malc.

Looking forward to seeing this take shape, the areas in and round the headlight are going to take some careful sanding and filler to look right! I like the preamble as well, thanks! M.

From what I can understand, Facebook will delete the links after a few weeks. Better to use a separate image host such as imgbb if you want the pictures to be permanent. M.

I have to admit to having several of the kits mentioned, I never realised that my 01 WRC Focus was worth so much on the Bay! 1/20 Tamiya Lotus 102D 1/20 Tamiya Lotus 99T 1/20 Speedline Bluebird CN7 (if only Fernando Pinto made a CN7 in 1/20!) 1/20 Studio27 March 891 1/72 Airfix Hovercraft SR-N1 (no idea why, does not fit with my collection!) M.

Interesting, thanks for the reply! Chaparral were a great and innovative team as you say, I look forward to seeing your 2F. I am surprised you don't see them in larger scales and from more mainstream manufacturers. I restored the old 2E Union kit for a friend some years ago. M.

Thanks @Bigdave22014, looks like the URL signature has expired, so neither Chrome or Brave will display the images, oh well! M.

Thanks, thats one of them! How about the other? You can edit your original post by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of the original post Malc.

Beautiful. I can't imagine how difficult the headlight covers were to get to fit so well. M.

Looks good, but all the pictures are missing (apart from the last post) - any chance you could reinstate them? M.

Nice Job on this. The line 'the air box was too long, too tall and too narrow' made me laugh, = resin models! Why didn't you use the Marsh Models body? Malc.

Another great update, any info on mods and changes you have made as you go along will be gratefully received for when I build mine! Any chance of bigger photos in the last pic post above? Malc.

Great job! Also brings back some memories for me, still got some of the bits left in the spares box, and I am considering using the water hose on my Tyrrell as brake cooling duct! Malc.

Whoa, just found this, its not a Spitfire and its not a Ferrari, but love what you are doing! You are making some serious mods, even before it melted like cheese on toast! Great work, looking forward to the next update. Malc.