rjfk2002

Oh boy, really excited to see this one come together Ron! Another masterpiece in the making

Hornby CS is a favorite in my mail history now! My kit must have gone through some wild temp swings as there a few warped parts here and there. Also some of the metal parts were miscast but fixable. @Dinky had quite a few missing and malformed parts. Quality control was lacking with the Huracan. Same story with the design - some areas they seem to have failed to account for paint thickness. It’s a shame as the Aventador was a great kit. No design issues, part issues, everything fit together nicely. The Huracan has many more details than the Aventador and should be a better kit but they just whiffed on the QC… work continues on the rear body work and doors. Stay tuned

Tail Lights Installing the tail lights was quite an ordeal. The lens do not sit properly due to the paint on the body. In the Paul Koo DVD he suggests scrapping off the body paint. I was worried about compromising the paint so I instead sanded the edges to get the lens to fit. It was a lot of sanding, testing, sanding to get it exact. I didn't want to take too much mateiral off so I errered on the side of trial and error... In the end it fit perfectly. The black plastic border around the grill was also an issue. It was badly warped out of the box. Fortunately Hornby was able to supply me with a new part. It can't really be seen in the picture but I put foil behind the lights to give it a reflective quality

Oh wow this is going to be impressive. MWT has some pics on their website/Facebook but was not sure if we would see one in the wild

Thanks gents. I am glad to be back it again. I have started to “permanently” attach assemblies - attached tie rides, stabilizer arms, paint screws, etc - that could not be done before when I needed to adjust the suspension. Fortunately I took good notes along the way (marked up the instruction manual) so I wouldn’t forget some of these details. It does involve a bit of disassembly though.

Happy New Year! I have been slowly tinkering on the build and think I have finally rounded the corner on the ride height! For the front shocks I added a 2mm plug to shrink the shock length and used a softer spring as suggested by @Fozz. I removed the paint from the piston and hollowed out the bore on the shock end to improve movement. Assemblying and disassemblying the front shocks was cumbersome as they are relatively small and the spring is strong. I used a handheld vise to compress the shock so I can add/remove the pin but there is not a lot of room between spring coils. In the rear I also used a 2mm plug to shrink the length. Unlike the front, the rear shocks are very easy to disassemble. This was a relief as my experience with the front shocks was annoying to say the least, so I dragged my feet on the rear... The doors are wrapped in the towel and are there to better approximate the final weight of the model. Next up I will work on the rear body to get that ready for final attachment. I need to do a little filing on the passenger side to improve the fit

Incredible work as usual Ron. That bin is a cool touch

That’s a really clever way to show the model… I am sad to see this approaching the finish line! It has been a really fun build to follow

After a bit of a hiatus I am back at the bench. I will update this post later with some pics showing where I am currently am on the beast

Chas was a tremendous builder and teacher. His rolls thread was epic not only in the end result but also in the journey. He was quick to chime in on other threads with words of encouragement and helpful suggestions. His emoji/gif was excellent too. We will all miss you my friend. My heart goes out to your family.

@fozz did you end up using the softer springs for your front shocks? I thought in a previous post you mentioned going back to the stock springs as the new ones were too soft. Perhaps I am confusing the front and rear shocks?

Thanks @Fozz. I have finally disassembled one of the shocks and will put the 2 mm plug in and test for the new height. Getting them apart was challenging and a four handed job. I don't trust the metal castings to hold up if I try to put it in a vice to compress. Instead I had compressed and asked the boss for help hammering out the pin. I have been doing some other work on the doors and headlights so I'm jumping around a bit.

Thanks for the pic and the reference! I sorted out the front suspension today and can confirm the upper wishbones needed to be swapped. Now the wheels are centered. What is the approximate distance between the top of the wheel and body panel on your build?

What an ordeal. I am glad you got it sorted out. Who knew the Tamiya de-chroming process would be so involved.

Agreed there is something off with the suspension. I think it may be the upper wishbones. I have since learned from Mr Koo that pocher mislabeled the right and left upper arms in the instructions and packaging. I will also double check the lower arms too. please upload the pic for the spring adjustment! That would be very helpful. Did you disassemble the shock and put plastic in the piston area to shorten the length?

Test Fitting Begins I mocked up the body panels to test ride height. In trying to get the panels I discovered a few things. First off in the front, the hoses to the front radiator block two screw holes for attaching the front of the body. As I disassemble I will need to take careful look to see if I can route the hoses differently to avoid this blockage. On the rear body it seems to fit fine on the driver side, but on the passanger side I'm running into the issues as the others. I need to examine in more detail but I believe I have the same issue with the edge of the cockpit interfering that @Dinky pointed out earlier. As you can see this is still stuck in all terrain mode. I know Lamborghini and Audi share technology but I didn't know there was a Q5 suspension package offered for the Huracan! I did check the height with and without tension. The kit shocks do compress slightly - about 1 mm. Before I do finally measurements I will add the doors and hood to get it closer to full weight. As you can see some serious work needs to be done to get the chasis lower. Stay tuned...

The Frame Comes Together The trunk has been fixed. I sanded off the dried CA and moved through a series of grits to restore the plastic. Looks good as new... The front and rear frames have been attached to the cockpit and the beast gets heavier. The assemblies fit relatively smoothly as I had test fitted everything before. You will notice that the suspension has been left off. That allowed me to easily connect the steering column to the pinion gear up front. In the rear it helped to give me room to position hoses and other bits during the finally assembly. The engine is straight in the frame. I still need to add the X-bar and paint the black screws silver. The front view Now that the frame is complete I plan to test fit the body panels and finally tackle the ride height. I will be following the advice of @Fozz and @Dinky as I tackle the shocks.

The WIP pics are really helpful. Seeing the work and thought process that goes into your build is insightful and inspiring!

I stand corrected on the radiators! I will need to redo the trunk. Pocher showed the rubber part attaching to the top of the luggage tub. Looking at Koos DVD you are right it should come from below. Breaking the bond will be easy. The glue clean up will be a tad annoying… thanks for pointing this out. Much easier to fix now rather than later

The build isn't dead, just moving very slowly... I have completed the front frame. For the front radiator I brushed the part with black acrylic paint and then buffed it with a q tip to leave black pain in the recesses. I decided not to do it on the side radiators as the recessed areas were quite large and I didn't care for the look when I tested it. I believe those side radiators will be completely invisible when the body work in put in. Gluing the rubber seal to the trunk was a little tricky as the fit was loose. It was a little too big for the plastic. I was able to hide the slack in the curves. Fitting the rubber hoses was a little tricky. As @Dinky pointed out in a earlier post there are two ways to fit the hoses. In the Paul Koo DVD he suggested cutting the heads off so they can attach to the back of the radiators. The kit pieces were designed to attached to the side, which is technically not correct per the DVD. Based on Dinky's advice I decided not to cut the hoses. As they are molded out of the box they correctly thread around the frame. By modifying them I was worried that they would either not weave through properly or break off as I was adjusting the fit. I decided not to paint the rubber parts given my previous issues with the paint not drying. @silver911 offered some great advice about soaking in ISO and using fabric paint. I will file that away for later use. A final top down shot. I have left the suspension off as it is easier to attach the frame to the body without them in place. I continue to work on the rear frame. I'm struggling a bit to find the right kind of shrink tube for the air box. The kit part has a diameter of 15 mm so I need a bigger diameter shrink tube than I currently have. I have found some tubing that is the right size but seems to take too much heat to shrink (it's a little too thick). I will continue to search before I perhaps pivot and just use the kit piece as is. Stay tuned...

Excited to see you back at it Poul!

It’s always a good day when there is an update on this build! the tools look great. How did you get the tight bends on the wrench? Did you heat the tube and bend with a tool?

Staggering work! With each stage it gets more impressive and realistic. The metal work is spot on

Progress I was successful in straightening the engine on the frame! I filed the longer screw post down to bring it flat with the pan, filed away the edge that rings the metal frame and filled the hole in with plastic rod. After positioning the engine on the frame I drilled a new hold to firmly secure the engine. Everything looked good initially until I checked the height. The engine was too high and caused the air intakes to split. If I tilted the engine then there was no issue - the parts fit perfectly. I spent some time tinkering with it before going to bed. With a fresh set of eyes I realized the problem. The air box parts are secured to the oil tank and I didn't bother adding the bottom of the oil tank to the assembly (circle in the third pic). The bottom is molded to push the engine down to the proper angle so everything fits air box and exhaust.

I just did this fix and my engine is straight. You are correct they did not mold the screw holes in the bottom of the engine in a straight line so it introduces a twist. I will fill in the offending hold and redrill a hole. I am going to mount the engine based on the shorter distance as I seem to get a better fit with the air box. @Noel Smith thank you for the tip! That is helpful and a great source for screws.