albergman

Outstanding work!! Wonderful scratch-building. Bravo. Frank

Too true, too true Stuart. I have at least seven unfortunate candidates languishing on that very shelf! I did go and Google it just now and the closest I got was "conn ... also spelled cun, conne, cond, conde, and cund, (whoops that was close ... F) is the act of controlling a ship's movements while at sea." So maybe it is more to do with conning ... as in steering than in reconnaissance?

Enjoyed following this one (silently). Congratulations on an outstanding effort. Frank

HooBoy ... in the home stretch ... there's the finish line ... you can do it! This is looking very promising and I encourage you to keep at it. Funny I should say this because I abandoned my Maserati scratch build months ago ... started another all-wood Ferrari 375MM which I've also tired of!! But I understand the feeling exactly when you're almost done, you're sick of looking at the thing and all the pictures you've collected. Sometimes it is best to put it aside for a short while then come back with renewed energy ... sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about too! One last anecdote which might help. I recently entered my Lancia D50 in a model show in Toronto ... first time I've ever entered a show and I was surprised and delighted with the interest and the chance to talk about the project with fellow modellers. Mostly we labour away in solitude (spurred on by support from BritModeller lurkers) and the only person who sees that tiny part you took 3 days to make and are so proud of is the Missus ... who glances up from her novel and says "That's nice dear ... what is it?". Get yourself and AE2 to that show and enjoy the interest it will generate. Frank PS Not a naval expert but I think "conning" tower is derived from its main purpose ... reconnaissance.

Well done Steve. I too think this is a tricky subject to get right but you've captured it very well. I'm impressed. Frank

Well done Steve! You've made some decent progress and got a fine looking scratch-build there. Looking forward to seeing her detailed now. All the best in the New Year Frank

Thanks Doc. I suppose there's some talent there but really it just takes practice and imagination. I never did this sort of thing until I retired and I've just slowly gotten better with each model. Most of my work is done with Dremels (cheap knock offs actually) and a flex-shaft which, most importantly, gives you the ability to use a tool bit like holding a pen. I couldn't do this stuff with a tool directly into the Dremel. BTW I have 8 "Dremels" all with after market flexis on them and a different tool type in each one. Just saves a lot of bother constantly changing bits. I shape car bodies (after the bandsaw part) with coarse sanding drums on a flex. Most metal bits are "sculpted" with these "stone" cutting disks ... brittle things but wonderful. Other than that I have MANY files of various sizes which I buy whenever I see them on sale. Have a go at shaping something with a file sometime. Thanks Dave ... I'm nothing if not a packrat! Thanks KP. Too kind. That kind of accolade applies to Martin's Vincent (Scratchbuilder ... below) for real engineeering. Thanks Martin. Pity these guys can't see any more of your fabulous Black Shadow on this site. As for the freehand work ... I'm not all that particular if every louver is identical to its neighbours I should be but I'm not ... and the flex-shaft really brings a lot more precision to the process.

Well now, then, there! Congrats on drawing some of us to your project more than 11 thousand times! Quite an accomplishment especially when i get here once again to find you and your friends seem to have lost your collective minds. Feel like I've wandered into a Blackadder/Monty Python convention. I'll just get my coat and slip out this side door. Will normal programming return one day? Frank

Well now ... a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Basically I've completed fabricating: Rear suspension Front suspension ... Reworked the body of the car ... sawed off the nose and glued on a new block of Ren, finished reshaping the body to better fit around the rear suspension Made more new parts ... Quick release gas cap, splash guards, metal bracket to retain the leather strap around the gas tank yada yada ... Let's start with a shot of the front and rear suspension "modules" which can be added/removed from the body with 2 screws each The front now has 2 coil springs (hard to see here) made from a larger spring that was of the right "heft". Heated that, stretched it out then wrapped it round an appropriate steel rod to give the right size. You might make out that I've made new disks that are held by 2 screws onto the brake drums. These are now steel disks and used in conjunction with new steel upright kingpins which are soldered to these disks. Decided to go this way because the wheels were too floppy being attached to a tiny stub ... by CA. The steel disk also let me solder new steel steering arms which proceed forward and meet a steel rod which connects left and right steering arms ... soldered of course. The front wheels are now solidly mounted. Here's one of the steel disks with the kingpin and steering arm soldered on. I machined them from the ends of a paint roller! OK, next I moved back to the Renshape body and here I had initially sanded one side of the nose too low and instead of trying to build it up again I just bandsawed the whole nose off, glued on a hunk of scrap and re-shaped it. Here's the car with all the fabricated bits in place. Ah, the front springs are visible here and also the brand new brass windshield surround that I decided was needed. At the rear the 2 shock absorbers are now in place and you can see the tiny ends of the steel bar aft of them which will eventually be the attachments for the strap which retains the tank. I haven't shaped the ends of that bar till I'm further along. Haven't done any shaping of the body cavity around the front suspension yet either. OK, next is to start fabricating all of the many louvers which the car needs. I made them all by a method I thought was fine but next day I filled them all in with Bondo(car repair paste). Spent a while thinking how to cut them and came up with this ... Machined a grinding stone used on my Dremel so that it had a tapered shape. Tested it on an old Lancia D50 scrap body I further refined the stone so it had a sharper edge. Than after carefully drawing on exactly where and how wide every louver would be I went at it. You can see I'd also sprayed on a filler coat of paint and sanded it down. Next on my list was the huge gas cap and release mechanism. The only steel I could find large enough was a lag bolt! Machined it down and polished it in the lathe. Next I filed out the 2 pieces to make the release mechanism. Then soldered it all together ... Next I cut out the splash panels for behind the front wheels, cut a lot on either side with a Dremel disk then tapped them temporarily into place. Made a steel bracket for the top of the tank which I think just helps hold that leather(?) belt in place. Cut it from thin steel plate, soldered 2 pieces together the final shaped it. Fits here ... And that about does it. Need to make a smaller oil tank cap and some hood opening levers and that'll just about do it for fabrication. Oooops, except, of course, for a complete cockpit ... seat, steering wheel, dashboard etc etc. I'll then go over most parts and polish them up or whatever's needed. Paint coming soon! Thanks for looking in. Frank

One of my favourite cars and one which I've (scratchbuilt) many times. Beautiful, clean job here. Love it Rick. Frank

Thanks Harvey. OK ... spent a lot of time thinking about how all this apparatus is going to attach to the car body. I've decided I don't want it to be like the Lancia where the wheels and suspensions are all glued to a display board and the body drops over everything and is screwed separately to the board. That means I can never hold the completed car without the display board tagging along. So ... in my middle-of-the-night ruminations I got the idea of making a belly pan and attaching the chassis to that for a start! So, into the steel bin for some sheet metal. Made a pattern in cardboard first (old record album covers work great) then out with the tin snips. OK, I was going to just bring it back to the opening for the rear suspension but realised it had no way to be supported so ... I soldered on some more steel and got it to the back of the body. Here's the belly pan. It fits beautifully into the cavity and the 2 recesses fore and aft. I've rounded the sides to meet up with the body. Next I had to locate precisely where the chassis will sit on this then I fabricated a couple of small steel tabs which I soldered onto the chassis then drilled holes through tabs and pan. You can only see the forward tab but there's one on the rear cross bar too. Oh yes, I recently used JB-Weld epoxy (?) to attach the transverse spring to the chassis ... you can see that above too. Here's a shot down into the cockpit where you can see the forward tab ready for drilling. Now I wanted a way to attach the wheels/suspension to this chassis/belly pan combination. Decided I wanted something to hold the axle at the right height (yes, I'm going with a one-piece axle from wheel-to-wheel) so that I can slide the wheels etc on and off so after a few false starts I came up with some thick (1/4") aluminium, drilled a hole through it for the axle, shaped it with hacksaw and files then CA'd it to the pan ... The right wheel is just standing in for the photo-op and not attached other than the axle. The left wheel is now easily fitted by sliding its hub onto the axle (which is glued into the block) and fitting one tiny bolt into the end of the leaf spring ... you've seen that further up. So the whole rear mechanisms is now fastened to this chassis/belly pan and can be attached or removed by the 2 Robertson wood screws (it's a Canadian thing ... square holes!!). A lot of planning and false starts in the last few days but I'm really happy with what I've got. Some re-working of the right rear wheel needed to make it fit properly but minor stuff. Thanks for looking in. Frank

Thanks Gordon. Appreciate your comment and glad you had a chance to see 4472 as a working machine. Of course, mainline steam was gone by the time you saw it so this would be something special to see an A3 "in heat"! At 14 I was living in Scotland seeing A3's daily and travelling behind them frequently but for me they never lost their appeal. There was something really magnificent about them and their A4 brothers. I just had to attempt a model of this, the most famous of the A3's. So glad you like it. Frank

That's convenient! The very thing I'm trying to build! Seriously, glad you like it. Frank

I'll be with you across the street impressive stuff going on here nevertheless! Keep it up. Frank

Thanks Kev. A few more pieces readied. Rear suspension now pretty much done except for sanding and polishing all the metalwork to tidy it up. First new part was a curved bracket attached to top rear of the chassis which will support the exhaust pipe at the back. Sawed a piece of scrap steel and filed it to a taper. Being steel it was easy to bend (aluminium would snap) and solder to the chassis. I then fashioned a steel band to circle the exhaust and drilled a hole for the bracket to insert. Next up was another steel bracket to take the transverse spring on the right rear. Again scrap steel plate is bent to shape and another piece is soldered underneath. Really pleased with it till I went to install it and found the strut was out by 90 degrees!! Had to rotate and resolder. Finished making the spring now that I have the 2 brackets bolted in place ready to accept it. I assembled all the rear of the car just to check for fit. Everything still loose and sometimes out of alignment. Still have another Houdaille shock to make and a wheel to wire up but nearly finished at the back. Bodywork is getting hacked up as new parts look for room but I'll rebuild it all to a tighter fit around the suspension. In case anybody is wondering about the tire treads I covered this in fair detail in my Lancia D50 build. Basically I just use a knurling tool in my lathe to impress a pattern into the tire ... which is shaped from Renshape. Thanks for looking in ... Frank Other builds ... Triumph TR6 Sport Fisherman 36 Half-Hull yachts Beneteau 51 sailboat Varnished wooden cars Flying Scotsman A3 Lola T-70 Billings Dragon Ferrari Testa Rossa in Mahogany

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. A bit more progress this week. I figured I should make a partial chassis which would reach between the rear suspension and front of the cockpit so I dug out some salvaged steel rods and polished them up. I took the time to draw up a framework that would actually fir inside the body cavity and took all my measurements from that. Couple hours work and I had a suitable structure ... and, after hogging out the cavity needed (used a coarse sanding drum on a Dremel) finally got it inside. Here's the chassis mounted on the work-board and held rigidly at the correct location by little blocks of Renshape. Next I soldered on a little, flat panel to attach the shock absorber to, drilled a hole for the through-bolt and soldered the shock in place. Going to be fun trying to get a bolt in there to fasten the Houdaille to that vertical strap! That wraps up all the pieces for that side of the rear suspension and I've now started on the other side. Back soon. Frank

OK, another day and a few more parts and lots of dirty-fingered pictures. Decided I'd like to try and finish my rear brake drum to include the perimeter ring that runs along under the fins. The real thing ... So I fabricated a tiny cutting tool that could create the gap I needed and carefully machined it out ... hoping I wouldn't snap off any fins. Didn't! Came out like this. Hope you can see what I did here. Then machined a fine tube that fit into this gap, glued with CA then machined it down to ring-size. Was a very fine ring!! Next I made a hub for my rear wheel, CA'd into the wiring loom, cut all the wiring slots cut into it then wired the wheel. Now on to the Houdaille shock absorber and its bracket. Sourced scrap steel and drew the bracket ... Hacksawed and filed to shape. Turned a shock absorber on the lathe, drilled a hole through and threaded a bolt into it to hold my bracket. One more tiny bracket to make and that finished the rear suspension .... side 1!! Back soon. Frank

Thanks Dave. Good to hear someone appreciates the value of trash! Re: the spring shackle ... I got to looking at it today and decided it's still too bulky but I daren't reduce it much more so ..... I decided to remake it in steel! First I made a test join using my silver bearing solder (5%) and was amazed to find how strong it was. This bodes well for future parts being made of steel. Next I dug out the previously used floppy disk cover and snipped off a strip. Bent one end into a squarish "cup" shape then soldered another strip at 90 degrees. I shaped the whole thing with files and Dremel/cutting disks. I leave the part attached to its donor strip to give me something to hang onto and snip it off when I'm done polishing. Here's the new boy beside the aluminium original. I like it better now it's attached to the suspension. That left me ready to attack the leaf spring. I cut 6 strips of aluminium, rolled one end with needle nose pliers, filed to shape, stacked them and drilled a hole where the retaining bracket will go. Next I cut another strip of steel, drilled a hole through it then bolted it to the spring. Folded it as tightly as possible around the spring. Plan to file the head into a hex-bolt shape and snip off some of the excess. Cheers

Really? Well, thanks for that!

A bit more progress today although, for all the time it took, it doesn't look like much. Maybe you know that feeling. Anyway, the next requirement is to make a pair of thin brackets that circle the wheel hub and to which the upper and lower radius rods and a spring hanger bracket are attached. I made them first out of thin aluminium but found they just weren't strong enough so I delve into some of my trash bins and find a thin steel cover from, I think, an old computer floppy drive. Some work with metal shears and I get a rough "circle" into which I drill and file a suitable hole to fit over the hub. Lots of work with fine files and I get the shape needed ... then I have to make another! But that's the fun part right ... right? Slide them onto the hub and affix with drops of CA. Next is a tiny bracket that runs from one of the lugs upwards to connect to the transverse leaf spring ... 9 mm end to end and it needs a certain thickness. Decide to make it from aluminium and locate the necessary "meat" in an old hard drive chassis ... my favourite parts source. A LOT of time with files, drills and sandpaper finally yields a suitable bracket Mounted ... ... now on to the leaf spring.

Haven't progressed much since last post but the intense pressure from my screaming fans (all 3 of them LOL) compels me to contribute something. This time of year here in Canada is pretty much taken up with the conversion of the home and surroundings from summer living to winter and that's my excuse. Still only made one complete front wheel assembly and have moved my attention to the rear suspension. I recently purchased the Haynes "Owner's Workshop Manual" for the 250F and it's a fine read with great pictures ... a must for anyone with a 250F in the basement. Assisted by their pictures I drew up (to my scale) a rear suspension including all the bits I thought I'd be able to fabricate and off I went. Started with a "mule" tire turned from Renshape and a machined front part of the wheel rim and a blank "wiring loom" at the back (more on this later). Nothing special here but I affix it precisely where I want it on my backing board and I'll now proceed to work inwards from that. Next up was the DeDion tube to which all rear suspension is attached and, as I learned with the Lancia D50, it's helpful to get it shaped and mounted rigidly in place early on so ... Bolts threaded into the board, holes drilled so the tube can slide over the bolts and the nuts below can be turned to adjust its attitude ... same thing happens to me at my home! Next I machined a rear brake drum which has a totally different, simpler pattern to the fins than the front. I figured I could simplify the process by bolting 4 Dremel cutting disks together to give me the exact gap and proceded to "mill" out the shape ... same as I did for the front drums. On this drum I decided to integrate the backing plate as part of the drum ... one less part to attach later. Here's the rough cut piece after that. Using small, fine files I smoothed out the gaps between the fins the polished it with a 3/4" diam. wire brush on the Dremel. This then gets CA'd temporarily onto the back of the wiring loom. There's a thick, chunky hub inserted into the brake drum/backing plate and then the final adjustments can be made to get the DeDion tube to meet it. So, that's where I'm at and now that the process has been worked out to my satisfaction I can start the second set of front/rear suspension and may even remake some of the parts already done. Cheers Frank

Time for a bit of an update. I know my way of building a model might seem a bit bizarre and doesn't have the precision/accuracy many of you seek but, as I've said in previous posts, my models are just for myself and the process is the fun part for me ... how am I going to make this? I have nothing more than a couple of drawings to go by so precision goes out the window! Have been spending a lot of time figuring out how to make all the front suspension components but I think I'm there now. The body is locked at the right height by being screwed to a work board and supported by large diameter brass tube. This lets me develop and fit parts independently of the body. The openings for the suspension are enlarged at this time but are easily shaped to fit later. To do the front suspension I've decided, as with the Lancia D50, to do the upper and lower A-arms as continuous pieces which can be fixed to the board at the right heights and is very handy while fabricating parts which attach to them. Now I can fasten the model down over the parts. This brake drum is a new version with more "fins" than my first attempt and still doesn't have as many as it should so I might do another as I have a new idea on how to do it. Basically, I machined the brake drum to a shape which "includes" the fins ... I don't have a milling machine so I have to do this by hand. I use a Dremel (on a flex shaft always) with their stone cutting disks and cut the slots to replicate the fins. Cheers Frank

Thanks Darin. I've seen your work and you are too kind by far! Steve/Reconcilor (you've sorted out your personality disorder then? Stay on the meds now.) Glad to have you along. KDave ... hope I can do justice to your favourite F1!! And thanks for the explanation ... it actually makes sense to me. I guess it was one of those "Seemed like a good idea at the time" ideas? Ferrari was always very "traditional" when it came to advanced design and maybe the D50 tank locations were just a tad too "new-fangled" for his liking. Hard to imagine a car would feel better with that 4/500 pound pendulum of fuel hanging out the back. Frank

Now that the Lancia D50 is put to bed and I've done a few maintenance jobs on some old models I find myself with a clear bench and a hankering to do a 250F ... the Fangio car from the '57 German Grand Prix. To that end I've collected many pictures from Google showing the car at the event and as it stands today. Wasn't able to find any proper drawings that looked correct enough but I did find a couple of drawings ... a plan and a profile view which unfortunately don't agree in all details!! Overall length and wheelbases do agree so that's something! I learned that the wheelbase is identical at 89.6" to the Lancia D50 I built so I've scaled these drawings to that size. I was surprised to see how short the D50 is compared to the Maser! I'll be shaping this one from my preferred material ... Renshape. I've sawn my block into 4 segments lengthwise and blackened one surface on each before glueing all 4 together again. This gives an always-visible centre line and mid-ships horizontal reference lines. Next I glued paper drawings to the block and band-sawed the outer dimensions right to the lines. Now that the profile and plan views are cut to size it's a fairly easy job to round the body to these lines. Here's where the pictures resume! You can see the reference lines I'm talking about here. Openings roughed out for the suspensions. Soldered up some brass sheet to create the windshield support. Started on the exhaust pipes. Making these from steel rod that's bent, filed to tapers and silver-soldered. Quite a complex pair of manifolds and they overlap each other in an odd way. Fabricated the next "collector" pipe from tubing I salvaged from some telescoping device ... forget what it did. All joined up. I didn't have any tubing of the right size for the main pipe but I had a remnant of solid brass rod that was perfect ... just needed drilling out at the tail end. Fits like a glove. Moving on to the front wheels next. Turned a "tire" from Renshape and the outer part of the wheel rim from aluminium rod. I won't cover the fabrication of my spoke wheels here as I did cover it extensively in the Lancia D50 build. What is quite different for the 250F is the finning on the front brake drums ... not a collection of concentric fins as on the D50 but sets of 3 "fins" ... like this. Had to think hard on how to fabricate these and decided to machine a drum with the shape of the fins on the perimeter then I cut them by hand using a Dremel with a cutting disk. The "blank" areas between the fins I just filed out. I'm happy enough with this but it still needs some polishing up. Next is a backing plate for the brake drum onto which the suspension will attach. This plate has a series of horizontal cooling fins that I haven't yet decided how to make. I did get the disk prepared though. I went through my parts bin and selected a "chassis" from a salvaged computer hard drive. I've mentioned this source before and I like them because it's cast aluminium and a reasonably soft alloy. Found a section that had enough thickness and hacksawed it out ... Got it into my chuck and turned it down leaving a small projection in the middle for the suspension king-pin to attach to. I've cut a perfect recess into some scrap Renshape and glued it in. I'm about to try a variety of bits in my Dremel to cut the fins out ... stay tuned. Hope you find this somewhat interesting! Frank

Just noticed this topic has been refreshed ... thank you Steve. Maybe not fair to others to do this since there's nothing new to see but I appreciate your enthusiasm. BTW ... green with envy over your new work space!! EJ ... it's a free plugin from a 3rd party called Flaming Pear. Just download it and drop it into your "Plugins" folder. Great fun to use. Thank you Nigel. The locomotive is once again in a state of disarray as I'm making new all-aluminium wheels for the bogie, cab and tender. One day I'll (maybe) finish it. Frank Other Scratch builds ... Lancia D50 Sport Fishing Boat Half Hull Boats Flying Scotsman A3 Lola T70 Mk 1 Dragon Sailboat Mahogany Ferrari More wooden cars