Pocher Rolls Royce Phantom Torpedo

[roymattblack]

I've still got two more wheels to assemble - the spare wheels that go on the running boards - but I need a break from spoke and nipple tweaking - if you get my drift.....

The rear bodywork is next, so I thought it would be interesting to put the cabin tub up against a 1/24 kit to compare the size.

Roy.

[roymattblack]

The next task is to clean up all the body parts and test fit them as there is a fair bit of adjusting and altering needed according to the invaluable DVD.

The body parts in the pics are plastic colour - not painted yet - hence the colour mis-match with the chassis.

Nothing is fixed in place yet - just 'placed' to align the parts. No point painting and polishing the bits, only to have to cut/file/sand/drill afterwards.

Roy.

[colin]

Ah that's better, I've got my fix of the triple R, Roy's Rolls Royce lovely.What's the kit the the window Roy.

Colin

[roymattblack]

.....What's the kit the the window Roy.

Colin

It's a Pocher Alfa Romeo Spider Touring.

I got that one on Ebay last week, but it's a long way down the 'to-do' list......

Roy.

[roymattblack]

After the wheels, the bodywork comes next.

As with much of these old Pocher kits, most of the parts need attention to some degree. Fortunately, the Phantom Torpedo is apparently one of the ‘better’ kits where body fit is concerned but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect by any means. There is still quite a lot of flash, and the biggest sprue connections imaginable to deal with.

The invaluable DVD suggests fitting all of the body to the chassis to sort out the alignment and fit of all parts before any painting, so this is next.

The main tub needed little cleaning other than getting rid of the usual ‘sharp’ edges and mould seam lines. The enormous floor panel had to have the corners at the rear rounded off (at the advice of the DVD) otherwise the main tub doesn’t fit properly at the back of the car.

I know I’ve said this countless times already, but the DVD is absolutely essential to build the kit without major headaches. I’ve already bought the DVD’s for the Mercedes and the Alfa for future use.

The floor was painted wood brown underneath – I did consider covering it in thin ‘planks’ of veneer to make it ‘real’ wood, but the DVD even advises against this, as the extra 1mm thickness can cause body fit problems later on. Also, the under floor is rarely – if ever- seen, so there’s an element of ‘too much for no purpose’ to consider. I don’t mind adding extra details that will be seen, and in fact enjoy doing so, but I’m not going to start putting bits in that only I will ever know are there. I know there are modellers out there who do, and I have done so in the past but this kit is complex and detailed enough not to need it.

After test-fitting the main tub I discovered that the distance between the scuttle and the radiator was about 5mm shorter than the length of the bonnet panels – HELP!!!

However, the DVD explains this and gives excellent details on how to sort it out properly, without having to cut anything! Job done!

The rear boot (trunk) surprisingly, has no floor in it!

For such a mega-detailed kit this is astounding! The lid can be opened and it even has lovely metal latches for closing. BUT – if you open the boot and look inside, you see the road!!!

I've posted a pic to show what I mean.

A floor needs fabricating from Plasticard. A very easy but definitely 'shouldn't be necessary' addition.

The main wings (fenders) need a little cleaning up but nothing major and these fitted exactly as required. Apparently the bonnet (hood) parts are the bits needing most attention as the top panels are not shaped correctly. If they sit correctly below the windscreen, they don’t sit properly at the radiator, and vice-versa. Almost boiling water, soaking and gentle twisting is needed to get the panels into the correct shape.

A heart-stopping process, as if you break or crack the panels when twisting them, there’s no fix – and no available spare parts!

The door panels need almost no attention other than minimal flash removal and checking for fit.

Once all of these parts are fitted, checked, tweaked and adjusted, they can be removed for painting…

With parts as big as the Rolls panels, this in itself is a seriously daunting task as a really good ‘real car’ finish is needed at this scale to do the model justice.

Only two pic's at present, as there's not much else to show.....

Roy.

Edited November 25, 2013 by roymattblack

[Rodders154]

Holy (enter expletive here) That is a work of art Looking forward to this project being built. Will be following this to the end.

Rodders

[roymattblack]

Only a small update here.

I've primed most of the body parts in preparation for fine wet sanding and then glossing.

The parts look fairly small in the picture, but they are all sitting on a fairly large table.......

The front wing (fender) in the foreground is 19" long, and the spray cans are the large Halfords variety!

Roy.

Edited November 26, 2013 by roymattblack

[HOUSTON]

AMAZING work ..

LOVE IT

[roymattblack]

The body parts are top coated now.

2 X primer, wet sand, micromesh, 4 x top coats.

I'll give them a week or so to dry out then 2K clear it all before polishing.

The front wings - and rears - out of picture - are now gloss black in prep for the silver chrome top coat.

I found a company that does a genuine 'Chrome at home' kit which is absolutely outstanding - it really IS chrome, and you just do it in a bucket of water in around 5 minutes!

However, at £155 for the small 'basic' kit, I'll give it a miss, particularly as the chemicals have a life of around 6-9 months depending on conditions.

I doubt I would use it.

Roy.

[roymattblack]

A bit more yesterday and today...

After checking that the body panels fit and making a few very minor alterations to the boot (trunk) lid, the pieces were taken apart again and prepped for paint.

This involved carefully scraping all of the edges of the parts to remove sharp corners, edges and flash. The parts were then lightly rubbed down with 800 grade, then Micromeshed all over.

A wash, rinse and dry, and the parts all received two coats of grey primer. I use Halfords car primer as I find it very thin, very dense and always goes on smoothly.

Also, I’ve yet to find a surface or a top coat that doesn’t work with it. I chose grey as a base coat for the Saffron yellow, as it dulls the colour down a fair bit and takes away the awful ‘in your face’ yellowness.

The primer was left in a warm cupboard all night, and then Micromeshed again the following day.

Four top coats of Saffron yellow went on straight from the Halfords custom-mix spray cans.

Two cans were needed in all, and at £13.50 a can, it was a bit ‘ouch’ but worth it.

The paint needs to really cure for a week in my warm cupboard before another polish and two coats of 2K clear.

The wings (fenders) received similar treatment but were coated with two layers of gloss black as a pre-cursor to the final light coats of chrome silver. These parts won’t get a layer of 2K, as it will kill any chrome effect I manage to get. The polished metal parts of the real car aren’t a deep lustrous gloss anyway, so hopefully the silver parts will look ok.

Whilst the paint was drying, one of the spare wire wheels was assembled.

One to go.

Next was fitting the large floor permanently. It actually fitted exactly to the mounting points and bolts – just about a first for the model so far.

Not so with the ready-made carpets though…

There is a large die-cut sheet of thick woolly felt supplied for all the carpet parts and it actually looks very good being the correct shade of tan/orange/brown to match the actual car.

However, 20+ years had taken its toll and it seems the carpets had shrunk. They were the best part of 10mm too short and 10mm too narrow. Luckily, being felt, it was fairly easy to stretch them into place, fixing them down with potent double sided carpet tape as I went along.

Now the car has the beginnings of an interior…

Roy.

[roymattblack]

After looking at several pictures of the real car interior I noticed that the kit was lacking in a small but to me, important and noticeable area.

The real carpets have dark brown leather binding, as do the seats and all of the leather trim.

The kit doesn’t allow for this so I decided to add my own.

After a bit of head scratching I worked out a fairly easy way of achieving the desired result.

I Googled ‘Dark tan leather texture’ and found a nice image. This was pasted into Serif Page Plus and ‘tiled’ to fill a page. The repeats won’t matter as the finished binding is only about 1.5mm in dia so I don’t think it will notice!

The image was printed onto thin gloss photo paper and then fairly heavily varnished to make the print tougher, and to stop the colour fading over time.

1cm wide strips were cut and backed with strong double sided tape.

I actually use tape from a company called Viking. It’s Aerospace grade and a standard Sellotape size roll is about £25. Yes, expensive, but I’ve had the present roll for about four years and when applied, you know it’s there for ever. It has a guaranteed adhesive life of 50 years.

Just be careful when sticking it down as you WON’T get it off.

I then laid a length of 1mm wire along the back of the strip and folded the ‘leather’ over the wire.

A screwdriver blade was dragged along the edge of the wire to force the print to go tight around it.

Hey presto – leather look binding with a nice flat edge to fix under whatever you are binding.

I cut the edge of the floor carpet with a new blade and peeled the carpet back. The binding was stuck carefully in place with the d/s tape and the felt gently pressed back down.

Edging was applied along the sides of the floor carpet and on the lower edge of the side carpets.

The white bits in the pictures at the carpet edge etc are flash reflections.

All in all, a vast improvement and something I’ll also do when it comes to edging the leather on the seats.

Roy.

Edited November 28, 2013 by roymattblack

[bentwaters81tfw]

Masterful as ever!

[roymattblack]

A bit more over the weekend.....

The next job was to cover the door panels.
The kit includes leather/vinyl for the main part of the panel and felt carpet for the lower parts.

There are chromed metal strips above and below the main ‘leather’ panel, and a raised moulding in the door replicates the lower strip but the upper one is missing entirely.

First, I covered the lower strip on the plastic door panel with chrome BMF and then glued the leather/vinyl panel over the door, wrapping it tightly around the edges. It was stuck in place with UHU, and Cyano at the edges.

Then the lower carpeted parts were fitted using my mega-strong D/S tape.

The next job was to do something about the door caps.

Brown plastic in the kit – Burr Walnut on the car.

I contemplated real wood veneer but I’ve seen this used before and as ‘real’ as it is, you can’t make 1/8 scale wood grain. It looks way over scale. I decided to print my own once again.

I found a large image of Burr Walnut and bookmatched it by copying and flipping the image. This was necessary for the dashboard which has bookmatched wood.

For those not sure what bookmatched is, it means that there’s a vertical central ‘line’ on the dashboard, and the wood on the left is a mirror image of the wood on the right. Only the highest quality veneers were used and the process is expensive.

I printed a full page of the image on decal paper, gloss varnished it and then used it for the door caps by wrapping an oversize decal around and over the whole cap. Once in place a further clear coat of gloss was applied.

The missing chrome strip between the wood door cap and the middle leather panel was made using fine brass rod wrapped in chrome BMF, and then glued in place.

The door pockets were fixed last of all, including the 1936 issue of ‘Autocar’ perched in the rear passenger door. This was sourced using Google, and actually has 8 ‘proper’ pages inside, as well as the back cover. All printed and assembled before fixing together with minute wire staples. Sad – yes, but a bit of fun.

Roy.

Edited December 2, 2013 by roymattblack

[bentwaters81tfw]

This is just insane.

[triumphfan]

Loving this.

The definition of 'Museum Piece' in my opinion.

Steve.

[redcap]

Not a model I would tackle but these large Pocher car kits are deeply impressive subjects when finished to this sort of standard. It's hard to believe as well that some of these molds are now about 30 or so years old. They really were ahead of their time in kit design and concept ....if not fit of parts!!

A magificent model and project.

Gary

[roymattblack]

Not much news on the Rolls at the moment as I've been busy with other things.

Next up is the dashboard.

The kit part is moulded in brown plastic and the instructions suggest painting it a ‘wood colour’…..

The real car has a Burr Walnut dash so I used the same artwork I created my door caps with, and printed a sheet of gloss decal. Whilst I was creating the decal, I painted the dash part gloss black.

A paper template of the dashboard face and upper cap was made and this was transferred to my sheet of wood decal which was then cut out with a sharp blade. The decal was dry test fitted a few times and trimmed accordingly. Then it was applied in the usual way, using a fair dollop of Microset.

Once dry, the dashboard apertures were cut out with a knife and the whole dash given two coats of 2K clear.

More to add…

Roy.

Edited December 4, 2013 by roymattblack

[stevecombeboy]

Wonderful! But where did you get a 1/8th scale stapler?

Steve

[roymattblack]

Wonderful! But where did you get a 1/8th scale stapler?

Steve

I (sadly) made the little staples from short lengths of fine wire.......

Roy.

[roymattblack]

Dashboard almost complete...

Just the (working!) light switch to fit.

Temporarily fitted into the body to see how it looks.

Roy.

Edited December 5, 2013 by roymattblack

[colin]

looks stunning Roy, your going to need a big case though

[roymattblack]

Many thanks all you guys for so many words of encouragement.

I know I've said it before, but if any of you are tempted by these Pocher kits, but cough at the cost, I can only repeat - BUY ONE!

I've been working on this one since the start of October and I guess I'm a little over half way through.

I'm retired and spend as many as 8 hours a day on the build. OK, some days it's only a few, or even no time at all but my point is, if this were your typical 'evening' build, I would estimate anywhere around 6 - 9 months work to complete a fresh model.

Gauge that against how many 'normal' plastic kits you would build in the same time span - Pocher kits aren't massively expensive after all.

Try to twist the arm of 'er indoors if you can and don't be put off by the apparent complexity.

The models are built in a series of stages and the huge size makes it reasonably easy to work on.

I can only say it isn't anything like any plastic kit I've ever built. It really is almost like building a 1:1 'kit car'.

So many metal bits, nuts, bolts, screws, even upholstery etc etc....

I'm supremely lucky that my better half encourages me and NEVER complains at my purchases.

I now have 3 more Pochers' in my 'to-do' stash......

I'm by no means a 'Pocher encyclopedia' but if anyone wants advice or help re: buying one, PM me.

Also, check out http://www.pocherparts.com/index.html - no connection.

Always glad to help, or natter.

B.T.W...... Seats next......

Roy.

Edited December 5, 2013 by roymattblack

[roymattblack]

I've had a couple of people asking me if I could create a PDF of the whole build, with many of the pictures, once the car is complete.

I would be very happy to do this if there's sufficient interest, and I can find somewhere to either host it for free download, or if the file isn't too big, I could just email to people.

With all respect though to my two 'question-ees', I don't really want to go to a lot of bother just for two copies.

Anyone else interested?

Of course, I will continue to post my updates here.

Roy.

[roymattblack]

The next job was to assemble some of the main body parts.

The boot (trunk) is simply bolted to the rear of the main body tub and likewise the rear wings. (Fenders)
However, this needs doing with some care as the parts have to align neatly and flush, both with the body tub and the chassis and back wheels otherwise you could end up with one wing higher than the other. The inner rear tips of the back wings also need trimming slightly so they sit neatly against the boot. This was made clear on the DVD, and proved to be correct upon initial test fitting so all the trimming was done prior to any painting.

Bolting the parts together was a bit of a task as the bolt holes dont line up ‘perfectly’.

There are five bolts for each wing and two for the boot. As the parts were being bolted together, the body tub was worryingly going considerably out of shape on one side.

However, as the other wing was fitted and tightened up, everything pulled back into line.

As with all of the major assemblies so far, once the body tub was assembled it fitted really tight and snug in place on the chassis.

A ‘car’ is now in the making!

Roy.

Edited December 6, 2013 by roymattblack

[BrianI]

A stunning build Roy! Great idea for printing out fake wood veneer on a printer, varnishing it and using it for realistic looking veneer for the model! Must try that for my 1/24 scale Jag E Type i'm building!

Looking forward to seeing more progress Roy, and the completed build!

Brian.