Aurora's Super Spy Car: James Bond's DB5 wannabe

[hendie]

Sculpting may have been easier if I had a harder medium to work with, but the clay I had melted if you as much as breathed on it, and at that scale (the head is about 7 or 8mm high) trying to add one detail mushed up the other detail I had just added

For the scribing, I was using a pin held in a pin vise, and the only straight edge I have is a steel ruler. It may be okay for an occasional fine line, but it was impossible to get any degree of accuracy on the depth or width of scribe. I also need to try and lay my hands on some of that tape that everyone seems to like.

Airbrush? yup it's a double action (Paasche Millennium). I'm not entirely sure what tip is on it though - it came with one fitted and two more in the box. I just started firing away with the tip that was already fitted to the airbrush. I guess I really should check on that one.

[Bengalensis]

Would heads from Tamiya 1/24 seated driver figures be of any help? I have (too) many of those...

[hendie]

Jörgen, I just placed an order for some figures last night, and they should be here in a few days.

If these turn out to be unsuitable, I think I shall take you up on your very kind offer.

[hendie]

Well, after a coat of primer, the body doesn't look half as bad as I feared. I've added some more filler and some more sanding is needed.
I also ordered the UMM scribing tool.

So, progression is slow, but it is still progression.

Sorry there's no photo's, but there's enough photo's of the body covered in filler - I didn't think we needed another one.

Hopefully this week, I shall have more to show

[Nigel Heath]

This all sounds good hendie.

Sorry there's no photo's, but there's enough photo's of the body covered in filler - I didn't think we needed another one.

Well, I think we do, you have primed it and added more filler. I am sorry but my powers of imagination are very limited.

I hope you like the new scriber tool, I would also strongly recommend you get an Olfa P Cutter tool as well.

[hendie]

I'll get some photo's tomorrow evening. An Olfa cutter is added to my Amazon basket ready for the next round of purchases

[Nigel Heath]

Good work hendie and don't forget the Dymo tape

[hendie]

Tape is on order, as is a few other items - should be here before the end of the week - weather permitting.

Well Nigel, you said you wanted to see a body shell primed and filled - here it be....

Before...

After...

I forgot to take a shot of the back end but it looks fine.

Actually, the front end turned out a lot better than I could have hoped for. A little gentle sanding and shaping should see it turn out fine.

Over the weekend I sprayed the white walls, however, the finish was not up to scratch so I have removed the paint, and shall spray them again later this week.

That was a bit of a let down as with the white walls completed, I was in a position to build the wheels at last. Another day then...

I did manage to get one thing completed though - the tire valves!

I started off with the 0.7mm stainless steel rivets - painted black (forgot to take photo!)

Then inserted them into the previously drilled rims. You can just about see one of them about the 1 o' clock position in this photo. - It's ridiculously difficult to get a good close up of a chrome finish part. I need better lighting in the basement.

One thing I have noticed about the alclad chrome... If your base is good, and by "good" I mean almost polished, then you get a great, realistic chrome finish on the parts. If however, the finish is not up to scratch, then the alclad doesn't really look that much different than the original chrome plating of the parts.

On the bumpers, over-riders, and a few other parts, I got a really good convincing finish. However, on the front grill, and on the wheels, which were impossible to polish or sand, then the finish was okay, but not really that much better than the original parts.

So, next on the list is to re-spray the white walls (yes, white, of all colors) followed by something I had completely forgotten about - the door handles.

Aurora molded the door handles onto the body shell and with all the sanding, they've kind of disappeared. - That was fine as the molding wasn't very good to begin with, and it puts me back to where I am happiest - scratch building!

For the door handles, I am thinking along the lines of small wire staples, some small diameter styrene (or brass) tube, and maybe a pin or ss wire, if I have a small enough diameter available. Stay tuned...

I was almost going to add an aerial to the front wing but on checking resources, even although Bond's DB5 had a radio, it was not fitted with an aerial - though some models show it fitted with one.

Was it really worth it Nigel???

[Nigel Heath]

Oh yes, definitely. the body shell is looking really good now.

Those tyre valves look excellent.

Alclad chrome needs a gloss black base, is this what you used? As you say the surface has to be perfect but you can get an incredible mirror finish with it. I used it on my Dalek hemispheres and they came out OKish but could have been better but I was rushing things along to get it finished if you recall.

Is it going to be a six wheeler?

[hendie]

Oh yes, definitely. the body shell is looking really good now.

Those tyre valves look excellent.

Alclad chrome needs a gloss black base, is this what you used? As you say the surface has to be perfect but you can get an incredible mirror finish with it. I used it on my Dalek hemispheres and they came out OKish but could have been better but I was rushing things along to get it finished if you recall.

Is it going to be a six wheeler?

Y'know that if I made only 4 then I would have screwed at least one up. Making 6 means that everything will go fine and I'll have 2 left over... sods law

[hendie]

Well, if Nigel can post an update with only 2 photo's then I don't feel so bad!

I'm still fighting with my mojo just now, and can't seem to get into the painting thing - I think I need the weekends for painting and the week nights for the scratch stuff.

Tonight was door handle night - since I had sanded the little buggers off with all my priming and sanding, I needed to make a couple of new ones.

The first step was to search around the place and see what was available. I had a selection of styrene rod/tube, brass rod/tube, pins and some stainless steel wire left over from Periwinkle the Dalek.

I tried the styrene rod, and although the diameter was small enough for the scale, it was too flexible and would never stand up to handling.

The smallest diameter brass rod and tube I had was 1.5mm - when placed against the vehicle it was obviously too large.

These are my best two options shown below - Stainless steel wire (top), or some pins (bottom) I had lying around. The pins had a nice gun metal finish, but were very soft, and bent easily - too easily.

Looks like it's going to be the stainless steel wire.

I really wanted to try and replicate both the handle and the thumb press on the handle. I tried several avenues, but to no avail.

This was the best attempt (sorry for the quality of the photo) - you can see that I have attempted to make the handle with stainless steel wire, and the thumb press from styrene rod - it's awful, and looks more like a kitchen sink tap

and when presented to the vehicle, you can see how over scale it really is. The wire is probably a little over scale, but I think I can live with it.

Then I thought I would try just the stainless steel wire by itself. I still wanted to try and make it look reasonably like a door handle so I came up with the idea of bending both ends of the handle differently.

For the end which was supposed to contain the thumb press, I bent the wire over in a pair of pliers, then hammered the bend as flat as I could. For the other end of the door handle I simply bent the wires over by hand as hard as I could. This resulted in two visually different bend radii on the handles. - I also figured that by doing two wires at once, I stood a chance of creating two handles the same size.

Here you can see the handles with the different radii. The hard radius goes to the rear of the vehicle and the softer radius will point towards the front of the vehicle.

This photo gives an idea of how it will look.

The next problem is how to actually fix them to the vehicle! - I have a plan!

I don't want to fit them now as I want the stainless steel finish on the handles so I need to wait until the body is painted.

There is no way that the handles are going to adhere to a paint finish, and they are going to be quite delicate to fix.

Ergo - I need to drill through the body - and insert the handles into the holes - which was why the handles shown above have such long ends (still to be trimmed to size).

Taking a scrap piece of styrene, I drilled progressively larger diameter holes, and tried fitting the stainless steel wire through each until I got a good snug fit.

Which is where I am at for the moment.

I know the appropriate drill diameter to use, but I want to make sure I get the location holes in the identical location on both sides of the vehicle - I have some dymo tape on order and it should be here in a day or so. I'll use that to help me locate the holes for the door handles.

There is a cavity between the doors on the vehicle and the door cover panels of the interior, probably in the region of 3mm or 4mm. I am hoping to be able to insert the door handles into the door, and use 5 minute epoxy on the inside to secure the handles in place (obviously, after they are appropriately trimmed to length)

So, small progress, but progress nonetheless. (and more than 2 photo's)

[Nigel Heath]

Posted Today, 12:45 AM

Well, if Nigel can post an update with only 2 photo's then I don't feel so bad!

Well I think this is a bit rude, I explained that I only posted two for fully justified, scientific reasons.

The new door handles look excellent, I like the way you did the two together to get them alike - I must lodge that away somewhere.

[hendie]

It's the weekend ! It's modeling time!

A small Friday evening update....

Before we carry on with the door handles - the figures I ordered finally arrived - ehhrrr I'm afraid it's not going to work is it?

Okay. the Aurora DB5 is 1/25 scale and these figures are 1/24 but the head is almost twice the size of the Aurora figure's head. The Aurora figure's head is approximately 7mm high with a body length of somewhere around 55mm. These figures are about 75mm high. Way too large.

I can see the same figures being advertised on ebay as 1/25 scale as well as 1/24 scale. Where's the scale standards authority when you need them?

When I stood the figure beside the car, it really doesn't look that bad - if the wheels were on, the figure would probably look fine... standing that is - but there's absolutely no way I could get that figure to fit in the vehicle - Even the original figure is quite a tight fit.

So, now I am in a quandary - do I keep buying figures off ebay until I get one that matches the scale?

Well, searching for figures the other night produced very poor results. The best chances I found were asking about $5 a figure plus p&p - that would be a very fast way for me to waste a lot of money in a very short time.

So, at this point, I have decided to proceed with the kit figures (as was my original plan). I will still keep my eyes open and if something pops up, then I can still swap the heads over before the kit is finally closed up.

Hey, at least I tried!

Well, back to the door handles. In my last installment, you saw that I had managed to make two small (hopefully identical) door handles. Now I just had to fit them.

Before I went and started drilling holes in the door panels I wanted to make sure that I could actually get the holes in the right position. So, with a scrap piece of styrene, I drilled two holes, and test fitted one of the door handles - Success!

The styrene holes were perfect, so I decided to use that as a template against the vehicle when I was drilling. Now I just had to locate the hole positions.

I started by sticking on a piece of (just arrived) dymo tape. I checked several references to see where the door handles were located on the real vehicle. From what I could gather, the handles were fitted on the vertical portion of the door, just before it curves into the window.

I then used my calipers to scribe a line where I thought the handles would be. The handles on the real vehicle are also pretty close to the door edge. I chose to mount the handle at 2mm from the rear of the door. Using my scriber, I made a small dimple in the dymo tape to guide the drill bit.

Then it was on to drilling the first hole (sorry for the blurry photo!)

Once the first hole was drilled, it was time to offer up my template to drill the second hole.

In order to make sure that the two holes were horizontal I came up with the following crazy method.... Using a piece of the same diameter wire, bent into an "L" shape, I inserted the long part of the L through my template and through the door.

I then rotated the short portion of the L to line up with the second hole in my template. (The flash has washed out the wire in this photo - sorry)

Making sure that the wire covered the second hole to be drilled, I could then rotate the template until the wire appeared horizontal against the door.

Them holding the template firmly, I could rotate the short portion of the L out of the way, like so....

Which then allowed me to drill the second locating hole for the door handle.

Then it was a case of finding the darn handles - I knew they were on the bench somewhere! And a quick test fit produced this fuzzy photo....

And viewed from the side....

Then it was a simple case of rinse and repeat for the opposite side.

Now I have just got to make sure I don't misplace the door handles until the painting is complete and I can actually fit them.

[Nigel Heath]

The best chances I found were asking about $5 a figure plus p&p - that would be a very fast way for me to waste a lot of money in a very short time.

You Scots do so quite sensibly hate to waste money.

Well those handles look absolutely superb. Fantastic work hendie.

I LOLed to hear that your Dymo tape had arrived safely.

It is good to hear that your postie can make his way through the snow drifts.

[hendie]

One thing that has been bugging me and nagging away in the back of my mind for weeks is: What on earth am I going to do to finish off the headlamps?

I finally got around to shaping the front wings into something resembling a DB5 - though not great, I think they will be sufficient to work on this model - provided I can figure out what to do about the headlamp covers, with their nice big chrome rims.

I spent so much time on shaping the front wings, I didn't want to mess about with gluing/fixing something in place and then trying to sand it to shape in case I messed up the body, and what I had already accomplished on the wings. However, I needed a copy of the front wings to use in order to get the shape of the headlamp covers right.

'Doh! - didn't I go and buy a resin casting kit just a few weeks ago?

On checking the kit, to my delight, I found it came with a nice big lump of something resembling plasticine. Yes, the same stuff I (unsuccessfully) tried to mold into a head for Mr Bond.

Okay, I couldn't sculpt the stuff - but would it provide me with a quick mold that I could use? Well, the only way to find out was to try it out.

Step 1: - slap a big dollop on the front of the car

Step 2: - Gently pry the stuff off the front of the car, hoping that it's not going to deform too much.

This is looking promising....

Step 3: - Repeat for the opposite side

Step 4: Mix up some resin and pour it in.

I decided to remake two white walls for the tires since the other didn't fare too well through my paint removal episode earlier last week. - and I had the resin mixed anyway. I really must do better at estimating the volume of resin I need for a job.

You can see it starting to go off in the top left mold.

You can also see that I used whatever was at hand in an attempt to balance the molds and get the most resin into them.

I started this process just before I wrote my last post above.

And in the time it took me to write the last post, the resin had got to this state... cured! (I am liking this resin stuff) I think you can demold this resin after about 5 minutes - I like the fact that the color tells you when it's cured.

But how would it come out of the molds? That was the big question.

I started to gently peel back the plasticine, and it popped away from the resin with surprising ease! - was this going to work? - what was the resin part going to look like?

What do you think?

I think I got what I needed. These parts look fine to me.

Okay, the surface finish isn't mirror smooth, but that wasn't what I was after. I would have used the silicone to mold if I wanted to replicate the surface finish of the model. However, the finish is certainly good enough for me to use to begin modeling the headlamp covers.

I just need to decide on the method I want to use. I could try and vacu form something (looking for a Mattel vac u form at the moment), or crash mold the covers, or I could use clear resin to mold the covers as a solid part. Decisions, decisions.....

At least I have something to begin working on now. I am sure the method will become clearer as I move forward on this.

[Nigel Heath]

What do you think?

Corr, well Alan I think you have done a superb job there. I think you can add master resin caster to your list of talents. I am quite beguiled by your skills as ever.

Best regards,

Nigel

[hendie]

Beginners luck I think, but thanks for the compliment Nigel.

I just wish I could get to the point of actually assembling something, but it seems there's tons of these little jobs that need taken care of first.

[hendie]

Hey ho, another day, another dollar, or so they tell me.

And on with the head lamps. I decided to glue a scrap of resin on to the front of the wing in the hope that I could shape it as required and then cut it off afterwards to use to make a mold. I figured resin would be the best material as it was the same consistency and hardness as the wing, since it was the same resin.

That was followed by some gentle sanding and shaping.

Following the contours of the wing, I kept going until I had something that resembled a headlamp cover.

... and then I remembered something.... I also have the Airfix Bond Aston DB5. It's a different scale, but I remembered that on the Airfix version, there was a chrome insert for the headlamp which then had a separate clear cover - I wondered how close that clear cover was to what I needed? Of course, I wasn't going to use the Airfix parts on the Aurora version but it may be useful for molding purposes.

A quick test showed that it was perfect (almost).

You can just make out in the photo below, that there is a small lip on the Airfix cover, extending just below the headlamp opening on the Aurora version here. But other than that, it's just what I needed.

Well, if I make a copy of this part, that lip can always be sanded off. And it looks like this will save me a bit of work.

Okay, I have a plan now. - Of course, now I need to go and order some clear resin. Sod!

But in the meantime, I decided to have a quick trial... using the Airfix headlamp covers as formers, I pressed them into the plasticine stuff like so...

Then I filled the cavities with some diluted white glue.

I had noticed previously that when I diluted the white glue, it had dried crystal clear... so it was worth a shot. The plasticine won't give me the surface finish I need for the covers, but it will tell me if this (plan B ) will work. If it does, I can take some molds in silicone to get a better surface finish. Anyway, I've nothing to lose as the clear resin will take a few days to get here.

With that plan taken as far as I can take it for the moment... what is next?

Well, the Aurora instructions make no reference to any decals, and there were none in the kit when I received it, but Mr Bond drives a car which is famous for having revolving license plates. Ergo, I needed to make some plates.

Several pages back, I had tidied up the revolving plates. However, now when I came to try and fit it all together, it was a bit fiddly to say the least. A bit of phenargling around finally let me fit the license plate in the front bumper.

But I also discovered that my greasy over-sized mitts and alclad didn't go well together, and some of the chrome started to rub off in the process of handling.

Can anyone tell me what's the best thing to spray over alclad chrome to make it more resilient, but still keep the finish?

Since the bumpers will be handled if the plates are to be rotated, then I'll need a decent protective finish over the alclad.

The license plate isn't a great fit, but this is way better than the out of the box Aurora fit.

It doesn't really show in this photo, but the alclad is starting to wear of around the end of the bumper, and around the license plate box.

A quick search on the web provided me with the registrations of the 3 license plates used on the original car. I managed to get snapshots of each plate, which I then imported into my word processor and resized.

For the first print out I kept the silver finish of the original photo, but it came out too dark, and at this scale, wasn't very good.

My original plan was to print the plates out on photographic paper, but the photographic paper was too thick, and there isn't a lot of room inside that box for the plates to rotate. So I went with bog standard white paper, and printed out a batch.... just in case I screwed some up.

Some careful trimming, the application of some white glue, and I managed to get the license plates put together.

Yes, the plates are in the same order on both rotating thingies, and all facing in the right direction.

Once the white glue had dried, I gave the entire assemblies a quick coat of diluted white glue. I'll give them another coat tomorrow, and that should give a nice glossy finish on the plates.

The only other action item today was that I managed to complete, was to get a coat of primer on the white walls. Now I need to find some white paint to finish them off with.

It is amazing how many of these small jobs there are to knock of the list before any real assembly work can commence.

[Nigel Heath]

Hendie, those number plates are looking really nice,

But I also discovered that my greasy over-sized mitts and alclad didn't go well together, and some of the chrome started to rub off in the process of handling.

I have found to my cost that Alclad needs about a week to become really hard and resistant. You just need to be patient and let it harden up for that amount of time and the problems with it rubbing off will go away.

Good luck with the rest of the build,

Nigel

[hendie]

Hendie, those number plates are looking really nice,

I have found to my cost that Alclad needs about a week to become really hard and resistant. You just need to be patient and let it harden up for that amount of time and the problems with it rubbing off will go away.

Thanks for the info (and the compliment) Nigel. I think it's already had about a week, maybe it needs more.

Good luck with the rest of the build,

Nigel

you heading off somewhere you haven't told us about?

[triumphfan]

Nice work on the number plates Hendie.

I have also found that Alclad can rub off when handled, it is a bit of a pain!

A quick dip in Johnson's Clear or a coat of Alclad Aqua Gloss does a great job of sealing the Alclad chrome finish and does not seem to affect the finish at all. I almost always use Aqua Clear through an airbrush now as part of the 'chroming process'. The only parts I don't bother with are little bits like door handles, etc that only really get handled once, whilst fitting to the car. I agree with Nigel, best to leave the parts for a week or so to fully cure.

Worth a try, it works for me so far.

Steve.

[Nigel Heath]

you heading off somewhere you haven't told us about?

Don't be daft, with my technology I am now able to access Britmodeller 24/7 wherever I am in time and space.

[hendie]

I'll give the aqua gloss a try Steve.

I'm not too hacked off about it as I missed half of a wing mirror so I need to spray with alclad again anyway.

[hendie]

Only a short update today. The family decided that a trip to Ikea was in order... such is life!

Well, my idea using the white glue to make lenses did not work. They were too soft. They may harden up in a week or so but they had managed to integrate rather well with the blue plasticine I was using as a mold. Ah well, it was just an idea.

So, back to the front bumper and the license plate.

I had given the license plate another coat of white glue this morning just to bed everything down and to give a light sheen to the plate.

I assembled the bumper, the license plate and the covering box....

But I couldn't get the license plate to rotate!

Okay, further investigation found the source of the problem, or rather the sources.

You can see on the right hand side that the license plate is not sitting down in the recess fully.

One of the pin recesses on the bumper wasn't much of a recess. (the one closest to the camera). I duly cleared up that particular issue by a few deft swipes with a round file.

Of course, that meant that the license plate now sat further back in the recess, and actually bottomed out against the bumper itself.

Now I had to file the bumper!

As it turned out, I had to file away a good portion of the bumper section between the brackets which hold the license plate, and the sides of the brackets themselves to make them a bit thinner, and increase the gap size. - I found the license plate was jamming itself between the brackets.

The front bumper is becoming precariously thin in the center section.

However, after some tweaking, filing and gentle coercion, I got the assembly to work.

The sheen from the white glue is washing out the photo above - it does look better in the flesh - honest!

I was quite pleased that the license plate fits quite nicely in the opening after all that work. It didn't seem like it would earlier in the build.

Of course, more alclad came off in the process, but I am getting used to that now. I'll chalk it up to my learning process.

The main thing is that I got the front bumper with the rotating license plates working, though I have a distinct feeling the rear rotating assembly is going to give me even more problems to overcome.

I think this is one of the working features which won't be "worked" very often, if at all, once the build is complete.

***edited***

I just noticed that this thread just hit 5000 views!

Edited January 12, 2014 by hendie

[Nigel Heath]

The family decided that a trip to Ikea was in order... such is life!

What a shame, you do have my sympathies.

This looks very dangerous, I hope it works out OK:

it does look better in the flesh - honest!

I know you are a man of integrity so I do believe you.

I think this is one of the working features which won't be "worked" very often, if at all, once the build is complete.

***edited***

I just noticed that this thread just hit 5000 views!

In my experience moving parts are a right PITA, if at all possible I think it is better to just glue things up how you think they look best.

Congreats on the 5000 views. It is very well deserved.