Pocher F12 engine duo-build

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Hello all,

On request from Poul and Rich, I’m posting a WIP on my Pocher F12 engine duobuild. The build has been stalled for about 6 months mainly due to other builds getting my full attention. But I need to continue work on these as the parts take up a lot of real estate space in my work area, as you will soon notice.

A colleague had acquired this kit but he isn’t a modeler so he asked me to build it for him. As I had the same kit in my stash as well, I started both kits simultaneously, as I would otherwise probably not build my own kit anytime soon. I also thought that it wouldn’t take that much more work to build two identical kits (or so I believed…I’d soon find out how wrong I was). Here are some pics of the kit and the parts.

 

 

 

Some of these parts are really massive….

 

 

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Let’s get started. This being my first (and probably only) Pocher kits, of course I was a bit disappointed by the instructions, being mostly used to Tamiya instructions. But this engine kit is relatively simple so there is not much that can go wrong here.

 

 

First off, the fit of the parts is quite bad. I ended up cutting off the locating tabs.

 

 

 

I then proceeded to glue the engine block halves together. I spent quite a few hours sanding the joint line, especially on the sump where the halves didn’t line up perfectly even after removing the locating tabs. Standard Tamiya paint jar for size comparison!

 

 

 

As you can see, this coolant pipe on top of the engine has one giant sinkmark across it’s entire length and needed filling in several steps (this was filled with Tamiya putty which schrinks a bit upon drying).

 

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Here are some more pictures of other parts, some of which are a big disappointment. Some parts like the oil filters are only moulded with a front half, some other parts like the turbo are both badly moulded as well as being ridiculously inaccurate. As you can see I’ve already started filling the voids with a first layer of putty. More on that soon.

 

 

This kit is extremely disappointing in terms of accuracy as well as in terms of quality. It looks like Pocher first did the F16 truck, and then the F12. They didn’t bother changing the engine at all... And when they made a separate kit of the engine, they also didn’t think about the lack of detail.

I decided to use some materials to detail and upgrade the kit: Albion Allows tubes, sheet styrene and a set of 1/8 PE hose clamps.

 

As mentioned before, the turbocharger is a bit of a joke. First of all it’s way too long, and the wastegate valve looks rather like a plastic coffee cup. Here is the kit part with a reference pic from the web.

 

I cut off the coffeecup.

 

I started scratchbuilding my own wastegate valve using an original part drawing for reference.

 

Starting to take shape!

 

 

In the meantime the turbo housings got some more layers of filler.

 

To reduce the overall length of the turbo, I cut down the parts in between the turbine and the compressor housing.

 

And here is one done; with the kit part next to it. Big difference!

 

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Some more “half” parts: alternator, compressor and exhaust collector

 

This blob of plastic is supposed to represent a starter motor…

 

The water pump is another disaster. Sinkmarks:

 

Bad fit on the engine; it only fits if I squeeze it down.

 

 

The backside is missing, well, a backside. As it’s visible on op of the engine, I filled this with styrene plate and some filler.

 

Sinkmarks being filled:

 

 

The airfilter also needs some work, as the inlet is way too “thick”. So out came the sandpaper and my trusty Swann-Morton scalpel to thin down as much as I would dare.

 

 

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One of the biggest omissions which will be obvious when displaying this engine  on a stans is the lack of injection pipes (from the injection pump to each injector on the cilinders). I first tried it with annealed piano wire.I used original parts drawings and reference pictures to figure out the routing of the pipes

 

 

 

 

I was unhappy with the result, the piano wire is still too stiff even after annealing. I binned these and then moved on to Albion Alloys aluminium tube.

 

 

Althoug the pipe looked better, I was still not satisfied with the result as well as with the material. The pipe tended to break when correcting a bend too much.

So then I moved to a third material, which is soft metal wire used by florists. This proved to yield the best results!

 

 

 

 

By now, I spent about 6 hours just on bending these pipes, on both engines....

Then it was time to start priming some parts. As the amount and size of the parts is huge, I decided not to use expensive modelling primers. I chose Motip plastic primer in spray cans. As you can see these parts are filling up my entire spray booth, which isn’t small by any means. The engine blocks and gearboxes aren’t even in here.

 

That’s it for now, This is where I left it off. I would like to restart the build soon though, as I started this at Christmas last year (2015 I mean)

Feel free to comment or ask questions!

Cheers,

Erik

[Codger]

A huge (pun intended) task and great attention to detail. Terrific problem-solving Erik. Rich will get a lot out of this but might be dismayed about how much correcting is needed.

Shame on Pocher - again...

[rjfk2002]

Thanks for sharing!  You have made a herculean effort to fix all these issues.  The fit is stunningly bad.  I found some similar sink marks on the full truck kit too.  The hole on the water pump is particularly impressive - you would almost think they molded it in there haha.  

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4 hours ago, Codger said:

A huge (pun intended) task and great attention to detail. Terrific problem-solving Erik. Rich will get a lot out of this but might be dismayed about how much correcting is needed.

Shame on Pocher - again...

 

Thanks Codger, that's too much praise for my meager skills. There is so much more that could be done with this kit but this seems like a kit that could take for ever to complete if you really want to fix it and make it ultra realistic. But I made up my mind early that I won't seek the same precision as some of the seasoned Pocher builders out here. 

4 hours ago, rjfk2002 said:

Thanks for sharing!  You have made a herculean effort to fix all these issues.  The fit is stunningly bad.  I found some similar sink marks on the full truck kit too.  The hole on the water pump is particularly impressive - you would almost think they molded it in there haha.  

 

Thanks! Actually, on the real engine there is indeed a hole between the top of the water pump and the engine block. That's why I filled the back with plastic card on mine.

[rjfk2002]

Oops I meant that sinkhole you highlighted on the pump on the right. That is a nasty sinkhole

[Pouln]

Hi Erik, thanks for starting this WIP. Really appreciated as are your comments on the quality (or lack of it) and remarks on how it is supposed to be.

I will be following your build.

[richellis]

a friend has an F12 in his yard, I can get the cab up for some pics if that would be useful