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A Scratchbuilt Frog Prince


RichO

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        Hey All,   I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season with lots of modeling.

 

  I had a fun time just staying out of the way and building, but at a holiday pace.

The engines have been finished as much for now, and installed.

 

  I finished with the silver painting........

 

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I began the wiring with the spark wires.  I chose Red to give things a bit of contrast.  I had to build the exhaust headers and get these installed to check the install of the spark plugs.

 

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Once I had the spark installed, I started with the hoses......

 

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After the installed hoses, it was the final touches of the build before I bolted these down.  Do I have to get out my belt?  

 

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I make my belts with masking tape painted black........

 

Except here....

 

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OOPS!!  I'll paint the under sides black also, and when this is installed correctly you'll never see it.

 

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This is about what I can do for now.  I need to build the radiator cooling system that is very tightly integrated with the engine build.  I do have a layer of basic paint stain over the engines, but more dirt to be added for sure.

 

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With the starting of the next faze, that is actually still the engine build, I have begun investigating the cooling system........

 

You can see where the radiator vent openings are located...

 

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  I have accomplished a bit more with the sheet styrene around the engines and radiators, but I'll leave that for next report.

 

Be back later All.

 

 

  

 

  

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Thanks everyone for watching!

 

  Hey All,

 

  The Engine Build has expanded to the Engine Bay Build.  I have just about finished with the engine build, but I have a few connections to the radiators and then all is finished with the engine build.

 

  I have finished with the cross connections between the engines and installed the drive shafts.

 

CNSF76.jpg

 

The cross connections control the carburetor linkage, and you can see the linkage that shifts the gears on the transmissions.

 

  Once I had the linkage installed. all was secured final, and then the drive shafts install.

 

xWA1Ac.jpg

 

 

  The rest if the engine build is just the air filters, and the water hoses.  However these all integrate into the air intake radiator system.  So the best thing to do is to start with building the radiators and the housings that support these large cooling fans.

 

  The radiator housings are a large cage sort of affair that wraps around the engines with supports for the air filter canisters and the fans and motors to cool down 16 cylinders of Russian muscle.

 

This section of the build is a bit confusing with all the unfamiliar parts for the body.

 

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starting the cooling fans......

 

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I used wire mesh for the radiators to see through the cooling system.  The large wall on the right is the fire wall for the cab and the air openings are on the port side.

 

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building the radiator fan housings....

 

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Fresh back from the Paint Dept.

 

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And this is how these relate to each other...

 

 

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  This cage, along with many supports, wraps around the engines, witch sits in the middle of this, and hides the engine build I just finished.

 

  I should have the cage installed for the next posting, but not promising for sure.  I have a bit of wacky geometry with the outside body panels and all has to match the inside cage.

 

  I'll be back with the fans and motors for the cooling system and maybe the cage.

 

Thanks again for watching!!

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2 hours ago, RichO said:

and you can see the linkage that shifts the gears on the transmissions.

I can see it. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if it actually operates! 

Another epic update, Rich. Keep them coming.

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Thanks for the nice words guys!  

 

Pete, I'll see if I can get 'em started when I link the gas peddle and gear shifter to the cab.

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Hey Guys,

 

  I had a few thing to get out of the way before I do more work on the Radiator Cage.  I had to place the cooling fans into the surrounding cage.  With all the items that are crammed into the cage, things aren't looking so good.  I just don't see how all this fits in there.

 

  So to get on with the cooling fans, it always starts with a load of parts.......

 

NRoUkN.jpg

 

This part of the build starts out with building the Generators and mounts with a couple of fuse ports and wiring.

I keep an eye open for junk to use for scratching.  I collected these off the ground at my local car tire repair spot. These are the air stems for putting air into your tires...

 

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I needed some heat ports for the generators and these worked out great after I removed a few things. I used some brass screen for the cold intake end, and not a bad looking generator.

 

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The generators and fuse terminals all mount to the fan side of the cage.

 

Everything back from the Pain Dept. and ready for detail.......

 

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The next thing was to wire it all together........

 

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Generator and Fuse packages installed and wired.

 

  The next thing to build are the fans.  Checking the Fan Shroud for fit...

 

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Then finishing the shrouds and checking the fan fit.....

 

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You can see that my initial fan blade did not fit.  I trimmed 1mm from the ends and the fit was fine.

 

Now building the Fan Guards...

 

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Once I got it all together, I painted these and mounted everything into place. 

The drive shaft spins off the fan rotation and in turn spins the generator.  The other end of the drive shaft connects to the pullies mounted to the engine, to spin the entire cooling/charging systems.  You'll get to see all that later.

 

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New and clean from the shop...

 

Old and grungy for the build...

 

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#2 fan tomorrow...

 

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 I'll get the dirt and ageing under control and keep working on the cage.

 

Until Next Time.....Thanks All......

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And this is why I'm one of your fans. :coat:

 

8 hours ago, RichO said:

Everything back from the Pain Dept.

Some days it does feel like that, eh?

And, in the great minds think alike dept, I've just used two of those tyre valves in the exhausts of my kreiger build!

The assemblies are looking fabulous and so is the grunge and rust. 

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Ah those nice little valves.  If you have an old fashioned type pressure gauge you can unscrew the end & find a tool to unscrew these from the inlet tube on the tyre.  So if someone really annoys you & their car is parked up you can not only let their tyres down, but take the valve out & they can’t pump the, up again!

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Nice idea with the valve stems Pete!!

 

Thanks All for Watching....

 

The cage build continues, and I cant believe how much stuff there is to build, to get the engines wrapped.

 

  I have finished with the Radiators build.  When everything was finished, these were a good size to fit into this space...

 

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  I had built the fire wall earlier, just to see how things would match together....

 

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  I also stiffened this part with a back wall that separates the Engine Compartment, from the Fuel Tanks, from the Cab.  The space directly behind this firewall is the space for the fuel tanks.

 

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  I have good references for the fuel tank system, however the fuel tanks are so wedged and buried between the Engine Compartment and the Passenger Compartment that the only visible evidence that they exist are the fill necks on top.

  I built only a "place holder" for the fuel tanks just to help support the details on the top side.

 

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  I cleaned these up a bit and fit them into place.

 

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  Once I had the three tanks fit and tight, it was off to the details...

 

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  And next here you can see, Ladies and Gentlemen, the first "External Skin" part applied to the bones...all hiding the Fuel Tanks, primered and ready for painting.

 

 f3Tbki.jpg

 

  This is why I didn't go to far with the fuel tanks detailing.  The next thing to do was to apply all these little parts to the 3rd wall of the cage.  All forward on the Firewall and Fuel Tanks.

 

After all the parts were installed, it was time to get dirty........

 

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  These are the four "walls" of the Engine Surround so far.  I can build the cage and install these three walls before I build the Top.

 

  The three walls fit like this...

 

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And with the top part of the cage, close to where it is to be placed...

 

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You can see I have just set these parts close to there install positions...

 

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  My photo references show a bit more detail to cram into this space.  I need to get the cage secured and square onto the frame before I can finish the connections between the engines and the radiators.  

 

  I'm not totally sure how to proceed, if I should fit the skin before I finish the cage or try to get it all to fit in separate parts onto a finished fragile cage.  

 

  I'll let ya know what happens.  Until next time.

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2 hours ago, RichO said:

 

  I'm not totally sure how to proceed, if I should fit the skin before I finish the cage or try to get it all to fit in separate parts onto a finished fragile cage.  

Don't ask me. It's beyond my pay grade! Stunning stuff, Rich. Awesome.

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  Thanks all for dropping by.........

 

  Hey All,

 

  Did ya ever build something, "over here" and forgot to consider what's "over there"?  I don't do this very often but I totally spaced out about what I was doing on the inside of the "cage" build and forgot to check the flow through to the outside.  I did this just fine with the radiator build.  I punched a whole through for the fans and added the screens.  It all looks good.  

I just didn't think at the time to do the same thing for the Air Filters.  Lets see where things went sideways.........

 

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  I first had to build the air filters and the air flow tubes.  My mother-in-law worked as Lead Nurse at the local hospital, and one day she brought me a big bag of medical hoses form work.  All different sizes and all soft enough to cut clean.

 

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I used some hose to cut out the air filters.........

 

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These air filters and flow tubes live on the side walls between the fans and the firewall.  I have just placed these into close location, along with the Water Tubes from the Radiator.

 

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 It was at this point that it all hit me......I did not cut the flow through for the air filters!

 

iClDYw.jpg

 

Here you can see just what I have not done.  You can see the Air Filter canister I have finished mounted into its location.  I just forgot, in all the excitement, to make the pass through to the outside skin.  I have marked where the outside access hatches are to be located.

 

This photo shows the outside filter access doors I forgot to cut.  Two access doors, both sides on each side of the Radiator Screens.  One with louvers cut and one with water run off channel.

 

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This photo shows the doors and filters to be added....

 

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The open filter hatch will have to be hinged and the filter made.

 

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I really hate working like this.  I now have to go back and cut the hatches open...

 

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'll let everyone know how this work out.

 

Until later All............

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Hey Guys,

 

  The access doors build went fine but only after a bit of a time to figure the hinges.  If you remember that I said I usually build a bit bigger scale, so I can see what I'm doing.  I tried to build my hinges like I do for a larger scale, just smaller.  A couple pieces of brass wire and a small tube.

 

84kP3X.jpg

 

  This works great on larger scales but I had a binding problem and also the hinge took up to much room inside the space...

 

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  Scratch builders.......I found my wife's "Marbled Chocolate Brioche" tin in the trash.  Great for thin metal to build proper hinges...

 

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I got all four access panels to open and close....

 

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  I have a bit of cleaning to do and then paint the side skins.  I think I have everything for the final install of the cage around the engines.  We'll see....again.

 

Thanks all.

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Neat solution in the hinges there Rich.  Must have been trick keeping the spacing right between the halves.  Trimming  it would have crushed those nice tubes formed on each half.  I suspect there was more work & patience than you are letting on.

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