Frogeye Posted April 13, 2019 Author Share Posted April 13, 2019 Thanks for the feedback folks. Much appreciated. Ian. From what I remember of the SSK kit the handbrake certainly could do with some refinement. I don’t remember a gear lever - perhaps I never got that far. I have been preoccupied with the engine this week. Needed to improve the engine mountings as a starter. This reminded me a bit of some of the many discussions on the Pocher Alfa. I decided the cylinder head detail was too small in scale and lacking the detail of the external valves and springs. A master was made up in milliput of one cylinder rocker box cover with valves constructed using model railway track pins wound round with garden tie wire. A silicone rubber mould was made in order to cast the four that are needed, I think that these modern casting resins are excellent for producing fine detail. Also been working in the engine bay on fabricating the steering box. This is the trial fitting just to make sure there is enough space. It was also necessary to fabricate a radiator as this will be visible from the engine bay. Next will be creating the two horizontal distributors at the bulkhead end of the engine. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogeye Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Managed to get some reasonable castings of the rocker box cover so had a trial fit with those. Thought I’d try a bit of paint on a scrap one while I was at it. Also fabricated the core plugs (I think that’s what they are) and the water pipes from the pump to the four cylinders. I managed to find some scrap kit parts for the Magnetos (think I said distributors last post!). Gave it all a coat of primer and started filling in the gaps and imperfections. The extreme metal paints have arrived today so I should soon be able to try them out. Looking forward to it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogeye Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 A bit more progress to report. I needed to make up some spark plugs. There are eight on each side of the engine, but I think they weren’t always all fitted. I used the same garden tie wire I had used for the wheel spokes and filed a short length of thin wire cable sheathing to a point. I think it came from a USB cable. I added a thin section from hexagonal rod to make up the base. The wire is used for the plug lead. And here is the inlet side fitted. Exhaust side. I’ve also done some work on the inlet manifold to make it beefier like the reference photos using milliput. The binding which was apparently used to reduce fracturing due to vibration is also milliput. And then trial fitting to make sure there is clearance with the steering box. I’ve now started to put some paint on the inlet manifold using AK extreme metal paints applied by brush. I did have some problems where I’d used an automotive matt black undercoat and a thick application started to eat through to the underlying white plastic. Don’t know if anyone else has had a similar problem or whether it was just the particular undercoat I was using. Anyway I hopefully managed to rectify it. Sorry if a couple of the photos are a bit blurred - phone camera. Thanks for looking. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harveyb258 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Splendid work!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogeye Posted May 2, 2019 Author Share Posted May 2, 2019 Thanks Harvey for your support and encouragement. I am not used to working in this larger scale and it’s very much trial and error. Often more of the latter. The engine is nearly there apart from some final tidying. I have beefed up the exhaust manifold which seemed rather spindly by sleeving it with styrene tube and started carving some manifold flanges from plasticard. Also now trying to work out how to make the engine visible. I’ve cut the exhaust side body panel in line with the exhaust manifold which is more like the 1.1 car. I’m thinking that the whole section will lift off to see the engine like this. Not sure yet how to secure the panels and what to do about the retaining straps. And then I need to get back to the bodyshell. Thanks for looking. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 Nice engine detail! Worth showing off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harveyb258 Posted May 3, 2019 Share Posted May 3, 2019 She's looking good, matey! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McNab Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 Beautiful and very professional work! Smashing stuff cheers Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogeye Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 Thanks very much for the encouragement. With the warmer weather I’ve been able to tackle the paint spraying of the bodyshell. I used rattle can automotive Ford Diamond White. I found I needed to use a grey primer because the yellow colour of the plastic in the kit insisted on showing through white. I also completed the beefing up of the exhaust including the pierced bands made in milliput then drilled. The fitting of the front nose was causing a real headache. The kit fitting lugs underneath just wouldn’t locate. So I cut them off and added the pierced lateral tubes shown in the reference photos. This now helps with positioning the nose with the tubes located into small plates I added to the chassis rails. I also managed to fabricate the oil can which sits in the engine bay in the reference photos. Further research reading has revealed that the engine ran with 8 plugs on the inlet side and 4 on the exhaust rather than 8 each side as I originally thought. So I’m in the process of removing four plugs which is proving a bit more difficult with the engine glued in position. Still you live and learn - sometimes. Thanks again for looking. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy vd M. Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 This is starting to look really nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Beautiful job on the engine, it would be a shame to hide it! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frogeye Posted May 31, 2019 Author Share Posted May 31, 2019 Thanks for the support folks. Just managed the last few fiddly bits. I thought the lap counter under the dash in the reference photos was interesting. I used an excel spreadsheet image, substantially reduced printed onto decal paper. The decal was positioned onto some metallic food packaging foil. It’s not that easy to see behind the steering wheel but I thought it was worth including. I also made up a new starting handle from rod and aluminium sheet The straps on the bonnet are lead foil. The thing is now assembled and the bonnet seems to fit reasonably but can be carefully removed to view the engine – thankfully. Thanks for looking 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Looks great! The engine view is excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROPELLER Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Very nice result! With a "poor" kit, you made a great model car... Congrats! Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCrank Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Very impressive result ! 😮 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schwarz-Brot Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 In your photobooth it looks like a real one in a museum! Beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endeavor Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harveyb258 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 What a beautiful result....very nice indeed!! Congrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo NZ Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I’d love to compare it to the standard build. I don’t think we’d see any similarity. Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 That is truly a thing of beauty. Fantastic job! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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