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I have had this kit sitting beside on the workbench as I built the 1933 Blue Bird recently. I will admit that the Thrust2 never really struck with me like so many other LSR-cars, probably as it looks a bit like some blob with a nose, and I didn't follow the record attempts as close as with the later Thrust SSC. When FPPM released the kit it first took a while for me and then I bought it to some extent because I must support more LSR kits to be released in 1/24 scale. And I just heard the other day that I will apparently not be disappointed...

 

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For the last few weeks the body has been sitting on top of its box with the two fins loosely attached to it, just to keep it in the back of my mind. It may have worked as I have also been reading up a little on the project, checking photos and videos. 1047 km/h in top speed and a record of 1020 km/h in 1983 demands a lot of respect, even if it wasn't that much above the Blue Flame record of 1970. The kit deserves the full attention of being built now.

 

Here we have all the parts and the decal sheet as large as the box. There is a good amount of resin in there; the thing is 33 cm long and 10 cm wide. My kit was missing the exhaust part of the engine and the left rear suspension had a detail missing, but no problem, FPPM quickly sent the parts. Perfect service.

 

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When I got the kit I found two decal sheets in it and thought that perhaps some decals were repeated, but now I see that is not the case, a sheet should cover the whole car. Not only that though, today I see there are actually three sheets in there... I will have to contact Pinto about that in case it is a mistake, as the decals would be expensive and are probably what limits the number of kits he can make.

 

I believe these coloured roundels are provided as painting instructions for the brake parachutes. Nice detail.

 

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It will never win any beauty prices with me, but it was seriously fast...

 

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That engine part is 65 mm deep. I'm not sure how to paint the inside; I doubt that spraying will work well. But it will take some time until I reach that point.

 

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Work started with cutting some excess resin from the body and floor, filling air bubbles and doing some repairs. I suppose I will work on this beside some other projects so it may not be a very quick one.

 

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I remember the Thrust project and all the hype that went with it, will look forward to watching you work magic and produce another show stopper!

 

   Stay safe           Roger

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This reminds me that I have a 1/24 resin version of the Goldenrod LSR car sitting in an obscure corner on my bench. It's a bit of a chunk of resin! Maybe one day I will just start it as a diversion in the middle of the current build. I've always liked the LSR cars from the early ones to the later versions. I'll be watching yours for inspiration!

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10 hours ago, larchiefeng said:

This reminds me that I have a 1/24 resin version of the Goldenrod LSR car sitting in an obscure corner on my bench. It's a bit of a chunk of resin!

That Goldenrod resin piece can be made into something nice. Although the design is also a very efficient one in the first place, it still has a sense of beauty to it. Here is mine that I built a year ago, using only the body and air scoops from the kit.

 

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While finishing the 1914 Mercedes I have also been working on the body for this one in between. It has required quite a lot of work, but this morning that work was finished, including the floor and fins.

 

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The rearmost part representing the visible section of the space frame is a separate part. I wanted a strong glue joint as it carries some of the rear suspension and also it makes the body more rigid, so I decided to glue at this early point with no paint disturbing. However, that also means I have to come up with a different method of fitting the rear suspension arms. I will look at that later.

 

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I decided to add a few bosses inside the body to be able to screw the floor in place. The underside of the model doesn't represent anything terribly accurate, just a black plate sealing it off.

 

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To avoid the risk of any "see through" effect I'm adding a wall where the two to side parts of the space frame detail ends. I think this will take care of the problem from all angles; otherwise I will have to add another wall behind the front of the engine.

 

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I found the outer diameter of the rear shroud of the engine a bit too large. I thought it would be easy to just put in the lathe with some care and turn it down. Not so. When the diameter was about to get right the thin resin cracked. The rest of the detail was unharmed, so I turned it down further to make a new thinner shroud.

 

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I found no suitable material to easily turn anything from in the lathe, so I resorted to cutting long strips of 0,25 sheet styrene and laminated a new shroud to 1 mm thickness. What first looked like a disaster was quickly back on track.

 

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I also lowered the mounting position of the engine part about 2 mm and now I got a look at the rear end I was happy with when comparing to photos and adding the brake parachute fittings on top.

 

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Here all the parts for the parachutes are finished. The more I study references about the real car while preparing the parts, the more interesting the project gets.

 

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The front parts of the engine after an hour of work cleaning up and using a little filler.

 

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They fit something like this in the body. Hopefully with all inside surfaces painted black it will be good enough.

 

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Now I need to scratch build a little. There should be some sort of conduit, or whatever it is, between the periphery of the bodywork and the centre cone. There might have been something to represent it on the forward six winged part, the instruction sheet hints at that, but if so it was broken off on my part, and I would most likely have rebuilt it anyway.

 

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The engine in the car is a Rolls Royce Avon RB 146 Mk 302, apparently the upper engine from an English Electric Lightning. I might have to do some reading on the engine subject, my knowledge is a bit limited there.

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I think that the conduit is either an oil feed pipe to the front bearing housing (inside the bullet), or part of the oil scavenging system for the same bearing.

Trevor

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16 hours ago, klubman01 said:

I think that the conduit is either an oil feed pipe to the front bearing housing (inside the bullet), or part of the oil scavenging system for the same bearing.

Thanks, that does sound like a very plausible explanation.

 

This morning I scratched the thing from some Evergreen rod and stock material that I shaped to look a bit like the photos, and added a piece of photo etched flange. When it was all done and test fitted to satisfaction I found the broken off piece from the kit part. But I like my new piece much better so it was all OK.

 

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The thing fits something like this.

 

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Work started on the cockpit. A bit of work and filler is needed to get a good fit inside the body. The seats come with very simple safety belts moulded in, but since these will be reasonably visible through the windows I will remove them and use something else. Possibly this set from Modeler's.

 

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I added some instrument details according to a photo of the real cockpit. The decal sheet is well cared for in providing all instruments and also other labels for the cockpit, so I think it will look good in the end.

 

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That's some passenger seat to ride in...

 

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The little fin antenna was sanded to a better shape and got a thin metal locating pin.

 

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Here are the four parts representing the four lifting lugs and the tow hook. I'm not exactly sure which is which and one is missing. These could be cleaned up and rescued and one easily made from scratch, but I put them aside.

 

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Instead I drew them up in AutoCAD and decided to try the new Silhouette Cameo 4 cutter on 0,25 sheet styrene. I don't think such hard material is what it's meant for, and I found no suitable setting in the software, so I experimented. It got better as I tried manipulated settings, but nothing was cut perfectly through. Either it's too much for the machine or I'm lost in the settings, but I lost interest for the moment and wanted to move on.

 

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The last attempts were almost cut through and separated, you could see the marks protruding on the backside, so I sanded the surface lightly and then the pieces broke free quite easily.

 

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After some added fine sanding I had 4 + 1 passable parts.

 

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The tow hook fits in the nose.

 

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And the four lifting lugs go on top of the body.

 

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Before I start on the rear suspension, that will require a good deal of work, I thought I'd get rid of the front wheels. One is riddled with fine air bubbles and some larger ones. But as very little of the front wheels are visible I think I can fill the worst and sand, spray with primer and pick in the rest with thick primer, before sanding again and painting. Then I can hopefully find an orientation to fit the wheels in that will be free from visible faults. Time will tell.

 

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Thanks for posting a pictures of your Goldenrod it looks great! Without a lot of extra detail I can see what a stunning kit it can be built into. The paint and decals really bring it alive! Can't wait to see what you do with this one!

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Front wheels ready for primer. I think also the offender will pass with some added primer treatment.

 

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Some material had to be ground off inside the body to make room on top of the wheels. It's now very thin there, much like it would be for real, but it works.

 

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A ride height test. Not much will be seen of those wheels.

 

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The vacform for the windscreens looked like a chance for some trouble as it was a bit yellowed already. But before asking for a replacement I thought I'd give it a go. It turned out to be very brittle and was prone to develop cracks as I cut, so I had to be really careful. I managed to cut them 95% OK with really great care, but then the fit wasn't all perfect.

 

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What alternatives where available? I always try to save anything that looks even very remotely useful for some modelling purpose, including all sorts of clear plastic packaging. I have never ever bought something microphone related like what that sticker implies, but still it was present in one of those bags of good to have shaped window material, I have no idea where it came from, but it was a scary good match in curvature around the edges...

 

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Sure enough, before too long it had given me two very well fitting clear windscreens. With some care I should be able to glue these flush after painting.

 

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The thin rear wheels were quite OK, a little filler needed on one of them.

 

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The rear suspension arms needed more care. It's hard to see here, but quite a lot of cleaning and filling was needed. I also needed to get something done about their mounting, as I could no longer fit them with the moulded in metal axle present. This is due to me having already glued the centre mounting point to body. I gave it a try and pulled the first moulded in axle with a pair of pliers, I had nothing to lose anyway, and as luck would have it, it came out nicely, leaving a long through hole, that I could ream out with a 2,1 mm drill. Repeat once more and I then cut two new 2 mm steel axles, that I could push in from the side.

 

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First trial fit of the rear suspension.  I will always find the rear end weird on this one. Functional, perhaps, but it looks odd with everything hanging in the open dragged behind the body...

 

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More work needed. There are two shock absorbers on each side, but their mounting points don't line up between the body and suspension arms. I need to move the outer ones on the body in, and the inner ones on the suspension arms out.

 

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1 hour ago, Moa said:

I have missed this one, it's a rocket!

As usual, excellent job.

Thanks a lot. It's probably more rocket than car; a horizontal rocket on wheels meant to not take off...

 

I have moved around the shock absorber mounts to get a better line up, and then I cleaned up the main suspensions struts and did some new trial fitting.

 

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I have to raise the ride height a further mm from my first idea to get a good geometry in the rear suspension. It may be that this is as it should be, given that when the car is seen on the Black Rock desert surface the solid and thin wheels are always slightly sunken into the surface. I'll see how it feels.

 

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This is the parts for the shock absorbers. All resin needs some work, they are a bit too long and lack some shape, and the rods are a little chunky, so I decided to see what could be scratch built.

 

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I made new shorter bodies from a piece of sprue and gave a little chamfer in each end and added a mount from some Evergreen stock sanded to shape. New rods where cut and shaped from soldering wire. Quite simple, but I think they will do the job.

 

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They are supposed to fit like this in the end.

 

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Then we have the rear brakes to sort out. The discs are supplied as stock steel washers, not something I'm usually impressed by, but given a filing and sanding of the surfaces to give them the finesse they lacked they will do the job fine in this application. I'm not exactly sure of the brakes construction. The most visible part, looking like a squared calliper block towards the rear, is moulded with the suspension arms. But reference photos also show a more ordinary looking hydraulic calliper facing the front. I took some callipers from the scrap box and adapted them to do the work here. I hope that after paint, decals and assembly the whole rear end will be busy enough of odd things for it all to work out.

 

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It's close to do some serious primer spraying sessions now.

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Quote

The engine in the car is a Rolls Royce Avon RB 146 Mk 302, apparently the upper engine from an English Electric Lightning. I might have to do some reading on the engine subject, my knowledge is a bit limited there.

 

The engine on the Lightning were exactly the same the thing that made the difference was the inter/reheat pipe Assy the No2 engine (upper) has a shorter inter pipe  between the engine and the reheat pipe.

 

Indecently the shroud you removed from the reheat pipe that has and angle to it and its that that drove the nozzle flaps. Had the pleasure of walking past the engine bay at Binbrook and Thrust two was there .... oh for camera phones.

 

Quote

I think that the conduit is either an oil feed pipe to the front bearing housing (inside the bullet), or part of the oil scavenging system for the same bearing.

The Lightning has an Avpin starter and its the Exhaust for that that you can see.  The Bullet houses the starter although it was converted to an air starter as Avpin is nasty stuff. 

 

Trivia time   Thrust 2 had a Lightning engine and reheat system but it also used Lightning tyres for the slow speed stuff ( up to 300mphish) Thrust SSC and now Bloodhound also use Lightining tyres for same testing. 

Edited by tweeky
additional info anf typo
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34 minutes ago, tweeky said:

 

The engine on the Lightning were exactly the same the thing that made the difference was the inter/reheat pipe Assy the No2 engine (upper) has a shorter inter pipe  between the engine and the reheat pipe.

 

Indecently the shroud you removed from the reheat pipe that has and angle to it and its that that drove the nozzle flaps. Had the pleasure of walking past the engine bay at Binbrook and Thrust two was there .... oh for camera phones.

 

The Lightning has an Avpin started and its the Exhaust for that that you can see.  The Bullet houses the starter although it was converted to an air starter as Avpin is nasty stuff.

I'd not considered AVPIN.  The air start pipe makes more sense than an oil pipe.  Never had the "pleasure" of working with AVPIN.  The Hunters I worked on had cartridge starters, which could be exciting now and again.

Trevor

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10 minutes ago, Mr Mansfield said:

How many odd bits of packaging do you have to have laying around to find one with the perfect curvature?

I suppose one can't have too many, but still need luck to find something useful among them. I have three plastic bags filled, might be useful some day... It's not terribly effective from a space perspective, but I have quite a lot of space, and am not ashamed to use it 😎

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45 minutes ago, UKmodeller-Reborn said:

Lovely model. I lived on the Isle of Wight and remember being invited to see the engine being installed before being flown out for the record attempt, nice model 👏👏

Wow, that's a nice happening to have experienced! Glad you like the model. It's growing a lot on me as I work on it, even its look.

 

A hard day's work, but so little that shows... All the primer has been sanded and everything is ready to paint. Almost. I must draw up a circular bolt pattern in AutoCAD to get a template for marking it on the rear wheels first.

 

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All your chosen subjects -and therefore builds- have a remarkable artistic sculptural side to them. I see Giacomettis, Duchamps, Brancusis, Moores...

Aesthetics is one of the main factors that attracts me to certain airplane or car designs.

Yours are always a feast for the eye.

Cheers

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16 hours ago, Moa said:

Aesthetics is one of the main factors that attracts me to certain airplane or car designs.

Thanks a lot, you are most kind.

 

The aesthetics of a subject is always important, as is having a passion for the subject, something that is easier to get if the aesthetics are pleasing. On the other hand, with a great passion for a subject it is easier to find good aesthetic aspects in it, even if they aren't apparent first, or not apparent to someone else...

 

Good weather this morning meant I could spray the large black simple parts with a spray can outside. Spray cans are tools that I have never learned to master well, but they do have their use.

 

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Then I thought I'd continue with the base gold for the body, Tamiya TS-21 spray. I wasn't sure that the started can I had would be enough, so another is already ordered and arriving in the coming week, but I decided to give it a go anyway, and suffered through another lesser controlled spray can session. There was enough paint left, just, but I'm not perfectly happy, so this will be given a light 1200-rub and another coat of gold when the new can arrives.

 

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I then punched a hole in the brim of the empty gold spray can and managed to pour the last drops in my airbrush cup to spray the lifting lugs and tow hook. No waste of paint.

 

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Continuing with the preferred and controllable tool, the airbrush, I continued painting. White lacquer for the fins and antenna.

 

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Spraying paint deep down into bottomed tubes has never been a good experience in my world. I started work on the reheater by brush painting flat black deep inside.

 

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An orange mix for the rear suspension arms. An interesting choice of colour, but I'm sure there was some good reason.

 

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A metallic blue mix for the shock absorber bodies.

 

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Some sort of blue-grey(?) for the framework. I will use Bare Metal matte aluminium foil for the panels later.

 

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Gloss black as base for Alclad chrome and highly polished aluminium later.

 

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A coat of semi gloss black as base for the cockpits, seats and steering wheel.

 

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At that point the painter got a coffee session...

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