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Bandai - Mercer Raceabout Type 35 (1913) 1/16 scale


Ian T

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Nice start.IanT. Re worst critics.This is so right, when I finish a model it takes a couple of months for me to look at it & think, that is not too bad,not great mind.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
12 hours ago, Old John said:

Have you managed to do any more on the kit Ian ?

Hi John, a little, but not much I’m afraid. I was going to post a couple of pictures over the weekend but got sidetracked, I’ll do it ASAP. I started on the chassis and the mold lines run right down the middle of virtually every piece, so I’ve got a lot of sanding and smoothing to do. Keep your eye out for some pictures and thanks for your interest.

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An update with some slow progress. The engine is virtually complete but I’m looking at make the HT leads a bit better. The kit provides some “red cord” that is actually missing from my box, which is inserted into the eight holes on the top of the engine at one end and into the “distributor box” on the right of the engine at the other end. I’ve found some white rod that fits into the spark plug (holes) at the top of the engine, so that will be the insulator and I now need to track down some tubing for the leads.

 

I’ve moved onto the chassis now and every component so far has a nice big mould line right down the middle. So my recent activity has been to remove the line, fill in ejector pin marks and generally tidy things up. Attached are a couple of pictures of the suspension, here I’ve taken the opportunity of sharpening up the definition on the spring leaves as well.

 

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Looking good Ian. Tedious job removing all the seams & depressions, but models look so much better if done. Agree those glossy red ignition leads on these 1/16th old kits look totally wrong.

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Cracking on at breakneck speed now!! I was labouring with removing the seam lines as per my last post. I use needle files and then smooth down with various grades of wet and dry paper. My needle files were cheap and now quite old and I’ve got arthritis in my fingers so it was a real drag catching hold of the narrow diameter handle. So I treated myself to a nice new set of reasonably good 100mm needle files with wooden handles .... what an improvement. A picture of the new toys follows here -

 

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So with the seam lines removed and partly smoothed, I had a collection of chassis bits -

 

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Next came the chassis assembly, including copious checking to try and make sure that it went together reasonably square and flat -

 

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So far, so good it seems to be laying true, although I wouldn’t be surprised, with these old kits, to find that it rocks a bit on the corners when complete -

 

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And just for good measure, the next couple of stages dry fitted -

 

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So next comes the painting of the chassis, after checking some real examples on the internet, I was really surprised to find that the suspension is all yellow. I had expected at least the leaves to be black or something. So I’m now thinking of how to bring a bit of life to the springs to give the individual (in real life) leaves some definition, maybe something like a panel line before painting??

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2 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

That kit is a real curate's egg; the engine looks nicely-detailed but the springs look 'soft'. Almost like it was moulded by a number of different people!

That’s a very good way of describing it. I’ve spent some time sharpening up the detail on the springs, but it still needs something else. I’ll probably try some panel line accent colour and see how that looks.

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  • 1 month later...

At last, a post about the Mercer. Things sometimes get in the way of modelling I’m afraid …. grrr!! I’ve been trying to find something for the HT leads, the red tubing was missing from the kit and I’ve looked at all sorts of things as an alternative, heat shrink tubing, jewellery wire etc. In the end I came across some quite small diameter hook up wire at a local electrical shop. Whilst it’s far from perfect, it’ll have to do I’m afraid.

 

The ends that goes into the distributor no longer fit, the original vinyl tube would have probably squeezed in, but the wire wouldn’t fit. So I got four of the eight wires in and glued the other four to the first four, I then covered the “joint” with some filler in an attempt to simulate a rubber boot, it’s not very good and in the attached picture it’s cunningly hidden under the inlet manifold!!

 

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  • 1 month later...

So it’s been a long while to say the least. A serious of household things to sort, nothing major but just a string of events conspiring against me. Then about three weeks ago, I got some time and was ready to spray some yellow, only to find that my airbrush was stuffed. I haven’t been happy with it for a while, but it needed a major strip down, which revealed some damage to the needle and the nozzle, probably as a result of the previous clean. Replacements parts came to almost half of the cost of a new airbrush, so that what I did, bought a new airbrush. After some practice, the following photos show the current state of play. All of the yellow has been sprayed, I used a Matt for this as I thought that gloss just wasn’t right for underneath, and most of the parts that I’d previously worked on have been glued in place.

 

But this kit if very poor quality compared to my previous elderly Bandai kit, the Pendle Princess, and I thought that one was bad enough. There is a lot of sink, not many locating holes, nothing is really flat etc, etc. To the extent that I’ve lost a bit of interest, but I will finish it, then maybe treat myself to a nice Tamiya kit where things fit!!

 

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