CliffB Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Morning all. I'll be joining in with this second-hand offering which I bought on eBay for £9.95 last year. The box opens in a slightly unusual way, which got me thinking of chicken nuggets! You can immediately see why the kit was only £9.95 - much of it has been already painted (albeit very crudely). My first job will be to strip this old paint off. Also, the engine's already been put together, although a couple of the parts are far from straight. Again, some remedial work will be necessary. The kit dates from 1967 and actually looks to be quite nice. It include brass 'plated' parts, a clear sprue and vinyl tyres. One of the tyres (bottom left in the photo), is badly distorted but I'm hoping that this will sort itself out a bit when put on a rim. As you can see, the tyres are black, whereas back in 1909 they would probably have been off-white. Thankfully, I'll be building this preserved example from the Beaulieu collection (which the box credits as being the basis of the kit) . Cheers 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Gordon Posted July 9, 2021 Share Posted July 9, 2021 Oh 'eck,vinyl tyres! I had an altercation with those in my recent Stutz Bearcat build.If you didn't see it @TonyW and @JeroenS had some sage words to offer.I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this one . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted July 10, 2021 Author Share Posted July 10, 2021 13 hours ago, Alex Gordon said: Oh 'eck,vinyl tyres! I had an altercation with those in my recent Stutz Bearcat build.If you didn't see it @TonyW and @JeroenS had some sage words to offer.I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this one . Thanks Alex. I have by own memories of vinyl tracks on old Airfix tank kits too! Thankfully, there's been no sign of any reaction between the vinyl and styrene parts in my Roller kit so far (while they've been mixed up in the box), so things may be OK... Cheers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Hi Cliff and welcome to the GB. Great to have you here. And your kit is one of the type I love to see being built in GBs like this. I can't wait to see what you do with it! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted July 16, 2021 Author Share Posted July 16, 2021 15 hours ago, PlaStix said: Hi Cliff and welcome to the GB. Great to have you here. And your kit is one of the type I love to see being built in GBs like this. I can't wait to see what you do with it! Kind regards, Stix Thank you Stix. I'll be making start real soon! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted July 24, 2021 Share Posted July 24, 2021 Looks terrific Cliff, can't wait to see you bring this one to life. Cheers Pat 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 5, 2021 Author Share Posted August 5, 2021 On 7/25/2021 at 12:08 AM, JOCKNEY said: Looks terrific Cliff, can't wait to see you bring this one to life. Cheers Pat Thanks Pat. With my Unarmed build now finished, I can dedicate myself full time to the Roller . I've made a start with the paint stripping, using oven cleaner gel. The cream paint just washes off after a couple of minutes, but the red is more resilient and takes some scrubbing! I also managed to prise the engine apart without breaking it and have now re-built it with everything squared up. Here it is resting in place on the cleaned-up chassis. Cheers 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 Hi Cliff. Great to see this one underway and it looks like you are off to a solid start! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 9, 2021 Author Share Posted August 9, 2021 Time for another update. As I started to dry fit the major parts, it became apparent that the chassis had a twist in it. Thankfully, most of this occured right at the rear (where the suspension mounts), so I was able to saw this section off. Here it is refitted, but displaced slightly to compensate for the twist. The running gear fits nicely now . As you can see there is a reasonable amount of detail provided for a kit of this vintage. You may just be able to see that the front box of the exhaust has some shrinkage issues which will require filling. Generally though, everything's nicely moulded. From the top, everything's sitting quite nicely too, although I'm looking forward to getting the remnants of that old red paint covered up! Cheers 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted August 10, 2021 Share Posted August 10, 2021 Great salvage job. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redstaff Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 Looks like you're bringing this back to life How many of us threw away old glue bomb kits we built as youngsters and would love the chance to strip them and rebuild them now we have a little bit more of a clue of what we are doing I got a Tamiya MP4/4 of ebay a few months ago that had been crudely painted a few months ago for less than a tenner, I've got it apart and cleaned off the old paint and decals and have another set of decals waiting. It kind of makes me feel good that these older kits are being saved and given a new lease of life Ian 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 6 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Great salvage job. 21 minutes ago, Redstaff said: Looks like you're bringing this back to life Thanks guys. I don't make a particular habit of it, but buying these pre-started kits is a good way making some hard to get, or expensive, kits more affordable. And as you say Ian, there is also something nice about saving a kit from the bin. Less good news on my Roller, is that the Spirit of Ecstacy has gone AWOL . I've obviously snapped her off the radiator cap during de-plating. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, but I absolutely must replace her! Cheers 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 Hi Cliff. Well the actual build is progressing beautifully and I'm well impressed by your fix for the twisted chasis. Annoying about your Spirit of Ecstacy going missing though. I hope you either find it okay or are able to sort out s suitable replacement. Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 13, 2021 Author Share Posted August 13, 2021 8 hours ago, PlaStix said: Annoying about your Spirit of Ecstacy going missing though. I hope you either find it okay or are able to sort out s suitable replacement. Thanks for your concern Stix. Luckily, the modelling gods have been on my side this evening! I thought I'd start by looking through my PE drawer and I almost immediately came across these two small pieces on an Airwaves WWI aircraft detailing fret. They are actually cocking handles for a machine gun. For those who may not know, the Spirit of Ecstacy figure looks a bit like a ski jumper in flight, so you can see that these parts are potentially useful. All that's needed is a head. Better still, they're almost a perfect size. Next up, I bent the two arms apart (to form the SoE's wings), and glued the two halves together. And here she is glued to the top of the radiator. When she's thoroughly set in the morning, I'll try adding her head using a small blob of PVA. Overall, I'm really pleased with the result - she's much better than I could reasonably have hoped for, especially as she's only 3mm tall Cheers 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 A landmark has been reached, with all the parts (big and small), now having been fettled and primed. I've used white primer for those parts that are to be painted ivory colour, but used my more usual light grey on everything else. Cheers 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 On 13/08/2021 at 19:36, CliffB said: Overall, I'm really pleased with the result - she's much better than I could reasonably have hoped for, especially as she's only 3mm tall Sheer lateral thinking genius! Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 19, 2021 Author Share Posted August 19, 2021 49 minutes ago, AdrianMF said: Sheer lateral thinking genius! Thanks Adrian She even has a head now too! 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Fantastic. I'll bet it looks better than the original! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Wow! That's really impressive Cliff!! Looks amazing! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 25, 2021 Author Share Posted August 25, 2021 I've spent the last couple of hours gassing myself by spraying a range of gloss enamels. Black as an undercoat for the multitude of chromed and polished brass parts, ivory for the bodywork and red for the wheels. The parts themselves are not worth photographing as they've so far just had one, well-thinned coat. So I thought I'd show you the paint pots instead While this paint dries, I'll be moving on to the chassis and engine which will be painted using using acrylics and standard Alclad paints (i.e. not polished finish). As such, the painting should be a lot quicker! Cheers 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 A glimpse of things to come 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravnos Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Thats looking amazing so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted September 1, 2021 Share Posted September 1, 2021 Excellent progress Cliff and I'm really hoping this will be finished and in the Gallery on Sunday evening! Good luck! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted September 1, 2021 Author Share Posted September 1, 2021 Thank you @Ravnos and @PlaStix Here's what will hopefully be my last update before completion! Cheers 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted September 5, 2021 Author Share Posted September 5, 2021 Finished and just in time I've enjoyed the build and thank you to all who have supported it along the way. Extra special thanks of course to @PlaStix for hosting . Cheers 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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