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VW T1 Panel Van - Jaegermeister


Spiny

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I often wonder who actually writes the build instructions for models , obviously in your case somebody who hasn't built the kit first ! Belkits do a great job in making a mess of build instructions as well . 

Gary

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14 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Getting the wheels on with the panels in place is almost possible to do without trimming the axle stubs so you made a good call. Those panels will probably need some manhandling to get them (and the roof) in place though, so I'm not sure you should be fitting all the trim before that. Just a thought 🙂 

 

Thanks for the heads up, in that case I'll hold off on the trim. But as there looks to be a slight bow to the top of the rear tailgate I think I will put the glass in there before fitting the part onto the body, even if it's just to keep the tailgate straight while I fiddle around.

 

12 hours ago, Windy37 said:

I often wonder who actually writes the build instructions for models , obviously in your case somebody who hasn't built the kit first ! Belkits do a great job in making a mess of build instructions as well . 

Gary

 

Must admit that the instructions for this one do seem to be in the most nonsensical order of any build I've done so far. I remember watching the programme on Hornby and them going to someone outside the company to get the instructions done, so it could wel be that whoever wrote these instructions for Revell hadn't actually built the kit.

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9 hours ago, Spiny said:

But as there looks to be a slight bow to the top of the rear tailgate I think I will put the glass in there before fitting the part onto the body, even if it's just to keep the tailgate straight while I fiddle around.

Right, that's what I did too, now that you mention it, on my second build. This will make sure you have the correct width for that part. I didn't do that on the Camper build and as a result the tailgate cannot fully close. It's displayed open anyway, but it indicates there's an issue there. 

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Another bit that's good to know. To tell the truth, my first reason for putting the window in now was that I didn't trust myself not to drop it in the van while I was fitting it in the tailgate, it was only as I was polishing that I noticed the slight bend in the tailgate. But if fitting the window now helps with fitting, that's a good thing in my book.

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This has been one of those "lots of work and little progress" weekends.

 

First though, a mistake from earlier which I just caught yesterday - it appears that there is a bit at the back of the loadbay floor which should be body colour as it sits between the tailgate and engine bay lid, but isn't called out for body colour paint in the instructions.

 

52191580639_99aba56707_b.jpg

 

I hadn't picked up on it before, but the circled bit will make up part of the exterior body and as such needs to be dark green or I would have a not-so-nice grey bar across the back of the van. Definitely too high a risk to spray it given it's already assembled, so I had to decant a little paint and add 3 layers to get a half decent result. It will dry and cure over the next week (I hope!), then the plan is to try and Micromesh and polish it to a reasonably decent shine, or at least to a standard where it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. So this is how that bit looks at the moment:

 

52191809105_88d5b948b9_b.jpg

 

Speaking of polishing, the first round of panels have had the full Tamiya Coarse-Fine-Novus 1 polishing treatment (no Micromesh on these). Annoyingly, I managed to snap one side of the tailgate next to the window while doing the last bit of polishing, even though I was being careful with it. Although I was able to fix it with minimal noticeable damage, I don't think I've got the rear window in quite right, partly due to the fact that pushing it too far would reopen the break. I've also painted some GreenStuffChrome onto the lock for the engine bay and the rear light reflectors (you can just about see one on the left of shot). With a bit of luck, these should be fitted next time I'm on the bench.

 

52191324171_bfbce575a4_b.jpg

 

And that's all for this week, feels like I've spent most of the time on this just polishing.

 

Thanks for looking.

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13 minutes ago, Spiny said:

feels like I've spent most of the time on this just polishing

May be so, however your results are stunning.   I also feel your frustration with the load bay floor colour issue (I can easily make mistakes all on my own, without help from the kit instructions 😀), however with your polishing skills I'm sure your fix will be perfect.  - Andy 

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It helps when there's a window and lots of daylight reflecting in a dark colour :) I doubt the fix will be perfect, my main concern is that I polish through the colour (no clear here due to time contraints) so I doubt it will be smooth. But becuase there's a silver Volkswagen decal to go on this part I think the eye will be drawn from minor imperfections.

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Kind of you to say so, hope I can get the rest to live up that standard!

 

Earlier in the thread I was quite scathing about Humbrol Clear, but what I've realised with this build is that it's definitely got it's place. It does seem to polish up to a good shine, is quite tough (certainly well up to handling with bare fingers) and so far appears to be decal friendly. The downside is that it is more sensitive to humidity than any other brand I've used, unlike Revell and Tamiya clears you need the humidity to be no higher than about 60% or the blooming I saw on the roof appears. You also need a good final wet coat to avoid excessive orange peel. But get it right, apply a little polish, and you can get a reasonable finish with it. As things stand at the moment, I won't be ruling out using it again in future.

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Far too nice weather to spend lots of time indoors, but I have reached the stage which I think everyone who builds one of these dreads - assembling the body. The surprise is that most of the parts behaved themselves, I stuck the left hand side panel in place, turned the van on its side, fitted the pins of the tailgate and engine cover into their holes then added the right hand side. And all fitted nicely with the exception of the tailgate which is proving a bit more of a challenge. The roof isn't stuck in place but is just acting as a jig to hold the side panels in place.

 

52207766130_c1fbeed42c_b.jpg

 

It's not very easy to see on the photo, but the tailgate isn't shutting properly. A bit more investigate revealed that the culprit was the small arm which is fitted to the side of the body to prop open the door when open. But the recess within the tailgate panel is too small when the prop and tailgate are painted for the prop to recess properly. So there were two options - either sand back the end of the prop and risk breaking it, or gently cut out and enlarge the recess and risk rebreaking the tailgate (since this was the weakpoint where it snapped last week). Since it was already broken I attacked the tailgate, when led to a few casualties - namely the window, which wasn't in particularly well anyway, came loose and the door handle fell off, not to mention the repaired piece of door broke again. But, with the door fixed, when I tried to close the tailgate again it was much closer to where it should be. I think I can live with this as it stands, it's certainly much better than it was.

 

52207269231_942b5975b3_b.jpg

 

I've currently got a small box pressing against the tailgate in the (probably forlorn) hope that I can train it to fit a bit better, but thisis much more bearable than it was.

 

The other bits of assembly were at the front. First up was the top half of the bulkhead, this is stuck to the left hand body panel too and again I used the roof to make sure it was aligned correctly. And finally I got those seats from a few weeks ago fitted in place. Suddenly this is starting to look quite tall.

 

52207268996_fb10d06e2e_b.jpg

 

That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

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Thanks for the compliments both of you.

 

10 hours ago, Fnick said:

Well the end result certainly doesn't indicate any of the issues you mentioned getting there! Looking good!

 

Nick

 

Unfortunately, the photo in the post higher up was taken from the flattering side. Taken from the other side it doesn't look so good :(

 

52209803036_1bb9468314_b.jpg

 

I'm definitely thinking a black Sharpie around the window recess is in order, it didn't quite look right when the window was in without it so losing the window from the tailgate could be a blessing in disguide. Never used that on a model before and usually I'd do it semi-gloss black but I don't want to mask over that beige decal. Not sure I could get a decent edge with a brush and no masking tape, so will be giving it a go with the Sharpie instead.

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I've been doing the dreaded window surrounds on the Skoda and I am using a Sharpie . I seem to able to make a better job with a pen . For wider areas I then fill in with brush and paint . I find this method easier than using hard to position window masks.  

 Gary . 

 

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I'm with you on the window maskes - tried them with something recently (might have been the MGB, possibly the XJ-S, and got on with them so badly that I went back to masking it myself with tape (strangely enough I find that quite relaxing).

 

Having had a couple of days of the hot weather with a box pressed against it, it appears there is no change to the shape of the tailgate. It might be that I can get it aligned by pressing it to the closed position and fitting the rear window in, but if that doesn't work I'm seriously thinking 1mm magnets may be the solution. Just got to buy some first.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Having not got to the bench last weekend, this weekend gave me a chance to have a go at fixing that rear tailgate. You may remember from above that didn't fit properly, so I got hold of some 1mm magnets and CA's them in place as in the blue circles on the photo below. As there's no roof on yet, I was able to lift the tailgate to about 270 degrees which made it much easier to fit the magnets.

 

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To my eyes, they have made things much better than the were.

 

Before:

 

52209803036_1bb9468314_b.jpg

 

After:

 

52237585172_12646c99de_b.jpg

 

I've painted the magnets with grey paint now so they are much less obvious than the were. Each magnet is 1mm diameter and has a rated pull of 25g which seems to be just about right - I can use the tailgate handle to open it, but when the tailgate is pushed into place it holds fully closed. It's a fiddly process as not only are the magnets small but they have a habit of sticking to the fine tweezers. Having tried blutak without success (the magnet stuck to that better than to wet CA, and I couldn't hold it still long enough for the glue to set) I ended up putting a small blob of CA in the right place, then using our favourite tool, the cocktail stick, to manouvre the magnet into place. First time I've tried using magnets and overall I'm pleased with how they've worked.

 

Of course, that's not all I've done to the van. It's also time for the dashboard, and for once the dash is something on this model which isn't horrendously complicated so it got built quite quickly - just a couple of weekends work to get this done. Chrome work (if you can see it!) is GreenStuffWorld brushable chrome apart from the dial bezels which are kit chrome.

 

52238565916_09a7a52431_b.jpg

 

And that's it for this week. Thanks for looking.

 

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I'd love to claim the credit for the magnets idea, but the truth is I saw the idea quite a while ago and not I can't remember where so can't pass on any credit. I did get some 3x3mm magnets just in case about a year ago but on receiving them felt they were probably a bit big for something like this, not to mention a bit too powerful (they have 290g pull which would probably mean you rip the model apart before separating them).

 

Just to make clear though, the 25g pull from the 1mm magnets isn't enough on its own to close the tailgate - you have to push it fully closed even with the magnets - but what they are strong enough to stop is the tailgate springing slightly open once the magnets have made contact. Even though it's not my idea, I'm happy to put it about as I feel it's a good way of solving this. The only thing is that if you know at the start of your build you might have this sort of issue it could be possible to drill a short 1mm diameter hole in the plastic to recess, or semi-recess, the magnets to give a more hidden solution than I've achieved here.

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Please allow me to add to your magnet usage thread .I bought some 4 mm magnets ( thinking they would be small enough) to help secure spot lightpods on my rally car models . However , they are too big really , requiring a deep recess to fit into . The pull from them is really powerful too , more powerful than most fridge magnets ! So I would agree with @Spiny and go for the smallest magnet available and try to recess both out of sight  . 

 Gary. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

After a bit of a break, I got back onto this and have fitted the dash into the front of the van. After that you then need to sit the front of the van onto the chassis, and the steerin column doesn't really want to play ball as it sits in a small flat area on the floor. I got it in eventually, but it took a bit of fiddling and needed glue to hold the column in the right place on the floor.

 

With the front installed (again using the roof as a jig to make sure the angle is correct) I moved onto the side doors. The instructions say not to install the door handles to these on the Jaegermeister version, but as I'm building this as more of a promotional than a working van I figured it was ok to have the doors here.Also, once both doors are installed, I suspect I'll need something to open the doors with. The handle is on the front door, but as it has an outside handle too that bit is drying before I fit the door - here's hoping it fits as well as dry-fitting suggests it will.

 

Only one photo as I didn't think to take one before I got to this stage, but this is where I am now.

 

52277123068_53f4fc4526_b.jpg

 

Thanks for looking.

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The intention is indeed that all doors will be openable if I can get things right. The priority though is to get it looking ok when things are closed - that it likely to be the difficult part. In truth though, it is likely that the doors will be opened for the photoshoot and rarely, if ever, opened again.

 

But you absolutely right that the hinges are delicate (not to mention scale-appropriate as you say) and I have already broken one for the front doors at the dry-fitting stage. Somehow I didn't lose the <1mm x <1mm part which broke off, and even more amazingly I think I have it glued back in the same place with a touch of Tamiya Extra Thin. The proof will come when I try to fit the door though.

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9 minutes ago, Spiny said:

Somehow I didn't lose the <1mm x <1mm part which broke off, and even more amazingly I think I have it glued back in the same place with a touch of Tamiya Extra Thin. 

 

Gosh, that was lucky (the finding it bit). I managed to ping the end of a door hinge off the Transit project last night but that's lost and gone in the long grass so I've had to remake it.  

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