Shelby Cobra 427 in 1.24

[rob Lyttle]

I've got a couple of aircraft builds well on the way to the finishing stage, so I started casting around for a next project. And it looks like I've chosen this.... 

It kind of feels like the kit chose itself. 

A couple of Fujimi car kits came my way a while ago, I grabbed a Ford GT40 off the shelf in the local model shop and a short while later got this 'un from a fellow club member. 

It's the first time I have tried out with the Fujimi brand of kits. 

Always hankered after a GT40 ever since my slot racing days in the late 60s. The Cobra I'm not so familiar with, but it's very much of that era. I like the look of it. 

And it has quite an interesting back story that I'm still unravelling. Basically, Caroll Shelby took a fairly ordinary British sports car by AC and shoehorned a big Ford V8 engine in. And it developed from there. He obviously saw something promising in the AC running gear! 

Loads of development and modifications over time and it became a real American classic, a motoring icon. 

There is nothing elaborate or sophisticated about the car. A great chassis, a big V8 on song, and a very stylishly simple bodywork and there you go..... Magic 😍😎. 

 

Well, there's a couple of things that can irritate with a car kit. For one thing they can sit quite high on the suspension. I prefer to get them down on the springs a bit like there's some weight to the car, filled up and road ready. Do you know what I mean? Not like a museum queen, tanks drained and empty. 

I like to get the steering operational, it's more like a matter of principle for me, like aircraft propellers spinning. 

I'm afraid Fujimi have taken a few liberties with the chassis and suspension arrangements on this kit which will require some remedial work. The ride height is governed by the top wishbones front and back, which are just moulded onto the chassis frame with fictitious side panels. A main characteristic of the Cobra is a big X frame in front of the engine taking the top of the front suspension wishbones. It's substantial, you can't miss it! 

Well, Fujimi have missed it. 

Top adjust the ride height, this idiotic shortcut will need hacking into. 

I've already addressed the rear suspension and some dry fitting of components suggests I'm on the right track. 

 

At which point I thought I should start a WIP and catalogue my efforts with the project, keep me on track 😇🤞

[rob Lyttle]

This is the state of play with the Cobra chassis so far.... 

At the front you can see the Fujimi solution for the front suspension, with the 2 upper wishbones moulded onto some kind of side walls. I think the whole lot will have to come off. 

I'm no rivet counter but that's a pretty poor facsimile of a Shelby Cobra chassis. 

So is this what is referred to as "a kerbside model"?? 

Like a box that looks OK on the outside, wheels on each corner, and no great reference to the internal structure. Is that what the term means in common parlance? 

Here's what I've done with the back end... 

The solid back axle is replaced with brass tube, the differential and the hub carriers drilled and fitted on - the diff is still a sliding fit for adjustment and positioning. An aluminium tube axle goes right through and protrudes each side to take the wheels. The wheel centres are drilled through and sleeved with tube pieces to compensate for the recesses moulded into the plastic to take the wee rubber grommet things that are supposed to...... What?! 

Hold the wheels on, make a push fit? 

Is it me..... ⁉️🤔😶🙄

Across the top is my one piece wishbone solution (in the white) 

It's on top of the frame that used to carry the kit wishbones and a spacer of 1mm stock sandwiched between.

This shortens the ride height by 2mm from where the originals stuck out. 

A dry assembly of the major components looked OK 

Lower wishbones still to be added 

[Spiny]

39 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

So is this what is referred to as "a kerbside model"?? 

Like a box that looks OK on the outside, wheels on each corner, and no great reference to the internal structure. Is that what the term means in common parlance?

 

My understanding of kerbside is that it's a model without an engine, or indeed anything which you couldn't see from looking at a locked car - literally what you would see if you walked past a car parked at the side of the kerb (or indeed what you would see if you looked under it if you weren't worried about being arrested for trying to nick the catalytic converter).

 

Good work so far on this - I was always under the impression that the Fujimi Cobra was not one of the better ones out there but you seem to be rising to the challenge well.

[Marco F.]

I'll have an eye on your WIP, it looks and sound real interesting. Hope you can do it like you're planing. And have a look in our forum, not so long ago one of our members showed a real great one here,  I'm not sure but I guess it was @Mr.lin, if I'm wrong don't punish me,  I would regret my fault 😇😇🤗

Marco F 

[stevehnz]

You've managed to talk me out if this kit Rob, nevertheless, I'll watch on, I always enjoy some problem solving on the go, but will be looking for another option for a Cobra.

Steve.

[rob Lyttle]

Thanks @Spinythat's the impression I was getting about "kerbside".

I've had a search @Marco F.but I haven't found much on the Cobra yet. I'll keep looking. I've found some interesting builds on a model cars forum, there are some real Cobra fans out there!

Well @stevehnzI suppose some of these kits were designed before modellers could Google images of rebuild projects and stripped chassis etc. Now we can see what they have been getting up to! 😎

I spent an hour fooling with some strips of stock 1mm. I thought I'd better get a handle on the situation before I removed all the Fujimi plastic. 

I started with a simple crossover to get the angles.... 

Then I fixed doublers, 

Still didn't look chunky enough compared to the main chassis members, so I fixed a 3rd layer, and started fitting some upright strips, 

I concluded the these needed doubling front and back, 

 

The top wishbones should attach and hinge at the top of the uprights and my structure is 7 layers at that point. That's 7mm. I think I'm in the right area with that. The tops of the X frame take the upper ends of the spring units and need shaping and sorting somehow. But I wanted to get the basics in before I removed the kit stuff. If I get this right I can get the wishbone ends up by 2mm which will match the modifications on the back axle 🤞😎

[Marco F.]

May be this link is helpfull for you

 

Marco F 

[Toftdale]

Some great scratch going on, I'm going to enjoy watching this come together - Andy 

[rob Lyttle]

The saw has been wielded - 

A few measurements were taken, eg distance between kingpin centres. Then my structure went on, 

The tops of the uprights have been drilled right through at 0.4mm and overlong pieces of 0.4mm brass wire inserted. There's a couple of reinforcing supports gone in too. 

Lower wishbones fitted and pushed up a little, what looked like 2mm to me.

And I've finally got the makings of a top wishbone that I think is viable. This is it in blue.... 

The 2 upstand bits in white will need drilling, the spare blue stretched plastic trimmed and the brass wire can come out and be refitted right through the lot. A suspension unit - either the modified kit part or a scratch item - goes from the bottom wishbone up through the blue hoop and attach to the X frame arm. 

Well, that's the theory.... 😎⚠️

I may be creating a slight issue with the fit of the front end of the engine unit, esp with the alternator. Can be sorted. 

Good video @Marco F., I'm glad somebody else thinks that these models ride a bit high on the suspension. He has a lot of pe add ons and "spares in the box" though. Lovely paint job with an excellent shine! That's something I really need to try harder with. But he didn't build one of these X frames..... 😇🤣

[rob Lyttle]

Distracted by imaginings of excellent, shiny bodywork, I had a go.... 

I've opted for red with the white stripes. No doubt the suggested blue with white looks good, but I like the red, I've got a can, and I'm more familiar with it. 

I use a yellow undercoat primer as a habit, I think it helps lift the red topcoat and gives it a bit of zing. The red primer is a dull dreary brick red. This is probably all in my head rather than any reality, but that's what I tend to do. 🥳

This is the bonnet primed in yellow .... 

Then red topcoat.... 

Then the stickers.... Tricky enough!! 

One more to apply over the air scoop and I can forsee some hassle with the curved corners. Kind of wishing I'd had the nerve to try masking and painting like in the video link. In general the decals are behaving but a bit fragile, they respond to decal soft but then they really are fragile..... ⚠️😶 Alignment is the main issue, so all the pieces line up with each other. 

[rob Lyttle]

I've been fiddling around with the interior too. I tried to make something of the dashboard dials etc. The steering wheel column just glues onto the dashboard..... Are they CRAZY.... ⁉️

I drilled the panel and the bulkhead to take my skinny diameter Ali tube, and fitted a short length to the steering wheel part. 

This all went well, until the snipping of the wheel from the sprue frame. I should have seen it coming.... 

The surrounding frame left nowhere for the expansion of the plastic to go as I cut, except into the wheel rim. When I tried to straighten the damaged wheel, the whole top half gave up in 2 bits. 🙄😶 That's it in the middle of the photo along with some stretched black sprue for a repair. It was stretched over the handle of the brush at a carefully selected position on the tapering handle to try and get the right radius. 

I think..... I HOPE.... I've pulled it off 

Note to self.... Be gentle with the steering wheel 😎🙏

But if you have one of these kits, beware the frame layout for this fragile part in particular. Cut the runners loose so there's room for movement before you start cutting the connector gates to the wheel, especially the top semicircle 

[johnlambert]

I can relate to the frustration of breaking a part when cutting it from the sprue.  It looks like you've managed to save the situation.

[Spiny]

Another one here who has had parts break when removing them from the sprue (in my case a tail light for the Countach which shattered as I cut the attachment point). That's something which is really annoying, but I think the fact that you can barely see the damage even in ultra-unforgiving close-up is a good indication of the high quality of your repair.

 

Can't say I've done a Fujimi kit yet (there is one lurking in the stash though), but I would definitely steer you in the direction of the old cliche when it comes to decals - lay them in position, apply decal softerner, then don't touch unless applying more decal softener. Most of them have eventually conformed to shape, some such as Revell's seem to go much more easily than others, but you can get there in the end.

[rob Lyttle]

Modelling time is a little bit short at the moment and it's spread rather thin over a couple of repair jobs and other odd jobs. 

But some progress taken place with the Cobra. I had a go with gloss clear over the body shell. It's an improvement by my standards and I think some polish might improve things when it's well cured. 

 

I'm still tinkering with the front suspension. The top wishbone I fabricated was nearly right, but too long out to the kingpin, producing a load of camber. I'm relocating the attachment points "by eye" - that is, using "the Force" - the general method seems okay but I don't know how much more tinkering the wee bit of plastic can take. Here it is in the foreground.... 

Some progress on the interior too, 

 

The steering wheel has a yellow primer that will be made more wooden, and now the column now slides easily into an Ali tube let into the dashboard and through to the bullhead. Some toggle switches in stretch blue plastic and side pockets in the door panels. Handbrake is now brass wire as the kit piece broke up. Fire extinguisher is on the passenger footwell along with a mat with "Cobra" emblazoned on it, more as a nod to the Shelby signature that should be on the dashboard passenger side. The name was cut from the written legend that is designed to be applied right across the windscreen top. 

The only thing done to the seats was the application of some piping around the leatherwork on the seat backs, just stretched black sprue. 

 

Later..... 😎

[bigbadbadge]

Like yer style Rob , just caught up and great work on sorting ride height and that is some front suspension set up there fella.

Great work.

Chris

[Vesa Jussila]

Looks nice. Clearly this kit have potential.

[rob Lyttle]

On 18/06/2022 at 09:03, bigbadbadge said:

that is some front suspension set up there fella.

Isn't it though....! 😋

There's more,.... 

The suspension units are in, with the kit spring units drilled right through and an Ali tube strut inserted for the extra length to go up through a hole in the top ends of the X frame. The bottom of each strut is flattened and shaped to straddle the crossbar in the lower wishbone. 

As for the top wishbones, the 2nd is in the process. I took a couple of pictures of the steps. 

Blue sprue stretched over a drill bit shank, I think it's 6.5 or 7mm dia. 

Piece of 1mm stock glued on, and another layer on top, a little bit longer to reach over the blue, 

Then a couple of little upstanding pieces positioned for length, when it's flipped over. Plenty of time is required for a good set before any further action 

 

I tried some Turtle Wax polish on the body shell over the clear gloss, and I think it's improved things. I know there are exotic paint products available for a mega shiny result, but I'm not really interested in spray booths, extraction fans and breathing apparatus! I'm only in this for fun 😎

Fun, and steering front wheels, and a bit of an insight into the main structural features of the machine. 

But I'm wondering if I can get the bonnet hinged to open and close. The kit allows a choice for either open OR closed. Likewise the boot lid /trunk, I've already fixed this item closed. 

On 18/06/2022 at 16:47, Vesa Jussila said:

Clearly this kit have potential.

Yes, Vesa, there is plenty of good features to the kit and the bodywork looks good to me, but there's some irritating "kerbside" things that bug me. I think it deserves some extra modelling input. I think that's where the fun is 😍

[Bengalensis]

9 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

I'm only in this for fun 😎

You nailed that Rob, it's the perfect reason for building models; having fun! Keep the good work going 👍

[Vesa Jussila]

Nice progress.

[rob Lyttle]

All the parts of the front end are assembled for a trial run. Two upper wishbones and the hub carriers /brakes, 

Visible are the 2 new top kingpins (in blue) (colour coded plastic.... ⁉️😋) 

There's a torsion bar to the chassis underneath, and the trackrod is a click fit on the arms. It works, but after all the scratch work it is a fraction short, producing a little bit of toe-in on the wheel alignment. So I cut it and sandwiched a snip of 1mm in the cut. 

Cut all the surplus away and glued a piece of split styrene tube over the repair.. This did the trick.... 

A bit of a tidy removing surplus sprue etc and here it is.... 

 

What I want to do now is fit the wheels and tyres and assemble the chassis into the shell to see if I've got the ride correctly set up. If I have a result I'll probably glue the top wishbones in position, but there's still scope for a little adjustment. 

Looking at the parts, I'm halfway to a fully functional suspension with a couple of springs and sliding tube suspension units.... But no, let's not go there! 🥳😅⚠️

[rob Lyttle]

Right, I had a bit of wheel arch rubbing evident when I dry fitted the chassis. I narrowed the track a fraction by means of reducing the thickness of the unfeasibly wide disc brakes /hub carriers that are plain to see in the previous pictures. 

It all looks to me like another design compromise.... I think the real car will have longer wishbones reaching right into the wheels so the pivot points for the steering are close to the mid line of the tyre width..... if you get me. 

Well, shaving the face of the disc brakes to let the wheel on further helps to get a little bit closer, in that it moves my kingpins a little closer to the inside face of the wheel. 

But not by much. There's still quite a bit of toing and froing of the wheels inside the arches as steering takes place. It's what I think of as the "Burago" look. 

Anyway, I got better clearance 'tween tyres and arches so I decided to go for it. 

The top wishbones have been glued, trapping the hubs in position. 

Then the engine went in with the drive shaft. The alternator had to be removed and repositioned lower against the engine block. 

2 bearers onto the chassis are all that holds the engine in, apart from a lug under the gearbox. I decided to beef them up with some angle strip to get more contact area onto the chassis. These...... 

 

The interior went on next and then a click into the body shell to see what I've got. 

 

 

Having removed the internal side walls to build my suspension, I now have quite a bit of open space inside engine compartment. 

I ought to mention that I used the kit parts for attaching the front wheels to the hubs.... That's right, the wee rubber grommets I was so disparaging about earlier. I have to admit they worked⚠️. So fair play to the grommet design feature!! 😎👍

[Spiny]

Looks as though it's shaping up nicely.

 

Also, if there is something which has been fighting you, it's often amazing the morale boost you can get by dry fitting something from further along the process such as the body or wheels as you have done here.

[Six97s]

Looks like a dog's breakfast of a kit, you're doing well to make something presentable from it.  🙂  I've never understood why Fujimi mould their wheels with those huge flanges on the inside. 🤨

[rob Lyttle]

2 hours ago, Six97s said:

why Fujimi mould their wheels with those huge flanges on the inside. 🤨

I guess it's all compromise from the designer point of view, and to accommodate the little rubber grommets, which do allow the wheel wingnuts to fix to the wheels and turn with them. I had a look at the GT40 kit and it is much the same. I also noticed that there is no V8 engine in the kit, just the gearbox and carb intake arrangement! 

[Six97s]

1 hour ago, rob Lyttle said:

I guess it's all compromise from the designer point of view, and to accommodate the little rubber grommets, which do allow the wheel wingnuts to fix to the wheels and turn with them. I had a look at the GT40 kit and it is much the same. I also noticed that there is no V8 engine in the kit, just the gearbox and carb intake arrangement! 

 

I can live with the grommets, it's the huge flange in the inner rim that the tyre butts up against!  It seems odd that even on the really detailed Enthusiast kits, they have these toy-like wheels. 🤨

 

All the Fujimi GT40s (and 330 P4s and 917s) are engineless.  I have HRM resin engine kits for the GT40 MkI and the Ferrari P4.