1:32 Matchbox SS100 Jaguar. Nostalgia build with corrections and 3d printed modifications.

[Brandy]

Happy New Year everyone!

 

I had a nostalgia trip just prior to Christmas and splashed out on some Airfix Napoleonic figures, and 3 Matchbox kits I had built as a teenager. I enjoyed building them then, and wanted to see what could be done to improve them so the Bugatti 59, Aston Martin Ulster, and SS100 Jaguar joined my already too large stash!

Regulars here may remember that I built the Mercedes SSKL from the same range a couple of years ago, and this will follow a similar vein. I had thought initially that not too much would be required, but as usual, the more I looked into it, the more I felt needed modifying! 

 

So this is what I have!

 

 

I'm sure most here will be familiar with the standard Matchbox fare of 2 different colour sprues, plus a "chrome" one, which will be stripped and painted.

The plan at the moment will include (at least) the following 3d printed parts:

Wheel rims/hubs (spoked as per the Merc with monofilament fishing line), engine sump and gearbox, folded hood, headlights, sidelights, and taillights, radiator cap, seats, and steering wheel.

I'll probably scratch build new exhausts too.

There may be more.....

 

The plastic is quite soft and is not easy to sand smoothly, but a start has been made on getting sub-assemblies together.

 

First the engine.

This is what we are given

 

 

The bonnet will be closed so I'm not worried about accuracy or detail for the top end, but the sump and gearbox are visible from the side. First job was to strip the "chrome". Easy enough, an hour or so in bleach did the job nicely.

 

 

 

This is what it's supposed to look like...

 

and this is what we get

 

 

Hence the comment above that the sump and gearbox will be printed!

 

The sump has been cut off, and a new gearbox mounting plate made from .5mm sheet. The engine sits too high if built out of the box. The sump should be visible from the side, and should also extend below the gearbox mounting plate, so that has been corrected. The engine mounts on the chassis were also modified to remove the tree trunk look!

 

]

 

 

The chassis frame has also been cleaned up - there are a lot of mould joint lines on this kit, so those were removed and the ejector pins likewise.

 

The bodywork appears quite good, but I have sanded off the moulded sidelights on the top of the front wings. They will be printed later. The scuttle has been added and work started on fitting the doors. Unfortunately, the door mouldings are slightly rounded which doesn't give a nice sharp edge, so they were sanded flat (and straight!) and they are a work in progress at the moment. Plastic strip has been added as needed to give a sharp edge and restore the lost plastic.

 

 

 

 

I taped the body to pull it tight against the mounts for the scuttle as it was drying.

 

 

 

Other parts looked at so far:

The tonneau cover - useless!

 

 

I have no idea why it has a wavy lower edge, but I will print a new one without the top cover. Only the hood frame cover will be on it, leaving the rear seating/baggage area exposed.

 

Radiator - seen in previous pics. I removed the front grille, then thinned the frame to allow a piece of wire mesh to be inserted.  Thinning was done fairly easily with my new toy, a rechargeable drill (recharged using a phone style charging cable) which rotates at only around 400rpm. I also bought some routinh bits for it and it worked well!

 

 

 

 

 

The fine tuning was done by paring with a scalpel blade. and the mesh was fitted.

 

 

A little off centre with the starter handle hole but I think it's close enough. The kit radiator will be fitted behind it, and the front side of that has already been covered with .5mm sheet. I'll drill a small hole for the starter crank access and once it's all painted black it should pass muster.

 

That's as far as I've got so far, and this will be taking second seat to my De Havilland pair over on the aircraft forum, but it's a fun build so I don't expect it to be sitting idle for too long!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

[hendie]

Nice job on the mesh Ian. This should be fun to tag along to

[Terry1954]

Happy New Year to you also Ian, and what a great subject to start the year with. I recall your Mercedes SSKL super scratch build kind of makeover build well, and if that's anything to go by this will be very good to watch.

 

I recall Airfix Napoleonics with much fondness as I used to build those in my youth, along with the infamous Historex range. Many would not compare these two brands, Airfix often being likened to a poor man's Historex, but to me they each had their advantages and I found that with some extra work and skilled brushwork, a finished Airfix figure could easily be mistaken for the higher end French product. Might we see a WIP on any of those sometime I wonder?

 

I'll stop talking now and sit by the bar.

 

Terry

[Brandy]

29 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Might we see a WIP on any of those sometime I wonder?

Possible Terry, I bought them to build, after all. But not just yet!

 

Ian

[keefr22]

Having seen your super little Matchbox Merc Ian, and looking at the excellent start you've made on this, it'll no doubt end up as another stunner! 

 

Looking forward to progress! 

 

5 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I'll stop talking now and sit by the bar.

 

 

Mine's a pint of Doombar please Terry

 

 Keith

[Brandy]

Just a quick update. More work has been done on the door fitment, and I decided I needed to give everything a coat of gloss white to see what else needed doing. Chassis and chrome parts have also been painted gloss black.

Now some highly exiting pics of painted parts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The doors need some more work but overall, I'm happy with how it's coming on.

Bonnet panels have also been painted, but you don't need to see more white bits!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

[hendie]

Aren't the white bits supposed to be the best?

 

 

[TheBaron]

HNY to you too Ian and already an engrossing voyage into this vehicles features. Best of luck with what I know will be an engaging makeover of some classic Matchbox.

[Noel Smith]

Nice work being done on this elderly kit bringing out the potential in it

Matchbox made a nice but quite varied range of 1/32nd scale car kits back in the day.

I believe Revell have the moulds and have released the odd one every now and again.

[malpaso]

That’s a great kit to start the new year.  I built it OOB when the kit first came out, like most MB kits it virtually clipped together.  Especially compared to some of the Airfix 1/32 cars! I am absolutely convinced, notwithstanding the boxart, that the kit originally came in BRG and tan sprues?  If so the different plastic may be where the assembly mismatches you show arose?

[Brandy]

Hmm, nearly 2 weeks without an update. Sorry about that! I have been busy on it and have started the design work on some of the 3d replacement parts. Here's a catch-up of what's been done.

 

Firstly, adjustments to the bodywork. There was one area that needed quite a bit of fettling - the mudguards/running boards. The shape at both front and back was wrong, and detail underneath was missing. 

This is how it should be, looking back towards the rear wheel. The rivet ends you can see are the fittings for the protective strips on top of the running boards by the doors. Note the join between the main running board and the rear wheel arch, plus the join all along the side of the chassis frame. This runs all along and up into the rear wheel arch but I have no pics of the wheel arch interior itself, so I had to guess at that.

 

 

Adjustments started with the addition of plastic strip after having first drastically thinned the whole running board underneath.

 

 

and this is what I'm going with. Not perfect, but a whole lot better.

 

 

The other major issue here is that the cockpit floor is too high, being level with the bottom of the doors. I'm not going to bother with that!

 

An even more obvious error is the shape of the mudguards at the rear end

 

 

I started with the left side. Still not there yet as it still has a horizontal edge to it inboard...

 

 

and the final look

 

 

The front end was also slightly off, but nothing as major, just a slight reduction of the curve on the outer part.

 

Then on to the innards. The part provided is very thick around the back end and actually extends too far forwards, interfering with the doors. I decided to remove the sides and replace them with plastic sheet. Here's the part as supplied.

 

 

and after the sides were removed with a razor saw

 

 

Obviously having removed such a thick piece of plastic it needed spacers adding. As it turned out, only to one side, but I found that out later...

 

 

This kit only needed the spacers on the right side. After adding them to both, it was obvious that the left side sloped inwards drastically when fitted inside the body. If you plan on doing similar, check the fit!

This is part way through, the nearside still needs trimming back properly.

 

 

I also added some stock strip to the rear edge to ensure a snug fit against the rear wall of the body and eliminate the gaps there. 

 

 

The last (that I've found so far!) of the major body issues is the large gap under the rear end where the fuel tank should be, when viewed from the side. Obviously that needed to be taken care of, so more plastic stock to the rescue.

 

 

 

and finished, with the interior in place.

 

 

As I mentioned above, I have no idea whether that is correct or not, but it's a lot better than a big hole! I have sent an email to a Classic Jag restoration garage asking if they have pics, but to be honest I don't expect they have the time to answer, so I'm not holding my breath!

 

Finally for today, a little progress on the design of replacement parts. I don't use Fusion often enough for it to be stuck in my head properly, so each time is a bit of a relearning curve!

I have done the sump and seat bottoms, work has started on the gearbox too.

 

 

 

That seat drove me nuts! I finally got the curves for the top, but then couldn't thicken it without it extending through the sides. Then O couldn't get the sides to extend and match the curve of the top! I finally got it sorted. The main issue was that I had made the original drawing a rectangle so it kept trying to follow that all the way around. I changed the drawing slightly to get rid of the inner edge and eventually got it to work.  So many ways to do the same thing, and I can't even get one sorted! Anyway, it's done now! I'll do a test print and check for the height, then depending on how visible it is I may reduce the seat thickness and add a more reasonable mounting frame underneath. We'll see....

 

That's about it for now, thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

[keefr22]

That was an update well worth waiting for Ian, some really good improvements made there! And the Fusion work looks like it will produce some very nice replacement parts!

 

Keith

[hendie]

Coming along very nicely, Ian. The wings look much better now

 

 

[Brandy]

On 1/27/2024 at 12:35 AM, keefr22 said:

That was an update well worth waiting for Ian, some really good improvements made there! And the Fusion work looks like it will produce some very nice replacement parts!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, see below!

 

On 1/27/2024 at 4:01 AM, hendie said:

Coming along very nicely, Ian. The wings look much better now

 

I have to agree there Alan. I'm not quite sure how the shape could be so wrong, maybe they had a designer from Fly working on it?

 

I ran a test print last night of the parts designed so far. Mainly just to check sizes before investing more time adding to bits which may not fit.

I needn't have worried!

 

First the gearbox mount. 

 

 

That looks useable as is. I originally designed it a little bigger (2mm!) but caught the error in time and this looks good so I'll build on that.

 

The seat base also looks good, thankfully!

 

 

Slightly smaller than the oversized kit part, and the height (allowing for the floor being too high) looks good too.

 

 

I'm using the pocket on the door panel as a reference and that looks good when compared to photos of the real thing.

 

Finally, the sump. My favourite piece so far!

 

 

I think I'll count that as a slight improvement!

 

Test fitted to the engine block it looks good size-wise too.

 

 

 

I've since removed the lip on the engine which I had left in place, leaving only the mount for the oil filter.

I'm very pleased with how well the detail has printed on it too!

 

 

That's useable as is, I won't even reprint it.

 

A definite "result" there, and huge confidence builder for the next parts.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

[hendie]

4 hours ago, Brandy said:

maybe they had a designer from Fly working on it?

 

 

 

there's a lot of satisfaction to be gained from taking these older kits and breathing new life into them isn't there?

 

 

 

[keefr22]

On 28/01/2024 at 09:17, Brandy said:

I think I'll count that as a slight improvement!

 

I'd count it as a major one....!!

 

Nice work Ian!

 

Keith

[Terry1954]

More great stuff Ian, especially like that sump, and I can just make out the drain plug. I'm assuming the flats on that nut are imperial for a car of this age 

 

T.

[TheBaron]

Very nice progress Ian - I love returning to this thread each time to see the kit and your own designs in symbiosis. Bravo!

[Vesa Jussila]

Nice improvements to old kit. These 1/32 kits were quite challenge for 10 years old boy in my childhood. 

[Brandy]

On 1/28/2024 at 5:28 PM, hendie said:

 

 

 

there's a lot of satisfaction to be gained from taking these older kits and breathing new life into them isn't there?

 

 

 

Indeed! My favourite form of modelling Alan!

 

On 1/30/2024 at 2:06 AM, keefr22 said:

 

I'd count it as a major one....!!

 

Nice work Ian!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith!

 

On 1/30/2024 at 9:08 AM, Terry1954 said:

More great stuff Ian, especially like that sump, and I can just make out the drain plug. I'm assuming the flats on that nut are imperial for a car of this age 

 

T.

It is imperial, of course! But I think it's a tad over exposed and some of the sharpness has been lost. Not a huge issue at this scale though.

 

On 2/3/2024 at 12:05 AM, TheBaron said:

Very nice progress Ian - I love returning to this thread each time to see the kit and your own designs in symbiosis. Bravo!

Thanks Tony. Slow but sure!

 

On 2/3/2024 at 3:18 PM, Vesa Jussila said:

Nice improvements to old kit. These 1/32 kits were quite challenge for 10 years old boy in my childhood. 

 I built this, the Bugatti, and the Aston Martin, all of which are again in my stash. I hope to show what can be done with them but don't intend to go too over the top!

 

Just a quick update today as I fitted the sump.

 

Very happy with how it turned out, even though I cut corners with the oil filter and fitting. I used plastic tube and simply stuck a piece of brass rod in to represent the bolt fitment. I really can't be bothered to print it at this scale as it isn't highly visible and I have more important things to do!

 

 

Thanks for looking in, have a great weekend!

 

Ian

[Brandy]

Just a small update, as I have been busy doing other bits and pieces this last week or so, but I think I've now finalised the shape of the seat base.

I tried modifying the original drawing but found it easier to save as a new file and go back to stage one. Note to self - keep a logical order and ensure all references are in place at the beginning!

It took a fraction of the time to redesign the whole thing and I'm much happier with the overall shape and size of it now.

 

 

Kit part at top, version 1 in the middle, latest edition at the bottom.

 

Ian

[Brandy]

Wow, has it really been 3 weeks since my last update? 

I haven't been idle, but have been doing a lot of playing around with the printed parts. Here's what's been going on chez moi.

 

Firstly, the seat, since that's where we left off. 

 

Further tweaks and adjustments to shape and size of the base, mainly in shortening it slightly further, followed by designing the seatback. That of course led to numerous prints, tweaks and re-tweaks of the design until I was happy with it. Bear in mind I have no measurements, so all this is being done until it "looks right".

 

This is the early design, just to get the overall shape.

 

 

Adjustments were made - the back was shortened by raising the bottom edge, and the whole seatback was lowered on the base to give a squarer look. I widened the front edges to sit around the base better, positioned it a little further forward to eliminate gaps between the back and the base, and redesigned the bracket holding the seatback in place. Once I was sure the overall height was ok, I added a plane and cut the bottom off, adding brackets underneath instead - the height was assured because I just extended the brackets to the original base plane. Another plane was added, again cutting the base, but I didn't remove this part. I widened it slightly to give the base part that the squab was mounted on.

This is where I am now.

 

 

 

 

A big improvement, but I'm still not sure why those prints aren't as crisp as they should be.

 

Next, the gearbox. 

 

This is what I designed.

 

 

 

Upon printing it was obvious that I had made it too small.

 

 

Fortunately, Fusion has a scale function, so I enlarged it by 25% and reprinted.

 

 

 

I may even enlarge it a tad more - again the problem is that I have no measurements to work with!

 

Finally, the wheels. I started with the wheels I designed for the SSKL Merc and resized them and the hubs. A couple of tweaks to ensure they fitted the tyres properly and they are ready for further detailing.

 

 

Another issue I've been having is that the upper side of all prints (the side facing the plate and between the supports) is blurred and shiny. I thought at first it was a cleaning issue, but I think I have part cured resin sitting on the top which won't wash off. I've only had this issue since switching to the Mars 4 Ultra and Saraya Tech Fast resin. You can clearly see the difference with the one on the right showing the upper surfaces.

 

 

I noticed I had the same issues with the Siraya Tech Exposure test piece.

 

 

Notice the inlaid crosses on the far side have shiny residue in them which leaves them blurred at the edges. It also shows the same blotches on the surface.

 

In an effort to eliminate that, I did another print with the gearboxes mounted vertically. That led to failure of all the vertical parts! I noticed while trying to clean out the failed prints that the film seemed to have a ridge in it, so I emptied the resin vat to take a look.

 

 

I may have caused that while removing the failed prints, I'm not sure, but new film has been ordered along with Elegoo Rapid resin and I'll see if that makes any difference.

If anyone has experience of these issues and can offer advise, please speak up!

Meanwhile, there's more designing to be done!

 

Thanks for looking in,

 

Ian

 

 

[PeteH1969]

I have a Saturn and I have failed prints i run a tank clean for 60 seconds then lift out the sheet of cured resin with the plastic spatula and start again it cold also be your settings.

 

finding out about the Light-off-Delay made the most difference to my prints.

 

These are mine.

 

 

I used to use Elegoo resin but could not get on with it I now use Anycubic resin it holds a better print and it's a much better service direct from them worth a try.

 

There water wash resin is very good.

 

Hope this helps?

 

Pete

[Brandy]

20 hours ago, PeteH1969 said:

I used to use Elegoo resin but could not get on with it I now use Anycubic resin it holds a better print and it's a much better service

Elegoo resin received yesterday! If only Elegoo.AE also had the film I'd be good to go!

Thanks for the info on light-off-delay, that could well be the cause of the "fluffy" edges. I'll try that and see if it makes any difference to the blurred and shiny top surfaces. It looks as though the resin above the print is being cured slightly.

 

Ian

[Brandy]

Evening all!

The film was received and I fitted it a couple of weeks back. Printing resumed with the same issues as before, but I got a couple of useable gearboxes and went with those (the uppers won't be visible anyway). I've emailed Siraya Tech on the issue and am awaiting their reply.

 

Progress then! I cut the UJ off one of the gearboxes to use at the back end of the driveshaft, then removed said driveshaft from the differential, shortened it, and refitted it all. A quick check to make sure I had the lengths right was satisfactory.

 

 

Paint was then applied and the whole lot was fitted to the chassis.

 

 

It even fits the body!

 

 

It's not perfect, but I can live with it. It looks right at least!

 

I still had issues with the seats as they just didn't look right.

 

The prints were ok, happy with that, but the height looked wrong.

 

 

Then I looked more closely at the top edge of the rear bodywork. Most pics I have seen have a folded hood there which hides the edge, but when I found one without it the problem was resolved - the bodywork is too high at the front! It should actually slope downwards slightly from front to rear. I overlaid the part I had made on the drawing and sure enough, it was about 1mm too high at the front.

 

 

With that sanded down I could remove the legs from the seats and still have them at the correct height relative to the bodywork and transmission tunnel. Photos of the seats in place also confirmed that the seats basically sat flat on the floor with only very small runners. Another issue resolved!

 

Finally, I also found a pic of the rear end without mudguards, which confirmed that the bodywork within the wheel well was just an extension of the bodywork above it. In addition, this cutaway also confirmed the shape as seen in the photo - marked with red here.

 

 

The kit part is far too thick and does not align in plan view either at the sides or at the rear, plus it should have a curve at the rear and it is square.

 

This is what the kit gives us, with the interior insert in place.

 

 

Easiest solution: remove kit plastic and replace it!

 

One gone...

 

 

and both...

 

 

Not the easiest job, given the thickness of the plastic and the fact that it is so hard, but I used a microsaw and cut it into small pieces to remove it bit by bit.

I will replace the plastic with card to the correct vertical alignment and with the curve at the rear, which will also hide the interior insert which, after all, sits inside the bodywork!

 

That's the next job, but I am off to the US next Thursday for 6 days and have no more days off before then, so the next update will be after I get back.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian