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Posted

nice update Ian, and some fine detective work to boot!  (see wot I did there?)

 

 

 

okay, okay, coat time.  I get it

 

 

 

 

  • Haha 3
Posted

Great update Ian. She's coming along fine indeed.

 

Enjoy your US trip!

 

T.

  • Like 1
  • 5 weeks later...
Posted

Brilliant work. I adore the new grill and painted it looks amazing. I love the 3D printed elements and the old school modeling bouncing off each other to create something far better than what was there before. Bravo that man.

 

 Johnny. 

  • Like 2
Posted

Thanks all!

Just a quick update as I haven't been totally idle...

 

The inside of the rear wheel wells is now done. After a coat of flat white a little more fettling and sanding was needed but I'm now happy with it. I have no idea how accurate the fuel tank is as I have no photos. but at least the bodywork looks acceptable and fits with what I can see in pics and what I would expect to be there. ie the bodywork extends down to the chassis behind the running boards and mudguards with no change of profile.

 

53692369080_c4c73455aa.jpg

 

I think that's an improvement over this:

 

]53486076087_cf217a8cdc.jpg

 

I've also completed the first drafts of the brake drums.

Front

 

53692365819_d6a482b3c6.jpg

 

and Rear

 

53692426824_95e5f6ae96.jpg

 

and the wheel rims plus a jig

 

53691133732_4a70c01b71.jpg

 

That's it for now. I need to run a test print of those to check that everything fits and see what, if anything, needs adjusting. I do think I may have to design a replacement front cross member to fit everything onto, but I'll know for certain once I get the test printed.

I also need to design some friction shocks as there are none in the kit.

 

So much for OOB!

 

Ian

  • Like 5
Posted
22 hours ago, Brandy said:

I think that's an improvement over this:

 

 

A definite improvement I'd say.

 

The brake drum drawings look promising, and I'm very impressed with the wheel rim jig. I can see many fine spokes in your future Ian!

 

Terry

  • Like 1
Posted

Improvement indeed. 🙌 nice looking Digital modelling too.  I’ll pray to the printing gods all runs out well. 
 

Johnny

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Hi all!

 

I may have been quiet, but the printer has been working overtime as I tried to find the right settings.

 

Here are the brake drums..

 

53725960878_d30f24df60.jpg

 

53724847267_0e2af8bb2c.jpg

 

53726188975_361505c5c8.jpg

 

There was a little bit of distortion to the roundness where the supports were, but I think it's acceptable after a bit of sanding down.

 

Rims look good, but I foresee a lot of drilling....60 spokes on each of the 5 wheels!

 

53726188995_239aaffd71.jpg

 

I have also completed the jig, adding a support to keep the hub at the right height, and guide markings around the edge which match every 4th spoke to help get the threading right without constant recounting.

 

53726092979_8ac77580a6.jpg

 

The other task now completed, which took a while but has no visible outcome as yet, was to work out the spoke numbering so I can thread them correctly. Only final threading will show whether I have got that correct or not!

 

That's it for now,

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

  • Like 9
Posted
On 5/16/2024 at 11:19 PM, hendie said:

Those should look great under a coat of primer- nice work Ian.

Thanks Alan, they do indeed, read on!

 

Just to remind you what the kit brake "detail" is like....

 

53735388602_47854d3aab.jpg

 

Yes, well....

 

I had to remove the diff and front crossmember, not a difficult task, then clipped the plastic away before sanding it down to fit the new drums.

 

53735388612_29446f56b5.jpg

 

53736746100_f8b494a779.jpg

 

Then yesterday I gave them a coat of gloss black.

 

53735388607_c83789e95e.jpg

 

53736318301_aa21cf80ec.jpg

 

Annoyingly there are some striations showing, which I didn't see before painting. They won't come off now, so they'll have to stay as they are. I also reduced the size of the fittings on the front drums slightly as I think they are a tad oversized, but that won't help this build!

 

All in all, a big improvement and well worth the effort. I spent most of yesterday afternoon redrawing the seat backs, and I'm much happier with those now, although I may need to add some more there. More photo checking is required first to see if my reference is standard, or an over padded restoration!

 

Then on to the friction dampers and interior gearbox cover.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

  • Like 6
Posted

Nice work on the drums Ian. I quite enjoy working with brass myself,  so if we could get someone on a keyboard and another on strings, we'd make a nice quartet I reckon!

 

:coat:

 

 

  • Haha 4
  • 1 month later...
Posted

Blimey, is it really over a month since my last post? 

I have been doing bits and pieces here and there, but nothing major until I sat down this weekend with a view to designing the front friction shocks. That unfortunately brought to light another error with the kit. The dampers on this car mount sideways, parallel to the front cross member. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room! I measured up and compared to plans I have, and came to the conclusion that the front of the chassis frame is slightly too wide, meaning the space between the springs and the crossmember is too narrow. Easily solved with a saw!

In the following pic you can see the moulded in engine mount between the chassis frames. I cut this out with a fine saw, cleaned up the cut edges, and reglued it. It's not a huge reduction in width, about 1mm, but enough (I hope!). The front bodywork was also cleaned up a little with a jeweller's file to trim it to size. 

 

53813898842_4895447b58.jpg

 

You can also see now how wide the springs are, compared to what they should be.

 

53815067368_0d2b339d26.jpg

 

To correct the springs, I removed the front cross piece. This should be round anyway, not half-round, so 2 improvements in one there! A piece of 0.75mm plastic rod was glued on after recessing the front of the springs and the chassis rails slightly to accept it.

 

53815267550_3b0183b252.jpg

 

After reattaching the springs, I placed the front cross member on top for a pic.

 

53813898862_8c0e1347fd.jpg

 

One side is in the locating hole - you can clearly see how much narrower the chassis is now. Which of course means I now need to design and print a new cross member!

 

I did that this afternoon and it is printing as I type, along with the slightly tweaked seats and front brakes. When I test fitted the drums it was clear I had made the steering arms too short, so those were lengthened and angled down a little more. Along with previous adjustments reducing the size of the mountings, that should improve the space available for the friction dampers.

 

So now I need to test fit the bits that are printing now, then design the dampers. 

 

Progress has also been made on the wheels. I spoked the rear half to check my spoke arrangement and it all looks good!

 

53814823211_a5162ea3ac.jpg

 

I then gave it a coat of aluminium paint. along with the other hubs, as I wasn't sure I could reach under the outer part of the hub. I needn't have worried, it all covered nicely!

 

53814823206_0b92eb3371.jpg

 

That wheel can now be finished off, and the other 4 done, but not today!

 

That's brought everything up to date, thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

 

  • Like 11
Posted

Nice work, Ian. I love those wheels - they're really going to lift the build to another level.

 

 

  • Like 2
Posted

That wheel is already looking superb Ian, it's going to look completely stunning when finished - really cracking work!

 

Keith

  • Like 2
Posted
On 25/06/2024 at 13:27, Brandy said:

Progress has also been made on the wheels. I spoked the rear half to check my spoke arrangement and it all looks good!

 

53814823211_a5162ea3ac.jpg

 

I then gave it a coat of aluminium paint. along with the other hubs, as I wasn't sure I could reach under the outer part of the hub. I needn't have worried, it all covered nicely!

 

53814823206_0b92eb3371.jpg

 

That wheel can now be finished off, and the other 4 done, but not today!

This is Fantastic! The perfect blend of old and new modelling skills. Beautiful.  🙌

 

 Johnny

  • Like 1
Posted

Lovely spoke work (again) Ian. I've bookmarked this thread for reference. I was sorting through the older parts of my stash recently and found a half built Heller 1/24 Delahaye 135 that I hadn't touched for many years. Such spoke work as you are doing here would look great on that old girl. A few other shelf queens to get over the line first though 🤫

 

Terry

  • Like 1
Posted
On 6/25/2024 at 5:56 PM, hendie said:

Nice work, Ian. I love those wheels - they're really going to lift the build to another level.

 

 

Thanks Alan, that's my hope!

 

On 6/27/2024 at 2:15 PM, keefr22 said:

That wheel is already looking superb Ian, it's going to look completely stunning when finished - really cracking work!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, more below!

 

On 6/29/2024 at 1:00 AM, The Spadgent said:

This is Fantastic! The perfect blend of old and new modelling skills. Beautiful.  🙌

 

 Johnny

More old school in this update Johnny!

 

On 6/29/2024 at 1:08 PM, Terry1954 said:

Lovely spoke work (again) Ian. I've bookmarked this thread for reference. I was sorting through the older parts of my stash recently and found a half built Heller 1/24 Delahaye 135 that I hadn't touched for many years. Such spoke work as you are doing here would look great on that old girl. A few other shelf queens to get over the line first though 🤫

 

Terry

I'm looking forward to seeing that one Terry!

 

Right then, what have we been up to lately?

 

Let's start with finishing what I started earlier - brakes and attachments.

 

As mentioned, having narrowed the chassis at the front, I needed to design and print a new front crossmember. That took quite a few attempts as I tried to get something that both left enough space between chassis rail and crossmember for the friction dampers, and also put the wheels in the right position with the track correct. I played about with printing, adjusting, printing, adjusting, and so on until finally I had something I was happy with.

 

With the tweaked and reprinted brake drums fitted I'm satisfied that I have it about as good as I'll get it.

 

53839102054_e44f5c5c72.jpg

 

and the track matches the rear too!

 

53839010448_ab5461aef0.jpg

 

That's that job done then!

 

The seats have also gone through quite a few reincarnations as I try to get something approaching accurate.

 

Here's the progression so far from left to right, kit item in the left.

 

53837857897_029933f148.jpg

 

It's close. I'm happy with the curve across the back, but I still think the seat back needs to be flatter at the edges. I'll come back to that later.

 

Wheels. I left you with a teaser of one half spoked wheel. I now have one fully spoked wheel. What a pain the front row was! Due to that, I adjusted the length of the pin at the front of the hub to make it easier to get the line around it and not keep slipping off. I've reprinted the hubs with this adjustment for the rest of the wheels.

 

53839035783_a507cbc946.jpg

 

Once the wires were all set, I ran some thin CA on to the top off the hub. Once set I gently filed the top down flat. The knock-offs will (I hope) hide the mess.

 

Just a reminder of why it took so long...

 

53839218270_24ab65c415.jpg

 

I'm very pleased with that. Only 4 more to do!

 

So on to more palaver with the bodywork.

 

A dry fit of the front with the wheel fitted didn't look right. The wheel was too close to the edge of the bodywork. But the track was correct!

 

This is where it should be

 

53839102114_eea80156ab.jpg

 

I didn't have enough hands to photograph it, but the centre of the tyre was further out by the lowest part of the wing. 

 

Or was it?

 

53838752641_855d18e8e8.jpg

 

Thanks, Matchbox! The outer edges of the wings should be parallel all the way to the final curve on the front. They aren't and angle inwards for the last 15mm or so.

Right then, old style adjustments were called for. Out with the sprue goo and plaster it on!

 

53839102104_48c8e9d1fd.jpg

 

The top surface of the wings should also not curve down at the edges. Guess what, the left side does!

More sprue goo to raise the edge, a touch more at the front left to lower the bottom of the rounded part, and a copy of the plans cut out and glued to a piece of card to use as a template. Might as well get it all done!

 

53839102044_26ede64713.jpg

 

You can see the slightly different shape either side, as I gently sanded the tops of the wings with a sanding stick laid flat across both. the areas of exposed plastic are clearly not equal.

 

Anyway, it should all look much better once done, which is the whole purpose!

 

Time for a beer and the footy I think!

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Ian

  • Like 9
Posted

That's a good update Ian, all coming along very nicely!

 

And that wheel.... :nodding: :thumbsup:

 

3 hours ago, Brandy said:

Only 4 more to do!

 

Didn't they offer a spare wheel cover as an optional extra.... :whistle:  :)

 

Keith

 

  • Haha 1
  • Brandy changed the title to 1:32 Matchbox SS100 Jaguar. Nostalgia build with corrections and 3d printed modifications.
Posted

Oh bravo! The new arches are looking good and those wheels.  👌

 It’s all looking rather spiffing. 
 

Johnny

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Mail call!

On 7/6/2024 at 6:57 PM, hendie said:

Ooooh, this is getting exciting.

More work for you but lots more fun for us to watch.

A touch of schadenfreude perhaps, Alan?

 

On 7/6/2024 at 9:59 PM, keefr22 said:

That's a good update Ian, all coming along very nicely!

 

And that wheel.... :nodding: :thumbsup:

 

 

Didn't they offer a spare wheel cover as an optional extra.... :whistle:  :)

 

Keith

 

Thanks Keith. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any pics with a cover, but I'd have to make that too anyway!

On 7/9/2024 at 2:38 AM, The Spadgent said:

Oh bravo! The new arches are looking good and those wheels.  👌

 It’s all looking rather spiffing. 
 

Johnny

Cheers Johnny!

 

Right then. After multiple episodes of "prime, fill, sand, repeat" I think I've finally reached a state with the front wings that I'm happy with. They have been widened along the front 15mm to make them run straight all the way from front to back, and the curves on the front ends have been adjusted to be as equal as I can get them, with the apex in the right place relative to the wheels. 

 

53870959568_69a8ba2376.jpg

 

53871019008_3ba230fe40.jpg

 

53870773381_049a2f2ff0.jpg

 

Having just checked after the latest repaint, there's still a small area inside the right wing front that needs a little more smoothing off, but other than that it's OK.

 

I also primed the seats to get a better idea of how they looked and see if I needed to do any more work on the design.

I've found some pics of a car with seat backs that had a slight curve, so I think I'll go with these now.

 

53870713166_18e79ce5c7.jpg

 

Certainly a big improvement over the kit seats!

 

53871061139_62f18dd5fd.jpg

 

Onwards!

 

Thanks for looking in folks!

 

Ian

 

  • Like 6
  • 100% 1
Posted
1 hour ago, Brandy said:

After multiple episodes of "prime, fill, sand, repeat"

 

Ah .............. we know that one so well!

 

Front wings are looking good, and that replacement seat looks much better than the kit part.

 

Well done, carry on!

 

Terry

  • Like 2
Posted

Some very nice progress there Ian, all looking good under some primer. And yes the seat is just a bit of an improvement...!! :)

 

Keith

  • Like 1
  • 4 months later...
Posted

Blimey, over 4 months have passed apparently!

Ooops!

In my defence, along with a loss of mojo, a lovely lady has entered my life and takes up a lot of what used to be my modelling time, although she fully supports my hobby, so that's a plus!

 

So what have I been doing ? The answer is, quite a lot of 3d designing, test printing, tweaking designs, reprinting, etc.

 

Most of this work has been in the front wing/suspension area. The kit has no braces for the front wings, or friction dampers, so those had to be done.

These are the braces:

 

54183787037_d08ae6f9d0.jpg

 

The trick here was to get the curve right! I started by looking a little more closely at the inner wings where they meet the chassis and realised that the moulded bodywork was too rounded at that point. Problem solved simply enough by attacking the inner wings with a scalpel blade and paring it back to a) give a sharper edge, and b) take the edge back to meet the chassis rails. Then a piece of solder was pressed into the wing to give me the correct shape. I took a photo of that against a pair of rulers. The pic was imported to Fusion as a canvas to give me a reference to work from.

 

54184943423_37b4d0320a.jpg[/url]

 

54184669601_8d2018c0cf.jpg

 

The basic design...

 

54184669606_e8144bf938.jpg

 

That was printed to check the fit, adjusted as necessary, and detail added. I had to reduce the length by a couple of mm but the curve was good first time. This pic also shows how much I removed from the inner wings to take them back to the chassis rails and square them off.

 

54183787152_a98cded0f3.jpg

 

The final version looks like this

 

54184957004_d7c6f6a199.jpg

 

One further issue I noted was that the kit moulded front springs are flat across the top instead of curving downwards. After measuring everything and realising that the springs are pretty close to the correct thickness and the axle is at the correct height, I decided to accept the kit springs as I don't want to get into issues with the ride height (it's correct as it is).

 

After printing the wing braces, the next item to tackle was the friction shocks.

 

Since I had no size references, I decided the best way to go was to cut a paper mock up, try it for size, adjust it, then take a pic against a ruler and import as a canvas in the same way as I did for the braces.

 

It was pretty small!

 

54184956889_5d8308a6bc.jpg

 

The design was pretty straight forward.

 

54185114675_7a17e96166.jpg

 

Printing revealed that the two legs are not the same length so that was adjusted, and they were reprinted.

 

54184956964_71d90f3fda.jpg

 

There is also a small linkage between the front crossmember and the damper attached to the rear of the wing brace, so I decided to adjust the front crossmember and reprint it. I also adjusted the front brake drums slightly to lower the actuating arms and reprinted those too.

 

A test fit of the new front end parts was satisfactory!

 

54183787127_be6b432881.jpg

 

While I was on a roll I decided to go ahead and print the steering linkages. I don't have any pics that show the fitting to the left brake drum so I had a best guess.

 

54184669336_4f9f708c37.jpg

 

The connection to the steering box was deliberately made too long, that will be adjusted later, but the fit and angles are, I think, OK.

 

54183786992_9383931d81.jpg

 

After that little lot, I looked at the steering wheel mounting and realised that the dashboard was wrong.

 

54183787122_a851b0cb92.jpg

 

The moulded recess where the steering column mounts should not be there!

 

54185114615_1cdfb5175f.jpg

 

So I snipped it out with a pair of snips. Bad move!

 

54184669426_b472a08273.jpg

 

Oh well! Nothing for it then other than to design and print a replacement dashboard!

I managed to remove the part without damaging the bodywork, photographed it, and imported as a canvas to draw around.

 

54183786977_0c0d83518e.jpg

 

54184669421_33d4b75909.jpg

 

Some small tweaks were required to the left edge, and I enhanced the dial bevels a little, giving me this...

 

54184669321_6bd06ae58c.jpg

 

54184669311_7116e01672.jpg

 

Sometimes it helps to be clumsy with the snips! I think that's a big improvement!

 

While in that area I decide to do the grab handle for the passenger.

 

54185114470_a53b512b91.jpg

 

I seem to have forgotten to take a pic of the printed handle, but they have come out nicely!

 

I have since painted the new parts and will update soon. The next step will be to get some bodywork colour on the undersides of the wings and running boards before fitting the chassis and new parts.

 

Stay tuned, I promise to update again within 3 months!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

 

  • Like 10
  • Love 2

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