Aston Martin DB15 ? Okay then... 3 DB5's. COMPLETED!

[Brandy]

Those wheels are a spectacular success, I love them!

And so much quicker than drilling and threading....

 

Ian

[keefr22]

Couldn't agree more the wheel looks absolutely stunning!

 

The items of death look really good too!!!

 

Keith

 

 

[Vesa Jussila]

New wheels and real axel looks really good improvement.

[CrazyCrank]

@hendie, you did an extraordinary job with all those 3D printed parts. Your wheels are amazing, and thanks to you,  I know now that I could re-draw mine with 0.2 mm thickness spokes instead of 0.28 with my Mars 1 pro ! 👍

[giemme]

Those wheels are nothing short of impressive! And so is the weapon tray!      

 

Ciao

[hendie]

Ta muchly for the comments guys. Always appreciated.

 

I thought I would try and get some of the nasty work out of the way before I go too far down this build. I didn't want to leave all the seam work and sanding to the end so nothing for it but to jump right in.

As it turned out, the Airfix kit wasn't too bad at all. At least the nasty bits were where I expected them to be. Most of them sanded away easily but the seams at the back end of the rear window may prove troublesome later, as well as a poor molding line down the front pillar. That's going to be annoying.

 

 

Second round, here we go.  This time paint was spilled on the Revell kit as well

 

 

... which revealed a few seams, namely along the top of the wings - again, these were more or less expected.

 

 

More printed parts to play with. This time it's the turn of the Tracker device

 

 

Along with the interior panels and dinky little telephone.  I could bear to live with the blank wall that Airfix gifted us in this kit.

 

 

I know it's early in the build and Giorgio hasn't really put his tuppence worth in yet but I thought I'd beat him to the punch.  PAINT!

 

 

I fear I may have been a tad over enthusiastic with my coloring in though.  Checking out t'interweb for shots of the original car, as far as I can tell, the seats and most of the interior was a very dark grey leather.  I tried to replicate that with a mix of dark sea grey, black, and a touch of blue.  It appeared a decent match in the cup but it has dried a bit darker than I anticipated.

Here we have my home grown panel on the left, and the Revell part on the right.  There's more color to be added - there's a black leather band across the top of the door, and a little bit of chrome work, but not much.

 

 

The rear seats got their share of coloring in too.  How would anyone would ever fit in the back in that Airfix seat?  

 

 

Now that I look closer at this photo, I think I may not be that far off on the color I was trying to achieve. I would have liked just a little bit more of a blue tingle to the grey though.

I think I'll leave this for a couple of days and mull it over.

 

 

Going back a few days, you may remember that I primed the seats... The passenger seat was bothering me. I hated that sharp ledge along the front edge and after much thought...

 

 

No prizes for guessing - I got rid of it.   A simple job of whacking on some styrene then filing to shape and there one much happier hendie bounding around the house. But wait!  There's more!

Checking references again it was plain to see that the 1:1 seats had some nice leather piping around them.  The kit seats (both versions) were a bit plain so I thought I'd spruce them up a tad.  I had some styrene rod from a previous something or other and it appeared just the right diameter to create the piping.  It seemed easy enough. Until I got started that was.

 

 

However, once I got started, there was no going back. It wasn't a difficult job, just rather tedious.

 

 

But I think it paid off in the end.  I think the seats look much better now.

 

 

The effect is quite subtle, but that's what I was after. The paint here is still wet so hopefully they'll look better once the paint has cured and I get a coat of clear satin finish over them.

 

Actually, that hole in the passenger seat is bothering me now. I'll need to have a think and see if I can do anything about that.  I'd like to keep the ejector seat working as originally intended, but I think it can be made to look more like a seat than a commode.

 

 

In the print queue are some wheels for the Revell kit, some of the missing steering linkage - which will probably need a few iterations to get right, and some brake discs.  I'll be back.  Wait... no, that wasn't Bond was it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Terry1954]

Just had a catch up on all the fantastic goings on here Alan. All very impressive, and good progress.

 

The spoked wheels are of course exquisite, and it's nice to see some good "old tech" additions on the seat piping.

 

Terry

 

 

[Brandy]

Nice work on the seats. I agree that the piping has made all the difference and they look far better for it. I'm just glad it wasn't me that had to do it!

 

Ian

[giemme]

10 hours ago, hendie said:

top of the wings

What wings?   

 

 

 

Great to see some painting action, those seats look ace!    

 

Ciao

[Terry1954]

2 minutes ago, giemme said:

What wings?

 

He's confused Giorgio ........ withdrawal symptoms from not building enough aircraft lately I reckon. 😉

 

Terry

[PeteH1969]

As a classic car owner and a mechanic who in the past (1980's-1990's) who has worked on dozens of DB4 & 5's for customers I can quite safely say that the Airfix body shape is the more accurate of the two the Revell model may be the newer model but does not mean that it has the more accurate body.

 

What ever you do to the rest of the Airfix model inside it will improve the general appearance and look if the kit.

 

Just my opinion,

 

Pete 

[hendie]

Something for the weekend sir?  Okay, then, we'll have a little update shall we?

 

Both interior tubs got their satin coats on the leatherwork, while the carpentry stuff got a flat coat.

 

 

The interior paneling got a touch of detail painting. The grey wasn't as dark as I had feared once the black coat was in place. It really highlighted the difference in the two shades, and I'm happy with how that turned out.

 

 

Revell panel on the left, mine on the right. The Revell part is fine apart from very weakly detailed telephone in the little cubby hole, but as it will never really be seen, I wasn't going to get too worked up about it.

 

 

 Though my panel will get its own dinky little telephone.

 

 

With the tubs and paneling painted I could start assembling some bits and pieces, the Revell tub being first off the production line.

 

 

Followed closely by the hendiebits version

 

 

I really should plan ahead sometimes, or at least take a quick look at the instruction sheets, and maybe even some of the parts.  I had got this far and was about to look at sticking in the center console, when I realized that I hadn't painted it. Oh flip he said quietly.

 

 

I dug it out of the box and had a look at it... suffice to say I have now gone off and designed my own version of the center console. I needed to do that anyway as Airfix omitted to include any center console in their version, so one was needed for that kit anyway.

That's running on the printer just now along with a few other bits and pieces.

When that's ready all I have to do is remember the mix and ratios of my custom leatherwork color and try to match it up. What could go wrong eh?

 

Some good news is that I printed off the wire wheel for the Revell kit and it fits very nicely in the Revell tire. Now I just need to figure out the interface between the axles and the wire wheels/brake discs etc. for both kits.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Interior coming along rather nicely. I like the piping. The back seats will barely be seen so we won't mention piping them, eh? Oops moment?

I still have the ejectable henchman and a part of the exhaust from one I built in 1960 something.

Must have been bought with Birthday money, that was about the only time there was any money for that sort of expense. About 15 shillings I think?

What? Erm yes, I painted it gold. With fingerprints. That colour always took days to dry. Wash the parts before assembly? Never even thought about it!

 

[Terry1954]

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Interior coming along rather nicely

 

Echo that. All starting to look very plush and Bondish.

 

I think fingerprints were a right of passage for us young modellers Pete. I still like to replicate that technique now and then, just to keep my hand in 

 

Terry

[klubman01]

The interiors are looking good.  Got to agree with the others; the piping on the seats makes a huge difference. 

Trevor

[giemme]

Yes, interiors look great, with paint and all  I'm sill not clear where the wings are, though...

 

 

 

 

Ciao

[hendie]

3 hours ago, giemme said:

I'm sill not clear where the wings are, though...

 

 

They slide out from under the chassis, Giorgio.

 

 

No, wait!... wrong car!

 

 

 

[keefr22]

Have to agree, that seat piping is excellent! Rest of the interior(s) isn't (aren't) half bad either!

 

On 21/05/2024 at 21:41, hendie said:

I'd like to keep the ejector seat working as originally intended, but I think it can be made to look more like a seat than a commode.

 

I wonder what any prospective passenger might have thought about being invited to sit on such a seat....?! 🤣

 

19 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Wash the parts before assembly? Never even thought about it!

 

I still never think about it now....!!

 

Keith

[hendie]

1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

I wonder what any prospective passenger might have thought about being invited to sit on such a seat....?! 🤣

 

Just wait until the next update 

 

 

[Toftdale]

Great work on the interior,  I'm particularly impressed with the piping - Andy 

[The Spadgent]

Loving your work Alan. I feel late to the party mentioning the piping but. Wow! That piping worked very well indeed. I’m pleased that the wheels turned out so well too. It’s interesting that you let them dry out first to straighten up. I’ve never thought of doing that. 🤔 painted ones look splendid too. 
 

Top job.

 

 Johnny. 🤗

[hendie]

Lots of progress has taken place, unfortunately, not much of it really shows up in this post. It's mainly been prep work and figuring bits n bobs out.

Lots of priming

 

 

more priming

 

 

and guess what... more priming

 

 

All of which eventually saw paint... until I ran out of black gloss.  Who runs out of black gloss, I ask you? 

 

 

I made a start on the skirt panels of the Airfix kit.  This rear valance was a real nightmare. It took three separate gluing session to get it to behave.  That wasn't helped at all by the Airfix engineering - it's not clear in this photo but the frame that would be directly under the boot lid was actually two pieces and the rear valance has a stub which sits between the two ends. Of course, none of this lined up, but Percy Verance held out and saved the day... now there's just lots of filling and sanding to look forward to.  Don't look at those tail light clusters - I'm trying hard not to.

 

 

On 5/24/2024 at 5:44 PM, keefr22 said:

I wonder what any prospective passenger might have thought about being invited to sit on such a seat....?! 🤣

 

Better than sitting on this one though ... ouch!

 

 

That ejection seat mechanism took ages to get working smoothly. The plunger is rather a loose fit inside the housing and kept catching on the sides as it extended. Many sessions with micro mesh on all surfaces eventually got it to a point where it operates smoothly, albeit, a bit weakly. I could have replaced the kit spring, but too much Force on those glued joints could spell disaster - and I don't want that after it's all assembled and painted.  I will need to look at additional strengthening of those joints - the mating surfaces were covered in 60 year old glue which had set like concrete. CLamps and TET seemed to do the job, but belts and braces won't go wrong here.

 

The fit of some of these parts is just on the gawd awful side of atrocious. These rear wheel arches are a case in point.  They don't touch the chassis at any point, and only just make contact over the top of the axle box. Once I eventually figured out where they were supposed to sit on their very vague alignment features, scraps of styrene were called into action to add supports and the gaps filled with Tamiya putty.

 

 

The results were not for the faint of heart, but under a coat of paint it should be disguised enough

 

 

...and the proof is in the pudding as they say.  Also seen here are my home brewed rear springs of which I've taken a best guess at the ride height based on the Airfix supplied blobs.  I may have to revisit these once it all start going together.

 

 

There was the inevitable small gap between the kit wall and my printed door cards, so again, Tamiya putty was brought into play. Once cured I'll sand that all back and spray black all over the place to hide the seam, but hopefully, not in the interior.  If you look closely you can see that I didn't forget to add the pedal box assembly, another feature which Airifx completely ignored.

 

 

Work also commenced on the missing front suspension. Thank heavens for 3D printing - it's a game changer for things like this. The printed axle stubs will be pinned with brass rod, and I made a very basic steering rack thingy. Test fit in progress and it all fits, which is a good start.

 

 

The intent is to mount brake discs to the axle stub via another brass rod, then have the wheel mount over that. In theory it should all work, though I think the wheels will end up being glued in position and unable to rotate.

 

 

The same process will be followed at the back end. The axle mounts on top of the springs which will set the ride height - and I won't know if that's correct until it comes time to insert the chassis into the body.

 

 

Then same process - brake disc fitted to axle, followed by the wheels.

 

 

I took my wheel spacing based on the kit by assembling the original and measuring from the outer face of each wheel rim.  I'm confident I'm within 0.2mm of the original kit, but I have no idea how well Airfix designed this.

 

 

Once again, I will only know when the parts are all assembled and offered up to the bodyshell.

 

For a bit of light entertainment I started some assembly of the Revell kit. Their front and rear springs were decently molded but solid. I decided to cheat with this one and sprayed the entire spring a flat aluminum, then picked out the spring in black. It work fine as long as you don't look too close, and once the wheels are on, it's going to be impossible to see into that area anyways.

 

 

See! They're already well hidden and the wheels aren't even on yet.

 

 

Then lastly for this week's episode, a huge leap forward was taken by attempting to glue the interior tubs to the chassis

 

 

It's almost as if it was meant to be.

 

[Pete in Lincs]

5 hours ago, hendie said:

unfortunately, not much of it really shows up in this post.

Enough of it to show that you've been a busy Chap and have made good progress. 

A very nice update, Alan, and things are looking much better than Airfix could have dreamed about.

[giemme]

Looks like a lot of excellent progress to me!  

 

Ciao

[keefr22]

Yep, excellent update, progress is all looking good!

 

Keith