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

[othertales]

Lovely update and I agree with @The Spadgent the silver looks great and really transforms the bodies. I’m also not a big fan of figures but I’m sure you will paint dress Bond in style 😎🍸

[ElectricLightAndy]

Looking excellent 👌 

[hendie]

It appears I was a bit premature when I mentioned that this post may involve the ritual of sticking bits together. I tried - honest, I tried, but as I attempted the act I realized that there is much to do before I can get to that stage.

The main reason for that is that the sticking of bits together involves inserting the interior tubs into the body shells almost as step one, - and I can't do that until the paint work on the bodies is done. I could have attempted to paint the body shells after some stickery, but that would just be asking for trouble, and I have enough of that these days.

 

First though...

On 8/31/2024 at 4:52 PM, The Spadgent said:

I’m sure you’ll do a good job of bond. But it’ll look good without too. 🙌

 

On 8/31/2024 at 6:04 PM, othertales said:

 I’m also not a big fan of figures but I’m sure you will paint dress Bond in style 😎🍸

 

I'm trying guys, but it proving impossible to get the Bond figure to sit in his seat and get his arm anywhere near the steering wheel. I'll keep trying over the next few sessions, but if I can't make that work then old James is going to be sitting on the sidelines I'm afraid.

 

But, back to that paint job I was talking about.

The Revell kit comes with the window rubber molded into the clear windscreen. Now the Revell kit glass is very well molded, being very thin, and very clear. However, they've made the window rubber molding on the glass very, very narrow indeed. I'd say too narrow, but since it's a molded feature on the transparency, there's not a lot I can do about it.  Airfix on the other hand, thoughtfully molded the window rubber as part of the body shell. That's much easier to deal with, and it's a lot more substantial than the Revell offering.

I have to mask it though!

My method of choice was to slap a piece of masking tape on thee corners, which, being curved, are the hardest parts to mask successfully. Once the tape was on, I used a cocktail stick to guide the tape down into the window seal. Once I had a nicely grooved guide, I used a pencil to emphasize the groove made by the cocktail stick.  Tape in process on the right hand corner of the window, and you can see a finished mask on the opposite corner. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

 

 

Then fill in the gaps with lengths of tape as required.  This is partially through the demasking process - always an exciting/frightening moment.

 

 

Thankfully, the gods were with me on this one.

 

 

Eyes front!

 

 

I could probably have gone a little bit deeper on the groove on the bottom edge of the windscreen, but I'll take this neat a job any day of the week.

 

It's almost time to start thinking about the glass - so I did. Then I checked the Airfix parts.

Oh dear.  There's a nice big void on one of the rear windows. That ain't gonna buff out. There's also some crazing but you can't see it in this shot. This window is lapsap as we used to say in HK.

 

 

There's no alternative but to make my own from scratch.  Luckily I have some 1mm thick clear polystyrene sheet which (I think) I bought for Robby's transporter a few months back.

Using the old window as a template it took me less than 10 minutes to knock up a replacement - surprisingly easy given how awkward the shape is. Ignore the marks on the window - those marks are on the protective covering only.

 

 

As a quick test, I'm very happy with that and feel certain I can make decent fitting windows when the time comes.

 

Sticker time!

Some of the first parts that will be stuck in place are the rotating registration plates on the boot. Both kits use exactly the same method, though the plates have drastically different dimensions.

I had to 3D print the plates for the Airfix kit as they were missing, and I somehow mislaid one of the Revell parts so I had to print replacements for that also.

The Airfix decals were old and yellowed, and not the actual registration of the DB5, however I rather liked the nostalgia aspect of the Airfix offering and decided to go ahead and use them anyway. So the Airfix kit will be JB 007 with a nice vintage patina.

Airfix left and front. Revell on the ri...oh dear!

 

 

Well that's not right is it?  The front is wrong, the aspect ratio is wrong, and the color is wrong too.  They have the registration in huge bright white letters.  BMT216A was silver on black back in those days wasn't it?

 

No! The huge white registration just looks awful.

 

 

Fortuitously, I found an eBay listing for the original (?) plates, so grabbed the photos and traced over them in AutoCAD.   

My original plan was to print the LU6789 on white decal sheet - easy.

Then print the other two plates on clear decal sheet and paint the rotating triangle thingy silver. Then I discovered I've ran out of decal sheet and it seemed a bit of a palaver to have to order more sheets and faff about just for this, so... I printed the plates out on standard paper, butg using a very light grey for the "silver".  Once printed, I slapped some clear satin over the top, and hey presto... it sorts of looks silver. Or silver enough for this task.  You can clearly see the difference on font styles between the Revell offering and the real thing here.

 

 

Now back to paint. Or, more precisely, clear coating.

This first clear coat was applied, then micromeshed back using 8000 & 12000 grit. This is after the second clear coat - still to be sanded back.

I'm using Mr. Color Super Clear and it lays down very nicely indeed.

 

 

Shiny!

 

 

A quick dry fit on the Airfix kit shows that the time spent working on the gaps was time well spent.

 

 

The plan is to stop after 3 clear coats then polish and wax the finish to try and obtain a nice deep shine. I want to avoid the "clear coat shine" of modern day cars and get more of a waxed shine finish, if I can.  I'm going to try and get the third coat done by the coming weekend... oh, that means decals on the Revell kit first. I wonder if I can use the Revell vinyl stickers on the Airfix kit?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stick]

Keep going, they're looking very promising 👍🏻

Stick

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice update, Alan. These things are still fighting you, aren't they? But you are winning and the results are looking great.

Lapsap? I can easily imagine what that means if it was adopted by the troops

[othertales]

You and the whole Q Division at your service 😉 are doing an amazing job!

[Ger Darkly]

Possibly too late for this project, but I've found this website useful for generating images of registration plates:

 

https://www.eireplates.com/product/classic-irish-uk-silver-80mm-font-on-black-printed-aluminium-plate-single

 

The link is for a style that might be suitable here. They offer a variety of other plate styles, and most allow you to preview the plate with your chosen registration, so a screenshot is all you need. 

 

[giemme]

 Love the paint job so far, Alan! And the masking for the rubber is ace!  

 

Ciao

[Steadfast]

Just been catching up on these builds. Lovely work so far Alan.

 

The paint colour and metallicity? Metallicness? Sparkle looks pretty good to me. Saw a real DB5 in Silver Birch last weekend, clearly done as a replica Bond car as it had the GB plate and numberplate of SPY 5. The paint on that had a very subtle metallic flake to it, and I think your model captures it well. 

 

Jo

[hendie]

Back again, still creeping forward at an alarmingly snail like pace. Progress is slightly faster than glacial, but only just.

 

I did get to stick stuff together in this episode but not exactly in the way I had planned. First though, I remembered yet something else I had completely forgotten to consider. Panel lines. Or rather, the lack of them. As smooth as the DB5 is, there is still doors, boots, and bonnets, and they have gaps - least they do in the Airfix kit. The Revell kit does not, so they need to be represented somehow. The Airfix kit has separate items for the boot and bonnet so those gaps take care of themselves but the doors need a bit of help. This needs to be done before the final gloss coat.

Standard protocol for this type of thing appears to be using oils wicked into the grooves. Easy enough (I thought), and Paynes Grey seems to be the go-to choice for most folks. My cheapo oil set did not have that particular flavor so I mixed up a greyish, greenish, bluish sort of grey and set about slapping it on.

Surprisingly, the Airfix kit was the easiest to work on and came out best. The panel lines for the doors on the Airfix kit were nicely done, and were nice and narrow. The Revell kit, not so much.  Revell had made the panel lines very wide and also very shallow. There was also a degree of tool chatter in the Revell grooves. 

However, after about an hour of dipping, wiping, and more dipping, and more wiping, we had this not particularly great effort.  That's the Airfix kit on the left with the natural gap around the bonnet. Revell on the right and you can see how wide the groove was and it resulted in the panel line looking a bit inconsistent - but this was after 3 or 4 attempts and was the best result I achieved.

 

 

Airfix on top and you can see how nicely this lines have come out compared to the canyonesque grooves of the Revell kit.

 

 

Another job I had missed, but caught before it was too late was that the Bond DB5 has a large chrome surround framing the rear license plate. I also need to chrome the boot lock.

Revell had actually molded the chrome surround but as in their window rubbers, it was ridiculously narrow - but they got painted nonetheless.

 

 

Airfix had omitted this piece of trim so I fired up Fusion and the printer and ran a couple off. The trim is 0.65mm wide, and 0.35 deep. That got painted/chromed, and glued onto the boot with super glue.  SLightly wonky but it's the best I could do with shaky hands and crap eyesight. At least it's better than not being there at all.

 

 

The Revell kit comes with the traditional waterslide decals, but since it's a "snap-together" kit, it also comes with some of the decals duplicated on self adhesive vinyl. That's handy cos the Airfix kit has license plate decals and that was it... no badges etc.

So a bit of cross dressing later and we have the DB5 and the Aston Martin badges on the 60 year old kit, and looking not too shabby at all.

 

 

Then the waterslides on the Revell kit.  Their panel line on the boot was slightly better than that on the doors - but not by much. I sort of have a half-baked plan for the seam between the license plate light unit and the boot which I'll get to, eventually.  I'm also not over enthused by the chrome finish on that bumper so I may revisit it.

 

 

Badge on front and Superleggera script on the bonnet. You can actually read Superleggera clearly on the decal, but from normal viewing distance I have to admit, it looks more like a scratch or a defect. Hey ho.

 

 

DB5 badge on front wing - this one's the sticker. Just imagine the waterslide on the Revell kit. It doesn't look any different.

 

 

Aston Badge and Superleggera on the Airfix kit. I am NOT looking forward to working on those headlamps.

 

 

And finally for this installment, all badges and trim present and correct on the back end of Airfix. I still need to address the lack of a boot lock on this one, but I need to test fit the very fragile, several times broken, rear bumper first to see how much room I have (if any)

 

 

Everything has now been given a final (he hopes) sealing gloss coat and set aside to cure.

Despite its age and a few inaccuracies, if I'm being honest I think the Airfix kit looks the better of the two at this point. Had Revell made a better job of those "gaps" then I think it would be the other way around but I feel those gaping chasms somewhat ruin and otherwise very nice kit.

 

Next up... ehrrr... some polishing, and I may even get to stick some plastic together - if I haven't forgotten anything else, that is.

 

[klubman01]

They are looking very good thus far, but the difference in the panel lines is quite surprising.  

Trevor

[keefr22]

Have to agree they look really tidy! The Revell panel lines look like most of my kits after I've 'rescribed' them to make them more (errr, far too) prominent...!! 🤣

 

Keith

[hendie]

2 hours ago, klubman01 said:

They are looking very good thus far, but the difference in the panel lines is quite surprising.  

Trevor

 

I agree Trevor.  It really lets the kit down and is by far the worst aspect of the kit, which overall, is a nice build - considering it's a snap together effort.

Hopefully by the time all the silverware is added, they will draw the eye away from the starkness of the gaps.

 

 

[othertales]

It’s really super interesting to see the kits side by side. Surprising how different the bonnet shapes are for example especially at the front, the Airfix being much rounder than Revell’s. Thanks for the continued build treats.

[Terry1954]

These are coming along beautifully Alan. Enhancing the joins between door and body and bonnet and body etc, really has made a difference. I agree that the Airfix doorline has a very nice finesse to it.

 

Great updates.

 

Terry

[The Spadgent]

The kit shapes do look different but you’re doing a blinding job on both. I love how quickly you just pop out printed parts. It’s a bit of a pain to go through the whole process for me so I only bring out the printer for special occasions. The paintwork and reg plates are looking spot on too. 🙌❤️

 

 Johnny

[Stick]

I do like the comparisons and contrasts you show between the similar models.

I wasn't expecting that to be the interesting thing when you started this project, but it helps loads when looking at the described model defects or panel gaps etc, a bit like 'before and after' images do... otherwise I usually just nod sagely and wonder whether I'm actually looking at the right bit of the pic 🙃

Lovely modelling 👍

Stick

 

[hendie]

2 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

I love how quickly you just pop out printed parts. It’s a bit of a pain to go through the whole process for me so I only bring out the printer for special occasions.

 

I have both my printers set up permanently in the basement. Back in the early days I was very anal about cleaning up after every print run, filtering the resin back into the bottle and washing out the vat etc. following every instruction/direction I found online.

Now? Not so much. Now I only return the resin to the bottle and wash the vat when I need to either change the FEP, or change the resin color. The resin constituents do settle over time though and you can see the color change as the pigment separates. When that happens (usually a week or more without printing) I just use one of these rubber squeegees to swish the resin back and forth in the vat until it is mixed again.

 

 

That said, I don't think my printers have lain idle for more than a couple of days in the last year.

 

 

 

[The Spadgent]

4 hours ago, hendie said:

 

I have both my printers set up permanently in the basement. Back in the early days I was very anal about cleaning up after every print run, filtering the resin back into the bottle and washing out the vat etc. following every instruction/direction I found online.

Now? Not so much. Now I only return the resin to the bottle and wash the vat when I need to either change the FEP, or change the resin color. The resin constituents do settle over time though and you can see the color change as the pigment separates. When that happens (usually a week or more without printing) I just use one of these rubber squeegees to swish the resin back and forth in the vat until it is mixed again.

 

 

That said, I don't think my printers have lain idle for more than a couple of days in the last year.

 

 

 

Yeah. @Fritag said similar when we we’re talking about our set ups. My printer is out and available but I do clean up after every print. (Well when I finish a session). I decided to not do this after talking to Steve. On my first print after not cleaning up, I had a mishap and had to change my FEP. 🤪 Some resin got stuck to the fep in the bath and it went unseen.  so back to clean up for me. I do only use it when needed though so she would and could sit for weeks/months with no use.

I have those rubber squeegees though. As per all your recommendations when I first started printing.  Can’t thank you enough for your help back then. 🫡🙌

[giemme]

Wow, quite the catch-up I had! Lovely job with the panel lines and the transfers/stickers anfd the 3D add-ons!  

 

Sure, you could have painted on some of them (decals), but I'm gonna cut you some slack because you are so nonchalantly using 3D printing... 

 

    

 

Ciao

 

 

[hendie]

Greetings all. Not a lot of progress on the progress front this week I'm afraid. Part of it was taken up with keeping up with orders, life getting in the way, and various other obstacles.

 

Once all of those were taken care of, it was a case of a bit of remedial work. I really wasn't happy with the chrome finish on some of the parts so decided to redo them.   This time I took a slightly different approach - I've always had issues getting a good quality finish on gloss black parts.  This time I added some clear gloss to the black at about 80% black/20% clear gloss and the difference in finish was astounding.

The over-rider on top here is with the black/gloss mix as base coat, and the other one is plain old gloss black.  The photo doesn't really do it justice.

 

 

This was what started that particular ball rolling - on one part I had a nice chromed finish and you can see the part on the bench is clearly sub standard, and has more of a rough aluminum finish as opposed to nice shiny chrome. That mean revisiting almost all of the chromed parts.

 

 

It's hard to capture the finish with a camera, but to the naked eye, and from normal viewing distance this looks quite impressive

 

 

Yet another difference between the Airfix (at front) Vs Revell kits

 

 

It's almost time to start thinking about putting these bits all together in some sort of order so a quick test fit was in order. The Airfix interior fits in with a slight struggle. Home made headlamps have been fitted in a poor attempt at progress.

 

 

While the Revell fits in with less of a fight, however, I did notice that the chassis appears to have warped a little bit and the front end ends up sitting at a bit of an angle.  That should be easy enough to sort out, and I have a few ideas for solutions... I just need to get time to implement them.  The headlamps do look cool in place though.

 

 

Now we're onto the bit that has taken up most of the week. Would you believe... tail lights?

Easy enough you would think? No, not a chance.  As I dug into it - initially because I spotted that the clear lamp changed positions depending upon which vehicle you were looking at... then it got worse.

The clear lens changed position. The orange lens changed position. The red lens changed position.

On some vehicles, there are no clear lens'esat all. On some vehicles there are two red lenses. Even the shape of the lenses changes - look at the lens on the top right photo.

 

 

I tried researching to find shots of the original Thunderball car. As best I can tell, that shot top right (with the flattened lens) is from one of the original filming cars. However I then spotted another photo with Sean C standing beside a DB5 with a clear lens.

What to do? 

 

Thankfully, in at least 2/3's of the case, the lenses are the same shape. First off, I printed out a bunch in plain old grey resin. I know from my VW build that painting clear orange or red on grey resin gives a pretty good representation of a tail light.

I had some red resin loaded in one of the printers so I also printed out some in red resin.

Here they are, chromed up and The grey on the left is in clear red while the grey on the right is painted with clear orange.  (the chromey things are the aerial mount)

 

 

Chrome surround painted, and what a pain it was to paint those two retaining screws on the lens.

 

 

I did a dry fit with one red resin part and one grey resin part. I forget which is which and I really can't tell the difference. 

 

 

I also printed a version with the flattened lens

 

 

Now I just need to decide on the order, and which lens.  I am leaning towards the two red, plus one orange lens, and the top lens being the one on the photo above, and the orange lamp in the center... unless anyone can provide evidence showing the original DB5 tail light configuration... or even give me a good reason to do otherwise. 

( I am printing some clear ones today so once those are ready, I may well change my mind once again, who knows?)

 

Ah... I almost forgot - I did get the rear license plate fitted to the Revell kit - and managed to splat some Tamiya extra thin on the rear valance at the same time cos of shaky hand syndrome.  I have since sanded that back, resprayed and reglossed and it turned out okay.

 

 

Now, back to the chores.

 

 

 

 

[The Spadgent]

Wow! That chrome looks fantastic!!!! The rest is pretty amazing too. 🙌

Sounds like you’re having a right old time with those rear lights.  They do look nice though. 😀

Johnny

[keefr22]

 

Oh no, it's the invasion of the blobby orange aliens....

 

6 hours ago, hendie said:

 

 

 

Before I get my coat and leave, can I just say for not much progress, what there was looks rather good!

 

Could I also ask what chrome paint you used (I know you've likely said before, but I can't remember)

 

Right,  on, gone...

 

Keith

[giemme]

I agree with Johnny @The Spadgent here, the chrome parts look fantastic!

 

Which make of color did you use for the gloss black base - and what clear gloss to mix it in, please?

 

Ciao

[TheBaron]

 

Immaculate!

 

Never fails to enthrall Alan - both substance and looks.

His work is quite good too.