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Keef's Build


keefr22

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The wonderful sound of a Dino at full chat & the sexy curves of a Stratos, trouser busting stuff indeed.

A Lancia/Ferrari hybrid, a true Italian masterpiece. :wub:

I think I need a lie down rub down. :wacko:

In all the excitement I nearly forgot;

Great choice Keef. :speak_cool:

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I think I need a lie down rub down. :wacko:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Didn't have much time to start on the build today, just had a look at what needs to be done to the body. Not a whole lot really as the pic below shows;

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The pencil lines show the usual mould lines. The worst are those on the roof. The arrows marked with an asterisk on the roof are the worst, as at the start of the line, the surface of the plastic is cracked! Nothing too bad though. I'll remove the moulded on 'bonnet' & 'boot' pins & replace them with etched ones. Only other thing I'm going to do to the body (other than paint it!) is replace the moulded front grille with a bit of mesh.

Looking forward to starting properly on this one, it's been a while since I've built a rally car. But it's model club night tonight, so it'll have to be tomorrow!

Have fun with your builds everyone!

Keef

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, made some progress, nothing too exciting though!

I've got rid of all the mould lines & other flaws on the body shell, & added the rear arches, light pod, lights & a couple of other bits. Then gave it a blast of primer - I used some from Simoniz which is exactly like Halfords, same size can but much cheaper. Only problem is I can't remember where I bought it!! :doh:

Anyways, here's the shell as it is now;

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Also gave the wheels & other bits needing to be white a quick belt of primer;

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I've also got most of the chassis & some of the interior together. I've heard from a number of people that this kit is very difficult to get together after the chassis & interior is fully built. Well, I had a a try putting the chassis into the body at this stage & found no problems at all! But I'm thinking that was the kit 'aving a laff & when I come to try it with a full interior things might be a bit different!! When I was out the garage, I gave the chassis a quick blast with Halfords matt black. Detail painting will be done with a good old brush & Vallejo/Games Workshop acrylics. Despite what these pictures say, I did use black, honest! ;

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Also gave everything else that needs to be black, & some bits that don't, a squirt with the black - really, it is black!!;

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Used some carplan grey primer on the seats. Luckily enough, this is almost the same colour grey as the seats in the pics of Stratuses (Stratos'? Strati??) that I have, so these will be used as is. They are actually matt. This camera really likes lying! ;

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And finally, & most exciting, I sprayed the fire extinquishers red!! ;

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That's all folks.....

Keef

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Thanks all!

nice progress,that fit of lower and upper parts is a bit worrying is'nt it?

Yes, 'tis a bit. Especially as I usually like to completely paint & decal the body before putting it onto the chassis. I think if I did that in this case I'd run the risk of damaging the decals &/or paint when manhandling the body on. Especially as I can often be a bit ham-fisted! I think this time I'll finish the interior, mount the body to it & mask off the clear parts before doing the spraying & decalling.

Keef

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  • 1 month later...

OK, after a month, here's an update! I've got the interior finished, & am going to try to get it inside the body tomorrow!!

Some pics of the interior work then.

I noticed from my pics of the real thing at Goodwood, that the inside of the back bulkhead is covered by what looks like a sickly yellow coloured, heavy fabric fireproof (or heat proof?) blankety type thingie. So I tried to replicate this with some layers of tissue covered in PVA ;

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I thought I'd taken a pic of it trimmed & painted a suitably yucky named Games Workshop acrylic, but it appears I haven't. So here it is hiding behind the seats. Of course you can hardly see it now, so I might just have well have painted the bulkhead yellow and been done with it! ;

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I haven't bothered to do that much to the interior. The belts are from my now favourite lead foil for the 'material' with P.E. buckles. I did also add an 'imagineered' hold down strap on the spare wheel, mainly as practice for a later build where it may actually be visible - I don't think you'll see much through the louveres on the Strat's front lid!! ;

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While I was fiddling about, I had a go at a new method to me of doing some heat staining on the exhaust. Basically just painted them a GW metallic (can't honestly remember if it was Mithral Silver or Chainmail!) & then when that was dry, just applied some orange, red, blue & purple pastels on top. First applied them wet, then added some dry over the top, all the time messing about trying to blend them with a dry brush & cotton bud. Don't think it's quite as effective as the normal way of airbrushing clear colours, but a hell of a lot quicker & you don't have to clean the airbrush!! ;

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I've also painted the wheels. The instructions call for them to be painted the same red as the stripes on the body - which is how the real restored car has them - but looking at the photo of the original car on the box top, which was taken in the dark using flash, the wheels look 'different' to the stripes. I have pics of a number of works Stratos that have dayglo red wheels, which I really like, so that's what I went for! ;

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That's it for now. Hopefully be back tomorrow with pics of the body & chassis mated together (with the body still in one piece preferably!!)

Keef

Edited by keefr22
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Oooopss! Forgot these! Couple of pics of the finished dash. I only noticed from the second 'super macro' pic that the speedo decal is a bit pessimistic! I think even with forest gearing a works Stratos should be able to exceed 100 - & as this is an Italian car it's probably reading in km/hr!!!

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Keef

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Hey Keefr,

Build is looking pretty good fella, a mate of mine asked me to build him a car, I think I will leave it to 'you as know how its done'

Im interested to see how it turns out.

Cheers Z

Thanks Z - but after that scratchbuilt yacht, you'd have NO trouble with a car!

Keef

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Hi keef, nice progress, looking great....any chance of a close up of the seatbelts.....I have the p/e hardware, but need a clue on how best to put it all together. I have only used the decals in the past

regards Ian D

Cheers Ian. I'll try to get a close up tomorrow, but am having trouble with the macro on the camera - sometimes it'll focus, other times it just refuses to. The reason why lead foil is now my favourite belt material is that it's by far the easiest stuff I've found to thread through P/E buckles. It's pliable, but at the same time relatively stiff, which means you can bend it back on itself to thread it through the buckle just like a real belt. It also stays in position when you drape it over the seat! I love it!

Having said all that about threading it through the buckle, I do have to admit that I often cheat & don't bother! Instead I stick a buckle onto the belt, & then cut another bit of belt material out & stick it over the centre of the buckle! This gives the illusion of the belt being threaded through the buckle, especially when viewed through plastic 'glass'!

On these harnesses I threaded the foil through the buckles on the shoulder straps, but used the cheat method on the lap belts - both the adjusting buckles & the quick release ones.

Keef

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Ian - I've just done some cruel cropping & re-sizing of the pic showing the belts (it also show just how shoddy my workmanship is!! :D ) ;

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The top part of the shoulder strap is threaded through the anchor plate (before it's attached to the bulkhead), bent back on itself underneath & secured with a dab of superglue. The lower part of that strap is again threaded through the adjusting buckle, bent back & secured underneath with superglue. The bottom part of the belt is threaded through the bottom part of the adjuster buckle & again superglued to hold it in place. The same thing is done with the buckle at the bottom of the shoulder strap. The piece of belt that in a real harness is pulled to adjust the tightness is simply another piece of lead foil superglued under the adjuster buckle. I make no claims that these are 100% accurate, I just aim to give an impression of a full harness belt. I did have a set of 'Crazy Modeler' buckles which went together exactly like the real thing & which I think could actually be made to work. But they did indeed drive me crazy so that was the first & last time I used them!

As I said, the buckles on the lap belt are cheats - but I can't actually see a whole lot of difference, & it's a lot quicker doing it that way!

I should also mention that I put all the belts together before sticking them to the seat.

If you need anything more, just give us a shout by PM!

Cheers

Keef

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Great stuff Keith, love the interior in all respects. The dash in particular is stunning.

Ref the macro setting, I've found that the lens needs to be set on it's widest angle first, set to macro (or super macro) and gradually work your way in on the zoom until as you say it goes out of focus. Just one word or warning though. You might find you're physically closer to the model than you think to start with!!

Rich

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Great stuff Keith, love the interior in all respects. The dash in particular is stunning.

Thanks muchly Rich!

Ref the macro setting, I've found that the lens needs to be set on it's widest angle first, set to macro (or super macro) and gradually work your way in on the zoom until as you say it goes out of focus. Just one word or warning though. You might find you're physically closer to the model than you think to start with!!

Rich

Trouble with this camera (a Fuji Finepix thing) is that it will focus perfectly for one shot, then after it's stored it, if I try to take another (which I always do as a back up for camera shake), although I won't have changed the position of the camera at all, it flashes up an 'I can't focus' message & despite whatever way I try & focus it won't do so until I turn the power off & back on again. Sometimes I have to do that more than once! I read the reviews of it before I bought it & they all said it was brilliant on macro (which is what I really wanted it for) but it's absolute cr*p compared to my old Canon Powershot that was a third of the price! Guess I'll have to save up & get a macro lens for the Nikon!

Cheers

Keef

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Trouble with this camera (a Fuji Finepix thing)

I use a Fuji Finepix S9100 and it has the macro/super macro setting and have also learnt the hard way! However, as another thought, how old are you batteries? The responsivenes does tend to drop if they are begining to fade. I use rechargeables and seldom fully discharge them (in the camera) before the warning lights start to come up.

Rich

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I use a Fuji Finepix S9100 and it has the macro/super macro setting and have also learnt the hard way! However, as another thought, how old are you batteries? The responsivenes does tend to drop if they are begining to fade. I use rechargeables and seldom fully discharge them (in the camera) before the warning lights start to come up.

Rich

Ahh, good thinking, it could be the batteries - it eats the bl**dy things & the warning light did come on again last night (only changed them last week!) Really must find my rechargeables as the thing will bankrupt me otherwise!

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Not really done enough to warrant an 'update' today, but I've got the door panels, dash, etc solidly stuck into the inside of the bodyshell. As I was doing that I came to the conclusion that it would probably be too much trouble to mask off the chassis if I were to insert it into the body (ooh, er missus!!) before painting, so I've decided to go back to my traditional way of building & spray & glosscoat the body before joining it with the chassis. Hence I don't have the pics I 'promised' in the last update!

I hope to get some paint on over the weekend.

Keef

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