Agora Models Shelby Cobra in 1/8th Scale, Part 3

 

The car has a tube frame which is assembled from several metal parts using screws. Building this we finally start to get an idea of just how big this model will be.

The suspension is all functional of course. I has to be, this thing weighs a ton.

Completing the other wheels... 

The tires are a snug fit. A short time in boiling water makes them go on the wheels easily.

As I did throughout, much of the parts have been repainted and detailed. Even though they do look good as they came, a small effort pays off.

With this work done, the car stands on its own four wheels.

Find all of this project's posts here.

Ed

 

Agora Models Shelby Cobra in 1/8th Scale, Part 2

The engine for the Cobra is mostly metal, at least the main parts. I didn't fully repaint those. I also didn't add any parts, but I did paint many, many small details such as nuts and bolts, various black parts and some light weathering.

Everything went together smoothly.

I felt the black tubing that the kit came with for ignition wires was too large. The wire I used just might be too small on reflection, but that's the way it goes.

Image this if it was all a single shape of black and a single shade of silver...

It looks good, but typical of large scale kits there is also a lot of detail missing for no good reason. Most conspicuously missing, to me, for example, are the fuel lines. I could not find a real clean guide or I would have added lines myself. I am also not really a "car guy" otherwise I could have taken some educated guesses. At this scale, it's pretty easy. There's quite a lot of linkage missing too. It's good, but I have seen more detail on 1:12 scale kits.

Next up is the chassis and some suspension components.

Part 3

Find all of this project's posts here.

Enjoying the Outdoors

 

Agora Models Shelby Cobra in 1/8th Scale, Part 1

My next big project is the 1:8 scale Shelby Cobra from Agora Models. This large scale kit is sold as a subscription. Each month, or so, a pack of part arrives and the model is built up overtime. This kit comes in 12 shipments, however I took the offered option of receiving the fist 6 packs all at once, then the next packs over the coarse of 6 months.

I like this subscription model in that it really forces one to slow down and consider extra detailing as it goes. It also allows breaks for other projects. Getting the first 6 issues all at once though was ideal in that I could also get a good start all at once with out waiting, while still working in order.

A bit about large scale car models...

I have not done many kits like this (see my Pocher posts), but there seems to be a cultural style to them. Firstly, it's held together with screws for the most part, no a lot of glue. Parts come pre-painted, or otherwise colored also. The idea is that it can be simply assembled without the requirement of a lot of tools, materials and skills. Someone have likened these "part-work" subscription kits to a next step beyond Lego in terms of difficulty. With this Agora model there is some truth to this. One could simple follow the instruction and assemble the parts as they arrive and get a nice looking result - no tools required (part one even comes with a screwdriver).

However, at 1/8th scale, there is really no detail that can not be reproduced. These kits just scream for extra work. And even a small amount of experience creating miniatures, the tools and paints, will dramatically improve the resulting model. Without going completely nuts, I plan to make quite a few improvements...

The first assembly up shows come characteristics of typical large scale car kits. The parts like great! However, throughout this entire kit all the pre-colored parts are silver (metal), chrome, or black. There are a few details in other colors but not many. 

The silver is a high quality paint on black plastic or metal. The black pieces are black plastic with a high pigment saturation, or black painted metal.

The problem is that all the "metal" parts, literally all of them, are exactly the same color, as are all the black parts. Even a little paint will yield a vastly more realistic look. I will be repainting almost everything, except a few large silver parts since the silver finish is better than I could do. On some black parts I did not use paint but just used a gloss or matte clear coat. Especially at this scale, anything that increases variation in the tone in colors will greatly improve the look.

In addition, although all the parts are supposed to be ready to use as there are, plastic parts do show molding artifacts such as injection points and seam lines. These are minimal. Just the same, I cleaned them all up prior to painting. 

Now beginning with the break assemblies...

This was my first attempt at a worn disc break. It's dark rather than silvery because in every Cobra photo I found the original breaks were a bronze tone. My simulation could be better, but these will only barely be visible.

The black parts here are actually painted black metal, "out of the box". I left the metal parts as they came. The red I painted. Note the real screw that holds the assembly together. I later painted it red.

For the most part the model's design does a good job of hiding screw heads.

I used the tiniest amount of a black wash to highlight the contours of the wheels, but the tire is as it came. 

Not bad?

Next up is the engine, stay tuned. 

Part 2

Find all of this project's posts here.

Ed

 

That's the Spot

 

Light

 

AMT Supernatural 1/25th Scale '67 Chevy Impala

Here we have the special Supernatural edition of the 4 door 1967 Chevy Impala, AKA "Baby".

It's a 1/25th scale kit, from AMT. 

First up, tires and custom wheels, as seen on TV. The chrome has been dulled, and details highlighted. Also the tire tread is scuffed slightly. I'm going for a slightly used look, not new, but not actually weathered.

Gloss paint, slightly dulled, with details painted yields fairly good looking upholstery. 

V-8 on a stick...

I had trouble with the dashboard. I wanted more detail than was really there and trying to paint it led to a mixed result. 

Once assembled, it's very hard to see though.

I tried embossing power for a carpet. Never done that before... Again, a mixed result.

By the way, looking at the many, many photos out there of this car, from the show, it's clear the multiple cars used were not identical. There are a few differences. The odd mix of black seats and the tan dash and doors is consistent though.

The dash and interior look pretty good (at a glance). Again, it's all very hard to see in the finished model so I'm happy with it.

I didn't do any extra detail work on the engine.

I really liked the way the underside came out. I used several colors in acrylic, and some water colors, in addition to pastels. 

The front and rear bumpers turned out well too. Again, the "toy" chrome has been dulled for a more realistic at scale look. 

I accidentally used the lens that were for the side spotlights as headlights. Oddly there were four of them. So I used the headlight lens in the side spotlights. No one will ever know...

The body was not a perfect fit. I ended up filing away some of the outsides of the interior. I've certainly seen worse though.

One last look at the engine... The hood did not fit over the air filter. It was close, but not good enough. So I glued the hood down.

It would have been nice if the kit had a hinged hood.

Done!

And ready to hunt!

For the body paint I used several coats of gloss black with the usual sanding in between down to 8000 grit or so. Finally I used a polish that left a "show room" finish. But I then sprayed it with a "gloss" clear coat I have that creates a fairly low lever of gloss. Using a regular car wax on that gave me exactly the sort of finish a well-driven older car has. It's not super shiny, but it is smooth and very consistent. It's a just the slightly oxidized look that I really like on this subject.

This was a pretty simple kit, but it yields a nice result without a lot of effort. My one complaint is that the truck does not open, and there's no parts for the well known contents of that trunk. Yes, it wouldn't be too hard to cut it and add hinges, but in my opinion the level of detail of the rest doesn't justify the effort - especially since I've never done that.

It's too bad because the kit does include a decal for the symbols on inside of the truck lid. It would have been been really nice to include in the kit the array of weapons that are supposed to be in there. Then again, this isn't a complex or expensive. It's just a "quick" project anyway.

See the whole album of photos for this project here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ihT221koJSTYwPcQA

Ed

 

Amati 1/10th Scale Bleriot XI, Part 4

The horizontal surface of the tail has outer sections that pivot, rather than flaps. These are two wooden parts on a brass rod.

Nothing like using paint to made wood look like... wood. 

The laser cut parts are not only somewhat scorched at the edges but are made of a plywood that is darker in the middle. I painted the whole thing with a spray tan color, then brushed over a liquid water color for a grain effect. It turned out pretty well.

This thing.

I really had to dig to find out what it is. I could not find a single photo that showed one of this plane with this large tank like thing in the fuselage. 

Someplace I finally found a similar plane from the same period, for flying over water, that also had one. It's just a large float, in case of a water crash.

This assembly, all wood, has two halve and two connical end pieces.

It got filled, sanded, filled, sanded, primered, sanded, filled, primered... I can't even tell how many layers of paint and filler went on before the final color. 

Find all the posts for this project here.

Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 1

This came in a really big box.

There are a handful of Ford GT40 models around. This one is a 1:12 scale version that is more commonly found under the Trumpeter brand. Meng also offers a 1:12 scale GT40, but that is a different, newer kit.

If you can find this one it is significantly cheaper than the Meng. This one I found is completely unbranded, made in China and unauthorized by Ford. It's simply called "US Sports Car". Neither the box nor the model say Ford anyplace on them.

First, a few observations about this kit. For one, it's big. The box is big, and there's a lot of plastic in there. number of parts must revile larger and more complex models. The quality of the molding is good too, from initial impressions. I don't see a lot of molding artifacts. The kit also comes with many types of parts that are not molded plastic such as metal rods and springs, hoses, rubber pieces, screws and more. I always like to see that. There's no reason for everything to be plastic.

One criticism is that there is way, way too many chromed trees. The chrome is good quality, but almost all of it will have to be stripped. It looks like they even included parts that shouldn't be silver on chromed sprues, just too fit them in someplace.

Lets get started...

See all the posts on this project here.

Polar Lights 1:350 Scale Star Trek Starship Enterprise, Part 1

Here we have what has to be the ultimate starship Enterprise: the Polar Lights 1/350th scale kit, all new, completely redesigned based on the latest restoration of the studio model at the Smithsonian Institution.

There are a few variations of this model available, for various incarnations of the Enterprise. The one I have is the 50th anniversary edition featuring, for example, the smooth sausar section (no grid lines).

Something I find interesting about this kit is that unlike previous kits, or indeed most kits of fictional craft, this model is not designed after how the Enterprise looked on TV. Rather it is designed as a highly accurate (warts and all) model of the 11 foot filming miniature used in production of the original series. It is as it were, not a model of a starship but a model of a model of a starship. This creates many interesting options and choices as the project goes along.

The scale of this model to the actual model is, I am not sure, something between 1/4th and 1/5th (?), yielding a model about 3 feet long. Yes, it's big.

I will be using extra photo etch and the Polar Lights lighting kit, probably mostly out of the box. 

The first order of business is to prep, prime and paint the saucer section. This thing is huge!

The plastic has to be cleaned up. Then primered. The inside paint will be a black primer followed by white. The insides need to take care of most of the light blocking.

The outside gets a cycles of primer and sanding after the plastic is all trimmed, cleaned up and lightly sanded. 

My kit has some flash in the windows. I'm using just right sizes of round and square watchmakers files to clean them up. These tools make it easy, and accurate.

I thought for a long time about how to do the windows. The first thing I tried was taping over the outside and filing the windows openings with a U/V resin. This didn't work. This thing is so big, and the parts so thick, that I could get the resin all the way down in the window hole from the back.

So I went ahead and put on of the clear pieces provided in the in place.

I wasn't happy with this because the clear plastic does not always come all the way through and fill the opening.

So, with the clear piece in place, I carefully filled the outside with a tiny, leveled off, bit of U/V resin and hardened it up.

After some sanding on the outside surface with 1500, and then 3000, the windows are completely flush and look good!

There are bubbles in the plastic in this piece, but it won't show once I defuse the "clear" some.

I'm pretty happy with this technique, but it does take some practice. The second set I did came out better, and then a more complex group that included rectangular windows came out not so great. I think it's the way to go though. The completely smooth surface this creates is a fantastic effect.

All the posts for this project here:

https://jsexton0.blogspot.com/search/label/1%3A350%20Enterprise