Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 13

There's a large number of mesh hoses to create. The kit comes with a section nylon woven tubing that is quite good when painted a steel color, and all the fittings. 

The fittings were chrome. I covered that directly with transparent blue and red metallic enamel and the result is pretty dead on.

So the hoses could be bent into realistic shapes I put a section of ordinary wire inside them.

Here's some of the lines painted and installed between the floor and the six fuel pumps, mounted on the firewall, three on each side. The line from the fuel filter to the corroborator is also connected now.

It's in progress, there's a lot more lines to make and run through this section.

See all the posts on this project here.

Amati 1/10th Scale Bleriot XI, Part 8

The aircraft's three spoked wheel took weeks of on and off work to complete. They were very difficult to get straight and true, and fact mine basically are not. Oddly the very first one I made turned out the best of the three.

This is one half of one wheel, one of the two larger front wheels. The task for each wheel was to make two of these halves and cement them together on a brass arbor.

Two halves test fitted look like this...

This is a completed front wheel with black primer and glass black, a gloss clear coat, and the rubber tire. Looks pretty good when you can't tell how crooked the axle is.

The smaller rear wheel really got messed up. I guess I somehow misused the jig? The thickness of the wheel, when the two halves went together, was way too narrow. I managed to recover though and complete the wheel without complete disaster.

These wheels are the last significantly difficult sub-assembly. Pretty soon it will be a matter of the whole thing coming together.

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Wondertwins

 

Finally

 

Flicker

 

Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 12

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At the front of the car is an oil chiller. It was of course also chrome. I striped it, filled seams, painted, weathered, and added a PE grill. But it's almost completely hidden by the complete front end assembly. Oh well. I know it;s there.

Dash and steering wheel assembly slide perfectly into the body. I didn't even glue it.

The kit came with this black plastic flexible hose that simply can not bend into the shape it needs to be with out collapsing and kinking up. It's way too flimsy. Rather than find of make something to replace it, I stuffed a packing peanut into the hoses. These peanuts are the water soluable type made from rice. They collapse into shape just right while still providing bulk filler for the hose to prevent it kinking. This trick work perfectly!

Notice that I had previously painted the hoses before I realized how much they had to bend. My paint job and weathering was ruined trying to fit the hoses and had to be redone.

By the way, these huge hoses are there to direction incoming air from the front of the car directly onto the front disc brakes. The brakes on the GT40, as depicted in the Ford vs Ferrari movie, had a tendency to heat up to the point of bursting into flames.

The middle body section now permanently fitted... This took a little stress, getting it all down were it's supposed to be. There was a collision with some PE in the wheel wells. I had to crudely cut off some bits that had already been fixed in place. I doesn't show however so it's fine.. The whole thing is held together with screws.

Notice the bump out in the top over the driver's side. I guess the driver of this car was tall. They simply cut a hole in the roof and added that bubble so his helmet didn't hit the top. Even with that, the car came in at 40 inches tall.

Looking good. But man there is a long way to go. There is really a lot to the model.

I am happy with the way the interior came out. That's good because of the way the doors on the GT40 open including half the roof, almost like a gull wing. The dash is more visible than it would be on most car models. 

See all the posts on this project here.

Fugget Aboutit

 

L, or Possibly 7

 

Free House

 

Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 12

There was some PE, but instead I added some real gold screws (pocketwatch balance screws) to the corners of the door panels.

The interior looks good with the dashboard. 

The steering wheel was a pain. It is very delicate and kept coming apart.

The oil tank was of course chrome, like so much of the kit.

I stripped the chrome and painted the tank.

I used a bit of putty to mask a brass part for the the fill cap.

PE straps hold the tank in place. These are also from the KA Models set.

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Harlan

 

Ed

 

Trumpeter Ford GT40 1/12 Scale, Part 11

Next up is the dashboard. The kit came with decals for the instruments, but I'm using these embossed metal dials. Honestly the decals would probably look fine...

After several failed attempts at getting a good look on the dials, I finally came up with this. This is a combination of a light black paint wash followed by a flow of india ink. India ink is interesting stuff in that it is 1) black. Like really, really black. 2) It is thin and flows well on the right surface. It did not flow on the bare metal, for example, but a thin coat of paint worked wonders. 3) The ink has a surface tension the cases it to easily stay off the raised details of the dials. 4) The ink is easily removed from anyplace I don't want it.

After the paint and ink, and touch up, a thin dusting of a matte clear sealed it up.

The red needle for the dial is a separate PE part on this set.

Here's four dials, and some toggle switches, in place. I used Micro Kristal Klear over the dials to create a glass effect.

           

The body parts get sanded, primed, sanded, primed, painted, sanded, painted, etc. Then clear coated, polished, decals applied, then clear coated a few more times.

It's at this point that I made a monumental error that there's no coming back from. But more about that later.

Yes, this is the black number two car, the official Le Mans winner, not the blue Ken Miles number one car. I figure everyone does the #1 car (the rightful winner).

See all the posts on this project here.