Glitter Banana

 

Beyond the Fringe

 

Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 11, Left Door Complete

Uneventful assembly of the door components, including the window and frame, interior panel, hinge, latch and the door itself.

The door is metal and quite heavy. It'll have a very solid feel on the final model.

The window on this model is fixed, half down. That's fine, it looks pretty good.

See all the posts for this project here.

Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 10, Interior Door Panels

Particularly at 1:8 scale, the black plastic interior door panels are pretty disappointing in details. That crude area that's supposed to be a pocket is especially unconvincing.

I had already committed to a grey leather interior so this would have to be covered anyway. The area along the top of the door is, as far as I can tell, painted gloss on the real car, matching that area above and around the main instruments on the dash. The area below the pocket is likewise a black material, probably painted but possible rubber or plastic. The rest needs to be the interior grey leather, including the armrest.

The line along the door this image highlights is a piping bead. Some cars have two tones of leather above and below this detail. I'll add the piping, matching the seat I already did. 

Note how huge the molded bulge is. What's the deal with that? 

Anyway, I trimmed a piece of tape to this shape so I can find it later on both doors.

I put the tape an a piece of card stock and cut that out. That gives me the path of that piping.

Next I masked off the areas I plan to leave without grey leather.

Now for the scary part. There's no going back from this.

By grinding and sanding, I got rid of all the raised features leaving the door panel mainly flat. Where the pocket is that leaves a hole, which will be convenient later. I'll use that mystery groove the part includes as the guide for the piping.

On with the leather, a little at a time, stretching it tight.

Here's the end result. I was meaning the go right up to that chrome trim piece but my knife found a groove a little above it. Obviously I couldn't see under the material when doing to trimming. I think I can work with this though.

The armrest is yet to be covered. It's just loose fit in place here. And the leather color is different in different light, later in the day.

I made another paper template for the pocket so that it will be the same on both sides. I want to fold over the edges of the leather. That will be difficult, but hopefully a good look. 

Here's the finished left door panel in a very unforgiving close up photo. I think it will look pretty good in the car though. And the pocket is real so there's a good place for Bond to stash his fake passports, microfilm and pistol or whatever.

I've never done anything like this before, the leather work that is. It's not as difficult as one might think, at least to get a somewhat flawed but pretty good at a glance result. It feels like the sort of thing one could get good at and really make a difference in the finished product. I'm certainly glad I did it.

See all the posts for this project here.

Thanksgiving Crow

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 9, The Hidden Tracking Device

The radio in this kit is a remarkably undetailed piece of over-chromed plastic. I tried some of the usual methods of removing the chrome so I could at least paint some of it, but this chrome is apparently pretty tough stuff.

I finally decided to just remove the chrome from the display of the radio, where stations are tuned, using the tip of a fresh hobby knife. 

Then I painted it black. It's not much of a detail, but it looks a little better.

I also blacked in the slots for the heater controls and gloss painted the cover of the tracking device display. It's not tremendous detail, but the variations in color help.

Here's the completed component with the cover open. 

The display screen is a single part as provided with an LED inside. It could use some additional defusing from the examples I have seen online of this part lit up, but I decided not to take it apart.

One thing about the very heavily pigmented plastic these parts are made of is that you don't have to worry about light leaks.

See all the posts for this project here.

Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 8, Steering Wheel and Dashboard Continued

I didn't spend a lot of time on this today, but did work on just a couple of things and I want to post more here on this blog, so I'll try to keep updates coming. 

Progress on the dashboard, instruments in place... This still needs some details painted. The wiring is for the ignition and, I think, the headlights switch?

Here's my improved steering wheel. There's a very slight wood effect, and it's all gloss now, more like the real DB5.

So far this kit goes together well but the instructions are awful, almost a Pocher classic level of bad.

See all the posts for this project here.

Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 7, Wheels, Steering Column and Dashboard

Here's the completed Steering wheel and steering column assembly. There's not much to note about this other than the steering wheel is supposed to be wood. It's shown here as provided in the kit, pre-painted. I will probably do something to get a better finished wood look. The flat brown paint isn't cutting it. 

Front wheels, tires and brake assemblies are done. These are surprisingly heavy with stout rubber tires and metal wheel rims (the spokes are plastic).

I repainted the disc brakes to get a circular pattern. They were plain silver painted flat surfaces before. I'm not sure mine look a whole lot better. I am still trying to get this technique right. I also painted the calliper. The rest of the brake part is black metal.

The dashboard as instrument panel was provided as solid black plastic. After a good deal of searching and studying photos of the real car, I concluded that the dash has painted gloss black parts, painted flat black parts, and black leather parts. In fact the whole interior consists of those surfaces, plus grey leather and carpet.

Anyway, a time consuming, multi-step masking process was called for. 

The provided (black plastic) instrument panel has silver bezels and a clear "glass" already cemented to the back. Rather than take it apart, I masked the dials with old rodico. 

I used Nato black, which is slightly greenish. This color matches the slightly oxidized shade I see in photos of the interior's flat black surfaces. 

I just painted over the pre-painted silver knobs and such, and repainted them silver afterwards.

For black leather, I left the semi-gloss, slightly textured black plastic. The high density color in this type of plastic looks pretty good as-is. 

The surround over the driver's instruments is gloss black in the real car. I just sprayed a clear gloss on the plastic. The inside faces of the dashboard are the Nato black from Tamiya. 

The masking was a pain, but I'm happy with the result. There are a few other materials, it appears, used on the controls themselves, so I'll be touching in a few more details with paint.

See all the posts for this project here.

Tired

One wheel and tire ready to go, three more to assemble.

See all the posts for this project here.
 

Out at the Bye & Bye

 

One Laserdisc, One LP

Mel Brooks' The Producers!

 

GT40 Update

The front part of the body is all but complete, and is attached. The fit is really good, and it easily lifts completely off (just like the real car) to view the details underneath.

 See all the posts on this project here.

Bellwether

Another vaccinated only bar seating option, at the Bellwether! I am so happy seeing this idea spread.

Mull

Now that my stereo is up and running again, I can resume working through old LPs.

I haven't heard this in awhile... I always thought Martin Mull was wildly underrated as a musician.  

Masked

 Just not what it used to be...

Bleriot Control Line Pulleys

This is the underside of the floor boards. The stick operated by the pilot on the other side will have control lines passing down through holes at the pilot's feet and through these four pulleys to the control surfaces.

I'm still trying to get the finish right, worn oak, it's a work in progress. This is the first pass.

And the second... Close to right?

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Ed!

 

New Toys!

New toy day! Made up a new big toy with pine pieces for Harlan the grey parrot, and a small one with balsa for Ed and Olive the cockatiels.

More Slow Progress

Made a fuel line this afternoon... There are an awful lot of these on the GT40.

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Slow Progress...

 

Making pulleys for the control lines on the 1:10 scale Bleriot XI...

Not much was given in the instruction on how to make these, as is typical of ship models (Amati typically makes wooden ship models). They basically provide some raw materials and say "make these". For the pulley axles it called for using some brass nails that come in the kit. I couldn't see a good way to do this so I made some axles out of a metal paperclip.

Too soon to tell, but it looks like I will be able to make all the controls work on this model.

Find all the posts for this project here.

Keys Lounge

Another in our tour of local vaccinated only seating!

Another Beer for Our Times