Eaglemoss 1:8 Scale Aston Martin DB5, Part 18, Bullet Shield

Bond's DB5 had a bullet proof shield in the back that extended to cover the rear window. After assembling the trunk lid, the mechanism for the shield is the next step. This is the first area of this project where I had any significant problems.

First, the mechanism itself is tricky. The idea is that there is a catch for the screen. It is spring loaded and pops up when you slightly push it down. It latches again when you push the extended screen back into the car body (actually the trunk lid on the model, as an aside I think it was in the cat body above the truck lid on the real car, but that's neither here nor there).

There were a couple of issues. One was that the latch did not fully engage with the guides on the shield so it would not release/catch correctly. The screen could slip past it and not catch, or just pop out on its own. Secondly, I felt like the top of the shield, when down, as a little low, below the contour of the car body. I fixed both issues, more or less, by making a new latch, shown in the first image. The upper part is from the kit, the lower one is my replacement. I used a stronger, thicker, steel material and made it longer by about a mm so the shield sits higher. The shorter bent down part I also made longer so it fully engages the guides on the shield. The longer downward bend is where the part mounts. I made that longer too so it will be more secure. This improved the latch significantly.

The second issue was that the shield assembly did not fit the trunk lid. Shown here is the underside of the lid (boot if you like). The two posts are where the hinge will mount (that worked fine), but there are two other posts that hold the shield assembly cover by the shield assembly (in black). The holes for the screws are visible here.

The problem is that the trunk lid posts on mine are significantly closer together than the holes in the shield assembly that they are supposed to go into.

I ended up shaving the sides of the holes in the plastic at a bevel so that the posts could be forced in and squeezed down to line up the screw holes. The trunk and the plastic both flexed some, but I got it in place. Fortunately the plastic they use for these things is very strong.

It works, not well, but it works. It's clunky and gets wedged sometimes, but it's workable.

By the way, yes that license plates also rotate, as on the actual 007 car.

See all the posts for this project here.

Assembly of the trunk lid and the pop-up bullet proof screen in the rear bring me to the end of the parts I currently have on hand. More on the way...