1955 Aston Martin DB3S: Engine and chassis (I)

Progress is being made, marred by a missing cam cover and the oil filter pinging off into hyperspace somewhere after I had carefully painted the canister green and the mounting housing aluminum. Nonetheless I am persevering. 

The missing cam cover is not a surprise with these cottage-industry kits; and getting a new part for kit number K-340 (the most recent one is K-832) is highly unlikely, no matter how friendly the Japanese owners are. So the current rough mock-up made of 4 mm x 2 mm rectangular styrene rod will have to do. I've sent a note and if a real one ever turns up, I'll be able to pry it off and replace it. 

As for the oil filter, it will be all but invisible once the body is on, so no great loss, except to my self esteem. Can you spot its location now? No, I didn't think so.

Missing steps include the distributors (this was another twin-plug head, with a pair of 6-cylinder distributors) and a few other items before it will be time to tackle the interior and body. 

I will also have to convince someone with an airbrush to apply the correct paint. There is a model car show near here next Saturday, and I'll be bringing the bits to illustrate the issue. 

Stay tuned!

1955 Aston Martin DB3S: Introduction

Another one from the vault. The DB3S was run at Le Mans in the mid-50's, and this version finished 2nd in 1955 driven by Peter Collins and Paul Frère. This was, of course, the year of the major crash that killed many spectators and that led to Mercedes-Benz withdrawing from road racing for several decades; a D-Type with a larger motor took the win.

 

 

The kit is typical of older MFH kits in needing a lot of cleanup, drilling, test-fitting, etc., but should work out well as the chassis is a simple ladder without all the little bitsy tubes of the later tube-framed Porsches. 

 

The fellow who sold me the kit threw in the correct bottle of Zero Paints for it, but as I don't have an airbrush, I'll have to find someone to spray it for me, or find an auto parts store willing to put it in a can. This will be important as there is no Tamiya can that is reasonably close, as far as I can tell. 

<Pedant alert on> 

At first I am impressed that the kit includes a crankshaft with a full set of connecting rods and pistons; but on closer examination they have cylinders 1 and 6 at Top Dead Centre (TDC) together, then 2 and 4, and finally 3 and 5. This gives a firing order something like 1-4-5-6-2-3, depending on which of 2 and 4 fires first, and which of 3 and 5 fires first. 

 

Now I have not worked on Aston Martin sixes, but I have worked, as a professional mechanic, on sixes from Jaguar, Austin-Healey, Mercedes-Benz and many others; and for reasons of balance, all of them have had the companion pistons being 1 and 6, 2 and 5 (not 2 and 4), and 3 and 4 (not 3 and 5). This leads to the universal firing order for a six of 1-5-3-6-2-4. In the unlikely event that the engine runs counter-clockwise, which I personally have never witnessed in a six, the firing order would be reversed as in 1-4-2-6-3-5. 

<Pedant alert off>

Nonetheless I will enjoy building this rare and otherwise historically accurate kit. Stay tuned!

Stirling engine: Introduction

And now for something completely different! The Stirling engine, invented in 1816 by Robert Stirling, converts thermal energy of a fuel to mechanical energy of a flywheel. In this sense the Stirling cycle is similar to the Rankine, Otto and Diesel cycles (steam, gasoline and diesel engines respectively). Like the Rankine cycle, it involves external combustion, meaning the fuel is burned outside the cylinders that convert the expanding gas to mechanical motion; but unlike the Rankine cycle, no high-pressure steam is generated. Rather the process is a closed-cycle loop involving a gas (air, in the case of early Stirling engines) which is in turn heated and cooled, pushing and pulling on a pair of pistons as the temperature is varied. 

This kit, produced by Böhm of Germany and sold by Lee Valley Tools, comes with all components machined and ready for assembly; it also includes a fuel reservoir and wick designed to take ethyl alcohol. (I may substitute propyl alcohol as it is available at 99% locally, versus only 70% for ethyl alcohol.) 

As the air used as a working fluid is at atmospheric pressure, there are no safety issues around potential explosions as there might be with a steam engine operating at high pressure; the only safety issues will be hot surfaces and an open flame. 

Stay tuned! This could be interesting.

1977 Opel Kadett GT/E 1900: Complete (#5 for 2023)

Got the Opel complete, in spite of a few last minute screw-ups that would be obvious if I had kept the photos showing them. 

It seems this was quite the little rally car in the slower classes, as race records show lots of them at any given event. 

This one was driven to 6th overall, first in class at the San Remo rally by Federico Ormezzano and Renato Meiohas. The great Walter Röhrl DNFed in a similar car.

The GM influence is clear; the roofline could have come from a downsized '72 Chevelle.

Also shown here is my one other kit by Arena Modelli, this one including engine detail. Both kits are decent, but note that the company mainly makes 1/43 kits.  

What's next? Hard to say! Stay tuned.

1977 Opel Kadett GT/E 1900: A riveting story

The resin body on the Opel had very fine holes along the fender lips where they attach to the body, presumably as guide holes for putting in rivets (not supplied). 

So I dug around in the rivet drawer of my spare parts stash and chose these items from KMP, 1.0 mm diameter head and roughly 0.55 mm (0.02165") shank. A bit large, perhaps, as 1.0 mm = 1" at full scale, but they will do here, I think.

This set of rivets is particularly nice as there are 800 of them in a 3D printed block, unlike some of the Top Studio sets where you get, like, 30 in a little baggie. And with 20+ per fender lip, this was going to get expensive.

Next I drilled out the holes in the body, which were smaller than my #80 drill bit, using the #74 drill at 0.02250". 

 

Then I pushed the rivets in one by one, and followed up with primer to hold them all in. 

The body is excellent for a resin body, but still a little bit of putty and sanding is needed. Then it will be on to the colour coats. First up will be the roof and upper body in Tamiya TS-16 Yellow. Stay tuned!

1977 Opel Kadett GT/E 1900: Intro

This 1/24 resin kit by Arena Modelli covers two versions of the rally car as run in the San Remo and Elba rallys. The decals provided cover the 6th place finisher in San Remo (car #20) and the 4th place finisher (car #6) at Elba. Sadly the decals don't include Car #3 at Elba, driven to a DNF by the great Walter Röhl.

I've built one other of their 1/24 kits (most are 1/43), the Fiat Abarth 1000 TCR that ran in various hillclimbs in the early '70s. The kits are basic but well detailed and go together well. The kits are basic but well detailed and go together well. Instructions tend to be a couple of photocopied sheets of photos with some comments in Italian, so a bit skimpy. Glass consists of a sheet of 0.003" clear styrene, which is OK given how flat the windshield and rear window are, and the added presence of stiff photoetched window surrounds. A bonus, as I am looking for a break from complexity, is the lack of engine detail.  

Stay tuned! 

1965 Cobra Daytona Coupe: Complete (#4 for 2023)

Good from far but far from good... this one fought me the whole way. Getting to a decent Model Factory Hiro build requires focus and skill, but more importantly you have to be in The Zone. I won't list the screwups as most are minor, and it does look pretty good if you discard the bad photos.

 

 

 

 

Not sure what's next. The same period that saw the Cobra roadster and Daytona Coupe also saw the Cheetah, Ferrari GTO and Corvette Grand Sport. I've built the Cheetah; I've got the GTO and GS on the shelf. Both will be challenging kits as the GS is from Accurate Miniatures, and I have Harold Bradford's detail kits for the Fujimi GTO kit. All classic shapes! 

 

Stay tuned.

1965 Cobra Daytona Coupe, Part III

Decals complete, except the California license plate which is too wide. This is the car driven to first place in the GT 3.0+ class (7th overall) at Nurburgring by Bob Bondurant and Jochen Neerpasch. Now to let the decals set and dry before a coat of clear to lock it all in.There will also be a couple of little touchups where decals cracked or didn't quite settle in, in spite of loads of Micro Sol.

The TS-19 is obviously a much better choice for this than the TS-53.

 

 

Stay tuned!