Thanks Steve and Dave, here's a little more to whet the appetite!
Right then, what have we been up to lately?
Let's start with finishing what I started earlier - brakes and attachments.
As mentioned, having narrowed the chassis at the front, I needed to design and print a new front crossmember. That took quite a few attempts as I tried to get something that both left enough space between chassis rail and crossmember for the friction dampers, and also put the wheels in the right position with the track correct. I played about with printing, adjusting, printing, adjusting, and so on until finally I had something I was happy with.
With the tweaked and reprinted brake drums fitted I'm satisfied that I have it about as good as I'll get it.
and the track matches the rear too!
That's that job done then!
The seats have also gone through quite a few reincarnations as I try to get something approaching accurate.
Here's the progression so far from left to right, kit item in the left.
It's close. I'm happy with the curve across the back, but I still think the seat back needs to be flatter at the edges. I'll come back to that later.
Wheels. I left you with a teaser of one half spoked wheel. I now have one fully spoked wheel. What a pain the front row was! Due to that, I adjusted the length of the pin at the front of the hub to make it easier to get the line around it and not keep slipping off. I've reprinted the hubs with this adjustment for the rest of the wheels.
Once the wires were all set, I ran some thin CA on to the top off the hub. Once set I gently filed the top down flat. The knock-offs will (I hope) hide the mess.
Just a reminder of why it took so long...
I'm very pleased with that. Only 4 more to do!
So on to more palaver with the bodywork.
A dry fit of the front with the wheel fitted didn't look right. The wheel was too close to the edge of the bodywork. But the track was correct!
This is where it should be
I didn't have enough hands to photograph it, but the centre of the tyre was further out by the lowest part of the wing.
Or was it?
Thanks, Matchbox! The outer edges of the wings should be parallel all the way to the final curve on the front. They aren't and angle inwards for the last 15mm or so.
Right then, old style adjustments were called for. Out with the sprue goo and plaster it on!
The top surface of the wings should also not curve down at the edges. Guess what, the left side does!
More sprue goo to raise the edge, a touch more at the front left to lower the bottom of the rounded part, and a copy of the plans cut out and glued to a piece of card to use as a template. Might as well get it all done!
You can see the slightly different shape either side, as I gently sanded the tops of the wings with a sanding stick laid flat across both. the areas of exposed plastic are clearly not equal.
Anyway, it should all look much better once done, which is the whole purpose!
Time for a beer and the footy I think!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Ian
