Airfix 1:12th scale Blower Bentley

[IanB]

Thanks, Des and Warren. i must admit, for something so far out of my comfort zone it's a fun build - I'm enjoying all the detailing!

 I finally attached the engine, gearbox and fuel tank to the chassis today, so while that was drying, I decided to take a closer look at the supercharger and carbs. I added more nuts on the carb and supercharger exhaust mountings, and then added some details to the carbs in the form of the first parts of the throttle linkages, and the dust screens - this after spending most of the afternoon searching the web for good pictures of the SU HVG5 carbs - if anyone has a pic of a pair of these mounted with the linkages it would be greatly appreciated!





 I also put some nuts on the dynamo drive....



 Thanks for looking!

Ian

[Des]

Beautiful job on the supercharger and carbies Ian.

Des.

[WarrenD]

Ian, between this and your other builds, you are just a modeling machine sir!  Automobiles are outside of my comfort zone as well, but a machine like this Bentley is not far removed from our subject of choice on this forum, at least that's how I see it. It's just another aeroplane, but with no wings. 

Great work, it looks great!

Warren

[IanB]

A little more progress to post.... I started adding details to the carbs, but I'm not going to go further just yet as I've emailed a museum in the hope of getting pics of their car so I can do them properly. If they don't reply I'll just stick with whatever I make up, at least it will be better than nothing.





 I have also added the drivetrain and rear end, adding the shackles I'd made previously, and more resin nuts! I discovered that I've fitted the left rear spring slightly off - it's sloped very slightly inwards, so the differential is centred with reference to the chassis rails, not the springs.





 This job would have been a lot easier if I'd bought aluminium rod for the shackles instead of using the brass rod I had, and painting it.....lesson learned!

Finally, I've made a start on the clutch and brake pedals, and the mounting shaft. Airfix kindly provide the mounting points on the chassis rails, but once again, for no apparent reason, don't actually supply the shaft and pedals - they do provide little plastic blobs that bear no resemblance to the pedals - would it really have been too much effort to have done them properly?





 I was hoping to make the pedals in one piece but the curve at the top end proved too much. Still, it should make it easier to put it all together if I add the end later.

Thanks for looking in!

Ian

[IanB]

I now have the pedals finished, with the exception of the actual foot pads at the end, which I will add when the bulkhead is in place. I've also finished the brake compensator.
 There are still 4 more actuators to make for the handbrake and front brakes, but there's not much more I can do on the brake system until I get the shock absorbers built and fitted, so that will be the next major job (I'm trying to find a good and reasonably priced source for the decals for those). That and making a start on the engine detailing, when I finally receive the hose fittings I ordered in September! I've been told they'll be here soon, so that should be a job for this weekend.





Ian

[IanB]

 A little more done - throttle pedal and mounting, and the linkages for the front brakes.....





Thanks for looking in....

Ian

[IanB]

Another day spent correcting Airfix's worst efforts..... the front shocks are almost done.
  I trimmed the mountings, thinned (drastically!) the shock arms to leave just one of the 3 that should be there, then added the others from card. The upper should be 3 leaves and the lower, 2.

The front shocks are almost done, next up are the 4 rear ones.





They're far from perfect but I may just have to accept them as they are since improving them may not be possible without making them too weak.

Ian

[IanB]

Well, I've jumped in the deep end and ordered a Micro-Mark photo-etch kit. I decided that I really needed to do the shocks properly, and I've had plenty of previous builds where I wished for PE details so.....now there will be no excuse!

 I have no experience in anything like this, nor in the graphics programs needed to prepare the artwork, so it'll be a steep learning curve! I messed around this morning with my laptop's photo editor and prepared the decals needed for the friction dampers, and then spent a couple of hours this afternoon just trying to figure out how to get the basic shape of one shock arm! Once I'd found a way to do that the rest came fairly quickly. Here's what I have for an afternoon's work....



 I think I still need to add the connectors to hold all the parts together but I'll wait and read the instructions before I go any further!

 I may have opened a rather large can of worms......

Ian

[Des]

I've been keeping a daily watch on your build and all the little bits and pieces you have added are all looking extremely good.

I will be very interested in hearing what your thoughts are on the PE kit you purchased from Micro-Mark, I was only looking at it yesterday on their website.

Des.

[IanB]

Thanks Des,
 I'll be sure to keep you posted on how it goes!

Ian

[uncletony]

I've used the micromark PE system with some success, happy to offer any advice you might need. Practice a few times and you will get the hang of it. Heed the recommended borders for the various stages even though they might seem wasteful of material -- they are given for a reason, as you will eventually discover

The trickiest part by far is the actual etching stage -- it's hard to judge how much the acid is really eating (the photo resist blocks what you can see to a certain extent). Try to make the parts on your fret as similar as possible in terms of border area, sprues etc because getting it to etch evenly is kind of tricky and if you have some really large holes and some really small ones, the small details tend to get obliterated while you are trying to get the large areas to completely etch thru.

[IanB]

Thanks for the heads up Bo, I'll make sure I pay attention!

 Not much in the way of progress lately as I've been concentrating on the bulkhead details. That is done as far as is needed at the moment, which means the next milestone has been reached - the bulkhead has now been fitted to the chassis.





 I also spent much of this morning making the clamps for the intake plumbing from the blower....





 I'm pleased with how that's turned out, especially as it was one of those "I'll do it later" (ie. how the hell do I do that?) jobs,  now thankfully out of the way! I used thin plastic strip wrapped around the trunking, then carved 12 small pieces of 1mm square rod to represent each end of the screw clamp and glued those in place. 0 .4mm aluminium rod was added for the rods, and more resin nuts - I only added the 3 at the front of the clamps, and one under the tie rod.

 Starting to look like something now!

Thanks for looking in,

Ian

[Des]

Looking fantastic Ian, having the firewall fixed in place certainly was a big achievement but every little step is adding huge strides to the build, looking forward to seeing your next progress shot, I love that engine

Des.

[IanB]

Here's a little update...work now is fairly slow due to the detail, but each added piece makes a huge difference. I've added all the foot pedals and the brake linkage to the compensator shaft, and started on the engine wiring and plumbing....
 I had to remove the part on the compensator shaft that the brake rod attaches to as I made it too short and the rod fouled the chassis. A new part was made and the rod is now straight and clear of the chassis rails.





That's it for tonight, I have a 5am start tomorrow. See you all later!

Ian

[Des]

It is always great to see the electrics and the plumbing start to be added to the engine and firewall, these details really bring the model to life.

Des.