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DocRob

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Everything posted by DocRob

  1. DocRob
    The Halberstadt is a beauty, Dave. Given the circumstances it was build under, it´s nearly unbelievable how great it turned out. I wish you the very best for your recovery. Cheers Rob
  2. DocRob
    Next, I started with the wheels, an extra set made by Tamiya to substitute the not too shabby kit wheels. But what looks better than plastic, right, metal. The rims are turned and the spokes are pre lengthened and pre bent. I recommend to study the manual very thoroughly and check twice, as it is easy to make mistakes. There is a line engraved into the jig for alignment with the valve and I nearly interpreted a cast blemish for the marking. First you add the spokes to the ABS hub and roughly align them correctly. The manual calls for using whit glue to fix them temporarily, but I thought, I try masking fluid instead, Worked great and will be easy to remove. After the second of four sets are aligned in the opposite direction, it´s time to put the rim and the spoked hub into the jig. With a pair of tweezer and very light bending of the spokes, you insert them into the rims holes. Finally, you add the spoke nipples from the outside. I used an old, very sharp pair of tweezers for that, holding the nipples by their middle hole and inserted them. Sometimes, a little wiggling with the spoke was necessary to insert the nipple properly. Then the nipples were secured with CA and whoops, half a wheel is finished. Cheers Rob
  3. DocRob
    I need a brain update, Craig, I didn´t remember your build, but had posted in it . I will re-read it, specially for the wheels, which are next on my schedule. Cheers Rob
  4. DocRob
    Good to have you on the backseat, Craig, but wait, its a one seater. Good that you also built one, you know, when questions arise... . The Tamiya RC166 seems to be a very popular kit, I haven´t realized before, but there are a lot of builds around, but I really would like to see yours. I already found the key for the chain set, I ignore it and use the Falcon Models, I bought a little later. Building up of the chain was also the most miserable part of the MFH Crocker build, so if there is a way around, I take it. Like your experience, the main problem was to close the chain. In case of the MFH chain there is a great risk to break the chain somewhere during closing and there is no easy way to repair it. Cheers Rob
  5. DocRob
    The engine got a bad hair day with the tubing. I used the supplied vinyl tube, albeit it may be a bit on the thick side, but I want a relatively quick build and not hassle with preparing all the connectors with tiny brass rods. Not much of it will be visible, anyway. The frame was sprayed with Tamiya LP gloss black, which again was perfect with it´s shiny finish. The light brown "things" might be capacitors, if I´m not wrong, which will be connected with the spark plug wires. The footrests are made from turned aluminum and are supplied with the original kit, nice touch, Tamiya. Cheers Rob
  6. DocRob
    Thank you Ken, I tried to match the colors to the reference photos I have. I think, scale wise they look halfway correct. Cheers Rob
  7. DocRob
    Thank you shipman, and yes your mentioned MV Agusta would be very welcome, even if I´m not very deeply interested in motorbikes. Fascinating subjects nonetheless. I wish, I could lay my hand on a MFH Ducati 750, as I like twins a lot. Tamiya is still providing new motorcycle kits, so at least, there is hope, but I guess, the RC166 was somebodies pet project with Tamiya Cheers Rob
  8. DocRob
    I started with the engine and I have to say, this kit is absolutely fantastic, even by Tamiya´s standards. I built their big F4-U and the 1/48 P-38, which were excellent kits, but the Honda is even better. The engine is very complex, but so well engineered and the parts are fitting perfectly. The cooling ribs are a piece of art and are only possible to be casted in plastic, as there are several thin parts, which get stacked onto each other, genius. I used Extreme Metal colors for the engine, matte aluminum for the block, titanium for the oil pan and other parts and a mix from titanium and copper for the carburetors. The air funnels are turned aluminum and the clutch consists from PE clutch discs and a pre fabricated metal cage. I used a brown panel liner for accentuation and painted all the screwheads with silver. Cheers Rob
  9. DocRob
    Since a while, I desired to start the build of the famous Honda RC166 from Tamiya, driven by Mike Hailwood, who won the world championship in 1966 and 1967 with this bike. What a change after the big Cobra of the same scale, I finished recently. Instead of the big block, there is a tiny engine build in, but it´s very special. It has a displacement of only 250 ccm but has six cylinders, generating about 60 PS with a max of 18.000 revolutions. The max. speed was 245 km/h. The Tamiya kit dates back to 2009 and I will add all the available extra sets from Tamiya, which I got for relatively small coin directly in Japan. There is a set of metal parts for the front fork, clutch and air intake funnels, another for the metal spoked wheels, one for the numerous metal rivets and one for building up a PE chain. The latter I won´t use, because I have a 3D printed chain set from Falcon. Cheers Rob
  10. DocRob
    Absolutely fantastic, Craig, what a beautiful Porsche with perfect finish. You could get a real speed ticket with this one. Cheers Rob
  11. DocRob
    Looking very good, Alan. I can only raise my hat to your patience with the track assembly. These links must be ultra tiny, but they look very realistic now. The abrasion on the hull and turret helped a lot, to improve. You could add a brown wash for more contrast. BTW, there is no actual Bernie Gunther novel, unfortunately. Kerr died some years ago and I read them all. After reading your post, I searched big A for a long lost novel, but found the complete series of 14 books for 3,99€ for Kindle. I read the first books in German and I want to read them again in English sometime later and bit. Cheers Rob
  12. DocRob
    Nice progress on that tiny bugger, Alan. I hear you on the difficulties with the DSPIAE circle cutter. Mine works with different materials, masking sheet, 0,5 mm styrene, ..., but it always needs a lot of trying to get the results right. The downforce of the cutting needle is the decisive matter and not so easy to adjust right. It also helps, to have the cutting needle aligned correctly, if it has to turn, before cutting, it easily tears masking sheet. Maybe a bit late, but the white winter camo was applied on the field, often not perfectly and irregular. The hairspray method would have been another approach. Base color first, then two thin layers of hairspray, on with the white after drying and then dampening the surface and use different tools for abrasion. The result looks less regular, like with the real thing. Cheers Rob
  13. DocRob
    Muchas gracias Ken and Dan and fimapa. The MFH kits do look very close to the real thing with all their enclosed detail. Pricey models, but worth it to my eye without the need of any aftermarket items. I actually had so much fun with the build, besides the woes at the end, that I already ordered another MFH kit, adding to my stash. It took almost six month to finish the Cobra, but I hope the next project will be a bit quicker and easier. Cheers Rob
  14. DocRob
    An absolute beauty, Craig. First you convinced me on the yellow and now, I even like the car, you are a magician . The interior looks fantastic, absolutely leathery with the stitching and choice of leather color. I can only envy your perfect closing doors, as I couldn´t do it with the Cobra Coupe, even with added magnets and many hours of adjusting. Cheers Rob
  15. DocRob
    Thank you Chris, it´s "near finished" though, but never mind . Cheers Rob
  16. DocRob
    Muchas gracias, Jack, Alan and Walter. The Cobra tested my patience and not everything went to plan, but about 90% were pure joy. The dreadful 10% accumulated towards the end and spoilt the experience a bit. All this is my fault, as I should have chosen a simpler MFH kit. The Cobra had it all, doors, hood, front lights under plexy, lots of vac parts, riveted on, ... , only missing wire spoked wheels. Lessons learned, my next MFH build will probably be a F1 car and definitely not my Ferrari 250 TRI from ´61. Cheers Rob
  17. DocRob
    Thank yo Craig, I´ve seen the MS670, but had hoped for something else from France. If I would like to go that way, I would purchase the MS11 with the highly visible identical 12 cylinder engine, but somehow I don´t like the Matra blue. It looks toyish to me. I´m still contemplating about the Brabham BT45, a very radical design with the flat 12 Alfa engine. Cheers Rob
  18. DocRob
    I saw it coming, Craig. Since they showed the French flag some days ago, I hoped for a Citroen DS or SM, maybe in rally outfit, but as they had the engine ready for the Matra MS11, I was somehow sure, it would be something like the MS670. I´m not biting but still have other temptations in the MFH lineup. Cheers Rob
  19. DocRob
    Thank you Yves, in the end, I´m mildly satisfied with the outcome of the build. There are a lot of areas, which leave something to be desired. The bonnet doesn´t open as planned, the doors doesn´t fit perfectly and I will try to tweak a bit there, but I´m happy that I got through the sometimes frustrating finish and have an eyecatcher of a beautiful car, when you don´t look to close. I should have chosen another car as my first MFH build. I learned a lot though and new skills will remain, when remembering the sad parts of the build will be long gone. Cheers Rob
  20. DocRob
    The Cobra Coupe is almost done, what a relief. Last steps were adding the exhaust sidepipes, adding the wheels, mounting the wiper and also doing a lot of touch up work. The exhausts were fiddly to attach, but again, clever design by MFH helped a lot and with a little wiggling they snapped in place, without breaking the manifolds loose, which would have been very bad. The wheels were a joy to assemble and easy to attach with their turned and threaded aluminum axles and fitting nuts. The nuts also received the three winged securing nuts and a tiny PE logo in the middle. The wiper was a multi part affair, made from cast white metal and several bended PE parts. There are only a few parts missing now, which I hope to find during cleaning the bench. Last and most dreaded was the assembly of the hood. I cut the hinges and was only able to close the hood perfectly with a tiny bit of force. I added two tiny aluminum rivets with 0,5 mm diameter to secure the hood in it´s appropriate place, phew, done . Some outdoor pics will follow later, when the sun is shining and all the touch ups are done. Cheers Rob
  21. DocRob
    Great finish, Craig, I don´t know how to describe it better, but the yellow seems to have some depth. Cheers Rob
  22. DocRob
    Thank you Craig and Walter. Looking at all the details in reflection is a pure joy and let forget the fails a bit more easily. It´s also great to have the finish line in vicinity. Cheers Rob
  23. DocRob
    I continued with the glazing, starting with the windscreen. This is again a clear vacuum formed part, which needed to be cut to fit. There is a tiny sill, where the screen sits recessed into. After fitting it properly, I used transparent adhesive double sided tape of 1 mm width again (best stuff ever for these cases) and with a deep breath pushed the windscreen in. There are two possibilities supplied with the kit for the sealings, one made by rubber (upper) and another, which the manual calls UV print. Never heard of, but luckily found a descriptive video build from Pooh´s on YT, which described it as a kind of decal and this seems to be the case, maybe like the Quinta sets. After removing the protective foil, it looked like this, not very appealing. ...but it worked very well. I dampened the backing paper and after a minute, it came loose from the sheet and was easily applied onto the windscreen. Thanks again to Pooh, because nothing about the how to with this part was mentioned in the manual. I was on a roll and added the bubbly plexy side ducts behind the door´s windows, again with double sided tape and in this case with some rivets. Most of the glazing is done now, except for the vizor screens on the side of the windscreen. Cheers Rob
  24. DocRob
    Thank you Ken, the benefit of the vacuum formed clear parts is, they are absolutely clear, thin and distortion free. The downside, you have to cut and sand them to fit and they scratch very easily. Cheers Rob
  25. DocRob
    Thank you Craig and Alan. It was tedious, but worth it. What I feared most was that one or more rivets would not align, which would have looked ridiculous. The riveting is like the cherry on the cake and looks so old school with modern gluing techniques making these beautiful details obsolete. Cheers Rob

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