DocRob

Thank you Craig, I just sprayed the wheels in semi matte black, after test fitting them into the rims and drilling holes for the valves. I hope, I can get rid of the color on the protruding polished parts. One reason, why I chose this Cobra Coupe chassis (#9, 2286) were the black underlayed wheels. The other chassis had white painted wheels, which doesn´t look cool. The other reason, was less sponsor decals, which let show the shape of the Cobra better. Cheers Rob

Thank you Kevin, had to google VFM, but yup, that´s about it. These are the best car kits, I ever saw. The metal cast and resin quality is fantastic, the engineering is splendid and there is a lot of kit for your (many) bucks. In my opinion the kits are good value, if you get them for a good price and not a scalpers one. A Tamiya 1/12 Porsche 935 is about 120 to 150 Euros. A ScaleLab24 detail up set with turned rims and all the galore is about 350 Euros. Together that is almost the same, I paid for the Cobra, but the Porsche is a kit of the 80´s and has many flaws. Glad you mentioned the walnut steering wheel, because that was what I had in mind. I toyed with longer grained wood first, but thought, at this scale, I can give walnut a try with it´s more dotted appearance. The steering wheel is now finished and I will shoe pictures in the next update. Cheers Rob

The tank filler cap is really working, just open the tiny latch on the left and put in the juice - errr - not so fast, the tank isn´t installed right now . After priming some interior parts for later stages, I had an idea about how to deal with the wheels. They are made from cast white metal and were cleaned in the tumbler polisher at the beginning of the build. I thought, I have to give them a bit more shine, to keep the eyes trained on the wheels, letting some other mistakes skip more easily . Hand polishing proved difficult and I found, a conical head M4 screw holds the rims in place in my accumulator drilling machine´s chuck. Then I sanded the wheels with fine grit sanding sponges, followed by polishing with Autosol polishing paste on a cotton rag. Now, I like the result. Later the wheels will be airbrushed in black and then I polish off the higher parts again, which are now shiny. Of course, before airbrushing the rims will be cleaned properly. the polished left one on the pic has a lot of dirt accumulated. Cheers Rob

Poco a poco, I grind my way through the Cobra build. Today, I assembled the tank filler cap, a seemingly small task, but it involved about twenty parts and is functionally. I polished the cap itself with Autosol metal polish and added the numerous etched parts and rivets. Then I started with the steering wheel, which got primed, airbrushed in a mix of red brown color and sand. After drying, I applied several layers of dark brown and red brown oil colors, thinned with fast drying thinner for a realistic looking wood texture. Tomorrow, I will apply a clear coat as finish. Finally, I repaired the damages to the firewall and pinned the lower side to the door fairings with brass rods for enforcement, to close the gaps in this area. Cheers Rob

I use pin vises a lot for resin and white metal and sometimes wood. I have one from Tamiya since years, which is very good, has a rotating knob at the end and uses collets for the drill bits. Four diameters are supplied. The other, I use frequently is from DSPIAE, also equipped with a rotating knob at the end, but uses a chuck to hold the drill bits. That is very useful, when you have drill bits with varying shaft diameters in frequent use. Though the changing of bits is much faster, the quality of the chuck isn´t that good, but sufficient for most uses. For infrequent use, I recommend a collet pin vise, but I learned to love the one with the chuck during my MFH car and bike builds, where you have to drill hundreds of tiny holes with varying diameters permanently. Cheers Rob

Thank you Alan, I´m blushing with your praise, but you shouldn´t sell yourself short. When I see your figure painting skills, I can only marvel. You built that weird Yak kit into a beauty, if I remember it correct. MFH kits are special. Demanding due to the use of different materials and very complex, because of the level of detail and being closer to the real thing construction wise than others. But that doesn´t mean, they are not buildable by an experienced modeler. What you need is a very thorough and methodical approach and a lot of perseverance. The Cobra was possibly not the best choice for a first MFH car kit, but it is still mainly fun, except for the last days. So often, when I work on this kit, I have a smile on my face, when I see the ingenious design of parts or intelligent choice of materials, more than with most other kits. Cheers Rob

Good old Vaseline filtering, but I´m not David Hamilton . I like my macro lens for model pictures not only because of it´s capabilities of showing my failures in large, but also for it´s angle of view (90mm lens), which grants a distortion free image. In case of the Cobra, I use my Iphone mainly, where the body is involved, because my camera is not capable to render the blue metallic correct, equal which white balance or color parameterizing I use, it is wide off the mark. I hope the chassis will be married with the body soon, without loosing half of the kit parts during the process. Only thinking about the many intersecting parts makes me shiver. Cheers Rob

To do something productive and without destruction, I added details to the rear area. The rear lights were painted with Tamiya clear red, have a turned aluminum base and a small rubber ring around. Next was the feared addition of the firewall, which fitted after a lot of sanding and grinding and is held in place wit a screw. Of course, there are a lot of scratches to be repaired. I also knocked off some parts during the process, which will be added later. Then, I added the dashboard, which luckily was an easy task. Concerning CA fumes, if you are spotting into the foot wells, you notice chalky white residue. I never experience this kind of CA-fogging before and I always use the same glue and used the semi matte black often. Strangely the fogging reaches very far from the gluing area. Cheers Rob

What a beautiful Canary bird, Andy. Earnestly, I like how this unusual plane came out, definitely an eye catcher on the display shelf. Cheers Rob

Thank you for your supportive words, Kevin. I think, I will skip macro photos for this build from now on . Most from the frustration arises from the level of destruction, I conduct during this important phase of the build. It was challenging but rewarding to build up all the sub assemblies, but now it seems like I´m tumbling downhill with the build, adding scratches, paint lifts, CA fogging and not perfect fitting doors, etc. When starting a build, I have a picture of the finished model rendered in my head, with every detail sharp and clear. Reaching this image in the end is my main motivation in modeling and leads me through all oncoming challenges. Where I´m not good at, is a change of plans. If I´m not able to fulfill my projected result, I easily get annoyed and may bin the project, which luckily doesn´t happen often to me. Quality wise, I´m closing in onto the black hole with the Cobra, but I hope, I can somehow have a partly satisfying outcome. Cheers Rob

Thank you Walter, for now, I will hang in. My level of patience is generally very low, luckily my perseverance isn´t. Usually, I have to disagree with you about the succession of frustrations in modelling. To me, its mostly challenges, what defines a build and I like to challenge myself due to my projects and learn something new every day. The Cobra is a beast to build somehow. The main frustrating aspect is, preparing and finishing various sub assemblies over a long time and during the final assembly destroy them partly due to abrasion, CA spills, paint lifts, etc. The fact, the Cobra is made up like a real car doesn´t make things easier. The build is complex and tolerances are tight and even the slightest deviation sums up to disaster in the end. Cheers Rob

The picture may looks like pure happiness, but it isn´t. I feel overwhelmed by the Cobra right now. Test fitting results in damages and abrasion and when I glue the parts in place, they don´t fit like planned. To add to the miserable situation, I have lots of paint lifts and fogging on the paint from CA glue. I have two spots on the body, where I fingerprinted CA glue onto the body paint and lifted or distorted the finish. I´m more than a bit frustrated. This is the sequence of building where everything is supposed to fit but doesn´t. I have to grind resin away, to get a halfway decent fit for the doors. Most of the problems occur during fitting the inner body fairings. Nonetheless, the rear hatch and the doors with windows got installed. I´m now down to maybe 80% of my achieved look and my border of tolerance is nearing quickly. I hate to make corrections for flaws, but with the Cobra, it is necessary. Don´t get me wrong, the design of the kit is fantastic, I´m just not up to it. Cheers Rob

Thank you Egilman. You are right, I think. These Cobra Coupe´s were build up in haste and I guess, the whole bodywork wasn´t fitting perfectly and the finish was far from perfect. The windows were no exception for sure, and the real plexi is as vulnerable as my scaled down acetate parts and also scratch prone. But like so many times, I´m guilty of not being a rivet counter . I like to build my own reality with kits and with the Cobra, I´m looking for a fabric new finish. The side windows hopefully lay in a bit of shadow in the end . Cheers Rob

Thank you Craig and Alan. The only thig which got pushed, is myself out of my comfort zone and not the first time through the build . I really would have liked a simpler solution for the windows. Drilling the acetate produces burr, which needs to be removed. Don´t use PCB drill bits for this task, there will be even more burr. The classic HSS drill works best. Unfortunately, the windows have some scratches and the acetate strips are not very even, but I have to live with that. Sometime I wonder, why I was so scared, to pull through with the rigging job on my Duchess of Kingston build . Cheers Rob

A piece of art. Your Chebec looks fantastic and your log definitely shows, I´m not ready for this kind of kit, but I will follow yours with pleasure. Cheers Rob

This build is like a rollercoaster ride sometimes. After checking my building sequence again (very important), I decided, it´s time to add the doors, which means, I have to deal with the side windows, a task, I really feared and I was right to do so. This is, how it should be done. After drilling all the holes for the rivets with a 0,7 mm drill bit, you cut all the window panes and fairings for the sliding window from a luckily pre printed clear acetate sheet. This proved to be not so easy, it was hard, to have all the strips look equal. I tried first to use my DSPIAE profile cutter, where the blade bet slightly with the long cuts and rendered the parts unusable. I moved on to use a steel ruler and a new scalpel blade then. But how to glue everything together and align the parts perfectly, for fitting in the rivets. I decided to improvise a bit. I skipped the spacers (CS5) and used 1mm wide double sided clear adhesive tape instead. To reach the sufficient thickness, I had to apply two strips onto each other. These strips with the CS4 parts were then glued onto the window pane, trying to fit the pre drilled holes. With the second strip in place, I re-drilled the holes again, now with a 0,6 mm drill bit through the adhesive tape and then inserted the rivets. Luckily the residues of adhesive tape in the holes fixed the rivets. Unfortunately, cutting and assembling must be made on a relatively hard surface and that lead to scratches. The result looks horrible, but I think, I have to live with that, re doing the strips would result in more scratches on the window panes and I don´t have spare acetate. The only upside, the windows actually slide . Cheers Rob

You got me there Egilman, I made it all up with some AI and Photoshop. This Cobra is fake . Earnestly, the grain of the flakes in the metallic color gave me creeps beforehand, as most metallic colors look way out of scale on car kits. The fear was unfound, the Number Five color is exceptional. Ok, I will build up some ladders now, to climb onto my overscale terrace table and enjoy the unobstructed view Cheers Rob

Thank you Ken, today I applied Tamiya´s polishing wax as a last coat and the shine became even brighter, right along my smile. But now, I turn to doors and windows, another daunting act. Cheers Rob

Hehe, I just prepared to Widows Kisses, perfect cold weather cocktails tasting like licking on an old silk curtain, which basically means, I´m out of order concerning transatlantic car polishing jobs. I´m sorry, but I would spin around your orbital buffer and not the other way around, Yves . Cheers Rob

Thank you Alan, some work went into the body indeed. I hope, I can pull through now, without harming the shiny surfaces. Cheers Rob

I am really happy now. Since about two month, I´ve been working on the Cobra´s body and now, the shell is ready so far. I put in a lot of elbow grease to achieve the finish, but like I said, it paid off and now, I have a squeaking mirror shine finish, only faltering the bright sunlight outside, to let it really shine. After the first and most intense 4000 grit wet sanding round, I let follow the 6000 grit and the 8000 grit wet sanding job, followed by the three Tamiya polishing compounds coarse, fine and finish. For now, I left out the final waxing, because I have to permanently handle the body and will apply it last. And now out onto the terrace, shaking some cocktails for my wife and me, to loosen the arms Cheers (litertrally) Rob

Thank you Gary and yes, I do all the sanding by hand. The first round with 4000 grit was the longest naturally, taking about two hours, permanently checking, if there are still imperfections visible. It´s a thin line, getting an even surface and not sanding through on some corners, a task, I wouldn´t like to rely on with a machine. Polishing might be possible with my Proxxon micro drill, but the cotton bit easily catches on corners and there is a risk, dropping the body. Luckily the Cobra is a thoroughly curved lady, which makes sanding and polishing easier than with an 80`s brick style car. Cheers Rob

I´m not very experienced, when it comes to finishing car bodies and for a while, I debated with myself about leaving the clearcoat as it is. It looked very good and had a high sheen, but it was not perfect. Out with the sandpaper and polishing compounds. I started to wet sand the whole body with 4000 grit sandpaper, which made the surface nice and even, but also dull. Of course, I tested my approach first on a lower body part, than on the roof, using 6000 grit sandpaper next, followed by 8000 grit. Then I rubbed in the Tamiya polishing compounds from coarse to finish and added some Tamiya polishing wax last. Yep, looks good, not the slightest orange peel effect left and a high shine polish. When ready, I will take some outside pics in the sunlight, which show the effect better. Cheers Rob

I assembled some more sub assemblies, before mounting the body onto the chassis. Foremost, I finished the dashboard. The dashboard got painted with Tamiya LP-5 semi gloss black and the instruments got decals into their tubs and a pre cut round clear acetate cover, which I glued in with Revell Contacta Clear and had no fogging issues. The instruments received tiny pieces of yellow Kabuki for identification. ...and where built into the dashboard later, accompanied with some toggle switches and rivets. Cheers Rob

Thanks Craig, but no FB for me, even with this seemingly great group. Cheers Rob