Bugatti Type 35B by CDW - FINISHED - Italeri - 1:12 Scale

[CDW]

42 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Excellent work  Craig.

 

OC.

Thanks OC

[Canute]

Nicely done on that oily floor. Great effect.

[CDW]

On 10/1/2023 at 3:53 PM, Canute said:

Nicely done on that oily floor. Great effect.

Thanks Ken!

[CDW]

The beginning of the dashboard and firewall construction. More details to come.

Construction and finishing began with black primer-surfacer, then aluminum. The hammered aluminum panels are decals supplied in the kit as are the individual instruments dials. 

The red-brown object in the middle of the dashboard is the magneto. I presume the driver controlled the advance and retard of the ignition timing from this location.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by CDW

[king derelict]

Looks very nice Craig

Alan

[CDW]

8 hours ago, king derelict said:

Looks very nice Craig

Alan

Thanks Alan.

[DocRob]

You are cruising through your build Craig, it seems and what you produce pleases the eye. The chassis, motor combo looks so realistic, same with the dashboard.

 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

6 hours ago, DocRob said:

You are cruising through your build Craig, it seems and what you produce pleases the eye. The chassis, motor combo looks so realistic, same with the dashboard.

 

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob. I've had more time than usual to spend on this kit, so that's helping move things along. Part of it is just the enjoyment of building it. We discussed earlier whether or not Italeri would do an acceptable job with the kit, and in my opinion, it's going together even better than expected. No major fit issues whatsoever and only a few minor ones. The molds are new so there is very little/no flash. Relatively few imperfections to take care of.

[shipman]

''I presume the driver controlled the advance and retard of the ignition timing from this location''.

 

Don't know exactly what this car was fitted with, but at that period it was common to find ignition advance/retard and carburetor control levers (including the throttle) mounted on the steering wheel.

[CDW]

This pretty much finishes up the dashboard. Steering column and steering wheel get added later. More to do to finish the firewall. The seat needs paint and weathering, which will be a mini project to weather and age it the way I want it to be.

It's interesting to me the way the ignition wiring passes through the center of the dashboard and into the face of the magneto.

[CDW]

There are some cables to be added to the back side of the dash, connected to the backs of the instrument dials. I'm pretty sure the belts and pulleys seen on the firewall are a drive for the tachometer. A lot of mechanical apparatus for something as "simple" as a tach.

[yvesvidal]

Beautiful dashboard.

 

Yves

[CDW]

1 hour ago, yvesvidal said:

Beautiful dashboard.

 

Yves

Thanks Yves. It's an added benefit of working in a larger scale, 1:12.

[Egilman]

Back in that era, spark advance was mechanical, controlled by a lever mounted to the center of the steering wheel... Pull down to retard, Push up to advance....

 

Operation was open the throttle, (pedal on the floor) and when the engine started pinging or backfiring as the RPM's increased, you pushed the advance lever up to get the spark ahead of TDC for better combustion....

 

When the distributor was developed, they realized that they could advance the spark based upon manifold vacuum automatically and much more accurately, and the manual lever magneto controls went away...

 

Average speed jumped by 10 MPH...

[Landlubber Mike]

Just caught up with your log Craig.  Really pristine work my friend, looking fantastic!

[CDW]

17 hours ago, Egilman said:

Back in that era, spark advance was mechanical, controlled by a lever mounted to the center of the steering wheel... Pull down to retard, Push up to advance....

 

For the most part, I agree, but on this car, there are no controls on the steering column or steering wheel. It's got to be somewhere else.

My '64 Harley panhead had the spark advance control on the left hand grip. 🙂

[CDW]

17 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Just caught up with your log Craig.  Really pristine work my friend, looking fantastic!

Hey thanks Mike. Glad you are aboard.

[CDW]

First dry fit of the body panels and hood. Very satisfied with the fit.

[CDW]

Just a heads-up for anyone who may build this kit in the future.

The plans call for a .5mm wire supplied with the kit to be used as a brake cable as seen in step  8. Instead of the .5mm wire, consider using something of less diameter and more flexible. Also, find a more efficient way to terminate the brake line at the brake drums seen in step 26. Tying a square knot just doesn't cut it for me. Got to be a better way. Will find another way to do this and will show photos of how I did it later on in this thread. 

 

[shipman]

Many years ago I had the pleasure to spectate at a Cadwel Park event which included a dedicated Bugatti race.

Not surprisingly, the winner was Earl Howe himself, in his own Bugatti.

There was no messing about and you could tel who the money people were; they were the ones who never shut the throttle and had no fear of a blow-up.

A remarkable spectacle.

https://newsroom.bugatti.com/press-releases/the-spiritual-home-of-bugatti-in-england-for-more-than-90-years

[CDW]

This reference photo shows in fact, how the brake cables were connected.

 

[CDW]

This leaves me to wonder about the tensioning of the cables. When the wheels were steered left or right, it seems like one side or the other would tighten or get slack. How was this dealt with? Hmmmmm

[shipman]

53 minutes ago, CDW said:

This leaves me to wonder about the tensioning of the cables. When the wheels were steered left or right, it seems like one side or the other would tighten or get slack. How was this dealt with? Hmmmmm

Dunno, but I've driven a couple of 3 wheeler Morgans, set up like that, without issues.

 

As mentioned somewhere, it may be the Bugatti's were ahead of the game.....did an online search and found they seem to have had a 'clean' wheel.

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

This leaves me to wonder about the tensioning of the cables. When the wheels were steered left or right, it seems like one side or the other would tighten or get slack. How was this dealt with? Hmmmmm

The Sheave for the cable is centered on the pivot point of the spindle, the brake lever remains at the same distance around the pivot point no matter which way it is turned...

 

I forget what the geometry term is for this phenomena, but believe me it's real...

 

If you moved the sheave to any other location, yes, you would have a cable tension problem as you turned the wheels...

 

Mechanical brakes only work correctly as long as there is little to no slack in the operating cable....

 

If there is any minor slack in operation, a simple spring tensioner on the cable is employed to take that up.... (that is what your "S" chain in the middle is doing, it runs around two gears pulling against spring tension, travel is small only enough to take up the slack... Keeps the cable taut without overcoming the brake lever springs at the shoe)

Edited October 6, 2023 by Egilman

[CDW]

1 hour ago, Egilman said:

If there is any minor slack in operation, a simple spring tensioner on the cable is employed to take that up.... (that is what your "S" chain in the middle is doing, it runs around two gears pulling against spring tension, travel is small only enough to take up the slack... Keeps the cable taut without overcoming the brake lever springs at the shoe)

Italeri did a good job capturing the major mechanical pieces of this car, but it's a bridge too far to capture everything. I think the main purpose of the S chain is to apply tension to the brakes front and rear at the same time while also as you said, applying that all-important tension...probably spring tension involved, not captured by the plastic pieces provided in the kit.

I do think it's an important feature that Italeri did not capture, failing to show in the instructions how the cables were routed around a pully before attaching at the termination point.

[CDW]

Primed the body panels, now ready for paint. Laced up the stone guard for the radiator, installed the front leaf springs and shock dampers. Added the ignition wiring and a few placards on the firewall. The brass reservoir added to the firewall. More piping goes in the engine compartment later, along with throttle linkages. Still need to deal with those .5mm silver wire brake cables after I install the front axle, brake drum, and steering linkages assemblies. It's getting there.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Incredible  work  Craig   -  it looks  just like  the real thing.

 

OC.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Fantastic modelling here👍🏻😎

[CDW]

19 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Incredible  work  Craig   -  it looks  just like  the real thing.

 

OC.

 

13 hours ago, Twokidsnosleep said:

Fantastic modelling here👍🏻😎

Thanks so much for your kind comments. Much appreciated.

[CDW]

Another dry-fit photo session. This time, with the main body color, Bugatti blue, laid down. 

I wanted to give time for the paint to thoroughly cure out before I go to the next steps of weathering the model. There remain quite a few components and details to finish out before I move on to weathering.