Shelby Cobra Coupe by DocRob - Model Factory Hiro - 1/12 - multi-media - Le Mans

[DocRob]

Hola friends of American heavy metal,
 

My next project will be the famous and fantastic looking Shelby Cobra Coupe from Model Factory Hiro in 1/12 scale. Only six of these cars were built in 1964 and 1965. It was a successful design and incorporated early aerodynamic aspects. My build will be the second build chassis with the number CSX 2286, which competed in Le Mans, but didn´t finish due to clutch problems.
I may add a bit more history later during the build.

I purchased the kit directly from MFH in Japan and after one week of record breaking shipping time, it appeared on my doorstep as my second MFH kit after the Crocker.



I will show some pictures of what is in the box, but I will not unwrap everything, therefore the quality of some of the pictures is a bit sub optimal, but I will show everything during the build.

First of all there is the magnificent two part resin body, with the hood and doors and back will be openable. Casting quality is fantastic and only a minimum of cleanup will be necessary. 


 

There are aluminum turned rims, which later receive cast metal inserts and fantastic tyres with producer print and blue hairline.





Three plates of photo etched parts:



A bag full of multi media accessories, like turned headlights and funnels, clear resin parts, screws and coil springs, cables and tubes, seat belt material, ...



The windshield and headlight covers are clear vacuum formed parts, which need to be cut out and the rear window is tinted brown vac style (not shown)
For the side windows, there is a flat clear acetate sheet, with cut and drill markings and a rubber framing for the windshield.



There are decals for four different cars all in the same Shelby Guardsman blue. I hope the white stripes are opaque enough to not let show the metallic blue underlayer through.



And then there is a heap of cast white metal parts, which I cleaned with my magnetic tumble polisher and 0,3 mm polishing needles for about an hour.



After picking the parts out of the dirty black water, I spread them on paper towels and started the tedious process to identify all the parts, sort them into box compartments according to the parts list and manual for double checking and after two eye straining  days found, all the parts are there, phew.




 

The last box contains bits like screws, bolts and rivets, smaller parts, which will be used in different steps of the build and lastly the parts used for other chassis.



So far for now.

Cheers Rob

[Dave_E]

I’ll watch! 👍🍿🥤How big is this thing? If i may ask, how much did the kit cost?

[yvesvidal]

3 hours ago, Dave_E said:

I’ll watch! 👍🍿🥤How big is this thing? If i may ask, how much did the kit cost?

Dave, you know how the saying goes..... 😞

 

Yves

[Egilman]

Oh, I'm down....

 

Wouldn't miss it...

[king derelict]

A fabulous subject and it looks like a magnificent kit. I’ll watch with fascination 

alan

[DocRob]

21 hours ago, Dave_E said:

I’ll watch! 👍🍿🥤How big is this thing? If i may ask, how much did the kit cost?

 

17 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Dave, you know how the saying goes..... 😞

 

13 hours ago, Egilman said:

Oh, I'm down....

 

Wouldn't miss it...

 

13 hours ago, king derelict said:

A fabulous subject and it looks like a magnificent kit. I’ll watch with fascination

Muchas gracias señhores, I just started some cleanup and drilling to get a feel for the kit. I don´t want to rush the start, as I learned through the Crocker build, that a proper sequence and lots of dry fitting are the key to success. 

@Dave_E: The finished Cobra Coupe will be approximately 36 cm long and 16 cm wide. The price, well, I don´t like to discuss prices in logs and will send you an email.

Cheers Rob
 

[Egilman]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

I don´t like to discuss prices in logs and will send you an email.

Yep, [chuckle] the check is in the mail... {giggle} (most of us already know)

[CDW]

Looking forward to this. What a beauty, and you are 100% correct in what you said in another thread...the cost of a 1:12 Tamiya formula 1 kit with all the detail sets to trick it out are equal to and most likely exceed the cost of a great 1:12 MFH kit like this one. Besides that, no one else I know of even produces a 1:12 scale kit of the Cobra Daytona Coupe. My hesitation on MFH kits is primarily due to my lack of experience working with the white metal parts. A total unknown for me, and it will be great seeing how you deal with it here.

[Egilman]

15 minutes ago, CDW said:

My hesitation on MFH kits is primarily due to my lack of experience working with the white metal parts. A total unknown for me, and it will be great seeing how you deal with it here.

Amen Brother.... I couldn't have said it better myself....

[Canute]

If Rob is doing the build, I'm in. This car was and is a classic. 👍

[CDW]

10 minutes ago, Canute said:

If Rob is doing the build, I'm in. This car was and is a classic. 👍

Indeed it is. And a stunning beauty as well. If I remember correctly, this thing gave the kings of the hill, Ferrari, fits back in the day. It's every bit as good or better looking than the Ferrari 250 GTO's IMO.

Edited July 13 by CDW

[Old Collingwood]

Looking at all those bits  -  Its  a  Real car  just in miniature.

 

OC.

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, CDW said:

Looking forward to this. What a beauty, and you are 100% correct in what you said in another thread...the cost of a 1:12 Tamiya formula 1 kit with all the detail sets to trick it out are equal to and most likely exceed the cost of a great 1:12 MFH kit like this one. Besides that, no one else I know of even produces a 1:12 scale kit of the Cobra Daytona Coupe. My hesitation on MFH kits is primarily due to my lack of experience working with the white metal parts. A total unknown for me, and it will be great seeing how you deal with it here.

 

14 hours ago, Egilman said:

Amen Brother.... I couldn't have said it better myself....

With the MFH Crocker build under my belt, I gained some experience with these kind of kits. The Cobra needs less bare metal surface preparation, as most of the components get painted, but you have to unify metal and resin parts more often. The Crocker was 95% metal, with only the seat, the tyres and some smaller parts made from other materials.
I can´t really comment about the difficulty of working with metals, as I proper learned it when I was young, but that was a long time ago. At least, I found the metal working aspect more tempting than daunting. 

The cast white metal parts, MFH provides are of a very high quality and well engineered, however, you have to clean them and drill hundreds of holes into these parts for every connection. Even more than with plastic models, you have to fit the parts perfectly and dry fit a lot, because tolerances add up on complex assemblies, like the Crocker engine and you may run in trouble later on, if you hadn´t taken that into account enough.
This needs a proper planning and following the manual, as some areas are hard or impossible to reach for drilling in case you have overseen something. 

You need a decent tool set, mainly consisting of quality drill bits of every size under 2,5 mm, a pin wise (or better more than one), pliers, cutters and tweezers. For clean up, normal files and sand paper is sufficient, the metal is very soft and good to work with.
A power tool, like a Proxxon is very helpful for drilling and polishing, I use mine in a stand and more important added a foot pedal.
A good and reliable CA glue is needed. I didn´t use Epoxy with the Crocker, but there may be places with the Cobra, where it could help.

Preparation of the metal parts is a key, too. Yo can do it by hand or leave maybe 80% of the cleaning job to a magnetic tumbler. I liked the results with 0,3 mm polishing needles best, as these clean even the tiniest crevices and don´t soften details. A good primer is needed, I use Mr. Surfacer and the usual model paints, in my case mostly Tamiya lacquers, where i really like their gloss black and semi gloss black.

I was a bit surprised, that the Crocker build took only about two months, I expected more, but it was motivating fun (a bad weather stretch was also helpful), but except from the chain, which I finally got assembled as well, I didn´t run into bigger problems during the build.

Verdict: If you really like to build one of these magnificent kits, do it, take your time and prepare thoroughly. Like Craig said, some of the subjects were never released by other companies.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, Canute said:

If Rob is doing the build, I'm in. This car was and is a classic. 👍

It´s a beauty, indeed. Thanks for the motivational push, Ken
 

14 hours ago, CDW said:

Indeed it is. And a stunning beauty as well. If I remember correctly, this thing gave the kings of the hill, Ferrari, fits back in the day. It's every bit as good or better looking than the Ferrari 250 GTO's IMO.

I like the 250 GTO a lot and might be tempted to buy one (in 1/12 scale ), if MFH decides to re-release it. Would make a nice display, if shown together with the beautiful Cobra Coupe.
 

11 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looking at all those bits  -  Its  a  Real car  just in miniature.

Almost, OC, there are lots of parts, indeed and building up this kit, will e a lot of work. If it´s equally rewarding, like the Crocker build, I´m a lucky guy.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Only to show, that I´m actually working on the Cobra, I made some mock up shots with the prepared main engine components, which will be airbrushed next. The resin body needed quite some adjustments to fit properly and there are about 100 holes drilled into these parts, to accept other accessories.
The cast quality of the rocker covers is unfortunately not very good, with a lot of pitting. The photos show the state after two hours of sanding and polishing. The pics exaggerate the effect a bit, but the covers won´t do like this as polished finish, so some more elbow grease is needed.

 





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The last days, there was not a lot of bench time to have with our dog being seriously ill and an actual heat wave, but I managed to work a bit on the engine.
What you see on the picture consists of about 70 parts. All screws and rivets need to be drilled and glued in.
I gave the rocker covers another work intensive go and grinded and sanded, until I was halfway satisfied and then polished the parts with Autosol metal polish.
Somehow, my camera struggles to capture high shine finishes, but the rocker covers look ok now.
The PE exhaust seals were a bit of a pain, because the holes needed to be drilled out for the fitting `screws´ which are in fact bolts.
I would have preferred to have the whole engine in metal. The resin parts needed a lot of work to make them fit. 



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I prepared all the carburetor parts and finished assembling the first pair, which consists of almost thirty parts. The inox pipe in the middle of the funnel was pretty rigid. It had to be cut from a tube and the manual suggests rolling it under a sharp blade. I tried, but no success. I took out my mini mitre and razor saw and managed to cut eight parts, while loosing all the teeth on the blade. 
Again the holes on the PE parts were to small, to accept the bolts and needed to be re drilled. Pretty annoying, given it´s not brass, but very rigid stainless steel.





I also added the distributor, where tiny rods of steel rod are glued into each connector for accepting the tiny rubber isolators. These needed to be drilled wit a 0,3 mm bit to later (hopefully) accept the ignition wiring.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The engine got near finished, lacking the ignition wiring and the drive belts in front. To mount all the carburetor parts into the tub was extremely difficult, done by the manual, it would have been impossible. I spare you the details, but you should put in the four carburetor blocks at the same time, only connected by a fragile steering rod and then add the coil spring mechanism with no wiggle room at all. It took some thinking and manipulating of parts to get it right. 
The carburetor housings were beforehand accentuated with black panel liner. I also added some decals onto engine parts.









Cheers Rob

[CDW]

At this scale, it looks like the real thing. Beautiful.

[yvesvidal]

I like the engine overall, but the oil filter is out of this world.

 

Yves

[DocRob]

23 hours ago, CDW said:

At this scale, it looks like the real thing. Beautiful.

 

 

22 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

I like the engine overall, but the oil filter is out of this world.

Thank you Craig and Yves. the engine is a piece of beauty with all the detail, but it´s also hard to get together in parts, but what´s modeling without a bit of a challenge . The oil filter was primed and then sprayed gloss read. After the third pass with the airbrush, the edges still were a bit translucent and I decided to let it like that, to generate a bit of depth the cheap way.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I reached the first real milestone, finishing the engine and transmission. 
The ignition wiring was a bit delicate and needed a lot of CA to proper glue everything together. Using tiny rubber connectors seemed not to be the best idea from MFH to my eye. The provided wire is very rigid, which helped to pre bend each single wire before gluing them in.
Now Tamiya have a look, here is something to learn. the belt on the front of the engine is black adhesive tape over cast iron wheels, looks way better, than Tamiya´s rough cast parts on the 1/12 kits I knew.
The transmission housing is made of a mix of resin and metal parts, with white metal gear shifting rods added. The manual suggested steel color for the housing, but I went with metallic grey, to have a cast iron appearance. I read, later modified or rebuild chassis got an aluminum casing, but the original was cast iron. So much for weight reduction .













Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I am shipping some difficult waters lately, not with the kit though and that´s why I made myself sparse.

Nonetheless, some progress with the mighty Cobra. Having thought, everything would build up easier than the engine was partly untrue. The chassis as the central element has so many parts to add, that you need a lot of patience and discipline to get it right. 
Every hole - and there are many - needs to be drilled with the proper diameter. To achieve this, you have to identify the various parts or sub assemblies through the hole manual and understand, how it joins and what is used for joining, nuts, bolts, screws, pegs, whatever. 
Finally, I build up the suspension arms and completed the front axle and tubing with a real metal leaf spring. Steerable wheels are not planned with the kit.
I made some mistakes on the rear end with the differential housing, but managed to correct that without too much damage.
Again Tamiya LP semi matte black proved to be the perfect weapon of choice for the black chassis parts. 
The engine is only loosely attached for now.









Cheers Rob

[king derelict]

Beautiful and neat work 

alan

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, king derelict said:

Beautiful and neat work 

Thank you Alan, at least, the engine and front suspension will be visible under the large openable hood.

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

A very realistic model. Unmatched by any other that I know of. MFH certainly produce fine model kits and you are doing an absolute beautiful job, carefully and meticulously building it.

[DocRob]

On 8/4/2024 at 2:52 PM, CDW said:

A very realistic model. Unmatched by any other that I know of. MFH certainly produce fine model kits and you are doing an absolute beautiful job, carefully and meticulously building it.

Thank you Craig, the kits are so good, that they motivate you, to even tackle the hardest obstacles. A well thought through building sequence is the key with these kits.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Just a tiny update, while I prepare the cooler parts and some internal framework. If you wonder, why MFH kits are special, then look for this magnificently casted white metal part. genius and madness are sometime close, as you have to replicate four hose clamps from steel PE strips with the screw parts being tinies casted parts .



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Due to illness and passing of my beloved dog, I haven´t been attending here lately. I have to get back to normal somehow and continued a bit with the Cobra, when time and mood allowed.

I added the front cooling section, a fairly large and detailed affair. After that, it was time to mount the missing parts of the front suspension and braking system.
The large venting tubes were sprayed with Tamiya LP brown metallic and then sanded over the risen parts for effect. Fit was very good, but I had to re-drill tiny PE parts again, as either the bolts (part 308) are too wide or the holes to small, annoying. Another disturbing issue is, there are wires or tubes, where there is no mention, where they lead to. You have to search the hole manual for a fit, but some are not shown. The manual of the Crocker motorcycle always stated the section of the manual, where you could see the other connecting side, but that´s not the case here.







I think long and thorough, before altering the building sequence from the manual, but decided to add the tube framing before the cooler section, to have more wiggle room. The part around the engine proved to be a bit delicate, the more complex rear part was easy in comparison. The engine and drive shaft is now permanently built in and I´m ready for the rear suspension now. The chassis is quite heavy now and I will add spacers to relieve the suspension.





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Progress is slowly due to off bench issues and a healthy dose of sports every day, trailrunning, surfing or swimming and mountainbiking, to get the head free.
Nonetheless, I finished the rear suspension, brakes and drive shafts. 
My normal process with MFH kits is, select parts for the next step, cleanup and drill parts, priming and finally airbrushing, before the real fun begins, assembly.
This time, it was not so much fun, unfortunately. All parts mount to the outer suspension part, which later accepts the wheel. Somehow this was impossible and I identified the drive shafts as too long. I have no idea, if this was my fault, but the main shaft leading to the differential was also to long. It needed a bit of metal surgery to get everything to fit and there are some touchups to be made.







I also started with the pedals, which means, interior is next. Of course, there will be hydraulic lines later from the pedals cylinders.





Cheers Rob