An email was forwarded to me from a fellow club member of someone in the area who wanted this kit built. In the past I have had some not-so-good experiences building for hire. However, I liked ICM kits and have built a few and knew what I would be getting into. I contacted them and we we were able to come to an agreement on our collective expectations. One of the important things for me was that his would be built Out Of the Box. I need some practice doing this.
One thing I will note about building for others: The main thing is to lay out before hand exactly what is to be done. Especially if it seems obvious. Decide collectively on all aspects, who will supply the kit, exact colors, what level of building and detailing will there be? Are there going to be add on parts, modifications or scratchbuilding? Will there be a base? Are you delivering the finished model? How long should it take? What color is it and will it be weathered? What compensation will there be? You don't want to get surprised by any of these once your into it.
This is typical for a modern ICM kit. They are very clean with great detail. The engineering and fit are usually pretty good. One of the drawbacks is the small and detailed parts, they are tricky to remove from the sprues without breaking and take extra time to clean up.
ICM kits come in sturdy cardboard boxes that have a folding lid underneath. I find these annoying during the building process, so I cut the upper part off which turns the box into the standard type. Notice that the kit is supplied with white molded tires typical of the period.
A view of the leather seat molding, it captures the look of the real thing quite nicely.
A view of the white tires and the wheel moldings, again very nice and typical of ICM. The soft white tires have a lot of flash on them, hopefully this will not be an issue.
Here is everything removed from the sprues.
Here is a snip from a the You Tube video supplied by the patron of how they want it to look when completed. One of the things I like about building anything is learning about it. I have already learned quite a lot about these amazing vehicles.
Another thing I have learned is to save the bigger sprues until the model is complete. They match the kit plastic and thus very useful to fix gaps and holes. Because the plastic is identical, the fill can be blended so that it becomes seamless.
These days I leave smaller parts attached to the sprues and use a scraper tool to shave off the seams. The sprue acts to both protect the part from breaking and acts as a handle.
I saw one of these at the Nats in Phoenix at the Zoukei Mura booth...I wanted one but it was $50 and I was not sure if I would use it or not. I bought a cheaper Trumpeter one (High Quality Scraper Tool # 09969) for around $20. Turns out I use it all the time. So, to assuage my guilt I will get a Zoukei Mura one, I promise! This works a lot better than an X-Acto blade because it is stiffer and the tip is very small. It would also be good in a prison riot.
Another great tool are these Tamiya flush cut nippers.
A file is then used to lightly get the nubs off.
Usually with things made up of two perfectly split halves that are flat, I will sand both flat. Usually ther are locating pins, but they are unnecessary. Nothing comes out of the molding process perfectly flat, if you sand them, then when glued there will be no gaps.
Lately I have been using a lot of liquid glue. This is brushed on and capillary action makes it go where you want. Because it melts the plastic, you can then mush the parts together to get a seamless join. I prefer to build in a way that eliminated the need for any filling if possible.
Once dry, the excess plastic from the join is scraped off.
Liquid cement being brushed on more parts.
Here is another one of my tricks for removing molding lines. A cut down Q-Tip is chucked into my motor tool. Most of the cotton is pulled off and then I wrap 0000 steel wool around the tip. Using a low speed the seams are polished off. The steel wool will need to be replaced frequently.
This is the wooden firewall. On the front are four large knock out marks from the injection molding process. These need to be filled. I took the sprue and heated it a little so I could pull it about the diameter of the knock out marks.
I made some sausage slices that matched the diameter of the knock outs.
On the lower right you can see where I filled the knock out. I put it in place and soften with lots of liquid cement. It becomes soft and I press it in place to fill the hole. It will be an "outie" at this point.
Once dry the bulged out portion can be carefully scraped off (lower right).
Here is the core body.
On the real vehicle there are no seams here. I put the back panel in place with lots of liquid glue brushed on allowing me to push the panels together so that the plastic would mushroom.
Here you can see the sanded and steel wool polished parts. With a bit of work up front I can avoid using any filling products. I will go back in an redefine the top lip edge.
Here is the back of the front seat. At the upper left above the door is where the two parts meet. Again, liberal solvent is used to mush the parts together. Once dry, I will carefully reshape. This would be a really crummy place to have to use filler.
That's it for now. There will be more in a couple of weeks. I am hopeful that at the end of the next post I will be ready for painting!
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