Building the ICM 1/24 Model T 1911 Touring #6

 

The model will eventually end up in the box. It's like a magic trick where you saw the nice human in half. The saw used is always quite ridiculous, I think they only make those with the mastodon teeth just for magic acts. Look, if I hold up something shiny you might forget what's really going on here. I've forgotten already.

BTW, the gray rectangle is a yoga block, it is made of thick foam, but is soft. My wife got these at Aldi, they come two to a box for around 4 bucks. These things are fantastic for building with.

Here is the body, now with paint on it. I am mostly a military modeler, so getting paint on to look like an automotive finish is a bit alien to me. My wife keeps asking me questions about how many coats I'm going to put on, I keep telling her about how I need to polish, but all the details on the body make it hard, she sighs and says that XXXX is going want his money back because I'm doing a substandard job. The paint is shiny, it's not perfect (my wife, "with an attitude like that your not going to win any tournaments, so what's the point?"), this model does need to get done at some point, so here is the shiny blue paint.

Wheels. At first I thought the kit ones would suffice, although I had some reservations. Originally the model was free, i.e., not connected to a base or going into a case. Free models have a habit of getting broken, so I like to enslave mine. This changed my attitude regarding the tires. They are very thin and rubbery, neither they or the rim would be able to accept a screw so the model could be enslaved to the base. In the upper row are the results of my first attempt to solve the issue. A plastic tube is glued to the bottom of the rim, drilled out and tapped to accept an 080 screw. On the upper right you can see the screw and rubber tire in place. A hole was ground away in the soft tire for the threaded tube, unfortunately its visible underneath like a bad tooth. I found this solution unacceptable, so decided I would need to make hard plastic tires to replace the soft ones. The hard ones are the one's on the bottom, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I listen to podcasts or OSTs when I build, I am kind of a nut job and will listen to the same thing over and over for about a week. Right now I have been listening to the music of the anime "Magica Madoka". The show is 12 episodes and currently on Netflix, I highly recommend it. Be warned, do not read anything about it or you will spoil it. My favorite character is Homura, I knew this even before, well it's secret.

Homura

I looked for resin Model T wheels, I did find some in the UK, but decided it would be better just to make my own. Sheet styrene is lathed down to the proper thickness, rough cut into circles, center drilled and made into little doughnuts that will become tires.

The doughnuts are then pressed onto a mandrill and matching geometric angle cuts made on both sides so when they are sanded smooth they will all match.

Here is a shot of the mandrill along with five tires, as yet unsanded. The kit tire is shown on the bottom right. The tread detail is put in on the lathe with a saw blade (the teeth are held at a right angle while the tire is spinning to etch the concentric rings in). Using the mandrill and and sand paper, the tires are made into a balloon cross section. Oh, I always make a spare, just in case.

Here are the finished tires, I'm drilling the holes for the screws using a pin vice. By holding the tire on center to the block, I can use the edge to make sure my drilling is square to the tire.

The next bit is to center the car on the base. I mark a centerline and using measurements from the axels mark tire distances using a compass. Through holes are then drilled.

And viola, like a slow deaf, dumb and anal retentive magician, the tires can now do this. Magic!

The chassis in place. Notice how the "magician" has failed to center the car (it's too far back).

Using Legos (they are square) I can figure out the discrepancy and adjust.

More holes, this time in the right spots. 

I have also been listening to this, it is really good because it is so freaking ridiculous.

The car needs some light color underneath it, it is very dark. I have this sheet of cobblestone that it can sit on. I can color it to accent the dark color of the car.

The cobblestone gets attached to the other layer, these both then get screwed to the base of the case. I dropped the cobblestone while it was attached to the thicker plastic base, I always assume when I drop something that it will fall on the corner. It did, I crawled under my bench and found the pesky corner so I could glue it back. Take that corner!

A shot of...you know, the thing. Never mind the newly started kits in the background. These are not the droids your looking for. They are for sale if you want them. Move along.

And finally, it is images like this that give us all hope. Just don't touch the case!

That's it for now. Happy Modeling!