1/12th scale RE50 T-car

[JamesB]

Thanks to all. Considering leaving the plastiline... someone knows how good TS paints stick to it?

[Eagle50]

Great fabrication! I admire your craftsmanship!

Cheers, Chris

[turboF1]

Great work! You and Cedric are craftsmen!
Watching with interest!

[Leirodorp]

Very nice to see this model coming alive, interesting to see the techniques you use to build the model.

[JamesB]

Thanks for the comments
OK, so it's time for a fresh serving.
This one's been quite stalled, so many other things to focus on.


Time to make the sidepods.

After some careful measure checking, I draw as usual the parts on the plastic where they'll be cut, and go for it.
Thanks to Cedric I discovered that what I had always thought to be a simeple stright protuberance with quite rounded edges (I mean the "tongues" that make the sidepod sidewall foremost ends) is not symmetrical, but kinda wedge shaped, I mean the inner wall is straight and most of curvature is on the outside wall. The front edge is quite sharp BTW. So I chose the same approach as Cedric.


It's crucial to get these shapes well dimensioned. Otherwise we'll get kinda a caricature of the car instead. Analysis of front pictures gave a thickness of 8mm for the outer "wedges". That means an inner part, then two small (invisible) spacers, and then the outer wall. All o 2mm, that makes 4x2=8!


Later we'll have to sand all the darkened area. The idea is that the additional thickness will give room enough to place the curved shape. The front edge will be strictly the inner 2mm part. As I said, it's sharper than what side pics seem to show. You know, all curved shapes, no hard edge shadows in pics, so no easy to see. You need a zenithal pic to get and side of the cross section.


I already rounded the inner wall as once installed it might be hard to do...


I placed an additional rib inside the corner...


So we can "park" the rounded shape that will be achieved by sanding...


Then come the two "wedges" that go stuck to the chassis sides... those trapezhoidal yellow patches.
That's the basic shape. Once again, carefully measured from the pictures...


And now the shape of the thickened part on it. I always thought ir was like the outer shape , but smaller, you know: as a sharp edege all around, but looking it from different angles, and noticing the shadows and glows, you see it's like this shoe shaped thing. A bit like thesame area on the McLaren MP4/8...


And seen from above, there's that smooth "S" shape. Again it's critical to get the thickness right. I obtained 6mm. So the 31,3mm that the sidepod measures, is split like that: 8mm for the outer wall, 17,3mm for the radiator intake itself, and 6mm for the inner walls. Since I used 1mm plastic for the main parts, the spacers are also 2mm thick plastic. Two of them.


THat's how it shows, put in place. Long way to go... we'll need some putty. ANyway I'll try to have this inner part as ready as I can before gluing to the main sidepod. I'll need room to work on it and sand it. Working on the whole sidepod inlet altogether would be quite difficult...


The "sophisticated" system I used to make sure the base remained flat...


And now some views of the thing... yes I gotta finish the chassis!!!






Thanks for watching!
As ever, comments, suggestions, corrections, questions, welcome

Ah! Almost forgot. I had to lower the sidepods from 37mm to 36... I had made a mistake!
J

[Eagle50]

Wow, I get tired just looking at all that work. LOL Are you going to 3D scan it, and sell copies through Shapeways..?

Cheers, Chris

[JamesB]

Wow, I get tired just looking at all that work. LOL Are you going to 3D scan it, and sell copies through Shapeways..?
Cheers, Chris

Wow!!! Now you gave me an idea!!!
That sounds good!!!!

[RE60B]

excellent my friend ex cel lent. your inside "hill" seems to be very easy to do than mine. great idea! mine is in putty thick action maybe i am going to reborn it or not

keeeeeeeep on man!

[JamesB]

excellent my friend ex cel lent. your inside "hill" seems to be very easy to do than mine. great idea! mine is in putty thick action maybe i am going to reborn it or not

keeeeeeeep on man!

Thanks bro! b:)
And wait to see the idea to fill it... I really invented hot water. You'll see in some minutes...
No putty, something better...



******************************************
Here I go. The gap between plastic sheets is quite unpleasant to fill. Putty sticks everything but where you want it to.Hard to push it inside. So better to fill with resin. Some sealing is made at the opposite place... with plastiline.

And the parts filled. The "shoes" will need some putty, to get the smooth shape done, that's why resin does not fill it all.


Now with yesterdays work...


Rear part of sidepods made. Watch that sophisticated way to check the 90º...


Meanwhile, I added thickening parts to cockpit edges...


And there go the parts. I'll let them set so the geometry si stiff enough before closing the thing with putty. So there goes left side.


That corner on the fuel tank would not sit comfortably, so a hand made twist of the part before and there goes the Revell glue...


Both in place, emanwhile, the sidepods are laid there too.


I had to do something to "guide" the putty at the rounded area of cockpit opening. First I checked heights and width on cockpit sides. To make sure of the ellyptical shape of the cockpit, I twisted a pic so known measures (sidepods) matched. Obviously the rest of the car is absolutely skewed but cockpit and sidepods are at the same plane and not too far, so an idea we can get. This highlights what I always say that a pic sometimes will give as little info as just comparing two given measures, two and no more.


And there goes the guiide part. A thick 2mm plastic with half an ellipse of 38x49mm...


And here goes the putty...


LOng wait, so meanwhile some hard sanding. You gotta lookat an angle to get right that the radius is OK. This one needs quite rounded edges. some 3mm radius...


Also I took a bit more backwards the curve of the upper edge of sidepod. You must never get tired of watching again the pics. Otherwise you make an idea based on what you are building rather than the thing you want to replicate. So the curve goes backwards. I use the 2mm of thickness of upper surface, sanding hard to meet smoothly the quarter circle of front. Also a good smoothing of the slant at the rear. Otherwise the car will look quite "boxy". The shape is quite decweptive; in some pics you'd say ALL the upper surface is curved. No, it has a good % of it that is fully horizontal, but the cuves at both ends are quite smooth and large.


Comparison between pre- and post- sanding say it all!





ANd that's the cockpit, once putty is set. I even widened a bit the opening, with the help of hairdryier!! Then I put a spacer so all sets at the proper dimensions.





And that's all so far!!

As usual, thanks for being there
J

[RE60B]

Very very good man! and more simple with good ideas, i progress like a lumberjack with my semi old school technic.

same deduction as you with the sidepods angles. i have 36 mm high measure too and miss rounded part ad on in my front cockpit.

really really cooool