Mark: I can only echo, what the others have said regarding the hood emblem. I did a little search, for a PE set, with the emblem, but to no avail.

Michael: That is a great looking, detailed drivetrain. Almost a shame to cover it with the skid/bash plate.

Damian: Very nice work there D. The black really make the silver/chrome pop.

David: great work on those decals.

Joel: Black, gold, red and a touch of silver, what's not to like. Excellent work J.

Not much to report today. I have cleaned up the clear parts, given them a swim in Future and installed them.




I also picked up the replacement rims from a helpful fellow modeler nearby, so I can get back on to the wheels now.

Cheers, D

D,
From what I can see, the Pledge bath seems to have done an excellent job.

I've never used Pledge to coat clear glass parts, but rather gone through the entire polishing system that I use for clearcoats. Do you feel that the Pledge does an equal job? It certainly would save a lot of time and effort that could be spent on other areas of my builds.

Joel

Joel, I always give the clear parts a wet sand with a super fine polishing sponge once I've cleaned up the edges, then a dip in the Future. The trick is to leave a sprue stub in place so you can clamp the parts sitting flat to dry. The Future is slow curing and self-levelling, so if you hold the parts vertically the Future runs slowly down the faces and you get flow lines and a noticeably thicker bottom edge. The Future does a great job of making any fine scratches and blemishes disappear. If any dust or crud settles on the part during the cure, just dip it again. It dissolves the old coat and you're back where you started with no sanding or chemical clean up required.

Cheers, D

Another small progress report on the '36. The interior tub is in place. It took some coaxing, some trimming and some sanding, and a good strong clamp during the cure overnight, but it's in there! As always, not much can be seen.



I've also set the engine and radiator assemblies in place now, after confirming that the engine cover assembly has clearance (a fraction of a mm, but it's enough!). The steering column is just sitting in place, a test fit shows that I need to drill a slightly larger clearance hole in the firewall to get the column into the right position for the steering wheel to sit correctly.



Interestingly, the instructions for this version of the custom engine have no water hoses installed between the engine and the radiator. I will do some adjustments to get the supplied hoses to fit in an approximate location so there is some more detail there.

The spare chrome rim parts have been assembled and the tyres fitted, I just need to dry-brush some white detail onto the manufacturers logo and details. I have decided not to paint any of the chrome rim Wine Red, I did a test fit and they look very good all chrome to match the bumpers and headlight surrounds.

Cheers, D

D,
The interior looks great as I peered in through the open window. And that Big Block Ford does certainly look the part. Double thumbs up on how She's coming out.

Joel

I found, as I was starting the marker lights, that the kit provided "lenses" are WAY too thick, so I hit the spots with the Molotow pen and then Tamiya's clear red. They look so much better.

AND, the first MASON and Dixon decal is on. I'm not sure if I've screw it up (too bad) as Walther's SolvaSet is some fast-acting and aggressive stuff!





Mike

Looking good Mike. Nice workaround on the marker lights. The kit "coloured clear" lenses are rarely a neat fit, your solution works very well.

The "Mason Dixon" signage looks to have settled down really well, this will be a cool looking hauler once you're done.

Cheers, D

Mike,
Those marker lights look fantastic. I'll have to remember your method.

Joel

Nice work Mike! The lights and signage look spot on.

cheers
Michael

More assembly on the '36. The chassis/drivetrain was fitted and clamped to the floor pan and left overnight.


Apologies for the poor photo, but just beneath the V8 emblem is the "Ford" badge that qualifies this build. This will be dry-brushed chrome to get it to stand out better. The only other Ford badge in this kit is on the spare wheel hub, which I'm not using here.


Wheels are assembled and I've started the process of highlighting the manufacturers details but dry-brushing white. I will give it a wash of black to tidy it up once I'm happy with the density of the white.

EDIT: Looking at this photo I see I have two of the same front rims. I will swap one out as they are directional.

As always, I couldn't help but dry fit the shell and rumble seat to see how it is coming together.



And a progress shot on the "Life Cycle of a '36" trio.


Cheers, D

Well, when you're on a roll, just keep rolling!

A major step forward tonight, I got the shell fixed down to the floor pan! It took a bit of twisting and turning, and a few drops of BSI Medium CA, but we are there. The steering column was a challenge and required some surgery, but the steering wheel looks great in place now to complete the interior.


Unfortunately, with the alignment adjustments required to get the shell to fit properly, the rumble seat cover will no longer hinge straight and sit neatly in the closed position, so I had to shorten the locating pins and it will sit loosely in the open position. I'm not too worried about this, as the original stock version will be sitting open as well.



And a couple of shots with the engine covers in place.



That's it for today for me, it has just ticked over midnight so I'm going to enjoy a glass of red and a browse through the Kitmaker forums now.

Cheers, D

D,
Sweet

Joel

Well, another week, and I actually managed to get some work done for a change.

All my efforts were concentrated on getting the basic detailing done in the trunk area, even though I said that I'd finish the complete rubing and polishing of the two part shell, and lower chassis panels. Rather then go through each item, I'll just list them with any info that might be helpful.

1- Two .035 Braided oil lines from the Dry Sump tank to the tunnel in the Driver's compartment. Lines still need to be somewhat tighter going into the tunnel, and plastic clamps stratched out to hold them in place.

2- One .025 Braided fuel line to the fuel pump on the right hand side of the tube frame, & a over flow line from the tank routed down through the bottom of the chassis made from wire sheathing. Hold down brackets also need to be scratched for the fuel line as well.

3- Two electrical lines from the battery box to the cockpit tunnel out of a larger dia. wire sheathing.

4- The driver's compartment rear bulkead for some strange reason is where the plastic Windshield washer container is located. I ran a clear line from the pump on the bottom of the tank to just to the side of the drivers compartment for now ,till I actually can figure out where it does go.

5- I glued up the basic engine block and transmission, then sanded all the seams to get ready for priming. Nothing special, so no pictures till it's primed. And once again I had real issues with finding a glue that actually glued the Revelll plastic.

Overall view of the chassis.





front of the drivers compartment facing the rear bulkhead. Notice the windshield washer tank and line.



As I've mentioned in previous updates once the main shell is attached, very little of the trunk compartment will be seen, and that's only when looking in through the rear window. Here's a few views to see just how restrictive it actually is.





Joel

Beautiful detailing work Joel, this build is really coming together nicely.


Have you tried "Plastic Magic" cement from Deluxe Materials? I use it a lot, and they also have a "10 second" slower setting version which comes in handy for parts that require a bit of finessing to line up before it bites in. I find that it works really well on some of the odd plastic kits that TET struggles with.

Cheers, D

Well I was gonna post a progress pic. After 6 weeks of working on the books every night and weekend, I finally get back to the bench. I Sharpied all of the witness lines and hit them with 320 and 600 grit pads and smoothed everything out. Took off the external hinges on the trunk (boot in some places).

Went after the drip rail which was more like a lean to than a rail.


Then I see Joel's work. I might just as well toss mine all back in the box and take up needlepoint.


Seriously Joel, great work, what an eye for detail you have.

I couldn't work my little side-job today due to the snow, so I got some decent bench time.

All the reflectors on the box are done but oddly enough the Tamiya Clear Yellow seems pretty dark on the one side of the box. The cab is shell is just missing the mirrors and a bit of detail painting - the cab running light lenses are WAY too big for their mounts, but I don't have any alternatives, so, they're on. Door and box sides decals tomorrow.





Mike

D,
Thanks for the big Thumb's up. Coming from you, it's always greatly appreciated.

I'm putting together a needs list for Sprue Brothers, and hopefully they have Plastic Magic glue. I really don't want to start using 5 min epoxy to glue basic parts, especially the rear body shell to the lower chassis side panels. What really has ben confused is why CA glue really doesn't grip the rubbery plastic very well.

Joel

Mark,
I really appreciate your most positive comments, and I love the picture with my Mustang in the background. That's a true 1st for me. But honestly, there's not a single thing I do that you can't do. The lines are easy with enough references, and there's really very little if any add on detailing. Painting, decaling, and clearcoats is just practice, practice, and then more practice of whatever methods you've adopted. And believe me, I've screwed up way more times then you guys can ever imagine.

The Ford body really looks quite good in those pictures. The color coat looks smooth and consistent, and it does a sheen to it.

Looking forward to your next update.

Joel

Mike,
Now that's really impressive. The various reflectors and lights are outstanding. As for the yellow reflectors on the box, most likely it's that the light being reflected back was the issue, as they really do look the part.

Joel

Well Joel, there's hope. I clearly fooled you. That's the raw plastic freshly sanded and poorly photographed. The actual plastic is actually a very light gray. But the LED/Halogen overhead and the LCD backlight give it that yellow / beige finish look.
Here's a better pic of the light gray without the LCD backlight.


I gotta fight this panel into submission that I can tackle the primer coat. That's the alternate hood (bonnet) the kit supplies that doesn't have a cut out for the '49 single bullet.

Looking great all. I've been traveling and only had quick bits of time to lurk here.

Mike, I've found that too with the Tamiya Amber/Yellow. What I have taken to doing with it is to put it on real thin and then fill it in with Future later.

Joel, D, and anyone else I missed, looking great. Keep it up and I hope to be starting the Bronco soon.

Traveling to Chicago tomorrow morning until Wed evening.

Thanks David. I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to try that out.

Decals on. Some issues you can't see in the picture, but trying to put the "box" decals over the ribs? Oh boy. I put them forward, towards the cab, because the other side has a door in the middle.



Mirror, bumper, and a license plate is all that's needed now.

Mike

Mark, great to see the '49 getting some time on the bench! It's a classic looking body and I'm really looking forward to watching it progress here.

Mike, so close to the display shelf now, great to see! The signage looks very good, you have managed to get it settled into the profile of the box walls nicely. Never an easy task.

Cheers, D

Mark,
Yep, you got me for sure on the tan color. I did remember that the original body was the usual plain Jane Gray, so I just assumed that you primed and painted it.

The lower rear body panel sure does have it's fit issues. If it were me, I'd align it just like you did so that the bottom lines up with the rest of the body. I'd fill both sides with a two part epoxy like Apoxie Sculpt. Shape with water as it dries, then final shape it when it hard as a rock. If you need to carve in a panel line, these molding epoxies work well with scribing.

David,
Have a safe trip. Glad that you'll be home for Thanksgiving.

Mike,

The decal on the side of the box looks great. I'd say that you won that battle for sure.


Joel