[P A D]

I have a couple of models that don't need any serious metal bashing to upgrade them and I was going to do one of these next for a nice easy project. However, a complete lack of discipline on my part has forced me to move this latest acquisition to the front of the queue. I could have picked up a green one for less than I paid, but I wanted a red one and as I'm crap at painting, didn't want to have to strip and respray. Also I can't find any scripts and logos for Aston Martin in 1:18. That makes things a little more difficult when metal bashing but we'll see how I get on. First some pics and comments on the model as it comes.

The overall finish is quite nice albeit with some areas of paint rash on my example, which I have been able to improve with polishing compound and wax polish.

The plastic moulded parts are very good quality and much better than most of the other budget models that I have. The chrome surrounds on the clear parts is also very well done but with one or two chips here and there which will require some attention.

A big negative is the sealed boot lid which is where the serious metal bashing will be done to make it open.

The Aston Martin and Zagato badges are decals but look quite good. The front and rear inciators plus brake lights are chromed plastic and coloured red and orange at the rear, so they will be replaced with suitable clear items either scratched up or purchased. Although the tail pipes are moulded and could be improved by drilling out, I have some metal parts and will replace them.

The headlights and covers are excellent as is the grill. From images I'd seen before purchasing, it looked so good I thought it was open (it will be), but it is in fact closed and the gaps are just black painted. The lower intake vents are also closed and will require opening up. They are also a little to prominent so I may file them back.

The hinges on the bonnet are not prototypical so the front edge dips into the engine compartment when opened, rather than lifting clear as it should. Unfortunately, I dont think there is room to add realistic hinges as I did on my Ferrari 250 LM upgrade, so I may have to accept it as it is.

The engine is quite a nice representation of the Aston Martin unit, albeit lacking in a number of details and the windscreen wipers are acceptable. There's no sign of any screen wash jets so I'll need to check the refference photos to see where they should be.

The underside is a bit basic and will also benefit from some attention. The engine is missing the gearbox and bell housing and the prop shaft from the engine doesn't line up with the short length from the differential.

The dashboard and steering wheel are quite nice and the door hinges are the push on/pull off type with a spring. Visually they are much better than having a dog leg, but they don't open or closed very smoothly. I think the seats are particularly good having a nice representation to the cushion creases and the black is a nice matt colour very like real automotive leather ( which I came across a lot of in my work before retiring), so I'll leave them as they are. European automotive leather tends to have quite a low gloss level (not dead matt) but certainly not shiny. Over time it would of course polish up and that was one of the challenges for the producers of automotive surface coatings, coming up with a formulation that met all the specs for touch, wear properties etc., but without polishing. No Aston Martin badge on the dash, but the ignition key hole is there. There's no carpets either but I have some dolls house carpets on order and will follow @X-Filer's method of fitting them as he did on his upgrade. I'll use the existing pedals but will modify them so they are mounted from the floor not the firewall.

Nice door cards but they are missing the storage pouch lower down. The handles are mounted from the rear of the cards through openings and will receive some attention to clear the cards and look more realistic. Door windows and frames will of course be added.

The wheels are nicely moulded for what they are (nothing like the prototype) and are cleverly fitted.

When you pull off the knock offs there is a concealed cross head screw, which is a bugger to unscrew with a watch maker's screwdriver as it is so tight and the driver keeps slipping. However, if you remove the tyre you find that the wheel moulding is in two halves and the outer one simply pulls off revealing the screw and allowing the use of a screwdriver with a bigger handle and more grip. Nice of Yatming not to glue them together. I'm replacing the wheels with a set from KK, partly because I can't find any supplier with stock of the correct BBR set and also after having used BBR on my E Type Jag upgrade, I wanted to give them a try. I've not received them yet but will post some comparison photos.

First thing to do is turn it into a kit of parts. Removing the six screws from the base releases the the body and then the rest is straightforward, with the moulded parts fixed on the inside with heat, the melted plastic can be sliced with a chisel blade to release them. A novelty on this model is that the seats are screwed to the cockpit floor. Here are all the bits apart from the main body casting after dismantling. I don't have the patience to lay them all out neatly as some on here do, so sorry about that.

So, on to the butchery starting with the front grill. Here the two mounting stubls have been cut off.

I then rubbed down the rear on Emery paper placed on a flat surface until holes started to appear at the edges of the moulding.

To avoid overdoing it at the edges, the rest was competed using Emery paper glued to a lollipop stick. Tedious and dusty work.

There were two cross members behind the grill that I have cut out with a slitting disc in the mini drill and filled back the stubs. The three lower vents have also had the blanking removed.

And a dry run with the grill in place.

No going back now! I drilled a 0.5mm hole in the boot gap to insert the piercing saw, then tediously and slowly cut out the boot lid. It took me about an hour and six broken blades to do it. The first blade broke after cutting about half an inch and I thought my God, what am I doing? The metal is quite thick and the lid will need quite a bit of thinning before refitting.

And with the masking tape removed. The edge will need tidying up and a flange for the lid to rest on added. Oh, and hinge as well!

And the boot lid after much filing and sanding to thin it down.

Strangely, I've managed to add more than 20 images, plus some I dont want but can't delete, so the system seems to be having a melt down.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[s52z3mc]

Good start.

 

[wet sellery]

Nice project,

You called for Aston Martin logo's Mr. P. ?

Here you go :

1/18 Decal Aston Martin

1/18 Decal Aston Martin de -STEPH- est vendu sur la boutique steph-replicars-fr dans la catégorie Decals

www.steph-replicars.com

1/18 Decal Aston Martin

1/18 Decal Aston Martin de -STEPH- est disponible sur la boutique steph-replicars-fr dans la catégorie Decals

www.steph-replicars.com

1/18 Decal Aston Martin centres de roues

1/18 Decal Aston Martin centres de roues de -STEPH- est vendu sur la boutique steph-replicars-fr dans la catégorie Decals

www.steph-replicars.com

Sincerely

Pascal

 

[P A D]

Many thanks Gents.

Another useful supplier added to my bookmarks Pascal. The decals are already on their way!

I had another look at the front end and there's loads of room to add more realistic hinges and in fact it will be more difficult at the rear. I'll be doing it slightly different this time compared to the hinges I made for the Ferrari 250 LM and E type, but I'm leaving them till later.

The complete engine compartment can be removed from the floor section of the model and from images I've studied of the prototype, it looks very good, albeit lacking a number of details and having chromed cam covers. The sump with the
spuriously located prop shaft is at the top.

To make things easy, the engine breaks down into eight components. This shot from the workbench has been rotated, but guess on which part of the mat most of the work gets done.

X-Filer has done a very nice upgrade of this model here,

The X-Clinic: Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

From the day I received my Aston Martin DB4 GT with the beautiful Zagato bodywork (built by Yat Ming), I thought "this one deserves better". So I've put a hand in this project that should be relatively simple. The changes to undergo are: - Replace taliilights and side indicators with...

www.diecastxchange.com

and his work on the underside of the model is most helpful. However, after scouring t'internet the only other images I could find of the chassis were these of the CMC model. This is the development model.

And the production version. I've brightened the image to make the details clearer.

I know you shouldn't use a model as refference, but as I've nothing else to go on, I'm going to assume that CMC having the resources to research their models, will for the price they charge, get everything spot on. Won't they? From what I've read some high end collectors have found otherwise, but I'm going to use these images as a basis to add more detail to my model. If anybody knows where to find an image of the underside of the real car, a link to it would be much appreciated. So heres what I've done so far.

The sump has been beefed up with the addition of plasticard to the sides to replicate the CMC version and a representation of the bottom of gearbox added from plasticard, 0.5mm brass rod and a short length of tube cut from a Biro pen.

To add the vanes I scribed parallel lines with the spring bow dividers then carefully widened them with the scrawker, before adding the brass rod fixed with CA.

Here's what it looks like in place. A fair bit of carving of the floor pan is needed to get it to fit, as well as a lot of sanding on the top edge of the sump to lower its height (or depth or whatever). English is not my strong point ( or Portuguese, or Dutch, or German, etc,etc). As per CMC, I've also filled in the gap in the lower front body panel and will also paint it red.


Here I've added the front anti roll bar and fixing brackets and made a dry fit with the front and rear axles and exhaust. The moulded brake lines on the floor pan have been carved off and rubbed down ready for separate cables to be added. As you can see I'm not replicating the CMC layout exactly as I've added a short cover to the transmission tunnel behind the gearbox and left the rear cover as is.

Anybody know what those two circular gizmos above the anti roll bar are?

The chromed end of the exhaust is a separate part. It's not too shabby but I'm replacing the tail pipes with these made from bootlace ferrules.

When it comes to replacing the wheels, my preference would have been a set of BBR P02s. However, I cannot find stock anywhere including at BBR, so I considered using set of KK wire wheels. @modifier used them on his upgrade here

1/18 Signature Aston Martin DB4 wheel upgrade

www.diecastxchange.com

and they looked pretty good to me. @X-Files used BBRs on his upgrade so I hope neither of them mind me posting some comparison images from their threads. First a prototype image from the interweb, followed by modifier's model with KK wheels and then X-Filer's with BBRs.

Neither of the wheels sets match the prototype but they both look good to me and are a vast improvement on the shitty Yatming wheels. There was some comment on modifier's thread regarding the profile of the sidewalls on the KKs being too flat and I would agree they do look flatter than the BBRs. However, although I would have gone with BBR had they been available I am happy to use the KKs especially as I was able to get a set for about half of what it would cost for BBR. Heres a comparison of the wheels. The BBR wheel shown here is from the set P01 used on my E Type Jag but apart from the 2 ear wheel nuts are the same as P02s. All dimensions have been added for comparison.

You wouldn't believe from this image that there is only 0.5mm difference in overall tyre width, as the taper towards the tread on the BBR tyres make them look much thinner. Clearly the tyre wall is flatter on the KK wheels as mentioned by X-Filer and the BBR tyres are closer to prototype.

The BBRs are slightly over 2mm larger in diameter along with the sidewall taper and and different tread patterns.

The only thing I overlooked to photograph is how the wheels fit on the car. The machined Al hub on the BBRs rotates in the PE spoke etchings and has an axle fitting hole of 3mm diameter. The wheel nut fixes to a spigot on the outside of the hub so does not rotate with the wheels as it should. Also, the rims are machined Al.

The KK wheels have chromed plastic rims with PE spoke inserts with a plastic hub glued to the rear. You have to come up with your own method to make them rotate but as the wheel nuts are fixed to the PE spoke etching, they will rotate with the wheels. I followed @modifier's method of fitting as he kindly sent me some images of how he did it and so saved me some head scratching. You just need a bush to fit over the plastic axle which is then sealed in place by melting the end with a soldering iron. The bush was cut from Al tube to 3.5mm lenght which with the thickness of the plastic when melted allows the wheel hub to fit without fouling the axle end. Ideally, the OD of the bush should be just slightly smaller than the ID of the hub for a firm sliding fit with no wobble. My bushes are a little too small so I wrapped them with Al tape to thicken them and they work fine.

I'm in the process of reducing the ride height as the smaller diameter wheels give the impression of Bambi on spindly legs!

Cheers,
Pete

 

[P A D]

I lowered the ride height by 2mm front and rear to get this. Much better than it was but it's dipping towards the front slightly.

The prototype looks level.

So further work work at the rear dropped it further about 1mm to get this which I'm happy with.

This is the butchery needed at the front and rear to drop the ride height. 2mm cut off the column in the wheel arch, the lower pin replaced with a lenght of brass rod 2mm longer than the original and a gap filed in the chassis either side to clear the steering rack. It was also necessary to file down the ends of the steering rack and the connecting rod to the front uprights. Subsequently I removed the stop under the gap in the chassis as it was limiting the steering and I also removed the connection to the steering rod as that was fouling the chassis. I probably could have just thinned it down, but as I've mentioned in other threads, having the steering wheel move with the steering doesn't bring a lot to the party for me.

As well as removing @3mm from the mounting columns on the rear axle, I also cut slots in the floorpan just behind the wheel arches and just inboard of the front of the arches.

This shows the increased movement now possible on the front steering. It's a whole lot more than it was and the tyres don't foul the arches. I'll need to make and add the calipers and discs but the wheels can be pulled off easily to facilitate that. Oh, and air vales (not supplied by KK) will need to be added.

The BBR wheels are probably a closer match to the real thing but I'm very happy with the appearance and as I said before, it saved me 20 quid getting the KK wheels.

I wasn't however happy with the width over the tyres which seemed a little too far out to me. It was quite easy to remove 3 of the hubs to rub them down, but the forth was too firmly fixed. I had to remove the tyre and separate the two rim halves to get the PE centres out as it would not have been easy to accurately rub down the inner edge of the hub whilst in the rim. The hub depth is 7mm and I reduced that to 5.5mm. This allowed the wheels to fit further inwards and gave an appearance I was happy with.

Before I start on the difficult task of making and adding the boot and bonnet hinges, I thought I'd have some fun with the engine detailing. Here's where I've got to with that.

The gap in the black paint is where the masking tape was not correctly positioned, but the part for the top of the radiator will cover it. To give the appearance of the plug leads running through the tubes to the plugs, I've drilled a hole in the top of the engine and fed them through there, with sepagshotr lengths running from ghd tube to ghd plugs. The bolt detail on top of the rocker covers was a bit understated so I replaced them with bolts punched from styrene. I'll use Molotow chrome ink to pick out the chromed parts later. Although its not very robust, the parts are not in a position which will suffer from handling and dulling the finish.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

The engine is almost done now. It still needs one or two bits and pieces adding to finish it off, but I couldn't resist a quick mock up. All the leads to the distributors (apart from the coil leads) are done, I've replaced the feed pipes on the carbs with clear "thread" coloured yellow to represent the fuel with Tamiya clear yellow, made and added the wingnuts to tops of the carb, coiled some fine silver wire around the ducting on the right, added some further ducting are the rear left, added missing hose clips and repainted the existing clips and hoses.

The plate to the left of the carbs in this image was chromed, but on prototype images it appears to be Al with chromed fixings so I've repainted it to match that. Nuts on the engine block and rocker covers picked out in chrome along with the plug lead tubes and various filler caps.

The dipstick has been added between the exhaust manifold and some further piping needs to be added on this side along with some touching up of the paintwork.

Looks a bit more business like now.

Does anybody know where the ignition coils were located?

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Porscheuk]

The engine is almost done now. It still needs one or two bits and pieces adding to finish it off, but I couldn't resist a quick mock up. All the leads to the distributors (apart from the coil leads) are done, I've replaced the feed pipes on the carbs with clear "thread" coloured yellow to represent the fuel with Tamiya clear yellow, made and added the wingnuts to tops of the carb, coiled some fine silver wire around the ducting on the right, added some further ducting are the rear left, added missing hose clips and repainted the existing clips and hoses.
View attachment 274269

The plate to the left of the carbs in this image was chromed, but on prototype images it appears to be Al with chromed fixings so I've repainted it to match that. Nuts on the engine block and rocker covers picked out in chrome along with the plug lead tubes and various filler caps.
View attachment 274270

The dipstick has been added between the exhaust manifold and some further piping needs to be added on this side along with some touching up of the paintwork.
View attachment 274271

Looks a bit more business like now.
View attachment 274272


Does anybody know where the ignition coils were located?

Cheers,
Peter

Looks good

 

[P A D]

Thank you Porscheuk.

Well, that's the engine completed. I found some images showing the ignition coils, but as you'd expect with a limited production run of a car built 60 years ago, there are a number of variations. Here's where I've put the left hand one. I've added missing piping to the screen wash bottle, replaced the moulded pipe on that tank behind the coil and added that silver box in the top left corner. There are some wires at the bottom but they can't be seen.

The left hand coil is actually included as part of the moulding to the right of this image but I didn't realise until too late so I could not drill it to attach the cable from the distributor, hence the scratched built one higher up. I can't get at it to cut it off so I've just painted it matt black to hide it.

The braided pipe along the left rocker cover added from the innards of a coaxial cable and the two bottles top left from styrene rod with punched plasticard nuts for the lids. The right hand coil is on the firewall below the distributor and was a bugger to get in and add the cable at this late stage.

The braided cable on the rocker is held at the nuts by loops of fine nickel plated wire. The fixings should be flat loop but that was a bit small in this scale. I see I've missed painting the nut at the left hand end! Correction to the 1st line of the post - well, that's the engine almost completed.

I think is compares pretty favourably with the CMC engine now.

A representation of the throttle lever has been added to the carbs.

Unfortunately, with a front opening bonnet, you wont be able to see this view when its complete.

For the spare wheel I'm going to use this front wheel off the Hotwheels Ferrari 250 LM. I'll remove the knock off nut of course, but it should look the part strapped to the bracket on top of the fuel tank.

It's a little smaller than the KK wheels but that won't be obvious when it's in place.

I've got some grey dolls house carpet for the interior but it's a little on the light side, so I'm going to make some trials spraying dilute Tamiya Matt black to see if I can make it darker. If that doesn't take I'll try dilute Indian ink which I keep for playing with my drawing instrument collection.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[X-Filer]

X-Filer has done a very nice upgrade of this model here,

The X-Clinic: Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

From the day I received my Aston Martin DB4 GT with the beautiful Zagato bodywork (built by Yat Ming), I thought "this one deserves better". So I've put a hand in this project that should be relatively simple. The changes to undergo are: - Replace taliilights and side indicators with...

www.diecastxchange.com

and his work on the underside of the model is most helpful. However, after scouring t'internet the only other images I could find of the chassis were these of the CMC model. This is the development model.
View attachment 273978

And the production version. I've brightened the image to make the details clearer.
View attachment 273979

I know you shouldn't use a model as refference, but as I've nothing else to go on, I'm going to assume that CMC having the resources to research their models, will for the price they charge, get everything spot on. Won't they?

Looking at those photos I now see I've missed a few details... damn, because of you I might have to break my DB4 up again and add some more detail. Opening the grille with sandpaper is a good idea, I have to try that out for myself too. Also, I see I've missed out the gearshift linkage and front anti-roll bar completely...

You should be right regarding CMC... they usually boast about 3D-scanning a real car in order to CAD their models... but in this case I honestly think they must've scanned half a dozen different cars and mashed the data together cause I've never found one single car that remotely resembles the shape and details ofthe CMC. Just take one small example: on each sills there are two small portholes with body-coloured panels meant to jack the car up when necessary... but if you look at the frame jacking points they don't even match with the ports. Therefore, I'd use it like the Pirat'e Code: more like guidelines.

Anybody know what those two circular gizmos above the anti roll bar are?
View attachment 273987

The chromed end of the exhaust is a separate part. It's not too shabby but I'm replacing the tail pipes with these made from bootlace ferrules.

View attachment 273988

I honestly don't know... but if I had to guess, the only thing that I can think of is that those are horns. A bit strange for them to be placed so down low but I've seen quite a lot of strange solutions on car assemblies...

Neither of the wheels sets match the prototype but they both look good to me and are a vast improvement on the shitty Yatming wheels. There was some comment on modifier's thread regarding the profile of the sidewalls on the KKs being too flat and I would agree they do look flatter than the BBRs. However, although I would have gone with BBR had they been available I am happy to use the KKs especially as I was able to get a set for about half of what it would cost for BBR. Heres a comparison of the wheels. The BBR wheel shown here is from the set P01 used on my E Type Jag but apart from the 2 ear wheel nuts are the same as P02s. All dimensions have been added for comparison.
View attachment 273998

View attachment 273997

You wouldn't believe from this image that there is only 0.5mm difference in overall tyre width, as the taper towards the tread on the BBR tyres make them look much thinner. Clearly the tyre wall is flatter on the KK wheels as mentioned by X-Filer and the BBR tyres are closer to prototype.
View attachment 273993

The BBRs are slightly over 2mm larger in diameter along with the sidewall taper and and different tread patterns.
View attachment 273996

Haha, funny... I knew BBR made their tyres with the Dunlop Sport thread but now I see KK did the Michelin XWX... I'm not sure when it was first introduced but I'm pretty sure it's later than the 1960s. Still they look to me a bit to flat-sided for a vintage tyre and the fact that the thread is so perpendicular to the walls doesn't help, there should be a bit of curvature around the shoulders IMO. Oh, and it the KK are supposed to mimmick Borrani wire wheels, the spoke count is too low, the BBR is bang-on correct with 72.

I guess looking at the pictures, particularly mine, one might ask himself "why did he retain the original, oversized, knock-offs?" Well, that's because, first of all, when I bought this set, I was sent a wrong one wit the 2-ear knock-offs and second the BBR's Borranis have the centre lobe convex while the DB4 GTZ's are concave. But I know, they're a bit too large for the wheel's size.

View attachment 274113

The gap in the black paint is where the masking tape was not correctly positioned, but the part for the top of the radiator will cover it. To give the appearance of the plug leads running through the tubes to the plugs, I've drilled a hole in the top of the engine and fed them through there, with sepagshotr lengths running from ghd tube to ghd plugs.

Sorry, couldn't help myself: when I red this, I just thought the car walked through your keyboard when were writing this and went to the loo and when you got back you just kept on going. It made me laugh! 🤣 🤣

BTW: love the engine. There's one detail I'll be improving on mine one day and that's the fuel lines to the carburettors, I kept the original yellow-painted plastic bits but since then I found some thin clear tube that I'll be tinting Tamiya Clear Yellow like you did and replace them. On the other hand, the Eagle from Albufeira spotted a tiny small detail ou got wrong: you placed the distributor plug leads vertical to the distributor axle when they should be perpendicular:

And where did you get those wingnuts? They're gorgeous! Let me guess: you scratchbuilt them from copper...

Keep it up!!

 

[P A D]

Hi João,
Sorry if I've induced you to revisit your model and add further details. Luckily the construction is very user friendly in terms of taking it apart and making mods, so it should not be too onerous. Imagine if you had to do it with a model such as the Looksmart Ferrari 488 that @wetsellery is doing? Nightmare!

Regarding the CMC model, as well as combining the characteristics from various 1960s cars, I think that they may have included details from the sanction II/sanctions III models as well. Still its beautifully done. I'll still be taking one or two more ideas from underside detail in the full knowledge that they may not be 100% correct.

On the fuel lines, I think they should be a little opaque so I'm going to try mixing a small amount of white into the clear yellow. I'll try it on a separate piece of the crystal string first to see how it looks. I'm glad you like the wingnuts on the carbs. There're a little too large and are not on every car, but hey it's a detail you just have to include.

On the distributors, the Eagle has spoken! I thought I saw them like that on one of the images of DB4Zs, but I think it may have been the set up on another model (maybe DB4 or DB5). By the time I realised it was wrong I'd already done it. I knew you'd spot it. Still, if cock ups are good enough for CMC, they're good enough for me.

One final comment on the KK wheels is that the knock offs are closer to the ones on the DB4Z than those on BBR as you mentioned.

I spotted this little publication going for a few quid on Ebay, that has a very interesting article on the DB4Z.

I've already found out a couple of things that I didnt know before but I need to study the images and the article further. One interesting point is that the car had an oil cooler below the radiator visible in some images throught the large duct below the front grill. When I added the PE radiator front, I extended it to the floor panel as I thought that was what is visible throught the duct. No problem as it looks like the oil cooler any way.

Here's the self adhesive doll's house carpet with a portion over sprayed with dilute Tamiya matt black to darken it.

And during fitting. I wrapped the side portions over the edge to give a neat joint between the carpet and the sills.

I'll be adding a strip of Al tape to represent the chromed cover plate on top of the sills.

The carpeting in these cars was in separate segments and I've tried to represent the edging with vinyl cable. I'm not sure how successful it is but I'm keeping it. I originally carpeted the small storage area behind the seats, but some cars just have this area covered in leather or maybe Rexine, plus some chromed fitting for strapping down the luggage, so I've removed the carpet. Come to think of it, Rexine (faux leather) would have been too cheapskate for an up market brand like AM, so it's more likely the luggage area was leather covered, when not carpeted.

The doors handles on many of the DB4Zs were concealed mechanisms operated by a push button and I found these images by chance on Ebay. Hopefully I can replicate them (non working of course).

Looks like the centre portion popped out when the button was pushed.

And an image from on a car.

I'm not sure if any cars had the handles as supplied on the model as it comes. Some had a small loop that you could only get one or two fingers around with a push button to the rear to release the door catch, as shown in the image on the magazine above.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[wet sellery]

Nice work Peter.

The carpet looks a bit to "plush" in the macro photos.

But in the last photo of the body, it looks just right.

This will be another beauty when done.

Sincerely

Pascal

 

[P A D]

Thank you Pascal.

Yes I agree, the carpet is too plush, but all I could find was carpeting aimed at doll's houses and architectural models, so it was that or nothing. I didn't fancy flocking but will have to give it a go sometime. I've not posted for a while as I've been busy with other things and the time I've spent on the model has been mostly wasted on the boot lid. No matter what shape of hinges I made or where I positioned them, I could not get the top edge of the lid to clear the bodywork sufficiently on opening. After several goes at it, I decided to cut my losses and file it in the "fcuk it bucket".

I've now reinstated the boot lid as it was and moved on. I'm undecided on whether to replace the hinges on the bonnet so am leaving that for now. Despite the time wasted on the boot, I've still made some progress. The steering wheel is quite nice as it comes but lacks the rivet detail on the rim. Rather than just add dots of silver paint, I'm going to add strips of Al rod (or nickel silver if I can't get Al), so to facilitate that I marked out and drilled the wheel. I made a template on paper using a protractor to aid positioning holes before drilling. These were drilled by hand with the pin vice as my proxxon drill spins too fast on the slowest speed and would have melted the plastic. Hopefully I can get some rod later today.

These are their replacement side lights spun up in the proxxon from perspex rod and coloured with Tamiya clear red or orange as appropriate. They been wrapped in Al tape to represent the chrome rims.

I felt the tailpipes extended too far out from the rear so modified the rear fitting to set them closer in.

On the rear axle I've added the missing strengthening struts ahead of the axle and the Watt's linkage behind it.

Materials used were copper rod, brass strip and plasticard.

The disc overlays and calipers have been made from plasticard. Metal washers would have been a good option for the discs as mentioned by others on here, but I didn't have any of a suitable size. The rear discs are smaller.

The silencer on some examples were chromed so I've covered them with Bare Metal foil.

Other details added are the brake pipes and fuel filter.

The gear linkage and and some brake unions have been added from styrene rod and some spare parts (yet to be painted) along with the brake lines and fuel pipe. The heat shield under the exhaust was made from tin plate.

I've gleamed the details from a mix of refference images, @X-Filer's upgrade of this model and an underside view of the CMC model from the internet. There's some touching up to be done and one or two bolt heads to be replaced.

Some touching up of the boot is needed but it should be OK when done.

I gave the whole body a good rub down with fine medium/ polishing compound to remove some paint rash and various fine scratches from handling and then gave it a polish up. The front Aston Martin badge has been lost in the process but I have some replacements from Steph Replicars as recommended by @wet sellery.

These are the AM badges along with some Ferrari stuff from Steph's.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

Yesterday I had a short session refitting the headlights and replacement side lights. These are some real front side lights recently offered for sale on Ebay. Note the "terraced" appearance from front to rear.

When turning the replacements in the mini drill I found that if I held the file I was using to create the domes at a certain angle, it formed circular grooves. Rather than smooth these off with a finer file, I left them in place to give a better replication of the actual lights. I just got lucky as the combination of the cut of the file and the angle held gave quite a pleasing result. As mentioned earlier the lights were given a coat of Tamiya clear and wrapped in Al tape to represent the chrome surrounds. The headlight covers were missing some chrome on the rims so I recovered with Bare Metal foil. This adhesive backed foil is softer and thinner than the Al tape, so for areas that have curves in more than one plane, it conforms much better to the contours. I've also wrapped the rim of the front grill with it as there were one or two blanks in the chrome on that as well. It's good stuff so if you haven't used it before I would recommend giving it a try. It's not quite as bright as the original chrome but it polishes up pretty close.

I've still to add the small triangular fixing clamps to the bottom edge of the light covers and for that I'll use the Al tape.

And the rear lights. The chome trim housing the number plate light also had a small reversing light so I'll be adding that later from thin clear plastic.

T'other side. The trim around the side windows is just silver paint so I'll be cover that in Bare Metal foil.

On the underside, I've touched up the unpainted details to complete that area.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[wet sellery]

Lovely work Peter.

Those circular grooves are a very nice touch and a great addition to the model.

 

[P A D]

Thank you Pascal.

I'd like to say the grooves were the result of my skills, but as I said, I got lucky with the first one by chance. Still it's a bonus I'll take after the disappointment with the boot hinges not working out.

Speaking of hinges, I've decided to leave the bonnet as it is other than spraying it matt black on the inside. This model is so easy to dismantle, I may come back to that in the future if I run out of projects to occupy me, but I want to complete this now and move on go the next one. I'll pick out the bonnet stops at the edges in matt black, a la @X-Filer, as it's a nice touch.

I've rechromed the trim around the guttering, side windows and doors with Bare Metal foil and it really improves the look over the silver paint applied in the production. The side windows were chromed to start with but chipped and needed repairs, but the front and rear windows were fine as they came. The trim on the side vents has also been rechromed as they were also chipped.

My attemps at making the concealed door handles were not successful so I'm sticking with the incorrect ones from Yatming as they look OK.

At the rear, I've added the lens to the reversing light from clear plastic. The boot is less than perfect I know, but I'll chalk that one up to experience.

As mentioned in the last post I've repaired the chrome on the grill surround with the Bare Metal. This low down view shows off the oil cooler through the lower opening and the radiator can just be seen through the grill. The grill is just loose fit and needs to be set nearer the rim of the aperture when finally fixed.

Al tape has been added to the sills to represent the chromed wear plate.

And a representation of the storage pouch in the door card added from plasticard. The outer faces of the door card have been painted red as on the prototype, but some touching up is required. Door windows and frames are still to be added, as is a piece of carpet to cover the central floor pan screw mounts. With hindsight, I should have ground these off as the screws at the front and rear are more than sufficient to hold the floor in place. As Pascal mentioned earlier, the carpet looks too plush in these close up images, but is OK from normal viewing distances.

Not looking too shabby now I think.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

Well, it's all done now bar some further corrective work on the reinstated boot lid which I'll come to lower down. Here are a few images of the final additions to the interior.

Adding nickel silver rod to the holes drilled in the steering to represent the rivets holding the outer wood faces to the Aluminium rim.

After trimming, rubbing smooth and polishing, you get this.

And this.

I mixed up a "wood colour" from Tamiya acrylics and gave the rim several coats to build up the colour over the bare plastic areas. I carefully scraped the paint off the rivets between each coat while they were still visible. Not the best of images, but you get the idea.

On the dashboard, I picked out the various chrome trims in Molotow ink and added the pull/push switches from brass rivets.

And after adding the heater control switches from smaller rivets with the heads flattened in a pair of pliers. Unfortunately I overlooked to take a photo after painting and before installing in the car.

This shows the representation of the storage pouches in the door cards from plasticard and copper wire.

And the competed doors with windows and frames added from 1mm perspex sheet and Bare Metal chrome.

Although not that visible, I've added the stowage strap mounts to the luggage area, two at the rear, two at the front and one each side, made from nickel silver rod.

This shows the replacement Aston Martin badge at the rear from the decals supplied by Steph Replicars. (Thanks again Pascal for pointing me to this supplier). As can be seen, the gap around the reinstated boot lid is not good and I've been pondering how to improve it. I'm going to fill it with tiling grout and then repaint when dry. As it's water based I can easily wipe away any excess with a damp cloth as you would when grouting tiles. Being white, the red paint should cover easily. That's the plan anyway.

And the front badge. Al tape was used to make the clamp at the bottom of the headlamp surround. The grill has now been glued in place using "heavy duty" PVA. I used this to allow time to set the position correctly and because of the ease of removing any glue that oozed out.

This image shows the side and front stowage strap mounts.

Here's a view of the dashboard with the doors off. The pedals have been relocated from the firewall to the floor, mounted on nickel silver rod. A replacement dashboard stalk (plus an additional one) added from nickel silver rod and the same for the gear change lever.

And from the other side. For the next car that needs carpeting, I must find a better source for the carpet or give flocking a go.

Windscreen wipers refitted along with the washer jets added from small hex bolts.

Tyre treads have been sanded and air valves added from nickel silver rod.

And some shots in the sun.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[X-Filer]

Great job as always, Peter! Loved how you did the pouches on the door cards and, obviously, the window frames are so much better than on mine (that's actually somethingI will eventually redo). The solution for the indicators and taillights was spot on and the push buttons on the dashboard sure give it an extra feel of detail!

 

[BK1]

Fantastic work as always!

I'm going to fill it with tiling grout and then repaint when dry. As it's water based I can easily wipe away any excess with a damp cloth as you would when grouting tiles.

Will tiling grout stick to metal? I'd think a body filler would be more bondable to metal, no?

 

[P A D]

Thank you João and BK1.

As to grout sticking to metal, I see no reason why not. It's in a small gap, will not be subject to flexing or vibration so I see no reason why it won't adhere and be durable. Sure if I was doing it on a bare metal body, then a two part car filler would be what I'd use. However, as it's painted I wanted something where the excess would easy to remove. In the end I didn't have any grout to hand so I used Polyfiller. It's a brand of filler used for filling cracks in interior walls during home decoration, but I reckon it's a similar compound to tile grout. Here's the result before painting.

And after one coat of Tamiya lacquer paint LP21 brushed directly onto the dried filler.

I'll give it another coat tomorrow and after that's dry I'll run a lead pencil around groove to give the impression of a gap to finish things off. It's not going to be back to where it was before I cut out the boot lid, but it's already a whole lot better than it was this morning before I filled the gap.

I think in future I'm going to steer clear of models that are not fully opening, as it's too much work cutting out such a large area, then to find that I can't make it open properly.

I bought a Chrono DB5 cheaply with the intention of doing the same thing, but because of the way it's constructed and the thickness of the metal it would have been very difficult to remove the boot lid so I abandoned that idea. To be honest, although it has some good points, I was quite disappointed with the overall quality of the Chrono model (on top of the sealed boot) particularly the engine and the underside detail. Then I discovered a fully opening Ertl version going cheap on Fleabay, so now I'm going to make an Ertl/Chrono hybrid DB5. The wheels are crap but the engine is very good and the underside is much better. Here's a taster of the build as I've already had a play with it and fitted the much better Chrono wheels onto the Ertl.

Since this photo I've lowered the ride height at the rear by 2mm and will do the same at the front. Apart from missing wing mirrors it was complete, but I've already removed many of the parts in preparation for stripping the paint. I've discovered that one DB5 was painted Ferrari Red and if you've followed any of my other threads on here, you'll know how much I like red cars. 😁

João, before you mention it, I know I still haven't painted the rubber stops for the bonnet or added the additional driving lights that we spoke about, but I'll get to those.

Cheers,
Pete

 

[BK1]

As to grout sticking to metal, I see no reason why not. It's in a small gap, will not be subject to flexing or vibration so I see no reason why it won't adhere and be durable.

Ah, I didn't realize you were re-sealing the trunk. I thought you were adding material to the trunk to create a better fit.