Need some creative help here...

I'm building this S10 for a customer, for Christmas:

http://www.enormouslysideways.net/tigeraid/s10_phil.jpg

Everything's hunky-dory, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to make the billet grille. I had tried cutting out the stock grille on another S10 I was building months ago, and putting in several very thin pieces of strip styrene--not only did it end up kinda goofy looking (some of them weren't very straight) but there was only maybe 6 of them--there's clearly a dozen or so slats in that grille.

Any suggestions guys?

hello,

I may have an idea... but I don't really know how to explain it with english words ! :confused:
let's try...

You need thin styrene sheets, i think 0.5 and 1 mm

- cut 12 plates 1 cm large in the 0.5mm sheet and 11 plates 0,5 cm large in the 1mm sheet, all of hole lenght.
- align all plates on left edge and glue (by alternating large and narrow plates), you will have on right edge something close to the effect you need once you'll have painted all the part in black and in aluminium all edges representing the grille...

That's my (poor) solution ! :grinyes:
some one may have better one.

Phil

How about thin sheet metal, like from a photo etch fret.

Or go to Home Depot and get some aluminum or copper flashing and learn to work sheet metal very carefully.

Did you look at Flyonthewall's Lancia Stradale WIP, he shows how to do this very effectively.

Sorry rallymaster, you totally lost me :uhoh:

freakray: I've seen his thread, he appears to have done the rear grille with thin styrene the same way I did this one... or am I missing something?

I thnk what rallymaster means is something somolar to how Flyonthewall scratch built the wing mirrors on his Stradale. Sandwiching wider and thinner strips of styrene creates a corrugated effect - but won't be "see through".

Also check out how auw_12 made his grill for his 612 and check out hirofkd's Mustang/transformer thread. - they both have very good illustrations and ideas of doing similar things.

IMO styrene sheet is going to be the quickest and easiest method.

Would be great if you could find something like this to start out with:

http://www.modelcargarage.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=344

Is there anything available like this from the armor or railroad guys?

I see in the picture that there are 13 horizontal elements, and each gap seem to be a little wider.

So, take 0.3 mm styrene sheet for the horizontal elements and assume 0.5 mm for each gap, you get 0.3 x 13 + 0.5 x 14 (including both top and bottom gaps) = 10.9 mm. Let's say that's the height of the grille you want to make.

1) make a jig (light blue for 0.3 mm, green for 0.5mm styrene)
2) insert horizontal plates of 0.3 mm
3) glue a strip of narrow styrene (yellow piece) and wait until the glue is completely dry.
4) carefully side the grills sideways and add another back piece.
5) repeat (4) as many times as you need, then finish the other end
6) remove the jig
7) trim excess styrene with a very sharp hobby knife.

As you can see, the ends don't even have to be properly aligned because you'll be removing those excess plastic anyway. This is the fastest, easiest and cheapest method I can think of.

There are many thicknesses of styrene in the market, so using the right combination, you should be able to make the correct height of the S10 grille.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b258/hirofkd/misc/grille.gif
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/2825grill-med.gif

Nice explanation Hiro :)

use pop can aluminum, doubled over on itself and cut to about .75mm from front to back then use Hiro's method to build the grill and have it REALLY shiny.

Nice explanation Hiro :)
Yes it is, I think I'm gonna try this myself sometime.

Fascinating... I get it now.

Having said that, someone else mentioned just using a piece of sheet styrene and scoring the lines manually. I'm going to try that first just based on the time it would take. If it doesn't work work out, I'll definitely try the jig ;) .

Yes it is, I think I'm gonna try this myself sometime.
^ you aint the only one!:p

I thnk what rallymaster means is something somolar to how Flyonthewall scratch built the wing mirrors on his Stradale. Sandwiching wider and thinner strips of styrene creates a corrugated effect - but won't be "see through".

Exactly ! :grinyes: sorry for my bad explanation... :headshake


After having done this part, you can also try to cut off the styrene between front edges.

If you have a tamiya 205 T16 just look at the rear opening bonnet, you'll see that only 2 of its 4 airoutlet lines are opened; I opened the 2 others bye passing a scalpel into the lines to open. That works very weel.

You might be able to use this trick with the method I described (if you better understand it...) paying attention not to cut all the lenght (in this case strips would be separate again)

But Hiro solution seems to be better ! I knew someone would have better solution (and especially explanations !) :grinyes:

Bye
Phil

hey john, if you score a solid piece, you could then remove sme material from the back, leaving vertical strips to hold it all together. though, I think a saw would yield better results making a deeper, wider, more realistic opening.

that's true, a saw might...

Unfortunately, I'm running out of time to do this build, so I'm just using the old grille I made for the other V8 S10 project I had... just sort of fixing it to look better. It has 7 slats... good nuff. The customer showed up way too late for this, and he stressed he doesn't care about the minor details...

Which is hard for me, being a perfectionist, but I simply don't have the time. Still looks pretty good, either way.

I just went through this problem with my gt350 project which is currently on hold. What i did was cut out several pieces of .020 styrene in the general shape needed to make the slats. It's best to keep the backs as straight as possible. I then cut thin strips of the same .020 styrene for spacers and glued them on top of each slat flush with the rear. The spacers are roughly 1/4-1/3 the height of the slats. I then taped off the top of the spacer and the bottom of the slat where the next spacer will be glued. I took them outside and painted them semi gloss black. Once dried I took them back inside and glued them together trying to keep the backsides flush with eachother. Once the glue is set take a larger fine file and shape as needed. Once the desired shape is achieved sand with 200 grit. there will be a burr on the top and bottom of each slat that will have to be cleaned with a fresh exacto blade. after that paint with what ever chrome like paint you desire with a brush. depending on the shape of the grille it could be done in a few hours. Probably quicker for you though.

I plan on posting some pics after the weekend.

Exactly ! :grinyes: sorry for my bad explanation... :headshake There was nothing wrong with your explaination.
It was obviously clear enough since I understood what you meant. Communication is a 2-way street.



1) make a jig (light blue for 0.3 mm, green for 0.5mm styrene)
2) insert horizontal plates of 0.3 mm
3) glue a strip of narrow styrene (yellow piece) and wait until the glue is completely dry.
4) carefully side the grills sideways and add another back piece.
5) repeat (4) as many times as you need, then finish the other end
6) remove the jig
7) trim excess styrene with a very sharp hobby knife.

As you can see, the ends don't even have to be properly aligned because you'll be removing those excess plastic anyway. This is the fastest, easiest and cheapest method I can think of.
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/2825grill-med.gif
:worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy :worshippy

There was nothing wrong with your explaination.
It was obviously clear enough since I understood what you meant. Communication is a 2-way street.

Well I hope I didn't come off as insulting, I certainly didn't mean it that way. I simply didn't understand the second half of his explanation...

:wink: Quote:
Originally Posted by klutz_100
There was nothing wrong with your explaination.
It was obviously clear enough since I understood what you meant. Communication is a 2-way street.


Well I hope I didn't come off as insulting, I certainly didn't mean it that way. I simply didn't understand the second half of his explanation...

Hi guys,
No problem, don't worry ! :thumbsup:
I was the first hoping I would be understood cos' I know my English could be sometimes hazy...! :wink:
that's NEVER insulting to say you didn't understand some of my explanation when even myself doubt to be well understood ! :wink:

Phil
back on highway of communication :grinyes: :iceslolan