1930's Blower Bentley Advice Please

[DarrenGR]

Hi guys,

Looking to tackle the 1/12 scale airfix kit, with a little bit of improvement (I hope!) here and there. However, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to replicate the vinyl body of the car. Anyone got any suggestions??

Oh, and anyone know how to get hold of sms faux fabrix in the UK??

TIA!

Darren

[Veyron]

I have that kit also....if my memory is correct the 'fabric' part of the body has a molded texture for it. I have seen one of these cars in person and the fabric is very tightly bound to the car and tightly woven.

I plan to paint the fabric texture on the body with a flat BRG or just paint it with Tamiya's BRG and then flat coat over that section. There isn't much you can realistically do to improve the kit texture in that scale IMO.

[DarrenGR]

Hi Veyron,

I'll have to check it out - I was going from memory too - when I built the car when I were a lad - when it came with the motor!!! That kit unfortunately got broken when a friend of the family's kid decided to play with it in my absence, resulting in the serious decimation of my kit collection at the time!! Had to say good bye to the Bentley, a 1909 (I think) Rolls Royce, Porsche 911, and large scaled Harrier Jump Jet, Stuka, and Spitfire! Not a good day for me!!!

If it is already textured then that may help. Thinks I'm going to have to do the same re BRG flatted. Are you going to use Tamiya or auto paint?

Darren

[Veyron]

I will definitely use Tamiya's BRG, it's one of Tamiya's better formulas.

[AmazonSprite]

Originally Posted by Veyron

I have that kit also....if my memory is correct the 'fabric' part of the body has a molded texture for it. I have seen one of these cars in person and the fabric is very tightly bound to the car and tightly woven.

I plan to paint the fabric texture on the body with a flat BRG or just paint it with Tamiya's BRG and then flat coat over that section. There isn't much you can realistically do to improve the kit texture in that scale IMO.

It's not fabric, so there's no weave! The material used is actually leather cloth (a posh name for vinyl), so if there's a suitibly scaled moulded in leather grain, that will be more than sufficient. As for the finish, matt or a matt / satin mix would be a good replication imho, as it should have a slight sheen.

[DarrenGR]

Cheers for that Veyron - will check out the tamiya paint range

AmazonSprite - you are of course correct - something like this then?? http://www.mediamixhobby.com.sg/cata...oducts_id=3217

Not sure how it would work, but may be worth a go - any other suggestions for scale leathercloth??

[Veyron]

Hmmm...I must be confusing my memory of the texture on real car with what's on the kit. I'll check my pics of the real thing later.

[DarrenGR]

Here's a shot Veyron, not too clear, but you can see the big difference



I'm pretty sure there were some shots of one in a museum somewhere in a thread, yup, this was it

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...hlight=bentley

You can see in the shots on page 2 the bodt of the car is in leathercloth

[Veyron]

Yup, real car leather on bodywork, I stand corrected. So semi gloss is in order, or real leather if you're going for max realism.

[protarguy]

Hi Darren,

try this link:
http://www.wworkshop.net/

Master model builder Gerald Wingrove builds the Bentley
scratch from metal. Very good source for many details..

I built mine some years ago and was able to make many improvement to
the Airfix kit. First: Get rid of the clear plastic "mesh" that should depict
the stoneguards on the headlamps and for the windscreen. Replace them with "real" wire mesh.
I painted my body with Revell Primer as a base, the primer has a very "textured" surface- bad for highgloss finishes- good for this project.
Then I jused semigloss custom mixed BRG on it. The glossy metal parts were
covered with Tamiya BRG form a spray can.

Here is another link for a WIP report from me( with bad pics)
http://www.pmc-bodensee.de/hoffmann/bentley/bentley.htm
and:
http://www.pmc-bodensee.de/hoffmann/...entley_eng.htm

Hope it helps...

Uli

[cinqster]

Darren,

This link will take you to a pdf on the Airfix build but you have to pay for it to be downloaded as a hi-res article. The model was built by Tony Allen and is the most inspirational build that I've ever seen of this kit.

http://www.modelersite.com/Mar2001/E...entley_Eng.htm

[DarrenGR]

Uli,

Thanks a lot for those great links - reminds me of the guy who built the sharknose ferrari from scratch - unbelievable skill there. And great work on your Bentley too - thank you for the info and will certainly refer to you when I start my build.

cinqster - thanks for that link - I have the pdf file of the build too and all of it is certainly inspirational!

Thanks again guys!!

Darren

[protarguy]

Darren,
I found some pics of my Bentley:




You can see the reworked stoneguards on the headlamps and the scratchbuilt stoneguard on the carbs. The tires have
a bad fit on the wheels.
Also note the difference between the glossy hood and the satin matte body.


Next time I will respoke the wheels...






Here is a shot of the engine with heat resitant covered spark plug cables and some extra wiring.

If you compare the 1/24 Heller kit of the Blower Bentley with the big Airfix kit there is not much difference in the details.

Have fun!

Uli

[DarrenGR]

Hi again Uli,

Great shots and a lovely build. I hope to make as good a job of mine! I would like to have a go at lacing the wheels as that would make a huge difference to the overall look. The other place would be in the bonnet, but I don't have the tooling to make and cut the louvres, so I think I'll probable leave that for now!

Will certainly use your tips on painting the fabric parts of the body - that really works well!

I'll post up a WIP once I get everything in order and ready to go!

Darren

[cinqster]

Hi Darren,

Forgot to mention the tyres - mine were very badly distorted from new and I managed to get Airfix to select a good set from their factory for me a few years back - guess you can't do that now though? The fit can be improved upon, IIRC, Tony Allen filled his with 3 core cable to fill them out a bit.

My top detailing tip is to use steel wound guitar strings for the cabling to the rear lights and for some of the engine compartment wiring. Check out your local music shop - there's a guage that's absloutely perfect for that period conduit look!

Mine is yet another of my just started/unfinished projects. I wanted to build the kit stripped out without lights and fenders as Birkin's Pau GP car - there's a great shot of him somewhere, post race sat on the car. I came to a halt because I couldn't find a decent solution to make the engine turned dash - hopefully a milling machine will sort that one soon. I did get as far as re-spoking the wheels, but I didn't make spoke nipples which kind of annoys me now! I'll try to get some pctures up at the weekend so you can see the improvement.

Nice choice of Italian classic BTW. I used to have a chipped 16v Turbo Thema - very lairy!