Build of Testors Lincoln Mint 1932 Ford Roadster, kit no. 7121
11/30/14
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Here's what I am working on now. This is the front suspension and exhaust. You can see the instructions are pretty rudimentary and sometimes confusing as to the attachment points and alignment. But it moves pretty quickly. Less detailing here, mostly just black washing or dry brushing.
The engine has been attached to the chassis so next up are the linkages, hubs etc. Most of these parts are chrome plated.
Not much to do with these linkages other than black washing around the simulated nuts and bolts
Linkage installed. You can see the black wash effect here, it's subtle but adds some extra detail. All these parts are attached with super glue. I use extra thick and use a pin to apply small drops to the areas that need it. The thick cylinder at the right of the frame is the attachment point for the wheel hubs. They do not get glued, a pin secures each of the hubs so they can turn.
This is the power steering rack. It's chrome plated so more black wash to bring out the detail. The two pins you see are supposed to catch the bottom of the steering column so the front wheels can be "steered" with the steering wheel. I have my doubts about the engineering of this mechanism but we'll see. The big chrome lug in the background is another piece of waste from the injection moulding process. This will be removed and leave another blemish in the chrome plating. It's very sloppy design.
Here's one of the wheel hubs attached to the front axle. The hole for the pin needs to be reamed out just a little and the plastic pin needs a light sanding to remove rough spots. My gargantuan tweezers are holding one of the steering rack pins. Before I got to this step I had to thread the steering rack into the chassis which proved a little difficult...
Here's the steering gear attached to the wheel hub. The steering gear goes through the front axle linkage on each side and then must be held in place for the pin to be fitted. It takes patience.
Here's the steering gear and wheel hubs in place. It was easier to work on some of this with the chassis upside down. Next step is to fit the steering column since it has to engage the steering gear. But wait, none of it lines up! So I remove the pins and take the steering gear out to try to coax it all into place.
You can see the tight fit here. I had the best luck ditching the instructions here and putting the steering column in first then gently coaxing the steering gear pins into place by lightly bending the steering gear. It's finicky.
The exhaust pipes are two simple chromed pieces. I could have painted the mufflers red or painted the molded clamps but I didn't. I just glued them into place after first dry fitting them and shaving off some of the attachment pins for better fit. But...
The alignment of the two tailpipes is way off. This is very typical of what I remember plastic models being like. I think I'll end up heating the left exxhaust pipe and slightly bending it up. Probably hold it over a candle to soften it up a little. That will be done in my next session.
Here's where we are at up to this point. So far it looks pretty good. The black wash certainly has given it some character. Looking ahead to the next step we see the rear axle and driveshaft will be installed.
These parts are metal and have some nice detail molded in so they will need some painting and dry brushing to really make them shine. That's next!
Next: Painting and attaching the rear axle and driveshaft
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