Airfix 1/12 4.5 Litre Bentley Blower

[Bigfoot57]

Hello again been a few weeks since I last posted as I had to move and set up everything again which has taken up most of my time so now I can relax and restart my modelling again
So what have we got well as the title says it’s an Airfix 1/12 Bentley Blower which I know has been done to death on numerous occasions with some builders literally scrapping most of the model to scratch build more accurate parts
Mine will not be like that I will add detail where I think it makes the model look better but this will not be a rivet counters model I do not sand off nuts and bolts etc just so I can then glue on more accurate ones only to have them fall off several months later as the glue dries out and losses it’s ability to hold the part I've been there before with my DB5 build as of now it has lost at least 4 of those acorn nuts I purchased for the head cover whereas if I had left the moulded ones on they would still be there as there would be nothing to come unstuck
So with that thought in mind here are the obligatory sprue shots

I won’t bore you with the engine construction as you can see it’s very basic and will need a lot of work to make it look like and engine so where do we start
1st off spark plug leads there ain’t any so that will be my next task which after several attempts using cloth covered wire i abandoned as the cloth kept unravelling so it was pvc wire painted in matt white to simulate the old style type of wiring that would be in use at that time
Next I made some fuse / junction boxes to attach the leads from the spark plugs to the distributors this was a small piece of blockboard with holes drilled to accept the incoming & outgoing leads
[ATTACH]437801[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437801[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437802[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437803[/ATTACH]
And for the end of this stage I painted various pipe work and engine parts to make a more representative look to the engine

Regards

Colin

[Jim R]

Hi Colin
Perhaps one of the most iconic kits out there. I know it goes for silly prices.
Nice start. The engine is looking great.
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Not seen one of these built before. Should be good…..

[Bigfoot57]

Airfix 1/12 4.5 Litre Bentley Blower Part 2

My next part was the construct the main fuel tank so I could assemble the main chassis in which the supercharger engine & gearbox could be fitted so further work could be undertaken with additional detailing
The fuel tank itself I’ve left as is I know people who sand off all the detail to add their own strapping pipe work & wire meshing all I’ve done is added some additional fixings along the the top using some 2 mm long pieces of wire to resemble catches
I then attached the circular racing number plate before adding the decal & used microsol’s setting solutions to make the decal adhere to the surface when it had dried then hand painted over the decal just for additional realism as this covered over the decal film that is usually prevalent especially on black backgrounds
The number plate took hours & several retouches to get to the state seen here
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Next up the 2 front seats the backs of these were made of some sort of compressed material fabric and as such had a completely different texture to the leather on the other parts
To simulate this I covered the backs in 180 grit sandpaper then painted it green it gave a different sort of texture just what I wanted
[ATTACH=full]437827[/ATTAC[ATTACH]437831[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437830[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437829[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437828[/ATTACH]

The final bit tonight was to wrap cotton around the suspension leaf springs to simulate what they actually did to the race cars in an attempt I presume to stiffen the suspension
There’s about 100ft of cotton on each spring
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And finally for good measure I picked out all the nuts on the chassis & differential in aluminium just for a bit of contrast in reality they would probably been blackish from the dirt & oil
I also added the tachometer cable from the front of the engine where it would be driven by a cogged arrangement and the wire that you can see is an old guitar string as it has nickle wound around it which resembles the sort of cable that would be used to power the tachometer this piece of wire will be terminated at a latter stage and go into a connector on the engine firewall

Regards

Colin

[Tim Marlow]

Good progress Colin. Interesting about the springs as well. Great thing about a build like this is you get to see how the real thing was designed and built.

[Steve Brodie]

Now thats a trip down memory lane, didnt they do a version of this with working headlights ?

[adt70hk]

Great work so far Colin.

Love the sandpaper idea. A great solution.

ATB.

Andrew

[Bigfoot57]

[ATTACH]437891[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437890[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437889[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437888[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437887[/ATTACH]Airfix 1/12 4.5 Litre Bentley Blower Part 3

Next up the rear lights which I did not like the way Airfix just stuck them on the back of the fuel tank
My idea after a bit of research was to make a angle bar to which the lights could be mounted on and after several attempts I came up with this
1st off a rough sketch of what I wanted to achieve [ATTACH]437869[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437870[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437871[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437872[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437873[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437874[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437875[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437876[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437877[/ATTACH][ATTACH]437878[/ATTACH]
A small piece of brass bent into a square u shape to which I added a couple of cut cable ties and I then used the fastening end of the ties as the mounting point for the lights
Added some wire to simulate cabling and then glued the assembled part onto the rear of the chassis and added a couple of small wood off cuts to represent the bolts there actually the tips of a cocktail stick suitably trimmed and painted with aluminium paint
After this I again used a small piece of brass suitably bent to allow me to add the reflectors as per the photo’s the red rear lens were made from a punched out piece of plastic card then painted
I also retouched the number plate to make it look more presentable
Sorry for the photos being out of sequence but I hope you get the gist of what I’m doing

Regards

Colin

[PaulinKendal]

Loving this build! Clever idea to use sandpaper for the seat-backs - I'd never have thought they'd come out looking like that - so good!

[scottie3158]

Colin,
Great additions so far.

[Jim R]

Coming together well Colin.
Jim

[Bigfoot57]

Thanks to all for comments we’re getting there as British Rail or British Airways used to say anyway next will be moving back to the engine to finish off the additional detailing

Regards

Colin

[outrunner]

Coming along nicely, a good job you are doing there.

Andy.

[Tim Marlow]

Looking good Colin :thumb2:

[Bigfoot57]

Airfix 1/12 4.5 Litre Bentley Blower Part 4

Finishing the engine and attaching the wheels

So here we are back at the front of the car to add more detail to the engine & the firewall this will be adding some bits to connect to the supercharger to the engine via that large black and silver pipe 2 circular type ducts which I don’t know what to call them and the steering column along with some additional wiring & piping to enhance the look
So 1st assemble steering column then take some small circular cut outs the they are made again from a cross section of a tooth pick I then drilled holes into the centre of these there are 3 incidentally then glued them into position on the circular depression on the firewall I then painted them black for the 2 uppers & red for the lower the tachometer cable which I ran from the front of the engine goes into the red socket and the the 2 remaining slots are used by a cable on the right going straight down this does not terminate on anything it’s merely for show bling call it what you will the other cable attaches to the bottom of the distributor so I’m assuming it’s the throttle cable or something similar
Below the circular assemble is a u shaped bracket to which another cable is attached and runs back up to the circular assembly on the firewall
Attached to the bracket also is a spring type cable that goes from the bracket and attaches to the throttle cable 3/4 of the way down where the brass fittings occur phew I think that’s it for that side of the engine
Next I attached the steering column in the correct place this time as 1st off I didn’t put it through the hole in the firewall and wondered why the firewall was to high and didn’t fit well that’s the reason see we all make stupid mistakes never mind I corrected that and have moved on to adding a small girder like fitting to the other side of the firewall to hold another tank no idea what it’s used for possibly screen wash etc.
And finally I’ve attached the front wheels so now at least the car has 4 wheels to rest on a word of caution to anyone contemplating building this kit the struts along the side of the chassis are very fragile and easily broken which I have done on several occasions some so bad I’ve replaced them with whittled down tooth picks which are far stronger than the original plastic ones
So that’s it for tonight send more tomorrow

Regards

Colin
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