Austin 8Hp Tourer
Comments
21 8 January 2017, 15:01
Christian BruerThis is ACE's little Austin staff car as a part of my WIP diorama with Airfix Hawker Hurricane as the main subject.
The parts of the short run kit need a lot of sanding and cleaning before you can start to glue the very first part. But all in all it looks quite nice with some fine details like the structure of the seats. The rest will be some scratch work to make the best out of it.
The chassis is nearly one part. The only things to add are the flat springs, suspension arms, lateral axis and inner wheel house. The fit of the parts need some attention because there are no pins etc. to keep the part in the correct position. So a careful work is required.
Before you add the side frame the foot step has to be extended to fit the front fender.
I add some extra details on the instrument panel and scratch build a new suspension arm.
There is some work to do to get the wheels in shape. The diameter has to be reduces by 1mm as well as the main profile. Unfortunately the fine texture along the wheel shoulder is lost because of the required sanding. I just think about how to rebuild the texture?!
Well, I'll give the parts some time to dry before I go back to make progress.
Cheers, Christian
8 January 2017, 15:15
Patrick HagelsteinNice to see the pencil made it into 2017. You're off to a good start! Looking forward to see what else you are going to do to it.
8 January 2017, 15:21
Christian BruerNice to see you looking at the pencil 🙂
Thank you Patrick, I will see what I can do 😉
8 January 2017, 15:25
Christian BruerThe fit of the side wall along the contour of the car was not very good. The side wall has to fit perfect to the rear wheel house as well to the door sill and the front fender. I add thin flat styrene along the cut out for the front fender to reduce the expectable big gap.
Then I start fixing the side wall from the rear, let it dry and then went on along the door sill. To get a good fit in the front I add a stringer made of styrene and a bulkhead. Adjusting the side walls left and right and the radiator grill took some time to get the best fit and fewer gaps. When this was done I filled the gaps with a one component filler.
Mhh, because of the curvature I guess sanding the seam lines will be a little challenge ?!
Cheers, Christian
15 January 2017, 11:58
Christian BruerA lot of filling and sanding is done. It is time to add some details missing in the kit or where the kit parts are too roughly.
I add some details at the dashboard, gas pedal, break pedal and clutch pedal as well as a new gear shift and hand break. Front and rear bumber are new. I made them of 1,3mm round styrene. The styren was cutted and sanded down until I get the half round profil for the bumpers. A new window frame and the folding top frame are made of styrene as well.
I just thought about ho to make a new soft top. One idea is to use a thinn cover made of a two component filler or air drying Fimo. Tissue paper soacked in a water and PVA glue mixture should work as well. Mhh, I will give it a try and keep you up to date.
Cheers, Christian
22 January 2017, 18:42
Patrick HagelsteinThat looks really nice and delicate! I'm curiuous as to how you manage to fabricate that soft top.
23 January 2017, 00:03
Norbert SteffensYeah, this little car is challenging.....lokks good. Your scratch build parts are superb
23 January 2017, 05:21
Christian BruerMe too Patrick😄
Thank you Patrick and Norbert for your kind comments. I'm glad you like it.
Cheers, Christian
23 January 2017, 17:51
Ingmar StöhrVery nice Christian! You could not just build it OOB? 😉 Always a pleasure to watch your work.
23 January 2017, 20:58
Christian BruerNo not really, guess it is AMS 😄
Thx for your kind comment Ingmar🙂
23 January 2017, 21:08
Christian BruerThere is just a little progress during the last weekends on my current WIP's. I modified the gearshift and replaced the straight styrene rod with a brass rod. I slightly bend the brass rod and add a knob made of PVA glue.
Rear view mirrors, a wiper motor, a filler pipe and rear lights complete the add-on and replacement parts. I only have to make the soft top. A modelling friend gave me the hint to use lead foil or something similar. I will think of it and give it a try soon.
Cheers, Christian
5 February 2017, 14:26
Marcel KlemmerLittle Progress..., I think Little is the right headline, very fine details!
12 February 2017, 14:26
Spanjaardwow, i will certainly follow, looking really good. very nice detail.
12 February 2017, 15:23
Ferry DierckxsensFantastic work on this great little model. Very nice scratch building and inspiring. I like these subjects in 1:72 scale and like to keep my eye out on your progress.
16 February 2017, 22:38
Christian BruerThank you Lex and Ferry for your interest and very kind comments. I hope to make some progress soon with this WIP.
Cheers, Christian
17 February 2017, 17:58
Christian BruerThx Mike and Bart. Your kind comments are much appreciated 🙂
Cheers, Christian
7 March 2017, 20:22
Christian BruerI'm back from this years Euro Model Expo with my head full of inspirations and ideas. It was a great show and it was nice to meet a lot of Scalemates there!
I bought an 0.1 x 0.3 aluminum Albion profile to represent the soft top bars. I also bought aluminum foil 0.05mm thick for the soft top, but that worked not that well, because it was not flexible enough. So I used 0.1mm lead foil for the soft top. That worked pretty well and with the rectangular bars I looks quite nice so far. I add several layers of PVA glue soacked in water to get a good basic surface fot the colour.
Before I start to prime the whole model I will add two or three layers Vallejo black grey, to seal the surface and to take a look whether any corrections are necessary.
Cheers, Christian
27 March 2017, 17:41
Christian BruerThank you very much Lode. Mhh, I learned it by handling tiny PE parts for scale 1/700 and 1/350 ship models. Once learned it is more or less routine - I think?!
Cheers, Christian
3 April 2017, 14:48
Ferry DierckxsensHi Christian, Very nice work on the soft top, and a great idea to use this very thin lead foil. I keep following your progress on this interesting build.
3 April 2017, 20:26
Lex JassiesLooking very good sofar. I also like the soft top. I like to work with lead foil. It's a versatile material and I have an old linocut-press that I use to make my foil. Are you going to make some folds in the soft top?
4 April 2017, 06:57
Christian BruerThank you Ferry, Lode, and Lex.
Lex, I leave it without much folds, because there are nearly no folds looking to the real one. Because of the scale effect I will only represent some small folds highlighting some areas with brighter colour.
See the last photo following the link.
car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=27290
Cheers, Christian
4 April 2017, 07:14
Alec KWow, really great work, Christian. Not sure how I missed this, but following now 👍
12 April 2017, 02:50
Christian BruerAfter a coat of grey primer I paint the little Austin today. I decide to use Blue Grey BS 633. According to some references I found in the www. pre WWII RAF ground vehicles are painted in this colour untill summer 1940.
I used Vallejo Model Air and mixed BS 633 from 71.001 White, 71.005 Intermed. Blue and 71.091 Signal Blue in a ration 1:3:1.
I applied several coats of paint before I lightened the colour with some more white. The paint session worked very well and the paint dried as fast as usual, so I could start some detail painting afterwards.
Some more detail painting is necessary before I start adding a wash and some more highlights.
Cheers, Christian
19 April 2017, 16:39
Thomas Bischoffvery smoothe coat of paint - did you thin the paint? If yes: what thinner did you use?
19 April 2017, 17:24
Christian BruerThank you very much mates, I'm glad you like it 🙂
I too was pleased about the painting result, now comes the weathering.
@Thomas, yes I thinned the paint. I use Vallejo Thinner and Flow Improver. I use a Gabbert Triplex with adapter and bassin. I add normally two drops of Flow Improver and 2-4 drops of Thinner to ten drops of paint. The amount of thinner depend on the consistence of the paint. The thicker the paint the more Thinner and vice versa. In the past I used water or window cleaner to thin the Vallejos. It workes too, but the drying time is much longer and somtimes I had problems with sticky paint. So I stay with the original Vallejo stuff.
Cheers, Christian
20 April 2017, 10:41
Christian BruerSome more detail painting is done. The end of the bumper was masked and sprayed in white, floor is painted dark grey, door sill in black grey, wheels, seats, instrument panel and some chassis details. Now I will give it a day to dry before the next step.
Cheers, Christian
20 April 2017, 15:45
Thomas BischoffThanks Christian - by coincidence I started to use the same combination for the DO 335 and it works perfectly.
20 April 2017, 16:11
Christian BruerThank you Dave and Thomas.
@Thomas, I just took a look to your Do335🙂
20 April 2017, 16:23
Ferry DierckxsensJust catching up with your build again Christian. The Austin is becoming a real juwel. It's wonderful to see the details coming to life now you've started the painting.
20 April 2017, 22:18
Christian BruerThank you Stefan, Ferry and Bart. Your kind comments are much appreciated 🙂
21 April 2017, 09:50
Christian BruerWell, the paint dried really fast, so I could add a wash and highlights today. I used a wash of white, black and brown oils, highly diluted with lighter fluid. Once dried I start applying highlights using white. I add a few drops of paint to the surface I want to highlight and start wiping the paint with a clean flat brush. I melt the white with the basic colour untill I get a blurred effect on top of the surface. I tried to set all the lights from above.
I could not wait and add the wheels, front wheels steered to the left, seats and front hood, so the model is nearly finished.
I'm sorry about the quality of the photos, but this evening the light wasn't good enough to get a nice shot. But the paint now need some time to dry before I can aply a coat of gloss varnish as a base for the decals. So I will make some more photos once the model is completely finished.
I'm satisfied so far with the overall look and finish🙂
Cheers, Christian
21 April 2017, 18:23
Alec KAbsolutely fantastic! I really appreciate how "clean" it is - no errors! Much to learn... Thank you for the great instructive narrative 👍
21 April 2017, 20:56
Christian BruerThank you very much Stephan and Alec.
Today I checked the result at bright daylight. Mhhh, there are a bit to much highlights on the doors. First I thought to correct it, but then I decide to leave it like it is. Next time I will use a smaller flat brush to merge the oils!
Cheers, Christian
22 April 2017, 16:30
Stephan RyllChristian,
May with the daylight of tomorrow it will fit again
Depending on your personal standard photometric observer😉
For me it look's very good
22 April 2017, 17:02
Thomas Bischoffjust to understand it correctly: you highlight with white oil paints? That would sound like a good idea to try out
22 April 2017, 17:52
Christian BruerMay you're right Stephan😉 Thx for your kind and encouraging words!
Yep Thomas, I like working with oils. They are translucent and does not affect the basic colour (I use lighter fluid as a thinner). You can control the easily, because they need some time to dry completely.
To add highlights you just have to add a few drops of white to the area you want to highlight and then start melting the drops with a flat brush. You can use als the dry brush method to set highlights. That worked perfect for small scales, I use this technique on all my scale 350 ship models and scale 144 aeroplanes. The larger the scale the better to set highlights by airbrush technique. For my scale 1/72 aeroplanes I will try to combine both methids to get a good effect.
Hope that help.
Cheers, Christian
22 April 2017, 18:29
Christian BruerYou're welcome Thomas😉
Thank you very much Lex for your very kind comment. I'm glad you like it 🙂
23 April 2017, 09:52
Christian BruerThere is a good start with modelmaking this year. Next project is finished. You can see it at Euro Model Expo in Lingen next weekend. You'll find me at our German Gamblers stand. See you there.....
26 March 2019, 20:34
Christian BruerThank you very much Lode. Well, there are some many thinks to do in miniature🙂
26 March 2019, 22:21
Patrick HagelsteinToo bad I won't be able to make it to Lingen to see this one up close. Are you going to Veldhoven this year? And are you taking this model there too?
27 March 2019, 04:37
Christian BruerThank you all for your kind comments.
@Patrick, yep the plan is to be there in October🙂
Cheers Christian
27 March 2019, 06:27
Christian BruerThank you all. The one who will be at Euro Model Expo in Lingen the coming weekend will have the chance to meet me there. German Gamblers stand in block K stand no. 112
euromodelexpo.jimdo...nplan-2019-hall-plan
27 March 2019, 16:30
Spanjaardthe only bad thing on it.... is that i will have to wait until october to enjoy seeing it in person! amazing job Christian
28 March 2019, 16:26
Christian BruerThank you Michel and Spanjaard.
Well Spanjaard anticipation is half the pleasure 😄
28 March 2019, 16:35
LaliscaleAmazing work Christian.I also building in small scale.I love your colors.
8 August 2022, 06:31
Album info
This is ACE's little Austin staff car.
The parts of the short run kit need a lot of sanding and cleaning before you can start to glue the very first part. But all in all it looks quite nice with some fine details like the structure of the seats. The rest will be some scratch work to make the best out of it.
Happy modelling
