Bucket list project Alfa

[ken]

A long long time ago I bought three Mac P Alfa kits that had been assembled. When they showed up in my post box I nearly cried, what a disaster. The guide must have been a problem for the builder since he had hacked most of the lower nose off to get clearance. The chassis was trash so that hit the waste bin right away.

So the thick paint was stripped off and the nose on two of the cars had repairs done on them.Today I am concentrating on the one on the left. I already had a lovely 8C  body that had been done up by Nick Garton so if all this work needed done why not make in into a 12C. And there it sat in the larder with the other will get to bodies. I started a bucket list of cars that i wanted to finish late in December when I felt fit enough to get back to the workshop. And now the story starts.

 

You can see the area that needed filled in on the two cars, even the lower sills were all hacked up. I did remodel the rear bulkhead on the one I am working on to get more room for the driver figure.

I don't know about you but making body posts can be very frustrating, you get them close and you trim them that last wee bit to fit and now they are too short. The humanity and the swear words.  The next photo will show a short cut that I found for making perfect length body posts every time. I use Evergreen tubing for my body posts in two sizes that telescope in one another. The small size that I use has an inside diameter to cut 2/56 threads in with no problem, the one end is threaded and cut to fit the distance between the body and the chassis leaving a gap of about 4 mm. The outer tube also gets cut to fit with a bit less of a gap and the end is plugged with a short 2 mm piece of tube to give more surface area for gluing.  

Sometimes I will put a split piece of tubing at the capped end to give it just that little bit more surface area to glue to. The tubes are a loose fit so the end of the inner tube gets crushed a bit to make the two parts slide together with a bit of tension. Mark where the post fits inside the body when you do your test fit and then clean out the area of all paint residue to get a clean surface. Put a good size drop of glue where the post will fit, telescope out the tube so you can get the fit between the body and the tube end tight and put the chassis with mounting tube on the body upside down on your workbench, you may have to push the outer tube down a bit with a probe to get a tight fit at the glue joint. Leave it sit upside down till dry.

You can then lift straight up on the chassis to remove it from the body. I used to hate this part when I used one piece posts cause you had to unscrew the body screw and if you did not have a good glue joint or it the screw was tight you tore off the post. Now you can add another fillet of glue and put the chassis back on by sliding the tubes in one another. Leave it set upside won again till dry. When you are ready all you have to do is apply some glue on the post leave it set upside down again, otherwise glue can run down the inner tube and glue the screw in. Yes, I know from experience. And your done, perfect fit every time. . . .

    Another short cut to come.   

[ken]

Part two. I always used Ninco Pro guides with the spacer on my prewar cars. Now I cannot find them. I prefer running guides with a deeper keel since most of the time we run on Carrera track. I also prefer black guides since the look better under the car. So it looks like Slot it guides need to be used.

The prewar cars have tons of room under the chassis so the guide mount needs to be spaced down below the chassis. Well that makes it tough to build a brass chassis on a jig if the guide mount hangs low. There is an easy solution that took a few steps out of my building process.

Most jigs come with a 3/16th threaded pin to locate the guide. A B-Nova repair kit has a tube that is just under 3/16ths. The chassis build had was straight forward and the guide was test fit with several of the B-Nova pieces. The nice thing is they come in three thicknesses of 1/32 1/16 and 3/32 so you have some room to get the right depth you need and they are cheap to boot at 3 for $4.99.The pictures show how simple it is.

 

[ken]

Work in progress, proper guide fit, body mount done and wheels turned to fit Carrera skinny tires. It looks like the grill needs another coat of paint yet.

Ken

[Deleted]

NO!!!!!, Ken, don't use those stupid Slotit guides!! Use Marlon's latest Shadowfax with the horizontal wire exit. He does them for £2-25 each. Excellent service. Slot.it guides now have no reason not to die out completely and good riddance!

Martin

[ken]

Hello Martin.
Well, I must say that was a strongly worded response. . I have some experience with Marlon's guides after having built the first two cars in his range. Yes his guides are low profile and they can have the leads exit from the rear but they won't work in a chassis like the Pre-War GTM kit. The pin diameter is small and the shafts are short for his application on his printed chassis.  You could get them to work out nicely in a scratch built chassis if your were so inclined. The problem I have with Marlon's guides as well as the TSRF leading guide is that the have no mechanical rotational stop, I hate having cars heading back into traffic or pulling the leads out after spinning out. I found that I can use the dreaded Slot-It CH73 guide in places that need extra clearance like this Bugatti shown below and the GTM W125 that have the body right over where the guide is located. These guides can also have the wires exit out the rear if needed and the way the wires are inserted in the braid along with their exit location use the wires as a soft stop. So far I have not had a car equipped with the CH73 guide do a 180 on the track and go the wrong way under power. Remember this is just my humble opinion with the knowledge I currently have. 

Ken

[Deleted]

Ken, I build almost nothing these days, but even when I was building rally cars for a client I found the damned guide with it's sticky up towers a pain. I have built GT cars for a few people and I suppose the guides supplied must have been the Slotits, but other companies make the same things with the same daft sticky up towers which on most of the models I've built have no space whatever for that arrangement. I have never built a pre War car, but my objection to the design thinking behind the Slot.it type is so fundamental that I would rather make a guide from Perspex with a file than use (and overpay for) a Slot.it. I would also always be making a chassis, making simple provision for the guide of any make not to over swivel,  not using somebody else's, especially one that specified this daft guide!

Cheers,
Martin

[Peter Seager-Thomas]

Some interesting builds you have there Ken.

The 12C looks good and must be the only one around running on front tyres which must be about the correct scale width. Are they original Carrera tyres or is someone now doing a urethane version? WASP did a short run for me before they packed up, but I know they had difficulties with the narrow section of the sidewalls.

Peter.

[Chris Wright]

OK Martin, I'm going to chime in.

All cars have different requirements as far as guides are concerned. short noses, low ground clearance etc.

No one guide will suit all slot cars. The "Sticky-up guide" is ideal for F-1 cars because the depth from braid to top of guide (excluding towers)can be very small, the towers extend up giving a place to secure the braids. Marlon's guides would not work in these situations because there's not enough clearance under the chassis. Modern flag guides are to long, so we use the Slot-it guides.

Hope your cold gets better soon, in the mean-time chill out dude.

[Andrew Rowland]

We are possibly talking at cross purposes here.
The CH73 is the LMP type with rear exiting wires, while I think Chris is talking about CH85?
Both great guides but for different applications....

Andi

[Deleted]

It is exactly because of building F1s (Half tonners) for someone that I came to so thoroughly hate what everyone calls "Slot.it" guides, but which are made by several different companies (Scalex, a2m, etc).  Under a low, narrow nose it is useless, sending wires skywards to rub under the nose. I have had to cut the towers down in various ways till the eyelets grab very little. On one model I had a huge horizontally wired guide, but one which allowed for all manner of cutting down and reshaping, but at least the wires came out backwards as they always should.
OK, on a commodious saloon, it wouldn't matter, but anything with a restrictive nose space upright exit guides are a nonsense, whoever makes them.

Cold, yes a nuisance, but I've dealt with worse.

Martin

[Andrew Rowland]

I think this is the guide that is intended for this build:

www.slot.it/Download/FAQ_PDF_en/13-LMPbraid.en.pdf

So all your concern is wasted Martin.

Andi

[Deleted]

You have GOT to be joking! That is almost a well scripted satire of pick-up changing!!!! What a faff! What happened to eyelets??

What happened to small screws? Oh bring back the VIP guide!

Jeez.

Martin

[ken]

I am glad that I never saw that tutorial. My method is a bit easier. I use the guide backwards so the leads come out the front. I open up the braid to make a tube, then I poke a small hole in the tube an inch from the end. I strip the wire and insert the bare end of the wire into the tube of braid and pull it back to length and flat again like a Chinese finger. I insert the braid with the wire into the guide till the lead wire poking out the top fits into the little notch in the guide. I finish with a .010 strip of lexan cut to fit wedging the braid into the guide.

Ken

[Deleted]

Sounds a lot easier, Ken, but still a faff! Braids need to be easily changeable in my book and the old VIPs were always easy in that way, but so were the Revells and MRRCs, using a small screw. Still a bit fiddly though. Seems to me we shouldn't have to help build the thing we've just spent up to 4 quid for!

Martin

[ken]

Bucket list project Pre Add Alfa 12C number 8 complete. Well I finally finished this car after about six years. I may have went a bit overboard on the final finish in trying to emulate an end of race car from 1937. They did carry large capacity oil tanks and it all had to go somewhere. 

Cheers Ken