Sebring 12 Hours 1964 Proposed group build thread

[Misha]

Congrats Phil on getting to the grid! Great looking GS with all the modifications you’ve achieved, really striking replica. 
Cheers ? Misha

[Andrew McD]

I apologize to the group but I am withdrawing my #59 Lotus Cortina entry.  The build is not going well and has gone back in the box.  Hopefully it will see the light of day eventually but for the moment I am not having fun with it and if you aren't having fun then a hobby turns into a chore.  If somebody else is interested in doing Jim Clark's #59 the entry is now open.  Good luck......and I do look forward to continue watching this thread and learning from the posts of the many skilled and experienced modelers.

[Scooter757]

On 11/6/2023 at 6:53 PM, Phildaupho said:

Race preparation of the #4 Hall-Penske Corvette Grand Sport 005 was completed today and it is now ready for the Sebring 1964/2024 grid. These are the first photos taken with my phone. I plan to do a proper photo shot and an Under Glass post in the near future. I still have not heard the full story on why the Hall-Penske Team taped over the hood louvers and left them that way for the Road America race in September 1964 and Nassau December 1964. Maybe the original reason was to prevent rain getting into the engine compartment but the team must have found it advantageous of other reasons because Road America was a dry race. - ???

 

Great job on the Grand Sport

[absmiami]

Andrew - was it the wheels ?

[Andrew McD]

1 hour ago, absmiami said:

Andrew - was it the wheels ?

Actually the wheels were an interesting challenge that is pretty much resolved.  Broken parts, my lack of familiarity with resin kits, and the amount of prep and modification involved to turn out a reasonable model all contributed to my decision.  Bottom line is I should have started this thing a year ago and avoided the surprises and resulting stress.  I'll keep on working on the kit but I am not convinced I would have something ready for the March deadline. I  thought it only fair to give somebody else the opportunity to model Clark's #59.

[Misha]

Been away from the work bench for a while, the result of flooding from an atmospheric river event while having our roof repaired and reshingled! After moving projects, tools, references and mopping up the floor, my bench has never been neater. 

 

The build left off  with mixing the right shade of light blue using acrylic paint for the body colour. I did need to lighten the last batch considerably to achieve “MGB Iris Blue”. 

The three factory entered MGBs were painted in red #47, meant to set the pace; light blue #48, to endure the twelve hours; and the white one #46 as backup. Respectfully they scored 17th overall and 3rd in 2-litre GT class; followed by 22nd and 4th in class and a DNF for the white entry. Each car wore a racing stripe with the two other contrasting body colours. Checking with photos and an available sheet of red stripe decals in varying widths determined the size to use. To achieve the white stripe I would be masking the white primer before applying the body colour. Using an adjustable dual blade knife masking was cut to match the width of the red stripe. 

Using a spare body and the cut masking I began positioning the racing stripes with a ready made roll in white to separate the colours and ensure they remained parallel. The third try was the charm and the body will serve as a guide for the placements later. 

The chassis was sprayed with the body colour as this was the first MG to feature unibody construction with suspension components bolted to it. While being a curbside, this kit supplies extensive GT detail to the underside. With further paint application the realism will be heightened. Having said that, I did need to fix a glaring omission by the lack of a cage structure ahead of the rear axle to match the other side housing the battery. 

As an aside, while searching out photos on the net, most examples tend to be restorations, especially on the auction sites. This is true for this vehicle as the original still exists and has recently crossed the auction block. In our case, the replica builds are for the grid line at the March 1964 Sebring event, and would not appear with the same level of perfection nor with the more current FIA regulations such as tow hooks or emergency shut off switches. In light of this car’s history it would have appeared in Florida with a certain amount of wear, especially to the underside with the mechanics and road grime. 

 

With this in mind, the weathering process was to begin with a variety of washes, with specific ones for the engine compartment and transmission area. As the blue body colour is an acrylic paint, gentler washes are required with my favourite being the Vallejo line. 

Dry fit of the primed front and rear suspensions with the fuel tank. 

Now with a coat of LP 5 semi-gloss black. Also visible is the modified exhaust now exiting in front of the rear wheel well. This is the stock piece shortened and reshaped. It will receive further paint detailing. 

The front suspension is further detailed with hand brushing and touch ups. Using fine brushes, down to 10/0 along with an illuminated magnifier makes the detailing much easier, plus a steady hand. 

The next layer of weathering simulates the road mud thrown up by the wheels, mainly in the wells with sprays on the chassis in line with the tires. Another layer will follow when the body is fitted. For this effect I used  Vallejo’s Weathering Effect’s “Light Brown Splash Mud” applied with a small sponge brush. 

Meanwhile… The interior painting was underway using a variety of shades of black to avoid a uniform black applied to the entire interior. As the body colour would be applied last, lacquer paint was used throughout this stage. Door cards to be painted flat black LP to contrast with the semi to gloss shades. 

A mock up of the interior with the stock seats (only the red one employed a race seat) with the in progress, roll bar being modified. The remaining white areas will covered with MGB light blue body colour as all three entries were stripped of carpets and insulation to lighten the car while retaining the stock interior. Keeping a stock appearance of the MG roadsters was key advertising feature belying the aluminum body panels for further weight reductions. 

Close up of the paints employed for the interior. The cockpit coaming and seats are done in LP60 Nato Black; the vinyl surround and dashboard are LP 5 semi gloss blk.; door cards LP3 flat blk.; with the door sills LP65 rubber. The tranny cover is done in LP1 gloss. 

Currently the build is at this point in the process. High on the list is prepping the body for the blue by masking for the stripes. The hard top is masked for its first coat of white primer to be followed by the stripe masking before the body colour. There remains a lot of hand painting while most of the airbrush will be used on the exhaust system, in addition to the body. 

 

Thanks for checking in and apologies for the rather long posting. Cheers Misha

[Pierre Rivard]

Weathering the chassis is a nice touch. It's a race car, not a trailer queen. Thanks for sharing progress Misha.

[Phildaupho]

Great update Misha

[Misha]

Been working on the smaller details employing kit parts, which have fine, delicate mouldings, and a bit of scratch-building.

I had constructed an inlet to sit behind the kit grill. This will house the extra Marchal driving lights, engine oil cooler, and have a “fake” rad opening. 

The cooler is made from a guitar string representing the coils with an Evergreen plastic surround. 

The kit roll bar has been modified with an extra horizontal bar to locate the seat harness with a diagonal brace for added safety.  Also installed P/E braces below the horizontal bar along with a bracket for keeping the harness in place. 

The next photo shows an assortment of parts, beginning with the front suspension now with the Lockheed disc brakes. To the right is a group of three added items; held in the clothes pin is the generator, a modified front pulley assembly with a radiator in the foreground. 

 

To the left is a grouping of interior bits comprised of the dash top with chrome tonneau snaps, centre mirro mount and defroster outlets. All examples of the fine detail built into the kit. I usually remove parts from the sprues for sanding mould lines and painting, yet withthe delicacy of the stick shift, steering column (having replaced the turn signal stalk with finer wire for scale appearance). The pedal assembly has been painted with a gloss black followed by rubber for the pedals and P/E for the accelerator. The remainder are chassis parts such as the slave cylinder clutch assembly, the front  sway bar and the Hydrolastic Suspension units are finely crafted kit parts. 

The next group will consist of chrome bits for the exterior and interior handles & cranks, in addition to detailing the dashboard, starting hardtop painting and the rest of it…

Thanks again for looking in,

Cheers Misha

[absmiami]

Great stuff

[Misha]

Over the past while I’ve been working on the MGB with the focus on the interior and undercarriage. I masked off the interior panels to apply the Iris Blue to match the rest of the unibody construction. 

Once painted the panels were mocked up with the seats and dashboard. The white mat piece will be painted rubber

 

While the kit offers excellent chassis detail, the front of the engine is lacking anything beyond the block. While the  suspension component does mask most of the fan and pulley assembly, a keen eye will notice the gaps, especially the missing generator! To remedy this, I modified parts box finds, adding a radiator as well. 

The MGB was also the marque’s first sports car with the Hydrolastic Suspension at the rear axle replacing typical shock absorbers. It was designed by Alex Moulton ( designer of a high end folding bicycle as well) for the 1959 Morris/Austin Mini and used a series of coupled hydraulic cylinders with levers working to compensate the live axles movement. The kit represents this arrangement very well with delicate detailed parts. 

For the cavity behind the grill housing the Marchal driving lights and engine oil cooler I needed to construct most of the structure adding the lights from the parts ? box. The chassis required surgery to accommodate the new addition. 

To wrap up the work I added another coat of Vallejo Aluminum by brush to the inner grill for a uniform look. Turning my attention to the photo etched fret for the enamelled badge at the centre of the grill, I used X-27 Clear Red & X-19 Smoke acrylics and a 10/0 brush to finish it. Future will be used to attach the piece with another coat to simulate the enamel gloss. 

 

Getting closer to laying on the body colour for the MG which is usually tough for me to begin, yet I usually get into the swing of it, especially when all goes well. The interior requires some more air brushing and touch ups. Also the install of all the hardware such as window cranks, door levers, park brake & dash pedal, five point belt, and more… 

 

Overall I ‘m happy about how the build is progressing. A great amount of pleasure is also found in the research of the  ‘64 race and MG’s role as competition has always been at the heart of marque throughout its history.

 

Thanks again to all who are checking in on the build. Comments are always welcomed,

Cheers Misha

[Rattlecan Dan]

Coming along very nicely Misha. Like that you're staying right after it. Good work.

[MarkJ]

Really great modeling going on here. Great masking. Thats one thing I am terrible at.

[Misha]

Welcome to the latest MGB build update. Been spending as much time as possible at the bench, mainly on details as well as painting the body. That part has been a bit of a challenge with the acrylic paint showing orange ? peel plus the airbrush splattering as a result of too low air pressure. With a third coat coming up after wet sanding I’m hoping for a better finish. 

The chassis is now fully assembled except for the side exhaust. It will still be subject to a bit of weathering. 

I nearly forgot the body coloured hook on top of the bonnet for the hold down bungee cord. The hook was formed from brass wire for strength and a small plate was added to the centre nose piece.   

The interior is nearing completion as well with the doors complete with door pulls and window cranks. The level of detail and fit of this kit is a real ? joy!  Dash is being detailed with paint with the decals to follow. 

A mock up, complete with a Bell Magnum helmet on the console. So far all appears to be fitting well with the modifications. 

Here are some shots of the body as it is now. The orange peel appears to be consistent overall and closer inspection will reveal the splatters of paint. 

The clear hard top received its first white primer coat so that the interior will appear white. After masking the white stripe the blue body colour will be applied, hopefully with success. 

The roll bar received its gloss black finish. To help locating the assembly I pinned the bottoms of it to fit into the floor board. 

The last items are the rubber mat for the driver and the support for the trunk mounted quick release fuel filler.

This morning I finished the treatment on the exhaust system with a basic silver coat with masking the weld sections with  very thin tape strips. This was followed by an application of clear orange, red and blue for the heat staining. 

The end bits are really fun to complete as the kit box empties of bits and pieces. 

 

Cheer’s Misha 

[absmiami]

well done !!

[absmiami]

rock n roll  ...

[absmiami]

Cant let Misha have ALL the fun …

back to work on number 10 … I’ve re-sprayed the roof after sanding off the single hair that ruined my second coat of enamel ….  Thoughts on the finish - paint is well and fully cured - light sand job ?  Can i apply Tamiya compound over enamel - might be too aggressive ? Just decal and wax it ?  Dont think I want to clear coat it - dont think Shelby would approve  - Not sure  …

[absmiami]

The late Venom’s build was/is very instructive …  when you prep resin parts- there is ALOT of parts prep - remove all the excess resin that you can find - then prime everything- you’ll find some seems that you missed …. 

[absmiami]

Venim reminded us that warpage on parts can be corrected with a hot water bath … thats what ill do to correct the curve on the fr suspension assembly …

Edited December 24, 2023 by absmiami
Correction

[MarkJ]

8 hours ago, absmiami said:

Cant let Misha have ALL the fun …

back to work on number 10 … I’ve re-sprayed the roof after sanding off the single hair that ruined my second coat of enamel ….  Thoughts on the finish - paint is well and fully cured - light sand job ?  Can i apply Tamiya compound over enamel - might be too aggressive ? Just decal and wax it ?  Dont think I want to clear coat it - dont think Shelby would approve  - Not sure  …

I don't think I would want to wax an enamel paint job until it has fully cured . And that takes a pretty long time. Paint really looks good right now, but you might be able to polish it with some Novus or something like it.

[absmiami]

Mark j. Trust me - this paint is way cured - its been drying in a plastic food tray for 11 months …

[absmiami]

There have been several good books on Sebring - Ken Breslauer did a good  book on the ‘65 race - and i just got this fr Racemaker Press - about the first U.S. grand prix race - in ‘59 - at Sebring - written by the late Joel Finn - its available now for a deep discount fr the publisher … 

[Misha]

Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season! Had a great holiday trip out to the wild west coast of Vancouver Island. Celebrating with family through 120km winds and torrential rains combined with 7 metre surf and record high tides! We stayed on the beachfront and I ventured out to photograph Cox Bay.

Returned last night after five days away and got back to the bench … I had done some work before leaving, having begun to spray paint the body colour. This led to an unforeseen outcome with orange peel and splattered paint spots from too low of air pressure for the    thinned acrylic paint. I set the body aside with two coats to dry out. 

I moved onto interior details such as installing the door pulls and window cranks and the roll bar. Completed the dashboard decals for the instruments and radio delete plate , along with paint detailing the bezels, radio speaker surround, switches. Also installed Grandt Line bolt heads into holes drilled into the glossy black shift lever cover. 

 

Another item that required scratch building was the driver’s rubber floor mat. Using a masking tape template the shape was cut from plastic textured sheet, painted and decal applied. 

The next step is to install the five point safety harness using photo etch hardware with black ribbon tape. From there the rest will assemble quickly. 

The exhaust pipe was further detailed with the Tamiya weathering chalks using blue and orange. Once the body is mated with the chassis, the pipes will be installed using photo etch clamps and hangers. 

Today I wet sanded the body with 3600/4800 /8000 cloth sheets to reduce the orange peel and eliminate the splatters. It proved to help and I was pleased enough to lay in the third coat. So far, so good, an improvement. Also gave the hardtop its first blue coat after masking the white racing stripe. The entire piece is molded in clear which requires window masking as well. 

Thanks for looking in on the build. It’s beginning to feel like I’m past the half way point now, yet assembly of photo etch and sub assemblies can be cantankerous as well!

Cheers Misha

[MarkJ]

Great save on the orange peel. That's why I brush paint. You don't have to worry about orange peel, blushing or runs, with a bristle brush. And you don't have to clean the airbrush. A job I really hate doing. You have to sand and polish, but you have to do that to an airbrushed model, unless you are a wizard at airbrushing. 

[Phildaupho]

Great post Misha - Your MGB is going to look fantastic on the grid.