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- Jakko
Finally, the engine is painted and installed.
That’s obviously the engine. I used some photos of restored engines I found online as a painting guide, as I couldn’t find any good information on what it would have been painted like when new. Basically, the engine blocks are green, the radiator and piping for coolant and intake air are black, and all the exhaust pipes I painted as if they’re rusted. Additional weathering and wear was then added to the engine as a whole.
Here’s the engine bay it will go into:
I removed the engine support at the rear because it interfered with the engine’s fit and turned out to not be visible anyway with the engine in place. Inside the middle of the three depressions in the floor, I put a piece of 1.5 mm plastic card so I had a surface to glue the engine to.
Now with the engine and firewall glued in place. As I couldn’t reach underneath it, I put a fair amount of superglue onto the plastic card from the previous photo, wiggled the engine into place (which is harder than you think it might be), and trial-fitted the upper hull to make sure it was in the right place. Once I was happy with its fit, I added more superglue underneath the radiator, as that touches the floor but its front side will be invisible anyway. Then the firewall, and finally I decided to put a brace in so the engine can’t come forward even if the glue doesn’t hold it for some reason. This is just a piece of resin sprue of the right width that I glued diagonally to the firewall.
Then came Asuka’s exhaust pipes and ducting. This fits well enough, except that the plastic exhaust pipes neither fit nor line up with the Resicast ones on the engine. I had to cut them down to get to this:
To ensure it would all fit and line up, I drilled a hole into the plastic exhaust pipes and added a short bit of 1 mm brass rod, which fits inside the holes in the resin exhaust pipes. That just left the gap between the resin and plastic pipes, which I solved by adding a tube around the resin pipes from a strip of 0.15 mm plastic card:
Once the plastic parts were also fully painted and installed on the model, it looks good enough for my standards:
Now I can at last get on with the rest of the model …
That’s obviously the engine. I used some photos of restored engines I found online as a painting guide, as I couldn’t find any good information on what it would have been painted like when new. Basically, the engine blocks are green, the radiator and piping for coolant and intake air are black, and all the exhaust pipes I painted as if they’re rusted. Additional weathering and wear was then added to the engine as a whole.
Here’s the engine bay it will go into:
I removed the engine support at the rear because it interfered with the engine’s fit and turned out to not be visible anyway with the engine in place. Inside the middle of the three depressions in the floor, I put a piece of 1.5 mm plastic card so I had a surface to glue the engine to.
Now with the engine and firewall glued in place. As I couldn’t reach underneath it, I put a fair amount of superglue onto the plastic card from the previous photo, wiggled the engine into place (which is harder than you think it might be), and trial-fitted the upper hull to make sure it was in the right place. Once I was happy with its fit, I added more superglue underneath the radiator, as that touches the floor but its front side will be invisible anyway. Then the firewall, and finally I decided to put a brace in so the engine can’t come forward even if the glue doesn’t hold it for some reason. This is just a piece of resin sprue of the right width that I glued diagonally to the firewall.
Then came Asuka’s exhaust pipes and ducting. This fits well enough, except that the plastic exhaust pipes neither fit nor line up with the Resicast ones on the engine. I had to cut them down to get to this:
To ensure it would all fit and line up, I drilled a hole into the plastic exhaust pipes and added a short bit of 1 mm brass rod, which fits inside the holes in the resin exhaust pipes. That just left the gap between the resin and plastic pipes, which I solved by adding a tube around the resin pipes from a strip of 0.15 mm plastic card:
Once the plastic parts were also fully painted and installed on the model, it looks good enough for my standards:
Now I can at last get on with the rest of the model …
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