Tintin Project - the Vehicles

strobez · October 30, 2017, 08:17:03 AM

Off to the side, I'm also working on this little kit. Not a lot in it, but I'm modifying it as best I can to reflect the Alfa Romeo-like car Tintin drives in Cigars of the Pharaoh.

Eight parts total... including four wheels and a driver... This shouldn't take long to assemble....

I cut off some of the bumps and the molded-on exhaust pipe and then drilled some holes. That exhaust manifolds from a Spad XIII will do nicely, I think.

Extended the exhaust pipes using a bit of plastic tubing as a connector and some stiff wire.

Can't forget the safety guards... those babies get HOT!

NARSES2 · October 30, 2017, 08:22:21 AM

. Amazing

PR19_Kit · October 30, 2017, 08:56:39 AM

Amazing work, the tracks in the sand behind the red Jeep are masterly. And that Alfa looks the business, what scale is it?

strobez · October 30, 2017, 08:32:29 PM

I love the tracks as well. That was just a case of something working out even better than I thought it would. I wish I could take more credit for it, but the process was lieterally:

1. Paint Pringles lid black
2. Flatten a wad of Angel clay (which was already "cookie dough" colour) into lid.
3. Roll some wheels around on it.
4. Wait for it to dry out.

In fact, I didn't even notice at first that the clay has shrunk a bit as it dried, creating a gap between it and the lid.

The Alfa is a 1/72 scale resin kit with seven parts (four of which are wheels). I've trimmed off some bumps and what not and added a new exhaust system. Although my drilling was off just enough to be frustrating in the "not quite right, but should fit anyway, but doesn't quite" kind of way.

strobez · November 02, 2017, 07:33:12 PM

Ok... so quick update. Finally got all the bits together. The front fenders were quite tricky. I had to do them in two parts. First I made a little cone shape out of thin (0.3mm) plasticard and then bent and cut it to shape. Then I used it as an inverted template to get the other side. Once that was glued in place, I carefully bent a little thicker (0.8mm) pasticard around the edge to create the actual fender itself. Took a while to get it just right - and in fact in the end I made them a bit too short. They're supposed to extend below the bottom of the chassis... but who's counting?

After that was done and dry, I lathered on the putty to cover over some of the inconsistencies.

After sanding it all smooth again, I added the side doors (again just a little rectangle of 0.3mm card on either side) an we're ready for some rivets!

strobez · November 02, 2017, 07:49:51 PM

Also a little update on the Alfa Romeo...

I got the exhaust pipes painted, fitted and then glued in place. Every drill some holes and think "meh, close enough!" only to find out that they're frustratingly NOT closed enough even though you think they SHOULD be... and the only way you can tell is if that damn little fiddly plasic part just won't go where you want it to? Took a little forceful persuasion (and a little repaint job with some flat black and chrome paint) but they're in and glued.

Oh, and I finally got to use the punch dies I got in Japan to good use by making little tape circles for masking... First the red...

and then even though the range between the 6mm and 7mm punches are bigger than you'd expect (they're like... a mm different!), I successfully (enough) masked the red while applying the tire black. I also got the seat done by squeezing tiny little bits of blue tack into tiny little space to act as a flexible mask. Not a lot of wiggle room in that tiny little "cockpit" but it worked well enough for me!

zenrat · November 03, 2017, 02:34:50 AM

Alfa is looking fantastic. Have you got some tiny cloverleaf decals?

nighthunter · November 04, 2017, 10:51:55 PM

You should make garage kits of the Armoured Car!

strobez · November 05, 2017, 07:52:09 AM

Now THAT's a compliment.

Doing something like that never even occurred to me. Since the design itself is owned by Moulinsart, and they're very agressive, it's not like I could've sold them. But it might've been nice to be able to replicate the work more easily.

I finally got some paint on it. I love that "getting there" feeling once paint is in play.

strobez · November 05, 2017, 05:06:01 PM

Finally got the Alfa Romeo done, although (despite the bad lighting from taking pics after midnight) I noticed two things: a) the pics show the wash a fair bit heavier than "live", so I might have try to clean it up a bit more; and b) while cleaning up the wash I seem to have removed the paint off the (tiny) hub caps. They'll need a bit of a touch up. Perhaps a) first then b)... otherwise I'll be back to the same problem.

So with the Alfa done and the Armoured Car nearly done... and the fact that I've secured a hart top from JayBee... I got excited and started work on a Tintin Land Rover (as seen in Tintin and the Picaros). It's a four door model, so some modifications will be required (of course!).

As you can see... I'm pretty sure it says "hard top" on the box, but you can see the undulation on the piece on the sprue (even if it is upside down) - it's the soft top. Incidentally I also found a couple other pieces which don't seem to jive with the instructions and one of the rear bumper pieces seem to be missing (the pic was taken right out of the bag, so I know I didn't lose it). This box is really a mystery meal. Luckily the missing part is not vital and the rest just go into the spares box.

Here's the first few pieces... raised panel lines, eh? Well... we needed to scribe an extra set of doors anyway...

As you can see, I scribed up a second door (both inside and outside) and added a back seat bench. I didn't feel like PSRing a prominent ejection market into submission, so the cargo space got a new floor instead.

One thing I'm not quire sure how to handle... is the door... handles.

The Land Rover has those recessed handles, so I'm trying to figure out a good way to accomplish that. My thought was to drill out a round hole... stick a small bit of square tubing into it and then putty over the gaps. Anyone got a better idea?

Old Wombat · November 05, 2017, 06:47:06 PM

It has a picture of a hard-top LWB Landy on the box, it says "HARD TOP" on the box, the kit "top" in the box is made from hard styrene, so it must be a hard-top! No? $:-\$

PR19_Kit · November 05, 2017, 09:20:56 PM

That Alfa looks MAGNIFICENT!

It would look superb in the normal 1/43 small car scale, but in 1/72 it's jaw dropping!

Is the Land Rover model the correct wheelbase for a 4 door? The Series II 4 door Station Wagons were built on the 109" wheelbase chassis as opposed to the 88" wheelbase that could only accommodate a 2 door body.

Old Wombat · November 06, 2017, 12:17:21 AM

It's the LWB (Long Wheel Base) model, Kit. So, yeah, it'll be the 109".

It also looks like the LWB, which is a bonus.

Spey_Phantom · November 06, 2017, 01:02:36 AM

looking good

any plans for the Khemedi Air Force and Army vehicles & aircraft.
the military is equiped with Willys Jeeps, Daimler Armored Cars, GMC CCKW's, Supermarine Spitfire and Mosquito fighter-bombers (from the albums Black Gold & Red Sea Sharks).
in the latter, there's also a Civilian DC-3 in Khemed Airways livery.

strobez · November 06, 2017, 02:38:49 AM

Quote from: PR19_Kit on November 05, 2017, 09:20:56 PM
That Alfa looks MAGNIFICENT!

It would look superb in the normal 1/43 small car scale, but in 1/72 it's jaw dropping!

Is the Land Rover model the correct wheelbase for a 4 door? The Series II 4 door Station Wagons were built on the 109" wheelbase chassis as opposed to the 88" wheelbase that could only accommodate a 2 door body.

Thanks! I tried to fix the wash a bit, so I'll try to take some pics in the daylight and see if it looks any better.

As for the Land Rover, it is indeed the 109" long wheel base... so it does fit the 4-door. The kits pretty simple though, so it's going to require some scratchbuilt upgrades.