Prudenzio Contest - Rolls Royce by Boose

[Don Boose]

This is actually a place holder, since the model shown in the images is one that I started more than a year ago. Since then, I lost the original file, along with my other Zio models, in a computer crash. I have since downloaded it afresh, made a donation, and will build the newly-downloaded one, along with the two little trucks, soon.

Meanwhile, here are images of the old, unfinished, model, with a little person (whom I have named "Sophie") looking on at the construction.

Don

[cjwalas]

I hope Sophie is still around to supervise construction?
Chris

[Don Boose]

Sophie is still around, Chris. I intend to finish up this previously-started model, and then build another one either to qualify for the contest (if Old Toddlea will allow two builds of the same model) or just for the fun of it.

[pahorace]

Model delicious! Don.
It is hoped that Mrs. Sophie could take a ride with this car soon.

Orazio

[rockpaperscissor]

Looks very nice. I was thinking of building this one myself. Does anyone know if this is just a generic landaulette, or is it a model of a specific car?

[Don Boose]

Don - I am no expert on vintage and veteran automobiles, but I believe the open driver's compartment makes this a "brougham," rather than a landaulette (although perhaps the fold-down cover over the back of the passenger compartment qualifies it as a "landaulette" regardless of the open driver's seat).

Zio calls it a Rolls-Royce, but it may be intended to give an impression, rather than being a specific mark of the automobile. Except for the missing silver lady radiator cap ornament, it certainly has the characteristics of a 1920 - 1925 Rolls Royce. Based on the shape of the passenger compartment, I would say closer to 1920 than to 1925.

Don

[Don Boose]

Many thanks for your kind comments, Chris, Don, and Orazio. This work is definitely not in the same league as that of you three, but it I can see some improvement in my hand skills.

It seems to me that the wheels as designed for the kit are too narrow (two thickness of whatever paper the model is printed on). So today, I took a break from grading papers and fabricated some new wheels. First, I cut out the wheels with a circle cutter, then cut out disks of double thickness paper and glued the front and back of the wheels to those disks.

Images 1 and 2: I used the spokes to strike the center point of the rear face of the wheels and cut them out with the circle cutter.

I wanted to add an additional thickness for the tires, so I printed a black square and taped it to a segment of paper that was itself taped to my cutting board.

Images 3 and 4: I set the circle cutter to the radius of the inside of the tire and carefully cut out a series of disks, being sure not to cut through the underlying paper. This left the center point that I could use to cut the outer circle of the tires.

Then I cut out the rear center disks (p2); punched out the hubcaps (p3); and glued the tires, rear center disks, and hubcaps to the previously glued up wheels. Finally, I rubbed Caran D’Ache Neocolor II 7500.008 (Greyish Black) all over the tires.

Image 5 shows the thicker new tires and the skinny old tires. The new tires are a little ragged and may now be too wide (about 1mm, which would be 8.7cm full size, assuming the car is about 1/87 scale). I don’t know how wide a 1920 Rolls Royce tire was. I think a Model T Ford tire was about 3 inches wide. If that was also the width of the Rolls tires, then my tires are about a centimeter too wide, which I can live with, given the standoff scale nature of the model.

Back to grading papers.

[cjwalas]

A vast improvement! The wheels as supplied are most definitely too thin. Not only that but the fold over design is too exact. One slight misalignment and the wheels are way off center. This happened on two of the four on mine.
The added dimension in the wheels will really make a difference in the appearance of this one. I see I need to purchase a circle cutter and learn how to use it. Which model are you using and are you happy with it? The results look perfect.
Chris

[Don Boose]

Chris –

I use an Olfa compass circle cutter (http://olfa.com/CircleCutters.aspx (http://olfa.com/CircleCutters.aspx)), which I find works well for disks between 5mm and 60mm radius, so long as I use sharp blades.

For disks smaller than 5mm radius, I use a drafting compass with a blade, which is temperamental and not entirely satisfactory.

Billy Leliveld (http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/aviation/4974-1-32-b-58-hustler-design-build-39.html#post101387 (http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/aviation/4974-1-32-b-58-hustler-design-build-39.html#post101387)) made us aware of the NT circle citter C1500P (http://www.lion-office.com/nt/circle.html (http://www.lion-office.com/nt/circle.html)) and Mike Scalingi showed how to improve that cutter for small disks (http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/tips-tricks/9597-improve-your-circle-cutter.html (http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/tips-tricks/9597-improve-your-circle-cutter.html)).

Some day I intend to get one of those NTs and have Mike help me make the modification. But for now, I am doing okay with the Olfa for my small and not so precise projects.

Don

[rockpaperscissor]

The thicker tires make a big difference. Looks really nice.

Since I'm not an expert on antique autos either, I looked up the landau(lette) and brougham body styles to see what the difference is. The landaulette features a passenger compartment with a roof that can be opened; either accordioned back like a sunroof, or with a soft roof section that could fold down. The driver compartment could be either roofed or not. Sometimes the driver's roof was removable. The brougham had an enclosed section for passengers, and the driver sat out in the open.

[Don Boose]

Thanks, Don. Then it is clearly a landaulette. I love those terms for horse drawn vehicles and early automobiles and am glad to be able to refine my vehicle nomenclature.

And I hope to get this particular landaulette assembled soon.

Don

[pahorace]

Hi Don,
I saw the construction of the tires is very good, at least for this scale.
To get an idea of proportion, maybe you can help these sites:

Rolls-Royce Classic Car Tyres | Longstone Tyres (http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/Rolls_Royce_Tyres)
1920 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Images (40/50 HP, 40/50HP) | Conceptcarz.com (http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/default.aspx?carID=10537&i=4#menu)

Orazio

[Don Boose]

Thank you for stopping by and for providing these useful sites, Orazio. I now feel more comfortable about the width of the tires and, after looking at many of the pictures, am more certain that Zio has produced an impressionistic version of an early 20th century Rolls Royce, rather than a particular vehicle. The body style seems to put it in the pre-WWI period, but so far, I haven't found any image of a Rolls Royce with spoked wheels. They all seem to have either wire or solid steel wheels.

Don

[Wyvern]

It's coming along nicely, Don! I really like your work with the wheels.

Wyvern

[looker]

Very useful links(ta) - and -
1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Images, Information and History (40/50HP) | Conceptcarz.com (http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z7826/Rolls-Royce-Silver-Ghost.aspx)
1914 Rolls-Royce Limousine (http://www.ohtm.org/14rollsr.html)

but it seems you need to go back to 1907 for spokes
1907 Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost Images, Information and History (40/50HP) | Conceptcarz.com (http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z15307/Rolls-Royce-40/50-HP-Silver-Ghost.aspx)

(http://www.ohtm.org/14rollsr.html)

[Don Boose]

Thanks, Looker. I think we are closing in on the prototype. Allowing for a bit of artistic license (8 spokes instead of 10 and a few other minor points), I tentatively conclude that Zio based this model on a surviving blue 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Double Cabriolet.
Film and Photgraphic Work (http://oddscarhire.co.uk/film_and_photgraphic_work.htm)
1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Barker Double Cabriolet | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmm/4676285422/)

[cjwalas]

Brilliant deduction, Holmes!
chris

[Texman]

In addition to a nice build and sometimes a new trick or two, your threads are always educational. Thanks Don for all around good build threads.

[Don Boose]

Belated thanks to Wyvern for stopping by to give encouragement.

Chris – As Holmes said after finishing a plate of pasta: “It was alimentary, Watson.”

Ray – Many thanks for the nice words, Flyboy!

After a long day of grading papers, I decided that, among the three on-going Zio projects, the Rolls would be the easiest. Just goes to show how clouded my crystal ball is.

It started out well enough. I glued on the cabriolet body and the driver’s seat. Image 7A.

Image 8 shows how the driver’s compartment goes together. Note that the dash board folds down behind the lower edge of the windscreen. I thought it would be nice (and easy) to put glass in the windscreen by cutting out a second copy from bond paper, taping down some cellophane from a chewing gum package, and gluing the windscreen frame to the cellophane. Image 9.

While this conglomeration was drying, I decided to glue in the luggage chest. Dry fitting it, I found that the white interior showed behind the inward curve of the cabriolet body, so I painted the inside dark blue, cut a rectangle of black from the bond paper copy of the model, and glued it to the open end of the chest. Image 10.

Now life began to get complicated. Remember, this is a model that I started a long time ago. I had already folded down and glued the dash board. Image 11. This made it impossible to attach the newly fabricated cellophaned frame, so I cut the dashboard away from the cowl and carefully cut away the second thickness of paper. I then cut out the frame that was glued to the cellophane expecting to simply glue it to the back side of the windscreen frame.

Image 12. That’s when I discovered that the paper copy of the windscreen frame was narrower than the windscreen frame on the old model.

This morning at the office I read Leif's lament about a printer that prints a little off in one dimension. Lo and behold I found that, while the windscreen I printed today is wider than the old one, it is the same height. Image 13 shows how the old model compares in two dimensions with the one I printed today.

Image 14: Thinks: “Why not simply print out a new driver’s compartment that will be compatible with the paper copy?” Answer: “Because then the entire driver’s compartment will be out of proportion to the existing model.” [This turned out not to be true, but I didn’t discover that until I had done a lot more work.]

Image 15: I decided to cut the old windscreen away from the driver’s compartment and cut it to fit the new paper copy. When I cut it away, the cowl shaped itself into a curve, so I glued the dash panel to a piece of thick card. See also the steering wheel crudely cut out and a steering wheel column rolled from a piece of brown paper (the kit instructions call for the wheel to be glued directly to the dash board).

Image 16: I applied glue to the inside of the cowl and the top of the dash board (those to whom the words “banana oil,” “dope,” and “carve balsa to shape” are still meaningful will also remember the term “double gluing”) and pushed the dash board down against the cowl.

Image 17: These are all the parts I fabricated this evening. I found that I had glued the windscreen frame on sloppily, but the overlap will be on the inside.

Doing a trial fitting, I found that the driver’s seat interferes with the gluing tabs on the sides of the driver’s compartment, so I cut them a way a bit. Then I found that the driver’s compartment is actually a little too wide for the chassis. A new one cut from the copy I printed today would probably fit, but it’s late, so I am going to sleep on the situation and see how I feel about it tomorrow. Image 18 shows the status of the build tonight.

I realize that compared to the work Darwin is doing on the Alpha Romeo and many of the other superb builds in the Forum, this is kid stuff, but for my skill level, it’s pretty challenging.

More later,

Don

[cjwalas]

Other than the mis-sized prints, I had the same issues as you on this. I did manage to crush in a bit of cellophane in the window frame, but it wasn't a joyous experience. The driver's compartment was where I had the most issues as well. I too, had to trim the tabs.
I chose the coward's way out on the size of it and simply crushed the section to fit.:rolleyes:
Your addition of the steering wheel shaft makes a big difference.

And I sympathize with your troubles printing new to match an old printed copy. I'm still struggling to sort out a single page on a Bristol Beaufighter that I can't get to match.:mad:

You are most definitely elevating the eye appeal of this appealing little kit!
Chris

[Michael Mash]

Hello Don:
I like that last image showing the wheels and the frame.
Looks excellent.
Mike

[rockpaperscissor]

Despite all your trials and tribulations with this little model, it's really looking very nice.

[Uyraell]

An Rolls-Royce Armoured Car is one I have long wanted to build accurately.
The few diecast metal models that emerged about a decade ago were not only hideously expensive (around 50 or 60 $ NZ each) but virtually unobtainable.
A decent paper model has been very hard to find, especially with a properly roofed turret, as opposed to the Cyrenaica ca 1941 versions that became available.

It being that I detest the roofless turrets, my search has been both long and difficult.

Kind and Respectful Regards,

Uyraell.

[Don Boose]

22 June

Tonight, after a two week absence (onslaught of end of academic year teaching, Antietam Staff Ride, arrival of a new batch of Distance Education students to get acquainted with during their Resident Course, and some writing and copyediting projects) I finished up the Rolls, sort of.

I appreciate the kind and encouraging words, Chris, Mike, Don, and Uyraell.

Uyraell, you may have noticed Chris Gutzmer’s build of Roman’s post-WWI Rolls Royce 1920 pattern armored car with enclosed turret. I also tried my hand at that one, as have several others of our Forum buddies. GPM also has a 1920 pattern Rolls Royce (I have one on order): GPM - modele kartonowe (http://gpm.pl/eng/index.php?akcja=produkt&edycja=5881)

When I got to work, I found that I was somewhat out of practice and that there were a number of challenges (learning experiences that I will apply to the next, better version).

After some trimming and squishing I managed to get the front cab glued in place. I also glued the top of the windscreen to the landau top. After the glue set, I realized that the windscreen was canted forward, so I cut the top away from the landau cover, slicing a piece out of the front of the cover. I covered that with an extra top cut from bond paper. I also discovered that the entire cab is tilted slightly to port. No way to fix that except by choosing my camera angles carefully (Image 1).

Next, I discovered that the engine bonnet (hood, in Yankspeak) must be flat at the rear to match up with the cowl of the cab. I glued in a piece of paper to insure flatness, glued on the front of the headlamps (which were too big), cut out the rear of the lamps and mashed them to shape with my Shrike Rolystyk (Image 2).

While the headlamps were drying, I cut out a strip from the spare copy of the model, punched out a radiator cap, and glued it in place to give some dimensionality to the radiator shell (Image 3). You can see the Carden-Loyd in the background. I will resume work on it this weekend when my hands are steady.

Image 4 is a close up. Sophie looks on as her automobile takes shape.

Images 5 and 6 are the only photos I took that downplay the flaws. Nonetheless, in addition to some gaps, lumpiness, and other infelicities, The bonnet is higher in the front than in the back, there is the aforementioned tilt of the front cab, and the axles seem to be set too far fore and aft.

However, Sophie and I declare this build complete. Now back to the Breda and the Carden-Loyd, and perhaps the next, improved, Rolls Royce, on which I will apply what I learned from this one.

I will keep you informed.

Don

[B-Manic]

Nice clean build Don. Sophie looks pleased with her ride. Whatever flaws it had seem to have succumbed to your ' trimming and squishing'.

[Uyraell]

A very Nicely done build, Don, and thank you for the point to Chris Gutzmer's build, and the Kartonwe build. I'm certain Sophie Will enjoy the car as you've built it.

At the International Pan-Pacific Rally in 2000, I had the pleasure of seeing a Rolls Royce very similar to yours here, and yes, it was on "artillery wheels" ie: wooden-spoked.
There were some 1,960 veteran and vintage cars present for that rally, and I saw most.
I'd say that will have been a "once in a lifetime" experience, yet one I'm very glad of.

This has been an interesting and informative build, with a very fine model resulting.

Kind and Respectful Regards Don, Uyraell.

[Texman]

Looks like a fne job on a difficult subject Don. Thanks for the ride Dogface!

[rockpaperscissor]

That came out very nice. A superior job as always.

[Michael Mash]

Well Don,
After all the imperfections you described in your monologue, I was expecting quite a bit less than what you show in the images. The last two pictures are wonderful, revealing none of the problems you talked about. I am looking forward to the next one.
Mike

[cjwalas]

I can just picture Sophie out for here Sunday afternoon drive. This came out nicely indeed, Don.
Chris