Prudenzio Contest

[Johnflys2]

The tail light and exhaust pipes have been installed along with the stearing wheel and drivers seat. The tail light was all straight cuts and one fold but those small parts are hard to work with. The tail pipes took some thought. What I came up with is rolled brown tissue paper available from Michaels. A narrow strip was rolled around a .025 dia. piece of wire. About 6 raps was about right for the pipes and then they were coated with white glue. Not too much, don't want it soaking through to the wire. Let it dry thoroughly. Holes were made to accept the pipes on the rear of the vehicle and then glued in place.
The steering wheel was made much like the tires. I felt I couldn't cut the pieces out of the wheel so I made a rim out of two layes of card stock and glued the spokes of the steering wheel to the inside of the rim. I think the pictures will clearly show how I did this.
I hope I can make another seat to look like the first one. John

[The Orange]

Holy! That is looking spectacular!

Love the idea for making the wheel; such a clean build for such a small model!

Do you think we could get a close-up of the steering wheel?

[Johnflys2]

Thank you for your kind comments. You asked for it, you got it...........close up of the steering wheel. Thiings don't look so good up close. John

[The Orange]

You're right, they don't look so good up close...

They look even better!

I have to say, that steering wheel looks so realistic I want to
jump into the picture, squeeze it and start driving the thing.

Definitely a technique that will be useful in the future! I'll
have to try this one and use that technique;

Lovely work, and I hope to see more.

[Johnflys2]

I have pretty good hind sight and I now realize that the following should have been included with the build thread.
"My current build requires 5 wheels and I have never been able to make wheels that look good. So I halted my build and tried to find an easier way to consistantly make descent wheels and I am sharing the results. I selected a wood dowel slightly smaller in diameter than the wheel and sliced off a piece the width of the tire, in this case 2.3 mm. Next step is trial and error. I cut a strip of copy paper 2.3 mm wide and 8 inches long for my first attempt. It is rapped tightly around the wood dowel and when I reached the end I used a very small amount of glue to hold it in place as I may want to remove a rap at a time. Rap the tire tread around the attached copy paper to be sure it fits perfect. If not add a rap or remove a rap of narrow copy paper to get a perfect fit. When it looks perfect glue the tire tread in place. The sides of the wheel can now be added on each side. Builders have their own way of addressing the edges of the card stock so I'll not go there. I hope this helps anyone having the same problem. Screen shot 014."
Shots 015 and 016 shows the vehicle built with the top down. The windshield has been attached and the passenger seat has been installed. Now I have to figure how to cut, shape and attach the remaining small parts. John

[Johnflys2]

After spending the better part of yesterday trying to make two tow hooks that looked alike I finally ended with the two that are shown in screen shot 018. I also was able to install the bar that goes across from side to side behind the front seats. Maybe the more knowledgeable armor guys could tell me what it is and it's use? I made the hooks by saturating them with CA glue ( super glue ). As shown in drawing 017, a hole was drilled using #76 bit where indicated. With a new and very sharp blade two pices of the hook were chopped off where indicated. That took care of inside the hook. A series of chops were made outside the hook and then sanded with an emery board to make a smooth curve. John

[Johnflys2]

The pieces are getting smaller and before I damage what I have done so far, I'll call it finished. No glass in the window, no wiper blades and no rear view mirror. It was fun and I am pleased with the scaled down model. John