Final stages of the windows..

Here's the final stages.  The screens have been shaped with files and leave about 20 thou. all round for the clear PVC that will be vacuum formed over them.  There's the mess on the bench to prove it.

Then some more Milliput is pressed underneath them and they are pressed well down onto some greased styrene sheet to make it perfectly flat.

The blobs on the body front are to make patterns for the mud flaps some versions carried.

Here they are, turned over, removed from the car (also buttered) and will be final shaped and packed with Milliput underneath to make a formable shape.

Just a clean up and a scrape across a flat piece of wet'n'dry to finish off.

And that, in a nutshell, is how Milliput window patterns are made.

Window patterns, the main screens...

Ooh, look what a tripod can do!

OK, still got focus issues, but this was without really setting up carefully and I expected little from it, but my dear wife bought me a flexible legged tripod in Aldi's, the excellent value German supermarket chain.

A mere 7 quid, it has knuckle jointed legs in a soft plastic which "stick" to irregular surfaces and they are all I have in my workshop!  It even has a quick release system to save you screwing it in the camera every time.  Now, is there a remote trigger for the Fuji S5500, I wonder?

Oh the window patterns, sorry.  Popped out of the butter-slarred apertures once set and these are about to be filed up to shape.  Then it's just the mud flap patterns and they'll be off to my son for vac-forming.  More anon.

Window patterns, part 3

More crap photos!  But this is digital and is therefore completely without consistency or logic.

The side window patterns have been filed to fit the aperture, then been reduced by 20 thou. all round to clear the window moulding material.  There is a bar of 0.3mm wire set in to a groove so that the very fine glazing bar has a slight witness line in the vac-forming.

Here are the two patterns side by side.

The V grooves are there to help the vacuum reach the detailed parts.  It also helps stop "webbing" on forming.

Next the front and rear screens and then the finishing.

At last, a crisp photo, but...

At last!  But which set of variables did I use for it?  Gawd knows.
One light off, one on, hand held, ISO100 or 64?  Pff!  Maybe it's the white background. All I know is on holding the button half down, none of the shots had the green light telling me it was ready!!  I just took 'em anyway.

Anyway, this is what comes out of the window aperture after trimming with end cutters.

The front and rear screens are cooking and next time it'll be these all filed up and fitting sweetly.

Window patterns, Pt 2..

Just gently prized the window patterns out of the Celica body.
There's always a load of excess, so it's scored with a junior hacksaw and clipped away with the end cutters you see, right, in the pictures

And, with the contrast fiddled with to make up for the crap pictures, but getting a little crisper:-

These are now ready for filing to shape, once the front and rear screens are cooking on the digi box.

These are with room light and 2 spotlights, no flash, macro setting from about 12" away, rested on a solid object.  Still fuzzy, yet the background of the top one is crisp, as ever, even though the square on the screen is telling me mid picture.

More anon.

Windows of the soul...

I promised a chum a blog on how to do vacuum formed window patterns for model cars.  He's making some resin re-pops of diecasts in 1/43rd scale, a very promising new scale for slot racing.  As a pioneer, he is leading from the front and needs to know how to do windows for himself.

Having made countless window patterns for slot cars and static models of all scales, here's how I do it.

Firstly I apologise for the shite photos, but I just can't be bothered with these bloody digital cameras any more. They're all crap and clarity isn't important on this job. The method is clear and that's all that matters until someone proves to me that anything digital is worth a toss.  By crap, I mean it doesn't work straight off, like my trusty old Praktika and Olympus proper cameras always did, without fail.

Anyway, you'll need a pack of Milliput, grey/green.  Do NOT bother with any other grade.  If you think you need finer than grey/green, you're in the wrong hobby.
Some butter/marge from the fridge.

Make sure the body for which you need the windows is cleaned up in the apertures where the glass is going. Slar some butter round the window aperture and for a little distance around, especially on the inside.
Mix up the Milliput equally and very thoroughly, then squidge it into a rough plate shape and with a wet thumb and fingers push it in the aperture from both sides so that it just sits in there with the outside surface just a little proud of where the glass should end up.  Keep the digits wet (spit'll do) and you won't stick to the Milli.

Don't worry about any great regularity as you'll be filing it all smooth later. This is the stage where you establish your material supply in its place.

Repeat on tother side, being careful to leave the first undisturbed.

The excess all round the Milliput will be clipped off with end cutters when it's set.

At this point, you can't do any more because they'd all stick to each other inside, if you tried to make all four windows, so now park it under a desk lamp or leave it on the digi box to warm gently overnight, as I will do, because the bloody useless camera has left me in a foul key-hammering mood and I'm not doing anything else tonight.  Lloyd, if I hadn't have promised you this blog entry, I'd have taken a sledge hammer to the camera and saved myself any future hassle.  It is very rare that I contain my foul temper.

By contrast....

Just a quick experiment.  I always prefer scenery photos in black and white.  They have all that '50s atmosphere that made me a modelmaker in my childhood.
Here are the cafe pics in b&w.

Too cold last night in the workshop so I made the doors for Tony Moss's workshop and cut out the main walls for the Ferry Station down platform waiting room.  Pics later.