1/32 Airfix MGB Roadster

Got this from a local charity shop (had paints, glue and brushes included which are now in the "reserve box")

Cost £1.99 ($2.96 at todays exchange)





sprues, not a lot on there but the bonnet opens and the engine could be wired up.




Baby blue methinks .........

Hey, that's cool - it has an engine.

The old (1960s) 1/32 Airfix kits were great. I remember the fantastically detailed Mini and (if I remember) Airfix (?) MG 1100 A Saloon. As a youth not clear on British English, I was surprised to find no scale model beer cans, bottles, etc within!

There's a fair bit of detail in this but the problem you have is it's airfix ...... plenty of flash and mismoulding (ie the two halves dont match up) so when you've got rid of the excess plastic you've got a bit thats a tad too small and all the detail has been scraped/sanded off

This is supposed to be a grill ... no idea what im doing with it at the mo, maybe cut the inside grill out and have a mesh insert?



So anyway onto the car.....

Airfixs' idea of a chrome strip is a ruddy great line of plastic down the side of the body, i scraped and sanded this off and will use chrome strips for the trim.






Not much detail in the front and rear suspension when it's cleaned up but it'll do






The seats dont have any backs and i think you'll be able to see them when the lids on so i'm filling in with some styrene sheet





The radiator was a single lump so i cut around it and added the top pipework, filler cap and overflow pipe






The engine went together ok (basically two halves but surprisingly they fit) i've added some pipework and the live from the alternator







No dizzy included so i made one out of tube, also made a coil out of tube





The coil is normally strapped onto the inner wing on these so i made a strap out of flattened solder wire and used the tube length to form the shape.



The finished article (the open end will be filled with Plasticine and painted over when i remove it from the cocktail stick

Looking good, The extra detail work will really make this build stand out.

Amazing work in such a small scale.

Excellent! I really enjoy seeing extra engine detailing! The radiator I wouldn't have thought about, but simple things can make a winner from a "lump!"

Nice scratchbuilding. I like the clean look of the body without the chrome strip - was that a standard item or an option?

You got a good thing going here, keep after it.

Thanks guys.

Mike,  all the roadsters I've seen (mostly restored)  have a chrome strip running along the side front to back.

A quick search on Google images seems to confirm this.

It was the over sized "ridge"  that airfix moulded on that needed to come off as the scale would equate to it being over an inch thick,  I'll be using a strip of bmf which will be more in line scale wise.

Very Basic interior, good enough for what you'll see through the windows though.



The dash has had a (an attempt) walnut type finish



Engine in and i'm beginning to wire and plumb it all in



Appologies for the slight blur on the images .... camera batteries needed changing.

Thats great work Snake. I'm going to have to scour some charity shops in the hope of netting something like this. I like the idea of flattened solder for a bracket, i'll have to try that myself someday. I like the attention to detail you're putting in.

Cheers matey.

I thought it needed some bulkhead detail, so decided on the three most obvious on this car, the blower box, the brake master and the vacuum hose terminal box/cylinder.  

The blower was made out of a couple of pieces of scrap plastic and then sanded to shape, after i added a ridged plastic tube out of the spares box (think it's a 1/48th helicopter bit)




The vacuum box is just a bit of tube with a couple of wires sticking out to represent the hoses




the brake master is thick tube with a smaller diameter tube shaped and glued on, it'll be filled with Plasticine to give me the "ends" and i'll add a flat disc to simulate the lid on the filler cup




As they look just painted up.



And in position on the car, just have to plumb them fully in now and add some thinner pipes and wires here and there








The grill ........ i tried to cut the slots with a scalpel ..... looks crap ...... looks like i'll have to go with cutting the slots out and having a piece of fine mesh in there, not standard but might look ok.
Im open to ideas though.

Well 30 minutes of faffing with a scalpel and scissors gave me ............


option one



or option two

I prefer option one. Maybe option two would look a bit better if it was tilted diagonally, in my opinion.

Number 1 is what I am thinking.

Good work on a really crappie kit Colin.

Grille two, set diagonaly!

I'd say option 1, but it might be because #2 isn't painted black.

It's had to be option one as the mesh kept on falling apart when cut diagonally.

Even tried gluing it and it sprung apart when I cut it with anything.

Next up is a decent day to spray the body, it's been damp and cold here for ages and I prefer to spray outside in the shed than indoors (not worth me investing in or building a booth as I don't spray hardly anything)

Option one.. If I'm not too late for the poll

Option one has it Ash ... thanks for the input.

Its Baby Blue ...................

Colin:  absolutely great detailing, especially in such a small scale.  I vote for option one on the grill.  Really looking forward to seeing the finished model.

Nice paint.

Well i just got on and did it......

I was going to give a blow by blow account of the poor fit and repeated cutting, sanding, filling, scraping and re-painting that needed doing just to get the windscreen, side windows, rag-top and bumpers to line up ..... but it would have just been a page of me whining  ... time better spent on the re-construction.







EDIT ... finished thread done

https://skidsplace.forumotion.com/t2373-1-32-airfix-mgb-roadster#28943

wow look at the detail in that teeny kit ! Very nicely done !