I have a unique project. It's a 1/24 scale car kit from the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen made by Wave out of Japan. It's Captain Nemo's car. As an aesthetic piece, it a nice little kit, but it lacks all other detail inside beyond the interior. It builds to just a hair under 11 inches which I thought was pretty big for a 1/24 scale car. The hood to where the radiator would be is (if I remember?) about...3 1/4 inches leaving a good sized space for an impressive engine.
The finished build in the box art shows it's potential built straight out of the box. However, I really want to make this kit to be ,'more'. The stock kit itself lacks all detail other that what you see on the outside. There is no engine,transmission, exhaust, drive shaft and not much of a chassis to speak of. It's pretty barren and dare I say, 'unimpressive and boring'.
My main problem is I want to install an engine. In order to do that...I have to carve into the car body to remove the hood. The engine hood is molded into the car body. There is no hood to speak of beyond the very narrow panel line that outlines the hood at the top and all of the ornamental chrome decorations that fit on top of the hood and also on the rest of the car. I am uncertain if that will create fitting or functional open/closing problems?
The real nail biter is, this kit is extremely expensive. There really isn't any room for error if I decide to attempt to carve out the hood with a homemade tool and separate it from the body of the car. An irreparable mistake can cost me hundreds of dollars to replace it. Basically another kit and this kit is difficult to come by and even more difficult to get at a reasonable price.
I have thought of a couple different ways to separate the hood from the body. My first idea was to use a very small diameter drill (around .010) and probably drill hundreds of holes around the perimeter outline of what the hood will be, then cut through and clean rougher cut edges up and do whatever else to get a good fit.
My second idea was to grind a very, very small scribing tool and just repeatedly score around the outline of the hood, or do a combination of both techniques? Honestly I'm not sure what would be easiest and produce the best results with the fewest of mistakes? I am open to other suggestions what the best way would be to remove the molded in hood from the body?
That being said, would be my biggest hurdle. The rest of my plan should involve some kit bashing and fabricating a custom frame that would fit the body of this car. I have a few different 1/24 scale 1930's car kits with similar, extended, long bodies and chassis to work from that could be used as part donors. Two Bugatti kits and two Cadillac kits. One a 1/25 scale, but the difference in scale is so small I don't think there will be too noticeable of a difference?
My first idea was to just use a stock V16 from the Cadillac kits, then I thought perhaps kit bashing a V16 with a Bugatti V8 or V12 (whatever I could fit inside), but then I started thinking about WWII airplane engines.
The engine I think I want to drop in is a P-51D mustang engine. I'm narrowing the scale down to a 1/48 scale Eduard upgraded resin&photo etch kit. Initially, I wanted to use a 1/32 scale Tamiya Mustang engine, but I think now that is too big?
Tamiya has also proven difficult to deal with. At least online through their USA web site. I ask questions, they don't answer. I've called and asked for the correct e-mail address to request a parts purchase, they give me a bad address. So, I'll try contacting them once more and see where that gets me? As a backup, I thought I'd still try to acquire the engine parts.
There are a few things I have not quite worked out yet for this project. Such as, how to set the hood in place and what kind of hinges I can use for the hood? Where will I get the hinges? Do I look for and buy another donor kit, or does someone make them? I haven't quite figured that out yet?
I think the kit bashing part will be the most fun, but I also have not really built any car models before. I think measuring and using the other cars body styles and following the frame/chassis work as a guide will make building the frame not too hard to make.
There may also be some mild scratch building, but I'm not too worried about that yet. I also may need to really sand and grind down the thickness of the hood if I am successful in separating it? It will be ' too thick' and look out if scale.
Grinding the curved areas down with a roto tool may be nerve wracking. I also think I want to drill out the front grill so you can see the radiator when I put one in there. That will be difficult too because it's a chromed piece with the radiator molded in it. I think it just looks bad.
Anyway, that's my initial introduction to this project. I'll post pictures of the kit and measurements shortly and am open to ideas and suggestions on how to modify the kit if anyone has any? Until then, many thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from anyone who may have interest in my project.
The finished build in the box art shows it's potential built straight out of the box. However, I really want to make this kit to be ,'more'. The stock kit itself lacks all detail other that what you see on the outside. There is no engine,transmission, exhaust, drive shaft and not much of a chassis to speak of. It's pretty barren and dare I say, 'unimpressive and boring'.
My main problem is I want to install an engine. In order to do that...I have to carve into the car body to remove the hood. The engine hood is molded into the car body. There is no hood to speak of beyond the very narrow panel line that outlines the hood at the top and all of the ornamental chrome decorations that fit on top of the hood and also on the rest of the car. I am uncertain if that will create fitting or functional open/closing problems?
The real nail biter is, this kit is extremely expensive. There really isn't any room for error if I decide to attempt to carve out the hood with a homemade tool and separate it from the body of the car. An irreparable mistake can cost me hundreds of dollars to replace it. Basically another kit and this kit is difficult to come by and even more difficult to get at a reasonable price.
I have thought of a couple different ways to separate the hood from the body. My first idea was to use a very small diameter drill (around .010) and probably drill hundreds of holes around the perimeter outline of what the hood will be, then cut through and clean rougher cut edges up and do whatever else to get a good fit.
My second idea was to grind a very, very small scribing tool and just repeatedly score around the outline of the hood, or do a combination of both techniques? Honestly I'm not sure what would be easiest and produce the best results with the fewest of mistakes? I am open to other suggestions what the best way would be to remove the molded in hood from the body?
That being said, would be my biggest hurdle. The rest of my plan should involve some kit bashing and fabricating a custom frame that would fit the body of this car. I have a few different 1/24 scale 1930's car kits with similar, extended, long bodies and chassis to work from that could be used as part donors. Two Bugatti kits and two Cadillac kits. One a 1/25 scale, but the difference in scale is so small I don't think there will be too noticeable of a difference?
My first idea was to just use a stock V16 from the Cadillac kits, then I thought perhaps kit bashing a V16 with a Bugatti V8 or V12 (whatever I could fit inside), but then I started thinking about WWII airplane engines.
The engine I think I want to drop in is a P-51D mustang engine. I'm narrowing the scale down to a 1/48 scale Eduard upgraded resin&photo etch kit. Initially, I wanted to use a 1/32 scale Tamiya Mustang engine, but I think now that is too big?
Tamiya has also proven difficult to deal with. At least online through their USA web site. I ask questions, they don't answer. I've called and asked for the correct e-mail address to request a parts purchase, they give me a bad address. So, I'll try contacting them once more and see where that gets me? As a backup, I thought I'd still try to acquire the engine parts.
There are a few things I have not quite worked out yet for this project. Such as, how to set the hood in place and what kind of hinges I can use for the hood? Where will I get the hinges? Do I look for and buy another donor kit, or does someone make them? I haven't quite figured that out yet?
I think the kit bashing part will be the most fun, but I also have not really built any car models before. I think measuring and using the other cars body styles and following the frame/chassis work as a guide will make building the frame not too hard to make.
There may also be some mild scratch building, but I'm not too worried about that yet. I also may need to really sand and grind down the thickness of the hood if I am successful in separating it? It will be ' too thick' and look out if scale.
Grinding the curved areas down with a roto tool may be nerve wracking. I also think I want to drill out the front grill so you can see the radiator when I put one in there. That will be difficult too because it's a chromed piece with the radiator molded in it. I think it just looks bad.
Anyway, that's my initial introduction to this project. I'll post pictures of the kit and measurements shortly and am open to ideas and suggestions on how to modify the kit if anyone has any? Until then, many thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from anyone who may have interest in my project.
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