Jim R's Airfix 1905 Rolls Royce

[Jim R]

First off thanks to Paul for setting up this GB. A great idea and a lot of nostalgic fun.
My offering is this ...

This is an original kit from 1956. Although there is no indication of scale it is 1/32.
Sprue shot ...

Instructions ...



Lots of clean up and dry fitting will be needed. First thing to sort out was the very poor rear springs.

I have started to scratch replacements.

The body is in two halves and the chassis is one piece. (One piece! - eat your heart out all those with ICM or MiniArt kits where the chassis is dozens of itty-bitty parts )
I took a fair bit of fettling to get a reasonable fit.



I had to fill a gap at the back with some card and also the join in front of the front seat was bad so the area was covered with 0.25mm card.

Lastly the dash board/bulkhead left a gap at the bottom and styrene was added to fill the gap.


All good fun. I built one of these ancient Airfix vintage car kits a while ago and that turned out OK so hopefully this will too. A 1904 Darracq.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great work Jim. Good call on those leaf springs. The original ones are very poor.

[Valeron]

Excellent Jim. A proper vintage model. Looking forward to seeing this one shape up.

[Neil Merryweather]

that Darracq was more than just alright ,Jim!

[Geoffers]

Nice start Jim, it’s interesting to see how far things have progressed when you see these vintage kits.

Geoff.

[Nicko]

Following your progress Jim. Looks like it's headed in the right direction. Great work on the springs!

Nick

[yak face]

Excellent start Jim , its vintage in every sense of the word but like the Darracq its going to be a concours job once youve fettled it , great work on those leaf springs btw , cheers tony

[Airborne01]

Lovely job so far (I think Pater had one of those noisy beasts!)
Steve

[flyjoe180]

Wow Jim, this is looking great. Talk about vintage, I think you may have the oldest kit on the bench.

[Jim R]

Thanks guys for such positive posts. In a way it's the simplicity of the kit that actually makes it fun.

The wheels were wood made in the same way as cart wheels. Where the spokes fit into the hub there were bolts through the hub to strengthen and prevent cracking. They were poor and so replaced with 0.7mm rivets.



Suspension and axles fitted.




The door hinges and handles were cut off and the hinges replaces with rod. The handles will go on later as they are fragile.

Thanks again.

[colin m]

Great work Jim. Truly, history in the making. Would you believe it, the red Flag act was repealed just nine years earlier than your Rolls Royce.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great work Jim. In effect your mods are turning what would have been an average model into what will be a cracking show piece.

[Jim R]

Thanks Colin and Steve.
Quite a decent amount of progress considering. All ready for primer. As the car will be red and I have some MRP red oxide primer that's what I'll use

You can't really make a silk purse out of a sow's ear but I have tried to improve and add detail in some areas.
I put a fastener on the tool box that sits on the running board.


Added wire struts for the side lights that attach to the bulkhead. One of the kit struts was missing anyway.


Slightly tweaked the brake lever and the gear lever.


Added more correct rear door handles.


Added rivets in a few places - replacements and additions.






And a load of odds and sods.


The biggest omission is there is no engine which means no sump or steering rods/box. Not really noticeable except when viewed from low down to the side. I'm not sure either if there were foot pedals or a throttle on the steering column. I'll try to see if I can find our

[Nicko]

Starting to come together very nicely Jim.

Nick

[PaulTRose]

Wow......all these little additions are going to finish it off.....make it look great

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Lovely work Jim.