Well - we are moving along albeit slowly - there is this expression: "the Devil is in the details" - and so it turns out.
After looking at photos of the real car and, in view of the fact that the "ears" on the chassis offered a perfect mounting spot., I decided to add the trailing arm front suspension. the suspension bit was easy - a little cutting, filing and folding of a short piece of rectangular brass tubing - 1/8" hole on the outboard end to fit over the axle tube and a bit of solder at the inboard end to hold it to the chassis:
The tinned brass was painted with Humbrol burnishable steel and the axle tube got a coat of invisibility paint ( aka flat black)
AS in the prototype, a considerable opening in the body is needed:
And now the fun begins - first, the body seemed a bit flimsy after all that material had been removed so I elected to reinforce the upper part of the body/nose with several layers of kevlar scrim set in epoxy - glass fibre, carbon fiber, or even old nylon stocking material (the latter set in airplane dope) would do as well.
That done, I did a trial assembly at which point it became painfully obvious that the front body mount was off center by about 1mm - the plain axles sticking out each side had been less revealing. No way to fudge that much so - grind it out and make a new one - about half an hour + overnite drying time that was unplanned.
Having come this far, there was nothing to do but add the trailing links for the rear suspension - easy - a little recess in the body, two hole for two bits of wire etc. Here's the result of the third attempt to get the "little recess in the body" right:
With, of course, the requisite body filler application, setting time, sanding and repriming following the first and second attempts! Is is not perfect, but it is done!
My driver figures have never been very good, at least in part becaise they are always the last (and rushed) thing that I do so I decided that this one will be different- some scrapng to creat the "bare arm" polo shirt uniform that will go with the brown leather helmet and a lot of fiddly heating (butane cigarette lighter) and twisting of arms and hands got me to here:
With the wheel installed, he is held forward a bit and grips the rim quite convincingly - and yes, the wheel really does stick up that far!
Tomorrrow should see the first coat of color (then 24 hrs - then the secnd coat then 24 hours then the first gloss coat etc. etc) and while all that drying time is elapsing, I'll finish the weight pan.
Next post should be the finished car ( I hope)
EM