A little Diorama for Christmas

I decided to work on the prototype fender flare. Using the little specialty clamps, I glued the reinforcing strip to the tabs in the fender. I bit the bullet and used superglue, to stiffen the card stock. My UV glue isn’t here yet. Then I traced the shape and made the rest of the flare.

76540AF5-07CA-4A38-BE86-F228D1D6B317.jpeg

DFEAA366-2F34-47FA-9647-8E12FC952979.jpeg

This too was attached with superglue. Very tedious. I made several more specialty clamps to get it done.

3FC2FDCF-5C1C-4533-BDE5-1F9E772E9C11.jpeg

I lined the inside of the flare with PVA to give it more strength.

45CAD69D-328F-4FD6-9775-DE2A9B286AE5.jpeg

Then I mixed some body filler. This is actually wood dust and PVA. My wife was smart enough to save the sanding dust from the little hand sander this summer. Thanks to her, I hope I have a lifetime supply of wood flour. This stuff was smeared onto the flare and smoothed with a wet finger.

F0D74C5D-DB00-4957-BF4C-E2029CB96705.jpeg

I had to pull the body off of the chassis. It needs to be reinforced inside. It would never hold up to the handling needed to put the flares in place without it. Plus, the wheelbase was a tad short, so I split the chassis AGAIN and will not glue it together until the body is ready to go back on. I’ll wait until tomorrow to see how the filler sands. This was almost impossible to do on that flat/floppy bit of card. I should have glued a stir stick to the back before starting, but didn’t think of it.

That flare may be too wide. That’s why I made a prototype. I can make the actual ones a bit more narrow. I did end up gluing the outside part of the flare OVER the flange on the body and wanted it inside the flange. It wouldn’t work well that way, so the part ended up wider than planned. The flange on the real ones can be smaller.
 
After looking at the photos and the prototype, I think I will do the front flare on the prototype side. I want to make the tabs much smaller and leave out the reinforcing strip. Just join the flare to the tabs, glue and reinforce and fill. Maybe tomorrow.
 
I finally feel well enough to do the fiddly details of this build. Maybe I’ll have it ready for this Christmas. :biggrin: My son understands. It will be finished when it is finished. I have my ‘shop’ (the corner of the living room) complete enough to allow me to work on the model again also. It sure is fun to have the place to work and the blessing of my wife to just take over the living room corner.

0ECD153A-5F90-48A5-88FC-C5A83B91E977.jpeg

So…

A610DBD5-F7D7-488B-AB3C-B07E0CAF43F3.jpeg

I sketched out the outline of the wheel well flares. Then cut them with those wonderful little scissors.

EF022FE6-A80F-4588-932F-8A2A1B8C085E.jpeg

Then traced the shape to transfer it to the other side. Then the openings were snipped and folded and reinforced with super glue. I also glued reinforcements inside the sides of the truck to make it easier to handle.

8176A867-44E4-408B-8DAA-38B853C85C2B.jpeg

Now I need to cut the little white strip to complete each of the flares. It will be attached with superglue also. The front flare on the test piece is how they should look.
 
Thanks! I couldn’t resist doing a little more work on it. Some sanding was done and reinforcements were added to the inside of the body.

331A6156-3AA7-4572-B6A4-36D55FD86C38.jpeg

The camera is a good modeling tool. I see more work is needed to smooth the curves on the inside of the flares. Also, the inner fenders from the donor van have to go from the front.
 
Time for a change of pace. I’m afraid to paint the Bronco, so I will practice on the test piece. In the meantime, I need to work on the house.
The plan is to build the front door as a pre-hung unit. Foam cutout for the brick and arch surrounding the door and window and real wood veneer for the door. The door will probably be at least 5 layers. I was going to use walnut, but the grain in my walnut veneer is very curly and I was afraid of that for such a small piece. I think this stuff is Philippine mahogany and has the right color and nice straight grain.

The tools and materials laid out on a CLEAN work surface:

8C451D4C-826F-4670-9D43-DB6CDF0E5D18.jpeg

And a closer look at the door:

74AC0F03-9732-4847-97DD-B3FFEED5CF77.jpeg

I plan to make the surround slightly wider, with the outer section about as wide as the single brick width next to the door frame.

Oh, I almost forgot. I am going to try to hinge the door in the frame using a strip of tyvek from a mailing bag. It should be tough and flexible and easy to attach. (Famous last words) and I can just paint in ‘hinges’ in the proper place.

Also, the old eyes have graduated to 2.5x reading glasses. Sigh… my old ones were 2x and had glass lenses. I couldn’t find any glass lens readers this round.
 
I couldn’t resist playing with my hot wire cutter some more. I got this one from Amazon:
(I’m just learning to use it)

405EC939-86EF-40CB-AF69-80FB160096E1.jpeg

I chose it over the Proxon because of price and the fact that the Proxon is made from plastic. This one is 3/4” plywood. I plan to make a couple of ‘sleds’ that fit in the slots on the sides and clamp down where I want. The pink straw and glue bottle protect the wire when I’m not using the thing. I can’t SEE the wire and ran into it a couple of times with tools and my hands before I added the ‘guards’. I will be making a protector when I build the sleds.

Then I cut a single layer of brick facing and then cut it to face the door section.

B7AE66F5-3ACA-4EC2-B8DB-6A954B78C8EE.jpeg
 
No burns… I turn it off except when cutting, but bumping into it will kill the wire. I haven’t touched it yet while it is on, but I’ve read that a quick touch doesn’t hurt.

So, this is FUN. I’ve been working on the doorway in preparation to making the door. I have the doorway brickwork fitted to the front of the house. It is just sitting there, not fastened. I want to make the entire wood work for the door and stain it to match the door wood before I glue it in place. I will probably not attach the entire assembly to the house right now.

8FE08528-931C-407C-AE7B-9B236C125408.jpeg

32EFE0FE-BC58-44EF-A4F1-BE092D24D520.jpeg

The little chop saw in the upper right of that pic is a great tool for cutting the little pieces of wood. Much easier on the operator, the wood and the tool than using the snips. I almost ruined my sprue cutter by cutting wood. (it snaps shut so hard while cutting it is damaging the edges and hinge. Cheap pair… )