Roger's handcrafted 1:12 scale models

No problem Gerry; it's always interesting to see other tools! I have something remotely similar; it's a divider tool; without the division disks, I can turn it manually (and used it that way for some part to be partially milled), not a luxury version like you have on which the table is turning with a crank!

Looks like the lathe is similar to an Unimat but from another maker; am I right?

No problem Gerry; it's always interesting to see other tools! I have something remotely similar; it's a divider tool; without the division disks, I can turn it manually (and used it that way for some part to be partially milled), not a luxury version like you have on which the table is turning with a crank!

Looks like the lathe is similar to an Unimat but from another maker; am I right?

It is a Unimat. they offered a compound slide set up to use with their motor/drive system so I got one. I also made a power drive for the table out of plastic gears and a 12V motor supplied from a hobby DC variable supply.

I have 2 of the lathes and so many accessories I have lost count. They are wonderful things but my eyes are not so good now so its hard to use them. I am amazed at the detail you can produce, using a magnifying glass. I cant find a good one anywhere unless I spend a fortune.

The lever sticking out is the engagement one that slides the idler gear into place to give me the drive. I also put a microswitch in line so when it got to the end of its cut it would stop. Then reverse the power supply and go back the other way.

Its old style engineering that demands skill and an understanding of things to work to our advantage, Sadly a skill thats all but gone.

As you can see its not been used for a while. I am thinking about a new project in 1/0 scale.

Gerry, you did an interesting set-up with the "automatic" drive! About the eyes: for one week, I had the second "service" at the RH eye (cataract). The other one was done in September this year. This is a large improvement, but, like many repro parts, it's not like a NOS part!

Back to the model. I had some time spend with "how to attach" the various parts. My method will be very different than the real car. On the 1:1 model, the dash is welded to the structure. In my case, for practical purposes, it will be installed with screws as a complete module. The instrument's face is attached with screws to the dash's hood; two other screws are attaching the hood to the dash.

The next step will be to make the aperture for the steering column and doing that assembly.

Roger, great work. I just finished putting in a restored tachometer and clock in my Jaguar XK 120. It was very difficult with all the wires, gauges and limited working space. I cannot imagine how you are going to install the gauge faces in the model. Cannot wait to see how you do it.

Thanks John! That's the reason why the whole unit will be assembled outside the car. The gauge faces will be a decal on a support plate; I still don't know how it will be attached; I will find a solution when it will be the time. I espect to insert "glasses" into the bezels to protect the decals once the bezels are chromed. Those plastic lenses will not be large: 7 mm (0.275") in diameter.

Doing the aperture for the column at the dash without the column? It's a non-sense! therefore, I had to begin with that assembly. The drawings I did for the Toronado about 35 years ago were of help as I had difficulties to figure "how". There is however a major difference: the part near the horn ring was last installed on the Toronado and it's the first one to be assembled on the Continental, with the turn indicator lever. Then, the shifter tube is inserted, the collar with the shift lever is slide in place. A screw is fitted into the hole for the shifter and engages into the tube, allowing the movement from the lever to be transmitted to the shifter tube.

The last piece is a retainer ring clamped on the external tube with one screw.

On the picture, the shift tube is on the left, then the external tube; the first part to be assembled with the indicator lever is at the bottom, above it is the shift collar with the huge screw as the link to the shifter tube and, on top the retainer ring. The coin is not part of the assembly!

Once all is in place:

The end of the column towards the steering gear is not finished. As I don't remember why I did not finish the universal joint at the gear, I'm gaining some time and I'm beginning the steering wheel. Maybe when this part is ready, I may remember why I delayed the completion of the universal joint.

I'm ready to drive the Lincoln. Do I need a Swiss driver license?

Excellent work, as always Roger, and Merry Christmas!

Geoff

Ah! Geoff: this is not a Lincoln, but a Continental! This was an independant make till 1957 when it was integrated into the Lincoln brand.

You may drive a car in this country with your national driver license, like you would rent a car at the airport, or like I did when I was in the US for vacation or for GM.

Merry Christmas too as well as to the other people looking at this thread!

Merry Christmas to you too Roger. I think, I'll go to Switzerland, buy a comfortable chair and spend my days watching you work. Do you think it would bother you having me look over your shoulder?:cool:

Thanks Pat! You, like other people are always welcome. The chair you intend to buy must be small; look at the place at "our" disposal:

I could however give you something who does need a lot of place, but it's far from confortable:

You may have the choice from the red one if you don't like black. However, safety belts are not included for the case you fall asleep!

Then, I'm not sure who will be bored first: you because I'm so slow during my construction or me because of your breath on my neck!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks Pat! You, like other people are always welcome. The chair you intend to buy must be small; look at the place at "our" disposal:

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I could however give you something who does need a lot of place, but it's far from confortable:

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You may have the choice from the red one if you don't like black. However, safety belts are not included for the case you fall asleep!

Then, I'm not sure who will be bored first: you because I'm so slow during my construction or me because of your breath on my neck!

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to you Roger,

Here in San Diego, we do not have the brisk weather that makes Christmas the holiday that I and Geoff grew up in Southern Kansas. Almost always cold and usually fresh snow for riding on our sleds. Here it is 74 degrees and the sun is out. The norm for San Diego. Although two weeks in a row, we had rain. GASP! And we are in a drought here. It is welcomed to break up the monotony of sunny, warm weather all the time.

I just cannot get over how you create such masterpieces in a compact space. But that just goes to show that it is not the work place, but rather the artisan and master craftsman that defines the art. I started on a kitchen table and now have a large shop (that is no where near as clean as your room) I also notice that you have nice carpet under your work space. It is light in color. That makes seeing the part (that is dropped) easier to find (I hope). I spend half my constructive time under my work bench retrieving dropped parts. :-( Such a waste of time. I just recently purchased an apron that attaches to the edge of the work bench for just such cases of dropped parts. They are "caught" in the apron and I don't have to go too far to retrieve them. I have been learning to be more careful in handling the micro small parts so that I do not drop them or if I do, it is over the table or bench. I am wondering if you have reservations about vacuuming your carpet? Little parts may be removed from the room? I am sure that you do have a system for such.

Are the Unimats in this room? And, do you have the other power tools and soldering irons in this room? IF so, that is the CLEANEST shop that I ever have seen ! ! !

Have a wonderful day filled with the Spirit of Christmas, fellowship with friends and family and of course........wonderful food and spirits.

Your fellow modeler.

Randy

Yes, Randy, everything I'm using is there! Oh! the carpet is nice, but when brass parts are coming down, I'm on all fours to find them. I have a magnet for steel screws, but with the stainless or brass ones, only the eyes and feel at the fingers are of help. Nevertheless, I have a 97% success with searching!

As this "workshop" is integrated into the flat, it must be kept clean. This is my job, as Christine don't clean here...However, Randy, you probably know that pictures are lying; the place is not 100% clean!

Today was spent with family: good food and drinks, maybe too much of all...All the best to you!

A steering wheel is a simple element, but not so easy to build. It must not turn like an egg and the rim must be perpendicular to the axis. The one for the model is now complete. Complete? Not exactly, the horn ring is not yet done, with the exception of the ring itself and the hub, as you can see:

The back side:

The indentations for the fingers were the easiest part of the job!

Now, it's the turn of the horn ring. As usual with this car, it's a difficult affair; it will be probably not be ready this year.

Looking good Roger. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Martin! For one whole week, there will be nothing as we are at our "summer house".

Last week, I began the horn ring...It's more complex as I anticipated, had to redo the ring itself and modify the way I planned to do it. Anyway, that assembly is almost done; pictures are for later when I'm back home.

This was again a difficult part. One of the problems was that the spokes must have a recess to add the same decor plate as I did for the instruments. I could not do each spoke in one piece; I had to add on top of each spoke a small frame which was soft soldered. The horn ring will be chromed and the rear of it will be painted. There is also a small ring on top; into the hole will come a decal with an emblem.

My goal was that the horn ring is an assembly which is separated from the steering wheel; when I began, I had doubts I could do it that way. With some tricks I could realize it the way it was planned.

There will be some more time required to have a horn ring which is ready to be plated; this work will be done when I have a good batch of parts to be plated.

The assembly will now be installed to the dash and to the steering gear.

On the Mark II, the dash is welded to the body. There is certainly a rail on which the column and emergency brake support are installed. At first, I wanted to do more or less the same, even if "my" dashboard will be screwed on the body. I realized soon that it was not practical at all, therefore I did the attachment points differently.

It's almost "overkilled"; on the other hand, there are enough elements which are weak! Once the position was acceptable, the support could be soft soldered to the structure.

The next task was to connect the column to the steering box. At first, I wanted to simplify the installation by shortening the tube to have the shaft exposed. By doing that way, the shift lever came in conflict with the body...Consequently, I had to do a similar arrangement as the original. Instead of a gasket pinched between the tube and gear, I did a solid piece which slides on the steering box. The shaft is attached to the worm by a tiny screw. To be able to install the column, I did an aperture into the tube. The solid gasket can be rotated to discover the aperture or, of course, to hide it.

This complex method has one advantage on the real car: the steering box is well protected from water intrusion. Cadillacs from this time have a similar steering box (Saginaw); while the '56 & 57 models are rather well protected, the '56 Cadillac models have a thin gasket which is getting brittle with age. The needle bearing is just behind that dust cover. Water can enter, rusting the inner shaft. When this occurs, there is an oil leak which cannot be corrected with a new seal.

As you see, I had to remove the LH front fender and exhaust collector to be able to work at the steering box.

Yes, that's helpful on the 1:1. It's pretty tight in there.

Barry, glad to see you are still following this thread!

I've read every word. My thesaurus has run out of words of acclaim so I ceased repeating myself.

I'm putting together a special class of Mark IIs for our show in St. Joseph, Michigan in late summer of 2016. How about vacationing in Michigan and showing your beauty, at whatever stage it's at? Maybe we could arrange to have your American counterpart show his car, too.

Well, if the exchange rate CHF-$ is staying that way (CHF 0.85 for 1$ since 3 days), this could be a cheap vacation...I'm rather reluctant to travel that far (I'm getting lazy), but who knows, this is something to think about. It would allow me to meet the people who are helping me with that project.

People would flock to see you and your work. Modelers are very popular at Concours. There is nothing more spectacular than watching the sun set on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. You'd enjoy what the area has to offer. I plan on having 6-8 Mark IIs on display for 2016.

During the week, I did the lower part of the console and the suspended element under the dash. Now, I "just" need to do the parts which are between both!

As good as I could check, I'm in line with dimensions, +/- 1 mm. The whole unit will be assembled with screws and drop into the car. On the real car, the lower part which contains the radio speaker and heater and A/C controls are assembled to the floor. For practical reasons, I will skip that method and fix the lower part with glue.

When you are looking at a real Mark II console, it's looking rather simple. When doing it 12 times smaller...well, it's no more that simple. There are surfaces which seem to be vertical which are not. Anyway, it's an interesting assembly and I believe I'm not too far from what it should be.

One of the big issues was the control panel for the heater & A/C. The five levers are sliding through chromed bezels; how to do them in a way I'm not getting a mess with soft solder? At the end, I milled them out from a thick plate. Another problem was to make the slit. With a tiny jeweller milling tool I could partially do the slits and finished them with a jeweller saw Randiego sent to me. The lever's handles were a problem too. Finally, I did on the lathe 10 half handles, provided a hole and, for the assembly, inserted a thin rod maintaining the handles halved and the lever in the correct position to soft solder them. On the original car, there is a sharp line at the handle’ middle; mine will have a softener line as it's rather difficult with these dimensions to create a sharp line with a file.

On the pictures, you can see a discarded control panel bezel because it was not up to my standard as well as two handle halves; I did some more in case one or two would fly in the air…which did not happen.

The screen for the loudspeaker is not done; this is another issue I will have to solve. The decor on the control panel will be similar to what I did for the instruments.

I still don’t know how I have to stabilize the console at the firewall…

Roger, I would love to see the linkages behind the AC control panel that direct the air around behind the dashboard please.

Just be patient: that linkage will be done later, maybe about the year 2055!

There is a sheet metal filler between the steering column and the console; I added that recently. The original part is attached with screws, mine is soft soldered for practical purposes. I added also the pod for the headlamp switch and the brake pedal. The pedal is held back with a spring; the effort on the pedal is like an empty brake system.

The chrome bezel and rubber pad on the brake pedal will be added later.

Simply "AMAZING!"

There is a sheet metal filler between the steering column and the console; I added that recently. The original part is attached with screws, mine is soft soldered for practical purposes. I added also the pod for the headlamp switch and the brake pedal. The pedal is held back with a spring; the effort on the pedal is like an empty brake system.

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The chrome bezel and rubber pad on the brake pedal will be added later.

The pedal feel should greatly firm up once you add the fluid.

I would not put that past Roger. Incredible work, my friend. There's still time to make it a convertible!

Thanks all for your interest!

To West Peterson: same answer as to SiliconS: fluid will be added in 2055!

To Barry Wolk: you are right, it's still possible. However, I would have to discard the roof and parcel shelf...On the other side, I'm now glad that there is no roof in the way when I'm trying to install the various elements like brake pedal and steering column. Will I be able to do that some years from now when the roof is on and all parts painted?

As everyone says, your abilities are envious. This is about as good as it gets for my skills. A feeble attempt to replicate my dad's car.

Roger, Beautiful work. To duplicate the Continental in this scale is beyond comprehension. All the nuisances and detail takes a lot of thought, planing, trial and error. But in the end, absolutely fantastic results. You must have a spiritual connection to the engineers who designed this formidable automobile. Do they come into your mind while you sleep and give you guidance and hints to solve the problems of 1;12 scale? Only thing we mortals can come up with. :-)

Randy

No Randy, they don't usually come in my mind, except when they choose a complex solution! And no, I don't dream about them, nor to the model!

Today, I finished the various knobs which will come on the larger pod above the console. There are from left:

the wiper knob, the cigar lighter, the ignition switch and both knobs for the radio. Most are made with 2 parts, the knob for the wiper is made with 4 parts. OK, the button in the middle to operate the washer was easy to do, it's a piece of .5 mm rod!

Roger, THESE ARE TINY ! ! How many were dropped on the carpet? :-(

Well, back to the Fiat. I pulled the engine and transmission yesterday. Today, I have to remove all of the items on the firewall (Brake booster, relays, accelerator linkage, etc. etc.) I have a target date of today to get the whole car down to the shell so I can commence with the body work. Geoff says that I need to start a thread on the Fiat but I wonder if any are interested in a Fiat restoration. I will try to do the thread this weekend. Keep up the great work as we are all awaiting the next installment of the Continental.

Oh and I hope that it is not too cold there in your home town. Are you near the Alps? Good thing that you are not in Boston, MA. Record snow fall for them. I will look on the atlas and see where your city is. Randy

Fortunately just one or two, but I found them!

Yes, it's cold in our country. We had some snow last week; today ist just above freezing during the day. I'm not located near the Alps; I would say near another "hill" which is called Jura. The main town is Bienne; this is the watch industry town par excellence!

Rodger when I saw the post where you mention you have to add the chrome bezel and rubber pad to the brake pedal I thought about while I was at the junkyard trying to measure the Mark II for you I removed the brake pedal and a duct off of the radiator supportThe brake pedal is nice shape.

Really enjoy seeing your work,

Jay

Thanks for the pictures Jay! I assume that the brake pedal was screwed on the lever, mine is soldered! On the other side, even with the quantity of pictures I have, the duct on your picture is something new for me!

As everyone says, your abilities are envious. This is about as good as it gets for my skills. A feeble attempt to replicate my dad's car.

Each person on earth has his own abilities (and dark sides). You have certainly some abilities (I don't want to know your dark side!) I could also be envious! By the way, that Packard is not bad looking...I may be wrong, the van in front is a Chevy G-Van?

Dear Roger,

It has truly been such a wonderful ride, reading all these pages of your progress and creation. You've heard all the adjectives so I'll skip over the obvious accolades and appreciation for your sharing this experience with the rest of us.

I do have a question for you. I recently met a very interesting fellow, Ray Koenig. He started in 1956 at GM and landed in Harvey Earl's Buick studio. Did you by chance ever cross paths with Ray?

warm regards

Ken Visser

The attached photo show Ray Koenig on the left and legendary Motorama restorer Joe Bortz.