Aurora 1/32 Austin Healey 3000 Mk 1 **FINISHED**

[JamesPerrin]

I purchased this last year and pulled it out of the stash for the Automobile GB in March, but then remembered that the body shell had already been glued together. So I thought I might as well get on with it rather putting it back into the loft. A lot more basic than the Revell car I built for the 101 GEMS but looks the part. More interestingly it is a Mk1 and so has a different grill to the Revell Mk3 and was a 2+2 seater where this one is a pure two seater (the box art may actually show a 2+2).

Crisply moulded in hard, brittle red plastic with rubber tires and a lady driver. There is a little flash which is only a problem in that as the plastic is so hard I managed to cut my finger open when I first opened this up.



The b&w watercolour instructions would have you build the body shell around the chassis and interior. The previous owner also though this was silly idea and had added the body sides to the top but then let themselves down by scraping the join along the tops the front side panels flat. First job therefore was to get out the milliput and make things right.

[hamden]

Hi James

This looks interesting I'll be following this with interest.

Roger

[JamesPerrin]

Well a few nights of sanding and I thought I was getting somewhere. In a few places the milliput hadn't adhered and had flaked or failed to sand to a feathered edge. I touched up with Tamiya putty which as it is 'hot' will bond better. I took it out side today to give a first coat of primer and see what I still needed to do...



It looks like a whole strip of milliput has just lifted but it is firmly attached. Looks like the Tamiya putty that I had touched up with just got all sanded out leaving the gap it had meant to fill!. Grrrrr, I really don't seem to have much luck with filling and sanding

[Dirkpitt289]

Nice work James and a Great subject.

[arni]

James,get yourself down to Halfords or a local motor factors and pick up some car body filler!
It sands a treat and goes off in about 20 minutes,I have wet sanded Davids P38 after 15 minutes without trouble!!

You can get it in tubes or tins,a 250ml tin has lasted me around 3 years and cost me about a fiver.

[JamesPerrin]

Cheers Arni, to be honest I've never known milliput not too stick except on greasy surface.

...anyway I got there in the end after about 4 more fill-sand-prime cycles. I've managed to give it a fits coat of paint. This is the same Ice-Blue that I used on my Revell Healey except I doing this finish as a single colour as in the Aurora's box picture.



It will need another coat to get the required depth.

[Dirkpitt289]

I like the color. Very nice.

[JamesPerrin]

A second coat of Ice Blue gives the correct depth of colour and then after a couple of days two coats of Halford's Clear Lacquer.



The windscreen (or rather frame) is about 25% flash but also shows up the main shape issue with this kit. The bonnet is far too curved, which in turn causes the windscreen to be too narrow. I cut the top part of the frame out between the upright and then glueing a strip of card across the top. It just add a mm or two of improvement. Unfortunately I manage to crack the bottom part during this process.

[JamesPerrin]

Made decent progress tonight after a slow period due to waiting for several bits to get to the stage that I could chrome them with Alclad II; the bumpers have solid backing, due to the brittleness of the plastic I didn't fancy trying to cut them out. I then found some pictures showing these were on the real car but needed spraying the body colour. Meanwhile I'd made good progress on painting the female figure, just the skin to do. I've swapped the dash round so it now a UK RH drive.



Tonight I had a go with some Bare Metal foil, I'd bought at Huddersfield, for the fixings. I was very happy with the results, it does what it's meant to and looks great. I also had a go at using wire to represent the silver seam that runs down both wheel arches. I anchored this at one end with superglue and then the same at the other, checking that it laid flat. I then wicked Klear down the length to attach it to the car.

I also managed to paint the interior dark blue, note that this wrap over the dash up to the windscreen.

[Dirkpitt289]

looking great so far

[mattbacon]

Very nice, James! BMF is cracking stuff, isn't it? Or rather it isn't - I'm amazed what you can get it to settle down over.

bestest,
M.

[JamesPerrin]

I seem to have problem finishing builds. Not a lack of mojo, but just that things go wrong in the final straight or take an exorbitant amount of time. I tried three times to glaze the windscreen using polythene as I had successfully before. This time nothing would stick and in the end I had to admit defeat - I also managed to re-break the bottom frame. Other parts were completed very quickly; the dash was done in 10mins using acrylics and the grill and wire wheels got a black wash carefully applied.

This is an old kit and shows due to the simplicity and shape issues. However it looks the part and allowed me to try out a couple of ideas and practice my techniques and looks good along side my other Healeys.

[Dirkpitt289]

I think it came out rather well and the fact you learned something new along the way is nothing more then a plus

[JohnRatzenberger]

Looks fine to me ... car & driver