Chas's workbench

[Chas Levin]

I used to have to go every year for the Film Festival. And people thought it was soooo glamourous.

Brian

That's one of those odd differences in perspective, isn't it?
I've done things In the course of a career in the music industry that made peoples' jaws drop but at the time they were anywhere from routine to very annoying!
And the gap between the public perception of some famous people and the ordinary, petty, small-minded and occasionally quite unpleasant reality of dealing with them was sometimes enormous!

The thing that really staggered us was how a lot of the people walking around were dressed! I've seen people in London wearing a designer top, or carrying an obviously name designer handbag, but we were surrounded by people walking along the seafront dressed entirely in obviously very, very expensive designer brands, with each item being the most blingy, gaudy, shiny, horrible looking thing you could imagine and with the whole completely unmatched hotchpotch ensemble looking as if they'd done a high-speed smash and grab raid running through Harrods!
And they clearly thought that the diamond earrings, shiny gold sunglasses, gold lamé puffer jacket, shocking pink cashmere sweater, Med blue skintight leather jeans and chrome-look platform shoes, topped off by a face tanned like a walnut, under dyed hair that would make Rod Stewart blush, all combined to make them the envy of us all… Unbelievable!

Sorry - probably more detail than strictly necessary but in case anyone reads this who hasn't been there and wonders what we're criticising, that outfit would have passed for smart casual at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes…

 

[Osgood]

Bling? Tell me about it - brass safety valve covers, copper-capped chimneys....

 

[Rob R]

Bling? Tell me about it - brass safety valve covers, copper-capped chimneys....

View attachment 180532

Splasher beading?

 

[simond]

Cab front edges…

 

[Chas Levin]

I suppose 'bling' could fairly describe quite a few pre-grouping liveries, couldn't it? I'd never thought of using the word in that context before - bit of an odd mix, but that is actually what they were aiming for, isn't it: they wanted to show how successful their companies were.

 

[Chas Levin]

Following on from the photos from Nice, and still mindful of the fact that I did promise that my next post would be on-topic, I must just post a photo of the one railway model we did buy in Nice:



It's a Piko, a basic shell that they and at least one other brand issued in a variety of liveries but still a nice model I think, and a good souvenir.

I seem to remember a shop near the sea front that sold high-end diecast, I only saw their window display, so I don't know what was inside!
Mark

It wasn't that shop near the sea front though @MarkR , it was from a secondhand market a little way away from there, where one of the stalls had a few European bits and bobs...

 

[Richard Gawler]

I was told Erich Honecker was a model train fan; and so he made sure Piko produced the very best models they could.

 

[Chas Levin]

I was told Erich Honecker was a model train fan; and so he made sure Piko produced the very best models they could.

Sounds very believable, doesn't it?
Not that modern-day UK politician's would stoop to exerting behind-the-scenes influence, of course... Not that I'm aware any of them have had any notable hobbies, unless you count Boris Johnson supposedly making models of buses out of old wine crates?

Though if you go back a little further, Edward Heath's sailing and orchestral conducting activities might have provided opportunities for favours...

 

[Chas Levin]

The Lancia truck is nearing completion - a few days ago I fixed the cab onto the chassis, which actually makes handling and working on the cab a lot easier as you can use it - carefully - as a handle:






And following that, the left-hand side of the bonnet, the one that's going to be down, was added. This proved a little fiddly, as I had to fix the upper black section first, in order to provide the alignment for the lower yellow and chrome one. I fitted the upper section by aligning it with the front wall of the cab and the top of the inner radiator - the obvious way to do it - but sure enough, when I came to add the lower yellow piece, it didn't quite line up as well as it had during trial fittings and I had to take truly minute amounts off the various intersecting surfaces. That took quite a while, because getting that lower yellow piece into position between the lower body edge it sits on and the bonnet top was quite a wiggle, but I got there in the end and with a small amount of cosmetic filing and paint re-touching, the results look quite good at normal viewing distance:







I'm currently looking through my assorted transfers to find something that can pass for a company logo on the cab doors and something to go along the body sides, plus of course numberplates. Although this is of course an Italian truck, I'm looking at re-registering it in Switzerland, as I run Swiss stock quite often and always need set dressing...

Could a 1930s Italian Lancia 3Ro have found its way over the border and gone into use with a Swiss haulage company? I see no reason why not and I'm sure such things must have happened. For instance, I have some rather attractive decals from Diavolezza and Corviglia, which are just over the Swiss-Italian border; on the Italian side Milan is very close, easily somewhere that vehicles of this size might have been bought and sold. Both those areas are primarily ski resorts, but there's a fair amount of heavy machinery and supplies involved in running a ski resort - the mountain top lifts, the snow ploughs, the alcohol...

 

[Osgood]

.....
Could a 1930s Italian Lancia 3Ro have found its way over the border and gone into use with a Swiss haulage company? I see no reason why not and I'm sure such things must have happened. ….

Sure, in the same way Swiss trucks (Saurer) found their way to Britain around the same time - painting by Mike Jeffries:

 

[Osgood]

If you have not already discovered this resource, Chas, you are in for a real treat (actually I’m sure you will have, so I am posting this for the benefit of anyone else who might be interested):

Lancia 3Ro - Tank Encyclopedia

The Lancia 3Ro was an Italian heavy duty truck produced by Lancia for the civilian market and for military service.

tanks-encyclopedia.com

Quite the most comprehensive history of a specific truck model (other than GMC CCKW) I think I have ever come across!

The paint finish on your model looks really tidy!

 

[Chas Levin]

Thanks Tony, for confirmation of cross-border truck usage, for the Tank Encyclopedia link (which I had found, but as you say, it's a terrific resource and worth posting again) and thank you for the kind words on the paint finish: usual disclaimers about cruel close-ups apply, of course!

What did particularly please me is that the silver bands on the cab front and lower bonnet lined up properly - they were painted separately and before assembly and it would have looked terrible if they hadn't!

PS - that's a lovely painting by Mike Jeffries, very atmospheric, very good choice of colours for the time he's depicting.

 

[Chas Levin]

Before taking any final transfer decisions on the Lancia 3Ro I thought I'd have a quick look at what's out there and sure enough I found some other Continental commercial vehicle markings that might do even better, so while they're on order I'll give everything another coat of varnish before final assembly and it can then wait for transfers and final varnish coats.
The reason for this post though is in case anyone needs European or Continental transfers, this place is really good and if you haven't heard of it it's worth a look: TL-Modelbau
They have a large range and delivery is quick and reliable - usual disclaimer, no connection, just a happy customer!

 

[Chas Levin]

Just about the only detail parts I hadn't fitted to the Lancia are on the small photo-etch that's part of the kit, but most of the remaining parts are so tiny that I decided to try detaching only one end and bending them up slightly, then priming and spraying (with the lightest coats I could manage) while they're still attached to the fret. This first photo is of what was the complete fret, but with holes where some slightly more manageable parts have already been removed and fitted:



The upwardly mobile parts are read mudguard stays, bonnet catches and windscreen wipers, while the large square hole contained the radiator grille, which I removed before spraying in order to file down the inevitable burrs where it was attached to the fret, besides which it's large enough to handle and to perch on a blutak paint stand:



Incidentally, these photos were taken on my iPhone, but through my LED magnifier lamp! I'd struggled for years to get extreme close-ups and had to take some recently of a record stylus diamond tip and discovered by accident that the phone's camera will focus through the magnifier lamp's big lens, which it never occurred to me to try before.

I know it's rather off-topic and apologies if taking photos through a magnifier lamp is a well known thing to people, but in case not and to show how well it can work, here's one of the stylus photos (I'm guessing most people reading this will know how small they are) I took this way:

 

[simond]

Chas,

there are magnifier apps for iPhone (and presumably Android)

I use ”Mag. Light” which is very handy to have onboard when you’ve left your glasses elsewhere…. Includes variable brightness control of the lamp, variable magnification, and the facility to take photos. There’s a 7mm strip of advertising along one edge of the screen, but this is easily ignored and does not appear on your photos, or you can pay to “go pro”. Usual disclaimers.

atb
Simon

 

[Chas Levin]

Chas,

there are magnifier apps for iPhone (and presumably Android)

I use ”Mag. Light” which is very handy to have onboard when you’ve left your glasses elsewhere…. Includes variable brightness control of the lamp, variable magnification, and the facility to take photos. There’s a 7mm strip of advertising along one edge of the screen, but this is easily ignored and does not appear on your photos, or you can pay to “go pro”. Usual disclaimers.

atb
Simon

Thanks Simon, I shall investigate. I'm a bit wary of loading up my phone with apps, derived I think from the early days when it affected the performance of the phone, something that probably doesn't happen these days.
I have to say though that I'm still entertained by getting the phone to take photos through the magnifier lamp like this, so I'm happy doing that for now. It can be a bit hit and miss - the focussing can suddenly decide it finds the glass lens surface more interesting than what's on the other side of it - but when it works it's quite exciting! Little things...

 

[Chas Levin]

Some time spent today painting, cutting and fixing the tiniest etched parts in this kit, by some margin - the kit betrays its 1/35th scale origins at moments like this! Bonnet catches, windscreen wipers and rear mudguard stays, respectively:

 

[Chas Levin]

The open half of the bonnet is now on, after giving some trouble (@Osgood - our discussions about folding bonnet angles notwithstanding!).

Starting with the upper black section, I found there was a maximum angle beyond which this piece couldn't be fixed: as it moves further up from where you see it in the photo below, its rear edge pushes against the front edge of the cab roof, tipping the bonnet piece upwards and forwards and progressively disengaging the centre hinge, from the back towards the front. Annoying, as I'd hoped to have it slightly further over than the vertical - however, this is where it had to be:





Additional frustration followed with the yellow lower piece: because of the quite strongly angled upper black section, the lower one projects its lower rear corner increasingly into the plane of the windscreen as you try to fold it closer to the upper black piece - to make that a bit clearer, here's a crop of a 3D render of the 1/35th version of the kit that I found online, which shows the lower section of the bonnet folded quite far down but also shows how doing so puts the lower rear corner of that lower piece right through where the windscreen would be, had it been present:



It's another geometry issue, like the unhinging of the upper part of the bonnet and due to the same thing, the near-triangular shape of that upper bonnet section. You can see, in this end-on view, how much shorter the front edge of the upper black bonnet piece is than the edge of the rectangular lower yellow piece, which is why that lower piece juts out backwards more and more as it folds down:



Not to worry: I've set the lower section at the maximum angle it can be, sitting against the corner of the windscreen, with the assumption that this particular version of the 3Ro may have had bonnet halves that were not hinged at the join between horizontal and vertical pieces and that lifted up as a single rigid piece:









That red line on the front of the one mudguard so far fitted was done with a bow ruling pen by the way, using upper edge of the 'guard for the guide wire, and there's a UK railway connection there, because the colour is Phoenix Precision's Buffer Beam Vermilion:

 

[Osgood]

If it makes you feel any better, here is the corner of the WW2 Federal wrecker hood mentioned earlier, that also (by poor design) interfered with the windscreen.
A USAAF modification order called for the offending corner to be cut away at an angle and a leather piece attached (I only discovered this a couple of days ago!):

 

[Chas Levin]

Wow - yes, thank you Tony, that does make me feel better! Extrordinary though that something like that made it through all the design stages to final manufacture. I wonder how long a piece of leather survived in that spot?
I've seen car bonnets (old vehicles of course) that weren't hinged at the mid-point and lifted up as one piece, so it's not totally without precedent...