Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Modifiers corner! Post your latest creations, your "how to" tips and tricks. Custom model and parts development too.
User avatar
StratosWRC
.
.
Posts: 7393
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by StratosWRC » Thu May 28, 2015 10:41 am

Like a Tamiya?

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Thu May 28, 2015 10:45 am

Like a Midas Gold Convertible.

User avatar
StratosWRC
.
.
Posts: 7393
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by StratosWRC » Thu May 28, 2015 10:47 am

Oh! Haha yes now I remember you mentioning it before

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:22 am

Update 20 June 2015.
Welcome to the longest day of the year (for us northern hemisphere habitants that is). I am happy to report I have completed the rough build stage.
What has been done:
The dish of the rear wheels had to be deepened. Another Lego wheel was sacrificed:
Image
The edges were glued on the rims and smoothed.
Image
Not very visible is that I shortened the studs (or whatever you call them, protrusions?) on the rim. After finishing the Roadster I had noted they were too long, so I rectified it on this car. I am thinking now of making castings of the rims, will save me a lot of work and may be handy for anyone wanting to upgrade his/her Zonda.

On the outside the tyre retaining edge was extended as well by glueing a strip around it. The wheel itself need to be narrowed to keep the same width. I used a 10mm bolt to clamp it in a handdrill to make a smooth and rectangular cut:
Image
2mm was removed, a similar amount from the axles.
Image

Finished pieces:
Image

Next the engine. Still a sorry bit of kit, but on this car the clamshell will stay shut as well. After removing material between the inlet pipes, I extended them. On the roadster I had glued these to the cylinder walls, but I want them to get Alcladded as well. So on the coupe I glued them to the main plastic piece, visually extending the tubes:
Image

Put together you get this:
Image
After painting I will install the wiring of the fuel injectors.

Now it was time to put the model together for final tweaks and adjustment of the wheel positions. I lowered the front suspension by placing shims under the hub. All wheels were adjusted for stance. I wanted to have them just inside the body. This meant removing a bit of material from the axle studs. Final adjustment of the doors was done by removing a bit of metal here and there. Now they stay shut without the need of an elastic band. That's a good thing because assembly of the coupe is almost imposible with the elastic band. I am quite pleased with the shutlines and how the model sits on its wheels. Here are the final pics of the rough build. Next step (at last!) is getting the paint and decals out and start with the interior. Next update will show the finished interior, probably will take 1 to 2 months since holiday is on the horizon. Until then.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

User avatar
[KRAFTIG]
.
.
Posts: 32623
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2012 9:08 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by [KRAFTIG] » Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:28 am

Sweet Jesus that is coming along nicely. How many hours to date?

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:44 am

[KRAFTIG] wrote:Sweet Jesus that is coming along nicely. How many hours to date?
Not exactly counting but on average 10 hours a week (usually I work 1 or 2 hours on it after supper).

User avatar
StratosWRC
.
.
Posts: 7393
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by StratosWRC » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:54 am

It's looking amazing. So the engine bay will be sealed?

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Sat Jun 20, 2015 9:11 am

StratosWRC wrote:It's looking amazing. So the engine bay will be sealed?
Yes so I am not bothered with additional detailing. For my next 2 builds I will make an attempt to make proper hinges for the clamshell and build an engine, subframe, suspension and a few ancilliaries (pressure bottles, oil tank etc.). I assume doing a detailed engine bay will be about 6 months work minimum. But I intend to make moulds of most parts (if I am succesful in making castings of parts of this car), so future engine bays can be built much faster. That said some parts like f.e. the exhaust can not be cast with resin, so for every car I need to make these from scratch.

User avatar
StratosWRC
.
.
Posts: 7393
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by StratosWRC » Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:32 am

Makes sense. Wow that's very time-consuming.

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:32 pm

Video about the fit and finish phase.

https://youtu.be/QxL_T_w46Rc

User avatar
StratosWRC
.
.
Posts: 7393
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by StratosWRC » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:00 am

Too cool. It's excellent to have a productive hobby like that

Classyceta
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:01 pm
Location: New York

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Classyceta » Wed Jul 22, 2015 9:54 am

Great skills you have! I dont have the patience for that

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Mon Oct 05, 2015 10:39 am

Update October 5th 2015.
Summer is over so I am modelling again. After the succes with the opening clamshell on the Cinque models I decided to open the clamshell on this car as well. This has opened a box of Pandora.

First thing was improving the way the rear body part is screwed to the main structure. I had used an M2 bolt and nut but for an opening clamshell it would look awful with 2 big nuts in the back. I solved it by glueing a small nut on top of a piece of brass tube and glueing that to the aft body part.
Image
The old big holes in the main body structure were filled and redrilled with a 1.4mm drill. When fastened there will only be the head of 2 tiny screws visible in the back of the engine bay.

Making the wheel arches was simple. With a template the wheel arches were cut:
Image
Glued into place (with an extra strengthening piece):
Image
Visible is that I smoothed the underside of the clamshell prior to placing the wheelarches.

Next step was making the indents for the upper suspension arms. Last bit for the underside was the build of the engine intake funnels. This is a loose part. I first want to make a mold from it for future models before glueing it into place.
Image

When testfitting the clamshell I found the wheel arches were hitting the trunks. So I needed to cut a small piece from the back of the trunks.When looking at the pics of the real part I noticed the B-pillar is tilted backwards and so is the front of the trunk. This meant modifying the B-pillar as well:
Image
Image
Image
And the trunks accordingly:
Image
I noted that they are on the slim side compared to the real ones, so I might beef them up a bit for the end result.

Last bit was prepping the engine bay. floor was flattened:
Image
And the lower edges of the sides filled in to cover a big gap:
Image

At the moment I have left a bridge in for reference points (engine, subframe and intake location:
Image
(note that the trunks are too narrow in relation to the main body)
This will be removed as soon as I have an alternative for fastening the floor to the main body.

Next step is scratchbuilding the engine, exhaust, gearbox, subframe and small stuff like the starter motor, alternator, expansion bottle, oil tank and part of the upper suspension including shock absorbers and springs. A lot of work but when it's done it will save time for the next builds.

User avatar
[KRAFTIG]
.
.
Posts: 32623
Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2012 9:08 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by [KRAFTIG] » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:47 pm

Impressive! How many hours on the above?

User avatar
Zondaracer
.
.
Posts: 425
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2015 8:11 am
Location: Friesland, Netherlands

Re: Mondo Motors 1/18 Pagani Zonda F coupe improve/modify

Post by Zondaracer » Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:14 pm

[KRAFTIG] wrote:Impressive! How many hours on the above?
I am not really counting, just following my list with TODO items. I am usually working every week 2 to 3 evenings say 2 hours and 1 afternoon of about 4 hours. That would be 40 hours this month. The clamshell funnels took ages to make because I had to do the upper and lower side. It would have been easier just to glue a few pieces of styrene in place and use putty for the final shape. But then making a mold of it would be difficult. Extra hours now will save hours on the future models.

Post Reply

Return to “Custom Models, Repairs & Parts Development”