Old Model of an Old Kit (1910 Thomas Flyer)

[DRUMS01]

Since completing the USS Arizona I came back to my home,..... automobiles. I was looking through my stash to come up with something a little different and out popped a 1910 Thomas Flyer.



KIT:

It was originally molded and distributed by Bandai in the early 70's and later by Entex in the mid 80's. Mine is the fifth rebox from Bandai according to Scalemates. The mold quality is comparable to that of the era, crude and with large seams. It is molded in four colors; green, black, brown, and white, along with gold/brass plated pieces. Compared to the Revell or AMT in its day (early 70's) it holds its own quite well. In part due to the larger scale of the kit 1/16.

The kits instructions are very basic and lack any detail or color call outs. So far I have spent 4 hours cleaning and de-seaming the parts to each hour of assembly. Also, there are no guide pins to aide in attaching any of the parts correctly. This will not be a quick build.

HISTORY:

The Erwin Ross (E.R.) Thomas Motor Company produced automobiles from 1902 through 1919. Production transpired in Buffalo, New York. The first cars produced appeared in 1903 and were mostly small runabouts with seating for two. The company had begun like so many other auto-manufacturing firms at the time - through a bicycle business.
The first E.R. Thomas Motor cars were powered with a vertically-mounted water-cooled straight-three cylinder engine that produced just over 20 horsepower. The engine was mated to a two-speed planetary gearbox. As times progressed, so did E.R. Thomas Motor Cars. The Company did much to promote their vehicles and to attract customers, such as painting the cars in bright and attractive colors. The cars became more powerful and elegant and became renowned for their reliability and endurance.

In 1908, a Thomas Flyer was entered into 'The Great Race' which ran from New York to Paris. The decision was made at the last minute and there was little time to properly adapt the car for the race. Instead, the company pulled one from the production line and entered it into the race. The race began at New York during the winter and proceeded to San Francisco. The entrants then loaded onto a boat and traveled to Alaska, then Siberia. Once they arrived at Siberia, the race continued. The Race was actually won in 169 days, and covered 22,000 miles. 13341 miles were actually driven. At the conclusion of the race, ending in Paris, it was the Thomas Flyer in first place, claiming the victory.



Demand for the Thomas Motor cars increased after the heroic victory and in 1911, the company only produced six-cylinder cars. Within a year, the car had entered into receivership and purchased by C.A. Finnegan of the Empire Smelting Company.

BUILD THREAD:

My first thought was to back date it to replicate the 1908 race winner. The I noticed that the 1910 had a totally different body and drive train (the 1910 has a differential while the 1908 was chain and sprocket driven). This means it will remain a 1910 flyer.

I will be building the car mostly out of the box (OOB). After some research on the web I located several photos of real cars to aide my paint and detail work of the engine.







Step 1: Since I'm really trying to build mostly OOB I'm only added what I feel are necessary items (no super detailing). Here is the engine assembled through step one. I've added a limited amount of nut and bolt details to match source photos, including guides for the push rods:







Steps 2 and 3: The remaining kit details for the engine are completed to include some wiring. Using the source photos as reference, here is the engine after its completion (less touch-up and detail painting still to occur).







Step 4: This began the assembly of the frame. Without question, the worst part of the kit are the front and rear leaf springs and the long side chassis parts. This is a kit where every part requires major cleaning, de-seaming, and multiple test fits prior to assembly; definately not a modern Tamiya kit (smile).

This is where I am currently with much more chassis and drive line work to do. The steering link is functional. Note that the brown plastic part is not cemented to the chassis. It should actually appear as wood, something I will begin working on tomorrow.







Till next update.... as always, your comments are welcome.

Ben

[Panzón]

Beautiful work on the engine! I only recently discovered that Bandai's roots were in producing model kits of vintage cars, far cry from their current catalog.

[NoelSmith]

Really nice model. Not seen one of those old Bandai kits for ages.

Incidentally there is a kit of the New York / Paris racer in 1/25th scale. I think that AMT made it some years ago.

[LWWales]

Excellent start mate!

[BigWall]

Nice start on a very interesting subject. I'm sure you'll knock it out of the park.

[DRUMS01]

Panzon = Thanks, I think the engine is the high point of the build. As you have said, once people look back at what Bandai molded decades earlier people will be surprised. I have several other older Bandai kits still to build. One I completed some time ago was a WW2 Shiden Kai aircraft. With some extra effort they turn out pretty nice.

NoelSmith = The kit is OK, but I would not call it a really nice model considering the ejection pin marks, mold flow depressions, very large seams, etc. Considering the age of the mold (early 70's) with no updates, it fits the period. I almost got one of those kits, but haven't pulled the trigger.

LWWales = Why thank you sir.

BigWall = Thanks for your confidence with the build. I hope I live up to your expectations. I thought is was an interesting subject as well.

Till next update,

Ben

[DRUMS01]

Fast and short update; I found some high quality wood images on acid free high quality bond paper in the scrapbook section of a local craft store. Using the kit pars for templates I added the paper to the pieces and trimmed the paper to fit. I suppose I could've found some decals of wood but I wanted to try these instead.

Here is the chassis with the wood pieces attached.









Also, since the kit does not have guide pins to aide in the assembly orientation I decided not to glue the axle and springs together. This will allow me to rotate the axle to better fit the differential when it comes to that step. Likewise for the brackets on the axle and the corresponding chassis support.



Next I will finish cleaning up the rear spring suspension; paint and add the differential and springs to the chassis; and then work on adding the wood finish to the (wood) firewall that will fit behind the engine.

Final detail painting of the engine and chassis once it is complete.

Till then.... comments welcome.

Ben

[pg265]

Hi,

Beautiful kit and beautiful build!

Pascal

[DRUMS01]

Another update on the Flyer. As previously mentioned I finished the rear suspension and drive line then went on to complete the forward axle and steering linkage; now it is ready for final paint and detailing.



My next step is actually a little out of sequence. I completed the details and added the wood firewall to the chassis. In order to add the wood finish I had to first remove some of the detail, in this case the conduit for the gas lights. It was later created by using brass wire as seen here. Details on the interior wood box were sourced from extra PE left in my stash. I plan on adding decals from my spares in the instrument dials.





My build of the body is nothing like in the instructions as they assembly it by piece onto the chassis. Based on several reasons, I decided to assemble the whole main body off the chassis prior to painting it. For me, this will allow for a much smoother or "fitted" appearance and will make painting much easier. Here is a picture of the chassis, body, and hood assembled and ready for painting.



Till next time. Please let me know what you think of her.

Ben

[Twokidsnosleep]

Superb modelling on this kit...it is definitely in the right hands
Engine and chassis look spectacularly real
Nice stuff

[ForeverPlasticKits]

Thanks for the story, this car brand is totally unknown in France, like this big race. And your model promises to be beautiful!

[digger303]

Great display of modeling prowess and the colors really make this a spectacular show piece. Maybe I'm jumping the gun , but I don't think so.

[BigWall]

Very nice build! The details are amazing. I can't wait to see it painted.

[DRUMS01]

Small update:

Painted the chassis its final coat along with all of the suspension. I really am enjoying this build without going overboard on scratch building or after market detailing. With that said, I really do not like the mold technology or standards from the 70's or earlier. The seams, ejection pin marks, flash, and general fit really has something to be desired and are nothing like current kits.

Prior to the final de-seam and paint of the chassis I also added a control box with brass lines to the left side of the engine and a brass fuel line to the carburetor (based on real photos). I may still wash / weather the springs and tensioners, but other than adding the gearbox, differential, and exhaust, the chassis is mostly done.





All of the brass lighting consists of multiple parts each. They all have seam, fit, and sprue scar issues. So much that I have decided to try to get them under control but knowing that they will have to be totally repainted. Here is an example of the clean-up required.



The body is going to be the same color as the chassis (like on the box). I am going to deviate from the plastic color or photos of the kit when it comes to the interior. I am leaning towards a deep red leather finish on the seats.

I also purchased some 1/16" (1.57mm) and 1/32" (0.793mm) pinstripe tape to attempt to stripe the model after painting. I will not know the thickness of the pinstripe until it arrives, but I hope it will be very thin and hide under a gloss coat. I may wait till it arrives before painting the green. If it is too thick perhaps I can paint the gold, pinstripe over it, paint the green, then remove the pinstripe (?). We will have to see......

Till then, keep modeling and please share your thought on my build.

Ben

[NoelSmith]

Lovely build, and looking very realistic in appearance.
Besides the 1/16 scale kit, I think that AMT did one in 1/25th or 1/24th scale many years ago.

[DRUMS01]

NoelSmith = Thanks for the kind words. And you are correct in that they made a similar, but different, kit. It was of the actual 1907 New York to Paris race car. It is a different body, different engine, chain driven, etc. Externally it looked similar though..... same company.

I am over due for an update, so here goes.... On the last update I talked about the multi-part brass lights. In order to eliminate the flash, seams, ejection pin marks I had to remove much of the plating. My solution was to get a gold leaf spray to repaint them after their repair, here is the results:

BEFORE


AFTER


I also had some work to do on the radiator shroud because of the rather large sprue connections and thick mold flash. The instructions called for a tall filler neck but the part was only a sliver of what the photo and instructions indicated (mold problem?). My fix was to add a small section of extruded plastic rod. The radiator cap was also deformed on the sprue so I sourced a replacement from my spares stash. The lettering on the radiator grill spelling "Thomas Flyer" in script turned out to be very difficult to paint as the lettering was rounded with no hard edge. This caused problems when trying to use bare metal foil or paint. After several attempts I am near completing the lettering, just small touch-ups to finish. When all was done, here is how it turned out:



I've also been able to de-cant the spray can and airbrush the main body parts. Prior to paint I also assembled everything else that needed the green spray such as the fuel tank, cylinder, body, hood, etc.



Here is a sneak peek of the body color while parts are sitting together on the chassis (including the painted wheels). My plan is to pin stripe some body parts and clear coat the green.





What can't be seen is the completed and attached 2 speed gear box / transmission and drive shaft. I added reinforced casing bands and bolt heads to the gear box prior to paint and assembly. I also added cleaner and more realistic U-joints to the driveshaft (photo later).

Now comes the attempt at pin striping the body parts in either a gold or brass color, this will not be easy. That will be the next update. Till then, I hope everyone is doing well.

Ben

[BigWall]

The paint looks great but the real eyecatcher is the radiator! Very nice job! Good luck with the pin striping. That's going to be another very nice detail.

[ForeverPlasticKits]

It's a huge work to improve all this details which make the difference when your car will be finished!

[DRUMS01]

Thanks Joe, and thank you sir (foreverPlasticKits)...

I am stressing on the pinstripes for the body parts as they have not been easy. My first attempt was using bare metal foil, but it was very difficult cutting the strips as narrrow as I needed. They were so fragile when removing them from the foil and applying them that they would break in pieces.

My next attempt was to use real metal pinstripe tape. Finding it this narrow is difficult. They look good because they are real metal. Because of the metallic properties though they are a little thicker than the foil and much harder to curve.

At first I added the 1/32" pinstripes to the hood and liked it, that is until I studied several photos to see that they were a little too wide. In the photo below the joining areas were not yet burnished down. That was good for me as that is what saved me from messing up the paint when removing them.



After carefully removed them I started over with 1/64" pinstripes (very narrow). It is problematic on the curves. They are so thin they do not want to grip while stretching around the arc of the curve. After several attempts, I am tempting fate on making it worse if I continue reworking them, so they are what they are. I am not completely satisfied with them but they will have to do.

At this point, the hood and main body are done. All that remains to pinstripe are the fenders; here is a sneak peek, and yes those are RED leather seats you see there (this the season).



Next update I hope to show the completed pinstripes and gloss coat on all the body parts.

Ben

[NoelSmith]

The Gold Leaf spray looks very effective as brass. Who makes it?

[DRUMS01]

Hi NoelSmith; I got it at Hobby Lobby (chain store) and the brand is called "Krylon". They even have a convincing gold, brass, copper, and other metallics.

Ben

[BigWall]

Absolutely spectacular! This is looking great!

[DRUMS01]

Thanks BigWall.....

Ben

[DRUMS01]

After getting everything pinstriped (including more rework) off we went to clear coat everything.

(Finished Pinstriping)






Well everyone, no good deed goes unpunished, or one step forward two steps back. A week lost and now add more time to strip the old paint, repaint and pinstripe again.

What happened!!!???


Well that was easy to figure out. The decanted Krylon Green I am using is a polymer enamel paint and the clear coat I accidentally chose to apply was lacquer (I grabbed the wrong clear as it was going to be enamel). In the past I have coated enamel with lacquer successfully, but with a couple very light mist coats first to bite or etch into the enamel, then a gloss coat, but thinking I had my enamel I did n to to that. It did not start to wrinkle until 5-10 minutes after it was applied. I recommend not doing that for anyone painting their kits in the future. Actually, speaking of the future, future acrylic clear would have worked good too, K2, or most other acrylic or enamel based cleat coats. But lacquer on this enamel is not the way to go with this (Krylon) paint. Time for some Easy-off Oven Cleaner Gel soaking. I have the paint but will have to buy more pinstripe tape.

The lesson here is to pay attention to what you are doing. and that you are never too old or too experienced to mess something up real good. At least it was only the fenders. The body and hood escaped the brain fart paint job.

The joys of modeling.

Ben

[BigWall]

The pin strips came out great! Sorry about the setback with the clear. I guess at least it's fixable.

[DRUMS01]

I've had the fenders in concentrated purple power cleaner over 30 hours and some of the paint is coming off but it is far from something I can work with. I'm going to leave it for another 24 hours and see how it is then. If it does not remove it, I may try Easy Off oven cleaner.

Meanwhile, I've been able to work on sub-assemblies that do not rely on the fenders. I was also able to clear coat the body and hood correctly and I am happy with thier finish. Some of the other things I've gotten done include:

- removed the seam from the rubber tires and mounted them on the wheels.
- completed the paint and assembly of the exhaust.
- added the strap guides and center hinge on the hood.
- finished the painting of the radiator and mounted it to the chassis
- painted the interior floor (front and back) including details.
- mounted the body to the chassis
- fit the seats and rear seat trim within the body.
- added the various controls to the floor board (still need to wire them).
- finished the steering wheel assembly, replaced the steering shaft cover with real brass.
- added steering assembly to the interior.
- painted and added the license plates to the chassis.
- finished the assembly of the lights including the lenses and mounting brackets.
- assembled the folded soft top and prepared it for paint.
- assembled and painted the horn.
- assembled the spare tires and covers then prepared them for paint.

Here is where I am on the build right now:







Next update I hope to show the fenders repainted, striped, and on the car.

Till then, continue to stay safe, take care of your loved ones, and as always....comments welcome!

Ben

[BigWall]

Magnificent! The leather seats look absolutely amazing!

[DRUMS01]

Thanks Joe...

I first painted the seats flat black, then a heavy dry brush of flat rust, next was a medium dry brush of flat insignia red, and finally a satin red on the top. Now on to cleaning up the fenders!

I have a Close Air Support group build beginning January (another modeling forum), so I really want to push this one through before the end of the year.

Thanks again for watching and the kind remarks.

Ben

[DRUMS01]

Making progress....

I've been working aggressively on repairing the fenders and I am happy to report that they have been corrected. Specifically, they have been stripped, sanded, primed, sanded, painted, pinstriped, and gloss coated. I've also taken the next step and added them to the chassis. Actually, I have added several other items as well to include the front lights, the clutch and shifting handles, footboards, straps over the engine bonnet, and more. I guess it would be better to just show you:





There is still many items to add, most all in brass. My hope it that the next update will be the final update and reveal.

Till then, comments welcome!

Ben

[BigWall]

Once again, wow!

The hood straps look great!

[DRUMS01]

I'm calling this one D-O-N-E....

While the fenders were being reworked I had time to build the other sub assemblies. That made it much easier to finish the kit once the fenders were complete. For those who know this kit really well, it also comes with a set of spare tires. They mount on the right side footboard beside the driver. I am not sure if I want to add them because it will hide the other details already present. Other than that it is complete.

Adding the bonnet straps were a pain so I am reluctant to remove them just to show the engine. I'm going to use an older photo to show the engine detail. This is what it looks like under the hood (bonnet).



Here is my 1910 Thomas Flyer Model M6 40











All told, I would say the kit quality if typical for those molded in the late 60's or early 70's. Be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning up the flash, seams, fit, and repainting the fake gold (brass) plate. You will also have to test fit everything. With the mold quality, limited detail in the instructions, as well as the written instruction and paint code in Japanese, I would recommend this series of vintage kits to experienced modelers.

Overall I am happy with the result, please feel free to share your thoughts or comments of my build....

My next project is a 1/72 119K Stinger "box Car" Stinger gunship



Till then...

Ben

[Twokidsnosleep]

There we go, fenders and all
Nice job

[BigWall]

You sir, are an exceptional modeler. I don't know what else to say.

[DRUMS01]

Scott, Joe.... thank you both for your very kind words.

I'm also going to post this in the finished models and my portfolio

Ben

[digger303]

Top build and the words of wisdom from having built the kit are very sage and welcome.