Anniversary

Well, for your information, last Saturday, 10th March 2007 was my first anniversary of my marriage with my beautiful and lovely wife. Nothing much is done for our anniversary. Just went for a quick movie, eat at a cosy restaurant and just wander around buying baby stuffs... oh yeah, she is 6 months pregnant with our first child.

Buying baby stuffs is hard (I'm sure of that). Being our first child, my wife has listed all the stuffs that needs to be bought before the delivery. It was quite a list and we finished half the day looking around, wandering and purchasing the items. Tiring? -yes, but worth-it. Well, the list is nearly completed and next week will be another round of buying (this time for the mother-to-be).

Time to roll...

Hi guys and girls,

I've been very busy the last few days so there's not much I can do for this build. I'm tackling the tyre first for this build. The tyre diameter and size for the Daimler and Ferret is the same but from the reference I have, the Ferret has 16 lugnuts on the rim and eight near the wheel hub while the Daimler only has 15 lugnuts and the center is covered with hub caps (I think). So, off I go modifying the rims armed with a trusty Dremel, sandpaper, pencil and a few thick and thin plastic cards (0.25mm and 0.5mm).

First, the wheel hub is the same size with the hubcaps, so, what I do first is mark the areas that needs to be drilled by highlighting it with pencil.

Then I drill the holes needed for the hub to be put in place. the drilling is done carefully to make sure that the hole will fit the new hub perfectly. The pictures below shows the picture of the original wheel (left) and the wheels that has been drilled (right).

After that is done, using the trusty Dremel, I remove the hub caps and the lugnuts carefully to make sure that the surface is even. This is then sanded smooth before the next step.

Since all the lugnuts has been removed and needs to be relocated, instead of measuring each time to place the lugnuts (I will use small diameter plastic rods for this, I'm too lazy to stretch sprue :lol: ), I made a template to make it easy for me to locate each lugnuts at its place without much hassle. What I do is, I use the 0.5mm plastic sheet, measure and locate the place for the lugnuts to be at, cut it according to the diameter of the rim, and drill holes on the areas that will locate the lugnuts and.... tadaaa.... instant template for the lugnuts... :lol: Shown below is the template, the holes are a bit off but this will do lah. I will need to do another template for the middle set of lugnuts (the ones near the wheel hubs)

To use this template, what I so is I cut a 0.25mm plastic sheet the same size of the rim, glue the plastic sheet on the rim, then place the template on the rim. Then all I need to do now is to mark the location of the lugnuts using mechanical pencil and you have a mark on where to put the new lugnuts.
All I need to do now is to make another template for the eight lugnuts the same way as I made the above and glue it all together. That is the progress for one wheel... I need to do this for another three before I cast it all for extra parts.

What I've been working on nowadays

Well, it's been a long time since I've typed anything in here and I think all I will do is update on the models that I'm building. This will surely be easier than telling stories about my day or my life or anything. With this at least I can update frequently by using the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V shortcut key.

This build is started in January. This is actually in conjunction with the 50th Malaysian Independance day. It is actually a group build for all modelers to join in and participate in building models of the Malaysian past and present time. I'm joining this group build by scratchbuilding a ferret scout car or Harimau Scout Car in the Malaysian Armed Forces.

I will show the progress bit by bit in here so that this will not be such a quiet blog (hopefully... )
Got an SMS from my wife on 10th January 2007 saying that my package from HLJ has arrived. So, as soon as I got home, right after dinner I open the HLJ box and inside it the 1/35th Daimler MkII Scout Car.

There are no pictures just yet as all that I done yesterday is only test fitting the models to look and recognize parts that will need to be modified in order to convert it to the Ferret Scout Car. A few areas I have identified that needs to be rebuild in order to transform it to the Ferret.

1) Tyres - eventhough the tyres are the right size, the rims are a bit different. The Ferret have, instead of holes on the Daimlers, are eight nuts on the inner side of the rim and the wheel hub will need to be added as well. This will be tackled first as I will need to make a cast copy out of the modified ones because the Daimler only has four wheels while the Ferret has a spare wheel on the side. I will modify all the wheels and cast a few copies of the wheel as back up.

2) Wheelarch - The rear wheelarch does not need any modification done but the front will need to be rebuild. Luckily the wheelarch comes in separate parts thus making it easier for me to rebuild it.

3) Main body - There are a few modifications that needs to be done in order to convert the Daimler into a Ferret. Upon inspection, the front will need to be extended, the upper body (the opening where the driver goes in/out) will need to be removed and rebuild, the engine cover will also need to be modified as well. The exhaust will need to be relocated as well.

4) Interior - Since the basic interior is supplied with the Daimler kit, I might as well make the Ferret with full detailed interior. This is also planned to be done but this depends on the time factor as well.

A year has passed...

Wow!... Suddenly I remembered that I have my own blog here, hehehe... the hectic life each day make me somehow forget about my own blog that I started. Well, a lot has happened. I've been engaged for five months and I have started a new job for almost ten months now.

Well, yesterday it has announced that tomorrow will be the beginning of the holy month of Ramadhan, the most awaited month for Muslims all over the world. This will be the first time I'm celebrating Ramadhan with only my parents because my brother (both of them) has their own family now and will be celebrating it with their wives, my younger brother and youngest sister is in college and won't be home except on weekends.

I've gone through my first post and coming across the Gundam Showdown "thing" I mentioned there, just a few updates, I managed to build and complete my entry, shining as ever and a lot of last minute works. It looks good and eye catching but not good enough I think... I didn't won anything... well, that's life, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Currrently, I am also rushing to build my Gundam for this years competition named the Bandai Action Kits Asia Cup or BAKAC and also hoping to be able to finish it, so all my cars will have to wait.... again...

By the way, me and my brothers' model is transferred to another house because our room had to be cleaned before my brothers' wedding a few months ago, so, all my models and my brothers' are stacked together... not sure when it will be able to be built... again.... hehehe... Looking at the stacks of unbuild models, only one sentence crossed my mind... "Mak oiii... banyaknya! Kalau macam ni punya banyak model, kedai mainan pun kalah!". By the way, just for info, one room is full of the models and we have to stack the rest of the models in another room.

I think that's it for now, hope I don't forget about this blog again...

Hi there

It's Wednesday morning, my first entry in here. A gloomy day, looks like it's about to rain. Something about myself then, I'm 28 and can't find a decent job yet but I'm not about to give up. I build model cars as a hobby but currently put it aside for a while to concentrate on robots (Gundam) for competition - "Gundam Showdown" in Kuala Lumpur. I'll most probably write about my models here. Not quite exciting... but then again, who knows?

Just received an e-mail this morning saying that my examination is just around the corner. Got to get my books out and my brains working again... I won't write about today yet 'cause it's still early... (dah dekat 12:00 pun early ke?)

Yesterday is the same day as everyday... get up from bed on 5.30am, exercise for half an hour, shower, subuh prayer, drive to work and stuck in jam for another half an hour before arriving at the office. Start work at 8.30am until 6.00pm and in between work, chatting with my friends. Last night, I manage to design my t-shirt and starting to paint on it... hope it can be completed in the same time as the competition.