Ken Miles' Cobra

[martinb]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd share my current build, a slight homage to Ken Miles' Cobra as seen in the Ford vs Ferrari film.

Yes, not the most imaginative or original build, but thought it might look nice sat with my GT40 currently (yes, still) in the works. 

Main reference is stills from the film and a few old photos which appear to be the same car with slight modifications. I'm not expecting to achieve a perfect replica, that's for sure! 

[martinb]

The kit in question. A wonderful(?) AMT kit. 



My initial plan was to create a Ken Miles support truck to go with it. Realistic or not, it seemed a fun idea.

This is a three-part kit. Cobra, Ford F-100 truck and associated trailer. Once opened, I found the trailer to be very basic and would require a lot of work to make decent. I might make one from scratch should I decide to use all three models.

[martinb]

First issue faced was the location of the roll bar. For some (possibly alternative version?) reason, the roll bar was positioned behind the bulkhead, and not in between that and the seat as seen in the pic of the first post.

To move it in front of the bulkhead, I had to make a few changes.

Strip added to rear lip of cockpit to give more landing and new holes added. The suggested holes are the larger 2 indents:




Bulkhead removed and moved rearward:







Moving the bulkhead rearward filled this area in. I went back as far as possible before it would interfere with the leaf-spring/chassis:



Final result:

[tatocorvette]

Hi,

Cool! Will you make the trunk out of aluminum and beat it from the inside in anger to make the luggage fit?  

[martinb]

Mar 20, 2024 11:41:05 GMT -8 tatocorvette said:

Cool! Will you make the trunk out of aluminum and beat it from the inside in anger to make the luggage fit?  

Ha ha! 

I am currently attempting to recreate that for sure! I had a couple of test runs using filler to make some dents, but it looked very bad:



I've since been experimenting with an old beer can and a blunt nail to recreate real dents. If I'm happy with that, I'll either stick it directly on this part as is, using filler to blend the parts together. Or I may simply cut out the plastic area and replace it with the new piece.

[kyledehart5]

Very cool build going on here.

[martinb]

Portion added below, encroaching on the rear leaf spring/frame, but not touching.

Blended in with the wheel arch - Looks odd, but won't be seen behind the wheel.

[martinb]

Tonneau 'stud' test drill/fit. Using 0.9mm scale rivets, which I think look suitable? Would love to find some scale tonneau studs, but as yet unsuccessful. These will probably do. I do have some 0.7mm if these seem a little large.

As viewers may have noticed, I've cut the doors off. Initially, I thought it might be quite cool to make the doors openable. Looking back, it was a bit of an error. It's made the shell pretty weak, and I've had to re-join the RH section between the door opening and rear arch around 4 times. For some reason keeps snapping. Used Tamiya ET and cyno but it's still very fragile. Something about this AMT plastic that just seems... odd. 




At the moment I think I'll just make the doors decent and reattach fully to make a strong joint.

[martinb]

I've found pictures of Miles' Cobra(s) with and without side vents. Let's be honest, the Cobra looks much better with them, the FvF film shows them, so I thought I'd best add them.

Template made:





Holes cut (first shell coat added):





Vents made. This is actually a practice piece. Layered plastic sheet pieces painted and glued inside the body shell:





Painted matt black and installed. The 'white' you can see is actually Blu-Tack remnants from masking for the white body coat:

[gorf]

You might try Harold Bradford at Historic Racing Miniatures.He made an FIA Cobra roadster that had the studs you are looking for.
Steve

[martinb]

Mar 30, 2024 12:57:27 GMT -8 gorf said:

You might try Harold Bradford at Historic Racing Miniatures.He made an FIA Cobra roadster that had the studs you are looking for.
Steve

Awesome, Steve. Thankyou for that.