Monogram 1/24 scale Ford Shelby 427 Cobra

[Joel_W]

  Finally I was able to get a little bench time in over the last week as my brother has taken a turn for the worse and is back in the hospital, just really scary stuff for sure. 

  Time to focus on the the interior of the Cobra, which is about as basic bare bones that Shelby could get as saving weight was the main focus.

   1st up was the two really basic type of Leather seats found in the sports cars back in the 1960s. As with most of the kits from that era, the seats didn’t have a back to them, relying instead on the interior tub to hide that issue.





  You can easily see in the above photos that the open back is plainly visible. My 1st option was the tried and true sheet plastic glued to the back, but these seats the bottom of the seat sticks out past the back, making that a non-option. So I went with Apoxie Sculpt 2 part epoxy that I smoothed with a wet finger, so that when dry only final sanding was necessary.
 


  Then I primed the tub and both seats with Gunze 1500 Black primer thinned 1:1 with Mr 400 Leveler Thinner. The next session I left the tub as is since it’s pretty darn close to the flat black that is the correct color. I air brushed the seats with Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black, then the following day rubbed it out with my finger for a slightly deeper sheen.





  Finally, I assembled the basic lap belts that was used in the Shelby Cobras from spares I had from a PE sheet and Black ribbon. Here’s the seats dry fitted in the tub.



  I started to work on the tires as well by cleaning up the centerline seams, and then digging out of my spare decals 4 Goodyear decals that actually have the right curve for the the front and rear tires. When dried I applied another gloss coat to help blend in the decals with Pledge. Still to come is a little bit of weathering and then an overall coat of Dullcoat.



  As always, thanks for stopping by and checking out my build to date. It’s always greatly appreciated.

Joel

[arcticwolf]

The seats look great!

[Joel_W]

Paul & Chris,
Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my progress to date. It's always greatly appreciated.

Joel

[Joel_W]

  Finally, time for another Cobra update. My focus switched over to the interior, which in the Cobra isn’t much, and as bare basic as Shelby could get it. After all, the car was designed for the track, not the street, and every pound saved meant a quicker, faster, car.

  Basically, the entire interior is Matt Black with the Dash the typical semi gloss Black that many of the British sport cars had back in the 60s such as my MGB. The steering wheel was aluminum with a wood rim and that was carried over to the Cobras. Seats were basic black leather, and the seatbelts were also plain Jane Black.







  Then I dry fitted the interior into the body just to make sure it fit. I still need to check the fit of the chassis with the interior tub in just to make sure that there’s no surprises lurking down the road.





  As usual, thanks for taking the time to stop by, and checkout my progress to date. It's always greatly appreciated.

Joel

[arcticwolf]

Very cool. The detail work is great, especially in that scale. Impressive as always!

[Joel_W]

Paul,
Thanks so much for your thumbs up my friend, it's greatly appreciated.

Joel

[afx]

Clean work Joel.  On a related note to your question about steering wheel position, a few of the early competition 289 cars clearanced the top of the driver door to create more room for hands/elbows.

[Joel_W]

JC,
Thanks for posting the pic. I downloaded it, and flipped it 180 degrees so I can see all of it.

Joel

[Ben_B]

That looks great, Joel! Nice work!

Ben

[mustang1989]

Man have I been missin' out!!! Beautiful build so far Joel.

[Joel_W]

Thanks guys for stopping by and liking what you've seen of my build. As I've said many times before, it means quite a lot to me to read all of your posts.

Joel

[2whl]

Great detail work on the interior, Joel

I like the body color on your Cobra better than mine.

[Joel_W]

Paul,
Thanks for the thumbs up. It's always greatly appreciated.

The body color is Gravity's CG-215 Ford Guardsman Blue over light gray primer.

Joel

[Joel_W]

   Finally the 427 Cobra has crossed my finish line, so the build is just about done. The only real things left to do is finish cleaning out the dried wax in some of the recessed panel lines, but with my eyesight that's a tougher job then I imagined as I don't want to damage the paint if I kind of screw up. 

  Since the last update, I've weathered the tires, stripped the chrome finish off the light Bezels, then re-chromed them with Alcad2 Chrome. Once the lights were installed, I cut strips of masking tape and using a black marker tried to simulate the tape we used back in the old days to prevent a broken light from shattering onto the track.  The chassis was installed into the body with a little push and prodding, the wheels pushed into place, the windscreen glued in place, as well as the exhausts, and finally all the little odds and ends that needed to be attached. 

  I was quite surprises at just how well Monogram had engineered this kit as even I didn't have many issues, most of which were my own doing.

  Thanks to all that have followed my build blog and found the time to post. 

   Here's a dozen pictures of the finished build.

Joel

























 

[arcticwolf]

First class work Joel, that's a very nice Cobra. Of course I love the colour!