The Time has Arrived... RPR's Rolls-Royce Build(s)!

[Adrian Harris]

> doesn't it look amazing?

Absolutely stunning work !!

Adrian

[Kevin Hunter]

just "WOW"

[Steve Norris]

Beautiful work.
Regards
Steve

[Robert Reid]

Just so noone thinks I've been idle... this was one of my summer projects...



Restored barrel and interrupted-screw breech. Built the entire rampart mount from scratch. Built trailer and Walnut bed to hold it.

One of my better 1:1 models, I think! And, yes, it's fully-operational.

And now... back to building cool 1:6 chassis!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

Not much done last few weeks. Been working on a HMMWV project. 1:1. It's a fun rig. Repels Hybrids!

Anyhoo... I did take a bit of time before the Christmas break starts to work on the gas tank. I've mulled this over a lot, ranging from making a new on out of sheetmetal to hollowing it out for lightness to... even weirder thoughts. But in the end decided just to get the rivets on and make the pickup area a bit more detailed.

Right now I am pretty drill-happy after countless 1/32nd holes into aluminum. But got the basics done. I still need to make a drain and the tail-light brackets (the brass you see in a couple of pictures.) Those will get soldered up and bonded/riveted. Gas cap works. I need to make a wrench for it! And a dipstick 'fuel gauge.' It just has to be done!



The flange around the pickup area was challenging! Also machined the bottom of the pickup area and will put on some detail parts turned from brass, including a drain.



End flanges, also riveted on. And on the 'real' car soldered. BTW, on the originals, these bosses are hollow. And sometimes gaps form in the solder. And they fill up with old gasoline. And when people try and solder them... poof! No eyebrows. Happened more than once!



Now I just have to clip off and glue in about 100 1/32nd rivets to get the baffles and edge rivets in place. Then painting will have to be thin layers... or the rivets disappear into the paint!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

[Robert Reid]

When last we left our intrepid Silver Ghost... the tank was full of holes.

I spent Christmas week working on a history book I am writing and resisting the urge to work on model. Book has been stalled for some time and I owe the family some time on it. So for Jan and part of Feb, at least, I will probably be not working on chassis. As much as I want to. But I did want to finish the tank. One of the last major components of the chassis. So took 'one tiny teensey weensie little extra day off' to get it done before we wait until March-ish.



After much drilling, tons of 1/32 rivets fitted where they belong. I was lazy and didn't rivet the bottom of the tank. As 1/6th creepers are unavailable and 1/6th action figures are not about to report lack of rivets under tank... I decided to just do the visible sections. Which was still a boatload of tiny, infernal rivets.



Here you can see my slacking.... but you can also see the tail-light mounts and the related 'wire plug' holder. Back in 1914, only one rear light was required. So RR set up a system whereby the single lamp could be moved from left to right and back, for Continental motoring. You could have two rear lamps. But that cost money. And RR owners didn't get to be RR owners by squandering their money on redundant tail-lights. So you could swap the lamp over easily. These are the brackets and the socket where you screwed in the 'live' tail-light feed wire you weren't using.



Rivets and the somewhat enhanced filler area. It is accurate with big cheesehead screws holding things down. Fuel was checked, even in 1925, with a dipstick. I will be making one out of ebony or similar interesting wood.



I know something as plebian as a gas tank hardly rates this kind of attention. But if I didn't, it would just look like a big obelisk hanging off the back of the chassis, and we could not have that, now, could we? So dozens of holes later and a bunch of machining and it really does look like the fanny of a Ghost.



About the same image, but with a bit better focus.

This will get painted black with thin layers of paint so we don't cover up the rivets. At this stage, I am mainly at the point of assembling things and starting to think about paint.

And a bonnet out of ..015" shim stock.

But I have a book to work on for a few weekends or I'll get skinned.

Cheers,

RPR

[simon_manning]

I always look forward to these post's, Very informative, and super build quality, Thanks R.P.R. Regards simon manning.

[Robert Reid]

Had a request in my engine thread for some details from one of the Rolls-Royce Parts book on some of the Armored Car features.

Here's a few that matter. Everything else is pretty standard. They didn't modify the Ghosts a lot!

I also highly-recommend the "Haynes'" manual that you can buy online or order fromt the Tank Museum... support them! It's got a lot of great pictures!



Above shows the auxiliary/internaal fuel tank that is bolted to the inside of the bulkhead. This gives some starting or emergency fuel. These were made of sheffield plate (Tinned shitmetal) and riveted and soldered together.



Above is the tank parts or written details. Not as useful as the image. But gives an idea of the complexity!



I include the above image because it shows the details on the exhaust cladding and clamps. For those building a chassis, this is some really cool detail. Mufflers and resonators were all covered with asbestos sheet and thin sheetmetal cladding. The pipes were wrapped with asbestos rope. Diametre (in full scale) about 3/8" in diameter. This will let folks scale it with modern cord.



Here are some of the requested pictures showing the internal starter. There are pictures available online as well. This may help with some of the details along with the next picture.



Here is the second picture of the internal starter. Note that the parts book also shows an electric starter, which was not fitted until post-war. It also references the O and P series of Silver Ghost which were post-war. J-P chassis covered 1919 until about 1922. But RR was still building cars for India and Ireland use. Not many, but they were still building them. So with an electric self-starter the 'internal' starter was not needed as it would have been with a 1800's chassis number pattern car (pre-war.) But intereting nontheless!



Here is the parts list. Again, not all that helpful. But a reminder that these were complicated machines!

Last, I have a number of pictures from inside the Armoured Car at Bovington. The staff was nice enough to schedule a viait where I could examine the car in detail, including inside. This is part of my 'later' build where I will do a car with a 'simple' chassis but highly-detailed body and interior. That is 'project 3' after I finish the chassis. Which I am going to work on this weekend, river don't rise!

The pictures I took at Bovington are not for sharing on social media. THe museum staff was very nice, but did not want me sharing on social media. However for anyone who is doing a highly-detailed interior and cannot get enough images from the Haynes Manual or the other pictures that we have posted here... I will share select images via e-mail or private message. After extracting a blood oath from you that you won't share on social media or further! I don't want to 'hoarde' any images. But I also made a commitment to the Tank Museum.

Hope this help!

Cheers,

RPR

PS. If any of the Tank Museum folks are here and lurking or watching these threads...if it is OK for me to share images among our enthusiast community here, I would be glad to. Let me know! But I won't do without express permission from you guys and appreciate your letting me examine the vehicle in such detail!

[Robert Reid]

So spent a couple of days during our Thanksgiving weekend working on the rear axle.

I originally was sort of undecided about how far I'd take the brakes/rear axle. But one can't leave the axle 'bare' on a Ghost. Too much going on. So decided to build the entire brake operating mechanism (the external part.) Earlier I had detailed the axle, but it needed backing plates and the mechanism. Tomorrow I'll do the equalizer shafts and probably the brake ropes.



Made the backing plates out of sheet copper simply because I had some and it is easy to work. Plus I wanted to solder to it (not just epoxy parts on.) Some epoxy used in this. But lots of soldering, too. Especially to make up the levers and the stiffeners on the backing plates.



The shafts weren't going to be too hard to do. Being shafts. The levers, on the other hand, would be a bit of a soldering challenge. But so be it! Here is the parts book picture. I went a bit smaller than exactly 1/6th. The eye will see the parts as 'oversized' sometimes when going to miniature exactly to scale. I think the Greeks had a word for it.



Here are the levers in the process of being soldered. Made the lever arms by turning a large piece of brass and cutting off a circle. Then cut sections out of the circle. And soldered them to the 'wheel' The little spring levers came next after this.



And here we have one brake assembled. Note that I also fluted the drum to put cooling fins on it, like the original. Just a matter of chucking it and using a parting tool to cut some grooves. The shafts are made of brass and German Silver. The posts that carry the brake cross shafts are tapered, riveted and epoxied to the axle tubes. I need to do some epoxy clean-up, But it's pretty rugged and will blend well under paint.



The whole unit from the rear. This shows the RR logo that I 'raised' by bending wire and bedding it in the relief cut supplied on the original part. The relief cut looks good. But the RR should be raised. Also all the bolts and nuts around the perimeter of the axle tubes and casing are replaced by an assortment of 8 BA and 10BA studs and tiny little nuts.



View from the other side. Presents pretty well and will look great in paint! Though sometimes seems a shame to cover all that beautiful brass, aluminum and copper up with paint. Painted it shall be!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert E Morey]

That axle is amazing! Super detail! Nice work Robert.
Best regards,
Bob

[David Wilcoxen]

RPR,
Thank you so much for posting the pages from your manual, they do help me! Would you be so kind as to post the pages for the bonnet and hold downs along with the parts number page just like you did the others?

Your breaks look amazing! I will be starting my build very soon so we may over lap a bit, which will make it good fun.
Cheers,
David

[Robert Reid]

Bonnet pictures and hold-downs aren't in the parts books. Those are coach accessories and so not pictured. Or are REME accessories and not in the RR parts book. REME or coachbuilders did the hold-downs.

That said, I can take some pictures of actual civilian parts for you! And 'may' have them in a civilian parts books. So on Sunday when I am in the shop doing some stuff, I'll see what I can photograph for you.

Assume you are doing parallel bonnet civilian on your chassis? Or are you doing armoured car and need REME bonnet hold-downs for that? I do have pictures from Bovington and can share those privately. But they did ask me not to post my photos from the in-person examination on social media and I of course have to respect that..

Cheers,

RPR

[David Wilcoxen]

Thanks Robert,
I am building the AC version but the earlier 1915, the hold downs and bonnet latches were very similar but enough different to warrant making the earlier ones. If you have photos of the 1920 it would help, however, you should not go against any promises you made to keep them confidential. My use would only be to scale and make a 1/6 size set of hardware from them, nothing more. I have bought a couple of photos from Bovington before, of the interior of their AC and so I have signed their release forms and understand them well.
David

[Robert Reid]

Glad to share privately. I think I have the photos from my visit in the spring.

And that applies to anyone who wants to PM me for detail photos. I won't post on social media, but am glad to share privately and protect the details from going public, while helping the historical modelling community.

Cheers,

RPR

[Chris.Marshall]

Hello All,

If anyone is looking for RR Ghost detail and photos, let me know. I have a lot of photos of the Irish AC that James Black restored, he brought it to RREC National at Rockingham in 2014. Plus I have enough Ghost technical detail photos to fill several albums. Happy to assist.

Chris.