George Turner Models’ Mors Dauphin

Advertisements

It’s certainly no secret that I absolutely love the range of Edwardian cars that George Turner Models produces.

So far I’ve built the Fiat S76 “The Beast of Turin” : motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/02/18/george-turner-models-fiat-s76-the-beast-of-turin

I’ve also built a Mercedes: motorsportformentalhealth.com/2023/02/18/george-turner-models-edwardian-mercedes

If you fancy building an Edwardian car yourself, you can buy them here: https://georgeturnermodelsshop.com/collections/edwardian

Today we’re going to be building the Mors Dauphin.

Mors are a company that I didn’t actually about until starting this project. They were founded in 1854 by Emile Mors. Their first car was built in 1897 and they were dominant in early automobile racing alongside Panhard.

Citroen eventually bought them out in 1925 and used the Mors factory to produce their own cars. (How cool would it be to see the Mors name resurrected to sell sporty Citroens!)

The Dauphin (Dolphin – named as such due to its “aerodynamic” body) had a very short racing career. It was built for the 1903 and was abandoned in 1904.

The one we are building today is the car driven by Fernand Gabriel is the Paris-Madrid race, which was sadly shut down by authorities in Bordeaux as there were several fatal accidents.

Credit for the images goes to: https://www.supercars.net/blog/mors-dauphin/

This is everything that you get with the kit from George Turner Models (GTM). Kits for the running gear and tyres for each of his models are available from Pendle Slot Racing.

If you’ve read any of my other builds on GTM’s Edwardian cars, or built one yourself, you’ll notice that the chassis on this one is much more “filled in” whereas the older chassis were more like the proper ladder chassis you’d find on the real car.

From a racing perspective it makes sense to fill the chassis in. The original chassis were much more delicate. Crashes do unfortunately happen in racing and these new chassis will make the cars much tougher.

From a model maker’s perspective, I did like mounting all the running gear to the old fashioned ladder chassis. There’s no technical reason for it, it just felt special, however I completely understand and support the change. Especially if the cars are raced on big wooden tracks at a club – they need the strength!

First thing I like to do with these kits is slightly bore out all the sockets in the steering mechanism. It’s really important with these cars to have the steering moving freely, otherwise it’ll jam into place coming out of a corner and your car will crab walk down the track.

The chassis is 3d printed so out the box the steering can be a bit tight. Once painted that steering will become even tighter if left to the original size.

I also take a little material out of where the stub axles pass through the hubs, so the front wheels can rotate nice and freely.

I just use a fine bit for my rotary tool to bore out the holes slightly.

I then test fit everything. This is how it goes together.

(Sometimes when I make a gallery on here like the one below it will display all of the pictures, other times you have to scroll through them. If you see a little arrow on the picture it means that there’s more to go through! I’m working on finding a solution.)

I always mask off this little brass pin on the guide. this pin goes up into the steering crossmember, so when the guide turns the wheels turn accordingly. Again, you don’t want that to be too tight and a couple of layers of paint can make a difference.

I undercoated the chassis with a Halfords grey primer and then just a Halfords black over the top.

I then assemble the steering properly.

This is to show how the stub axle passes through the hub.

Next up is wiring!

When I strip the wires back for the little nipple connectors to go on, I always leave a bit of a long tail to fold under the connector. that was the wire definitely won’t come out

The guide completed:

The tabs on the motors Pendle Slot Racing provides have little holes to poke the wires through. I do that, wrap the wires around the tab and then secure it with solder to make it nice and strong! (not yet soldered in the image)

It’s not pictured but when the motor is a little loose in the mount, and after a few laps it popped out. I secured it by running a little bead of hot glue between the chassis rails and motor. So far that seems to have held it!

Now for the wheels!

These were primed with Halfords grey, then top coated Ford Burgundy Red and the detail was picked out with Citadel Retributor Armour.

GTM do provide resin bearings for the rear axle to go through. I prefer to use brass ones personally. Less chance of them wearing over time.

They just push fit into the chassis like so:

Hold the rear gear in place and slide the axle through. Once you’re happy it’s central, tighten the rear gear down with its grub screw.

Most slot car gears and wheels use grub screws with a 0.9mm hex head. They are very easy to round off both the screw and the tool as they are so tiny, so I use these cheap hex keys that I can’t put too much pressure on: https://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/psr-allen-key-slot-it.html

Then the wheels go on. These ones press fit onto the axle. Again, you might have to bore the hole out a little. I also put a little blob of superglue on the end of the axle just to hold the wheel in place.

Now to get the body done! I just used white primer, then lacquered over that.

I didn’t photograph it for some reason but I use Army Painter’s Dark Tone Wash in the panel lines to give them a bit of depth.

The dashboard was done with a mix of Army Painter and Vallejo paints. The seats were finished in Vallejo Leather Brown.

As were the drivers

Fernand Gabriel had a wonderful moustache in real life.

So of course I had to replicate it haha!

The radiator slides up between the chassis legs. The starting handle sticks onto the little bit, for what of a better term, that sticks out of the radiator.

I’d also clearly done the decals at this point too. They were of a nice quality!