Yep, you read the title correctly; I am building yet another George Turner Models’ (GTM) Edwardian kit.
I absolutely adore the range of GTM Edwardians so when I saw that he had produced a couple of kits on a new short wheel based chassis, I knew I had to get one.
What didn’t help, is the fact that I’ve had the pleasure of going to the start of the London-Brighton Veteran Car Run a couple of times and quite a lot of the cars in that event are on shorter chassis – several De Dion-Boutons and the curved dash Oldsmobiles spring to mind.
Here’s the kit as it comes. As is typical with these kits – the chassis and wheels are 3d printed and the body, driver and details are cast in resin.
I dry fit the steering mechanism together before painting.
On the standard wheelbase chassis the tolerances between the parts are very tight, so you have to sand back the material where the parts meet, so the steering is nice and loose. On this shorter chassis the tolerances are a little bit broader, but I’d still recommend opening everything up with a rotary tool just to be on the safe side.
The assembled chassis.
One minor criticism is that on the standard wheelbase chassis, this upright between the leaf spring and the chassis leg is perfectly located to keep the purple stub axle from falling out. On this one it’s set back a little which makes assembling the steering a little bit more fiddly.
Then everything comes back apart.
And gets painted! I’m using Army Painter’s Crystal Blue coloured primer for this. The aerosol is colour matched to the dropper bottle paint, which means if a bit gets missed or damaged it’s super easy to touch it in.
The Army Painter colour primers are really good. It’s a bit of a limited range at the moment, but I’m hoping they expand it.
I finished the wheels next.
Which allowed me to get the steering assembled properly.
GTM does include resin bearings for the rear axle in his kits. I personally prefer brass or metal ones so use those when I can.
Fit the drive chains, then run the rear axle through those, the bearings and the rear gear.
These new drive chains have a guard over the front which looks great!
The motor and wiring go in next. It’s worth test driving them at this stage just to make sure everything’s free to move in the steering and drive train.
Now to move onto the body!
With resin there is always cleaning up to be done. Take your time with it and make sure you have a good, sharp hobby knife.
This kit comes with a lovely pair of horns. They are incredibly fine though and I’m not sure casting them in resin was the best way of doing this as one of mine was sadly unusable.
It’s evident that GTM have a really good 3d printer from the quality of the chassis. I think 3d printing these might be a bit better – even if they come out a little chunkier and it pushes the price up a touch, I’d be happier with that I reckon.
This little guy came out ok!
Everything is mounted to the body.
And base coated.
Painting in all the details is the bit I enjoy the most. It’s where the model really starts to come to life!
Doing the gauges is always a rewarding part of a build.
I find it easiest to assemble and paint the steering column whilst it’s still attached to the resin block.
The little driver is a wonderful character! The lady with her headscarf and goggles is actually what made me pick the Renault over the short wheelbase Darracq. Shes so cool!
I tried to freehand a cherry pattern on her headscarf. It looks great from a distance, just don’t get too close haha!
And it’s done!
This little Renault was a very enjoyable little kit to build. The standard wheel base cars are better to drive, so if you’re looking for a race car, get one of those, however this looks absolutely wonderful just cruising around the track.
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By Richard Francis.
