1958 Aston Martin DBR1

[woodracer]

1958 Aston Martin DBR1

One of the cars I have always wanted to build was a DBR1 but the resin bodies until recently are hard to come by. I bought this pre-painted DBR1 on eBay for a small fortune and it has been collecting dust as I have tried to pluck up courage to start the build.  I think it is ProSlot kit (?) but not sure. 

I opted for a wood chassis with motor vertical on it's side so that I could get a full driver figure in the model.   Some improvements over two previous builds allowed easier driver space (the aluminium bracket faces backwards). Although I liked most of the photo-etched parts there were certain things I wanted to build myself - like the front grille and the dashboard. The etched grille was very thin and did not replicate the grille on the photos I see which are rounded profiles so I built my own. Not perfect but I think closer to the real thing. The metal dashboard and instruments dials supplied were neat but again never seen any pictures of stainless dashboard. So I made my own and figured out how small to make the marks on the dials so that my printer would still show something and I think these turned out quite well.

Not sure about the green but thats the way it came.











I cut the windscreen where the doors would open - still need to get them to line up...


The headlamps are custom made from a scrap of silver card with dents inserted to try to make it look light headlamps.
I did not have any available of the right size!











The driver sits on a slab of lead to balance the off-set motor weight


Interior picture of dashboard

Thanks for looking
Richard

[Robbie]

Looks great!

[munter]

That build suits this forum perfectly. I love the personal touches you have made and the original chassis design and construction.

Great work sir.

Regards again
John

ps I think the shell is a Proto slot item

[xasff]

Hello Richard,

Very nice achievement. The wood chassis is very beautiful.

Regards
Jean-Pierre

[EJI]

Hello Richard,
Superb model with some very original thinking and application.
Thanks for posting.
regards
Eric

[woodracer]

Thank you gentlemen for your replies.

John - thanks for the point that this is most likely a Proto slot body.  The resin casting is quite heavy and the wheel arches needed cleaning out at the top of where the tires would rub if the body was set to a reasonably correct height.


Regards
Richard
 

[Peter Seager-Thomas]

That's a nice job Richard, and as John says, the build suits this forum perfectly. I think the level of detail is perfect, and I always appreciate panel lines which are subtle, rather than blatant....

Peter.

[woodracer]

Peter,
Thank you for your comments.  I cannot take any credit for the paintwork or body lines as I purchased this pre-painted.  

I'm not sure how you guys get the joints out a little darker - that will be a task for a new proper build from the start which I am going to be doing so shortly with a George Turner DBR1 and some nice 1950's era Ferraris from John Warren's excellent castings.   I will search through the forum to pick up tips on body panel lines - I think I saw something about this at some stage.

Regards
Richard

[olivier]

splendid job on this Aston , and the chassis is superb.
This is probably a Protoslotkit body.