How To Scratch Build Intercoolers

Some time ago Dan (daggerlee) asked me how to go about making one of these. Unfortunately i never got around to doing it til now - sorry Dan! Its something that i want to include in my venture as resin parts in a variety of different sizes and styles. But for the members of AF, here's how to make one. This one was put together in about an hour, no accurate measurements were taken or indepth research - just a quickie!

Stage one - The face of the intercooler is made from a styrene sheet available from Evergreen which has grooves in it, normally used in rail modeling. This is not thick enough on its own so two 30thou and one 20thou plain styrene sheets were sandwiched together.

Stage two - The end pieces are made from 4 triangular shapes cut from 10thou sheet with styrene tubing inbetween.

Stage three - Putty added to fill ends.

The next stage is a bit fiddly so attempt it if your feeling adventurous. Its not really necessary anyway unless your a sucker for small detail - like me

The weld seems are made from two part epoxy putty, the 'toothpaste' kind is impractical.

Small amounts are rolled out.

After placing in position an old large bristle brush is used to create the textur of the weld. Its simply rolled over the slither of putty.

Done! - If you wanted to, you could add more around th pipe and on top but you won't see them so there is little point.

Looks pretty cool behind the s2k front, just needs a little paint.

The purpose of this next stage is to help hide away the empty space behind the front intake of a curbside kit. So carrying this out depends on what model your adding your intercooler to and the size of the visable area.

To make the pipes i'm using aluminium tubing which you should be able to get from good model stores. The smaller size is 1.7mm and the larger size is 2.4 which makes it about right for the 2.5 inch size tubing on the full scale items. This tubing is quite soft and easily cut through with a No11 blade.

The next few pics are self explanatory but if you've sniffed too much glue and/or forgot to wear your respirator today, then i will point out that two lengths of tube are cut as desired with the smaller diameter cut slightly longer. This is so that it will form a plug to slot into the intercooler. They are then simply cut in two after inserting one into the other.

The reason for using metal is obviously for realism, the aluminium tubing can be buffed to a nice shine, so thats what i'm gonna do! I first gave the tube a light sanding with 1500 wet and dry then polished with Autoglym Paint Renovator but any polish will do.

Polished tube below -

This will eventually be the intercooler's new home. With the help of some mesh infront it will disguise the fact that no engine exists now that the opening is alot bigger.

I used AlcadII Chrome to paint the intercooler, I can't recommend this stuff enough, its just brilliant!

I based this loosely on the Blitz intercooler - I say loosely coz i didnt convert the measurements from the real thing, only sizing it as desired but copying the basic design - so its only fitting to have the blitz logo on it.

I took the logo from thier website, resized it a few times in a photo software package and printed onto some coated paper, then chose the best size.

I laid masking tape over the image before cutting out the letters. This was just to add a little rigidity to the paper. I opted not to stick masking tape directly onto the part for fear of lifting off some of the Alcad and also because it might lose some of its form. The mask was made to be the same height as the part and markings were made in order to position it in the centre. Dont forget the closed parts of the B's!

I lightly airbrushed it with flat black paint, it was only give a few passes to give it a subtle look like on the real thing. It may also be worth trying Tamiya Smoke or a Dark grey for this too.

With the pipes super-glued in place i cut thin strips of tamiya masking tape to form the rubber band connectors (I'm not familiar with the correct terminology so forgive me if thats not what thery are called) which was wrapped around a couple of times. I applied thin CA to the ends to prevent them from lifting.

I painted the bands with a flat mid blue. At this stage i applied a heavily thinned wash of satin black into the groves and over the weld seems to bring out the detail.

To recreate the metal bands i used thin strips of Matt Aluminium Bare Metal Foil.

To make the fasteners i used 15amp fuse wire, glued in place with a little more thin CA.

The finished product.

Hope you have enjoyed this and i look forward to seeing your versions added to your models.

JDMF © 2003