General Lou

This is where we start getting parts for the base: Ok, so I begin with the light from stage 107. It goes in from the top, so I feed the wire through to the back and press it in. Following on from the light, I add some glue to the edges of the protruding joining area. Don't bother putting any on the bottom because it doesn't fully touch there. Nice and easy. Stage complete.

Stage 107, covering up the circuits within the head, and building a light: The battery unit from pack three sits snuggly on top of the head. I put the batteries in and make sure the switch is set to off before I put it inside. These two rods connect the head and shoulders. They are difficult to screw in, so what i did was unscrew the top of the head as shown is the second image. This allows you to get to the screw holes easier. Next, I noticed that my wires where not connected, like they are shown to be in the instruction. Not to worry though as I just hooked them up here. Once connected, I glue magnets to the skull, and pushed on the skull plate. I am very impressed how the magnets create an easy access route to the brains. Finally, I construct the light and have finished stage 107. Stage complete.

Stage 106, enhancing the cyborgs brain. Adding the circuits makes you feel like it is going to actually come to life! (scary!): Quick stage, I screw the circuit board on to the back of the head with two screws. Stage complete.

Stage 105, torso details: Let's begin by pressing the back plate on. No screws or glue here. Now I can start making the piston or hydraulic detail things on the shoulders. Just like the instructions say, I make sure not to over tighten, because of the angle they need to be at. I now flip the T-800 over and basically just repeat what I did on the back, but now on the front. I have decided to put the coils (that go from shoulder to chest) under the shoulder muscle on both sides, before I secure the screws. Stage complete.

Stage 104, bulking the back: I begin by screwing each of the 2 panels on to the back. Nice fit, with one screw each. Next, I glue in the two shafts. The shafts held in quite strong without any glue, but i had some glue so why not? This is a neck muscle. I simply push the parts together. Now with some glue and screws, these bigger panels can now all connect to the main body. Sometimes big parts are fiddly to attach and line up all the screws, however i can happily say that this was a very easy fit! Stage complete.

Moving on to stage 103, where I attach the chest plate from 102: Before the chest plate can be fitted, we need to screw this detail part on, like this: The chest plate is now ready, but I need to do one more thing before it can be connected. That would be pushing in these rubber parts. They seem difficult, but I just wiggle them around whilst applying pressure for a good few seconds and they eventually pop through. Only after this, can i put the chest on: Now to screw in, I need to flip the fella over and screw in the four screws. This next part is cool, as we can attach the metal coils to the head and shoulders, using a bit of glue. This makes it look super neat: Finally, I connect the 4 sticking out things that I attach in 102, to the rest of the T-800. That will be it for this stage. Stage complete. It looks a lot more combat ready now.

Stage 102, making the chest armour: Straight away we get to use the parts from the previous stage. They get glued on to the chest plate with a very nice fit. Moving on to the two coils. I stick them both through the centre section of the chest plate and hold them down with a screw in the middle. And with the last two peices, I glue them into the head of my T-800. Stage 102 complete.

Let's get started with pack 11. Parts included: Starting off nicely with the attachment of the left foot. The three tubes take in the three poles sticking up from the foot, then I screw on the ankle. However the holes on the ankle did not align, so i used pliers to twist it around so they are aligned (right image). Then I thread the screw through. Ball joints are next. They require a hard push, but fortunately, they are not too fiddly. With the four joints complete, I glue each one on to the big plates provided with this stage. And that is the stage completed.

The last four stages are all about connected parts to the firewall. Technically most of the parts seems to be "Electrical Device" !!! Firstly the speaker, which will be used for the engine sounds, is attached to the back of the firewall. The cable harness is fed across the top of the firewall and inserted into a section of holes. I did find that two of the holes were not wide enough to be able to pass the rubber through, this seemed to be due to excess paint from the spray painting being left inside the hole. It came off pretty easily when I twisted a screwdriver in the hole, however the first time I did it I made the hole marginally too big so had to resort to a little bit of glue to hold the cable in place. Once in place I cn then move on to inserting the various "electrical devices" and wiring them up. Again, on for two of the holes contained excess paint this one had quite a lot to be removed so I used a knife I worry that some of the rubber cables will come out once the model is completed and be. nightmare to get back into place, so decided to use a tiny bit of glue on the end of each cable to make sure it stays in place. and here is my finished assembly: Resting it in place at the end of the Pack....

Rear Fender It was at this stage I discovered that the group of wires coming through the front of the fuel tank assembly were incorrectly positioned, so had to do a bit of disassembly and correct.. In stage 60, step 1 you have to put the numbered wires through specific holes and so you need to ensure that everything is lined up OK ...but when its done it tidies up nicely!

Putting in the fuel pump The space involved is quite tight so I used tweezers to press in the various pipes Looks great when done!

Rear trunk assembly begins... Straight forward screwing together the trunk: Then attaching the full tank with the wires fed through the holes completed!

Pack 8 is mostly the rear trunk section of the Cobra and starts with fuel tank The main point of this stage is to make sure that the wiring is fed through the correct directions otherwise the wires will be in the wrong place when connected later. The first time I attached the fuel tank, one of the black wires got trapped in the screw hole so be careful of that one - I didn't notice until I went to screw in the final screw and by then it was wearing the insulation a bit - so check before you screw! All put together and wires in the correct places!

Time for some wiring!!!! Essentially for this, you just gotta follow the wiring diagram in the instructions to get them in the correct place! Match up the numbers! Then it is screwed into the plate... And the stage is now complete:

Quite straightforward this stage, attaching the fuel filler pipe to the trunk board Put in place and screw from the back!

Time for the other seat (Drivers) Similarly to stage 50, this is done by measuring to the tape length by holding it against the seat This time, I realised that for the second bit of tape I could just measure the cut piece again: Over the bseat goes the cover, and then its stuck into place, I removed the sticky cover at this point using a blade And here is what the cockpit is looking like once the seats are in and the battery packs are behind them:

Now to do some work on the batteries and the battery cables. First I have attached the battery to the bracket and screws it into place The batteries and the bracket are installed right behind the passenger seat, which is something you don't see in modern vehicles! For the cable on the shut-off switch I first tried it without glue, but found it is best to use a dab of glue to hold it in place. Once the two cables are attached with glue it is then easier to screw it into the body. Each of the cables was then inserted into the batteries which I found was easier using a pair of tweezers. There is a bracket which goes along the top of the batteries and then a tiny "cut-off device" which simply pushed into place (no glue needed) ...and then its all done:

Putting together the passenger's seat Taking the sticky tape I measured the length simply by holding it to the seat, then cut the length I needed The seat cover slid over the bucket seat and then pressed securely against the sticky tape Once the seat is screwed together to hold it in place I then pressed the seat belts into the pegs on the underside , wrapped them around and then secured them at the front.

So I found this stage a little fiddly to get into place. You have to put the switch number 4 into place through the center console and then get a holding piece in place and screwed in. Its a case of manoeuvring into position with tweezers and the tightening up the screw. After attaching the pipes to the mounting box it pushed down Ito place and then I secured it in place. Tidy up time! the wire is held in place with a little bracket. And that is stage and Pack 6 completed!

Time for the driver's pedals, and a few switches. First I put the metal footplate in and then the accelerator pedal in place. The accelerator pedal seems an odd design to me - compared to the brake and clutch pedals, but Im sure the original car designers had their reasons: As you can see these next two pedals are silver and have the Shelby 'S' engraved onto them. Next I have put on the two electric switches and cabling. These are so that when you press the accelerator you get to hear the engine sound and when you press the brake pedal the rear brake lights come on. As mentioned, the floor of the cabin is now taking shape!

Back to the small fiddly bits! its time to add on the gear stick and the hand brake I put he two lower parts of the gear stick together, turned the whole thing over, keeping it in place so it doesn't fall out, and screwed it in place from underneath The U-bar (Im sure I will find out what that is for later!!😃) was just pushed in and similarly screwed in from underneaths: Check out the detail on top of the gear stick, you can actually read all the gear numbers (sorry not too clear on my photo - I'm talking about in real life). I've then added the hand brake next to the gear stick, it just pushes into place quite easily.

Now I'm getting some large components done and the cabin is coming to shape uo with some structure! The rear section is screwed into place.

As mention in the previous post, I am now doing the second half of the center console and also adding the floor mats. Similar to the stage 43, I've screwed the second half of the floor to the center part The floor mats are slightly different but its straightforward putting them into the correct side of floor

Moving on to the center console... This all fits together quite neatly with a few screws. I've put the electric cable holder inlace which will be need later for...you guessed it holding cables! I will be completing the second half of this in the next stage

Continuing with adding more detail the dashboard I found it best to use a sharp blade to peal off the stickers. using fingers just bends the sticks or removes the glue onto your fingers, keeping the sticker on the tip of the knife allows me to position correctly, keeping in Mond that the dials are big enough to read so they need to be fitted the correct way up! Notice how the speedo looks back to front - this is how it was on the real Cobra, though I don't know why they did it like that. Following putting on all the stickers I've then put the glass onto the chrome and then both of these fitted onto the black plate: I then put all of this into its housing which also contains an electronic switch. Screw it all together and then its stage completed