As can be seen the main body block is made up of six parts, four in the

centre and two Fender side pieces. The reason for the four centre blocks,

two at the front and two at the rear, is that the sheet metal body parts will

roll over the front and rear to the underside, and with out making provision

here to separate the front from the rear, it would be impossible to remove

the patterns from the metal body shell.  This will become more clear as we

proceed. The front and rear blocks are doweled together, and also doweled

together from left to right.  The advantage here is that during the carving

process the parts can be disassembled and cross matched at any time so

making it much simpler to make one side an exact mirror image of the other

right from the start.  It is comparatively easy to carve one side of a car body

shape and get it correct, the difficult part is carving the other side to match

the first. By having the parts assembled with dowels during the carving process,

it can then be taken apart at any time and cross checked, - the inside faces put together to match and the out side faces put together to check for an accurate match, as also the tops, bottoms, front and back faces, it becomes a much more simple matter to insure accuracy, this being most important right from the start.  The blocks are each carved to exactly match the profile of it’s respective template being kept perfectly square at all times.  When the cabin master has been matched to both it’s side and top profiles, the recess in the main block can be carved out to accommodate it.  Note that the wheel arches have been defined with a brass inset strip, this is to give strength and maintain a sharp edge  to the master pattern, during the metal forming process.  The next stage is to round the corners of each of the body blocks to match the cross section templates.  A useful aid with this is a commercially available tool consisting of a series of steel pins held together in a block, called a ‘Template Former’, available from most hardware stores.  With this tool it is a simple matter to match the curve on one side of the pattern block with that on the other side.  It is vital at this stage that each side is a mirror image of the other.  What is accepted here will determine the character and look of the final miniature.