1959scudetto

Thanks, Lee ! Yes, I placed my models for photographic purposes on the tinted sliding glass roof of the 1:1 car I owned back then.

Thank you all for the nice comments - I certainly should have rolled lup the side windows or park it in the garage when it started raining. :-)

Thanks, Greg - the chrome work is painted with Humbrol chrome silver (# 11).

More of my old-school builds: Back in 1985 or 86 I built these 2 versions of amt's trusty '57 Ford. The first received a homemade continental kit made of plastic sheet and a 2-piece drag slick (I saw a similar one in a German modeling magazine back then) - the second should represent a four-door version: I glued the front doors shut , rescribed new doors and modified the c-pillars similar to a pic in the book "Monstrous American car spotters guide 1920-1980". Spraypainted bodies and interiors, trim again brushed-on Humbrol copper and chrome silver, whitewalls are brushed with Humbrol matt white enamel (pictures from 2005):

Excellent model, Rich - this is the iconic F1 racecar of the '70's.

2 iconic BMW's arrived yesterday from Germany: Welly's 507 Roadster/softtop (1956) and M1 (1978): proportions look good to me - a little detail painting ("Snake Fu") is absolutely necessary, but the basics are there: the M1 has wobbly wheels (see pic above: front with negative camber, rear with positive camber) - might glue these on.

From the same rainy photo session, also built at the same time as my 58 Impala, here is my favorite JoHan model: Spraypainted and clearcoated metallic green paint (don't remember the name), trim again brushed-on Humbrol silver, whitewalls are brushed with Humbrol matt white enamel. Someday I will disassemble it and repaint the interior (was sprayed in light green from the can) - again: no reference material back in 1984!

Again old style: one of my oldest 1/25 car builds - must be from 1984 - and also one of my favorites (I fell in love with that car when I saw Steve Bolander cruising through American Graffiti in 1973/74). Lack of reference material results in a model with several uncorrect details - the 2-tone paint scheme is more Bel Air than Impala ! Spraypainted with Auto-K "Peugeot turquoise" and white, trim is brushed Humbrol silver, whitewalls brushed with Humbrol matt white. When I got my first digicam in 2005, I made these pictures - unfortunately it started to rain during the photo session.

Thanks, Tim - itis not easy to locate a cheap one. Thanks, Noel - you were right: EBsaid "camions" which means trucks or lorries in the UK - I have already edited my text accordingly. Thank you Gary !If you look closely at the left front wheel, you can see the damaged spokes still (first I wanted to exchange this one with one of the spare wheels, but avoided that after straightening the spokes out as good as I could.

Mean looking Firebird - this is the car Burt Reynolds should have been driven !

Fantastic rustbucket Mario - I like the headlight haning out of its cave!

I always wanted a model of the famous Blower Bentley - though it was not successful in races, it is an iconic vehicle. Franklin Mint put all his efforts into this and created a fine replica. After searchig for more than half a year on ebay and other sites (all were from € 100,00 upwards), I finally found one for € 30,00 - of course, without box, it had a crushed front wheel, bent mesh screens on the headlights which had also bent struts. The front wings were heavily bent upwards and the rear was missing a few tiny parts, some other parts that came loose - as I was the only bidder, I won it with my first bid. I was afraid ot breaking the struts for the front fenders, but managed to straighten them out as I did with the headlights and carefully bent everything back, also the mesh screens and tried to get the bent spokes on the left front wheel straight (the former owner must have dropped the model to the floor, according to the damage) - the loose parts at the rear were re-glued - the final touch were some old UK license plates on thin aluminium sheet. At last, I took a few photos and placed it beside Paul's model art (Minichamps) Mercedes SSK from the same era: the direct comparison confirms Ettore Bugatti's legendary saying that the "Bentleys were the fastest trucks ln the world" - the Mercedes is much lower and wider than its dark green rival. On to the pics:

Very nice, Mario - captures the look perfectly.

Thank you Bill - this model deserves it - it is certainly one of the best Franklin mint models (of non-American subjects).

Thank you Gary - it still shows a few things I don't really like - maybe I will adress to them some day (too shiny chrome bumpers, missing vent windows).

Really nice truck, Tim for this price, you can't do wrong.

You've got a beautiful model here, Tim !

Excellent build, Mario - the wood looks very realistic!

Very nice, Mario - reminds me of the movie Charley Varrick - last of the independents.

This has to be the ultimate front engine V8 monster, Gary ! The grumble and roar of the engine was surely ground-shaking. Nice build of a seldom seen kit. Us race car modelers have always the problem of good reference material - this is hard to come by even today - most pics on the internet are color photos of the restored cars which often differ from back then (old photos are in most cases black and white only).

Burago made the models for the "Le Grandi Ferrari" series - among them a 1961 SWB, painted dark mtallic blue, mislabelled as a 1959. For a short time they had it also in their normal range - in red. It was turned into 2845 GT, the 3rd place car in the 1961 Tour de France d'Automobile, driven by Maurice Trintignant - a logical choice: right color and driven with its bumpers front and rear : it looked very toylike, so I replaced the clumsy windshield wipers, spraypainted the chrome wheels and fuel filler cap silver and applied decals from Patto's Place and my spares (partially reworked). The interior was cpmpletely repainted. This car was the only one sporting 2 ventilation flaps in the front fenders, in front of the doors. I tried to rescribe these and marked them with a black pen.

Thanks, Larry !

I don't know yet - I have 3 resin bodies (330 LMB/250GTO from UMi, 1964 GTO from Mini Exotics, 250 SWB Sperimentale from Tecnomodel) and the Carrera slotcarbody for the 250 SWB Breadvan) - all of these will be built curbside, and with this California Spider I can save one of my 250 GTO's for another project.

Looks very good - what wipers did you use?

Thank you all for the kind words, guys - but I think I have started this topic in the wrong thread - it is a reworked die-cast and not a plastic kit...