Plastheniker

Still one of my favourites of the whole forum! It really deserves much more attention.

Good idea nicely executed!

Excellent idea, good colour choice, very unusual and attractive model!

Thanks for the comments! I really wonder why most modelers of all forums I know (American, British and German) have such little interest in busses. Kit manufacturers obviously know this and make almost no bus kits. Besides Heller only RoG dared to release two excellent busses (London bus and Neoplan). Regarding sales numbers, however, both were obviously failures because prices were reduced considerably afte r a very short time. I would be surprised if we would see any further bus kits in the future.

Thanks for the further comments! My next AITM conversion is a Mack W-71 integral sleeper with a scratch built contemporary canvas top trailer, both ready for painting. Since I am presently working on another scratch built German vintage truck it will take some time before I can show the Mack. I hope you will be interested.

Everyone who knows that even a good resin body requires much more skills and effort than a poor styrene kit will appreciate the result you have achieved. Great and unusual model!

Black and brown is a really daring colour combination, but it works on this model. Perfect finish.

Great modifications and outstanding finish make your model completely realistic. Looking forward to seeing the complete rig.

Marcin, you did a perfect job and your pictures are great. Don't be misled by the little response for this model! Only very few truck modelers in the MCM Forum are interested in non-American trucks, but these few really are. Looking forward for your next subject.

Perfect detailing, even the injection lines are replicated (and in scale!)

Hi, I built my model from the Italeri kit that was released in the late eighties, so I suppose that I built my model about 25 years ago. At that time the Italeri vintage Ferrari kits were well-priced and offered excellent quality. However they showed the same striking and incomprehensible shortcoming: The wheels were much too wide. The least that the modeler had to do was reducing the width of the rims and the tyres. If you did not accept plastic spoke wheels (in those days the Italeri rims were not bad by comparison) you had to replace them or make your own ones as I did. Besides this only some detailing particularly of the interior was necessary. As far as I remember (but I am not sure) there was a fit issue between the main body part and the front part that was untypical for the usually high quality level of Italeri kits. Many finished models of Italeri's Daytona show a misaligned or only half-closed bonnet. Obviously the engine/engine bay is too high if built OOB. In my oppinion silver is the most attractive colour for the 1:1 car because it brings out the curvatures of the body better than a dark or solid paint. I think this is also true for the model car.

Outstanding finish and perfect colour choice on an excellent kit. It seems to be really worth to build a second model.

Very attractive model, good detailing and excellent finish!

This is the first finished LFA kit I have seen. A very attractive and convincing model.

Hi, RoG's idea of making a kit of a typical London bus was not new. About thirty years earlier Heller introduced a kit of a typical Paris bus. This kit has been re-released some time ago and should be still available today. The 1:1 vehicle of Heller's kit was a ubiquitous part of the Paris cityscape for decades. It was a Renault design called TN that was introduced in the early thirties. TN4 had a 4-cylinder engine, TN6 a more powerful 6-caylinder for the hilly areas of Paris. Bodies with an open rear platform were used in the city areas, entirely closed bodies were used in the suburbs. TN6 were in service until 1969. The only design modification in almost 40 years was made directly after WW2 when the half-open driver's compartment was closed for better wheather protection. The Heller kit shows such a modified vehicle. I was not able to clarify when Heller released the kit exactly, probably it was 1980. I built my model when the kit was rather new, so after such a long time I cannot say much about the kit. I remember, however, that there were some fit problems of the bonnet parts. Apart from that I am quite sure that there were no major issues because I never had major issues with any Heller kit I built.

Beautiful model, perfect execution!

Good idea, great execution. I hope I will never drink milk from a dairy using such dirty vehicles .

Taking the small scale into account (1/48!) your wheathering is one of the best I have ever seen. Perfect!

Greg, unusual models like these make a forum really interesting. Great idea, attractive and beautifully executed models.

David, another unusual model beautifully executed as always.

Michael, the integral sleeper gives a really unique look. Beautifully executed, excellent model!

Earlier, i. e. in the very early sixties, Ford England chose the name Capri for a very attractive little coupe that was also sold outside England. I remember because this car was the dream of my elder sister that never came true.

Maybe a special version of the Capri for people with short backs and short legs?

Tom, thanks for the interesting pictures. The photo of the rear end of the unbuilt Doyusha kit shows what I mentioned. Doyusha states on the box that it is a 1973 model. This is wrong because the body still has the small backlights of the early models. From 1973 on all Capris had the much bigger rear lights replicated on my model. The pictures of your second post seem to show the Capri Mk II that had a more roundish appearance.

Jim, I remember that I had to scratch build the complete interior. Regarding the chassis I can't remember what I actually did. Nevertheless after some pondering it seems very likely that I added necessary details (suspension, rear axle,engine, gearbox, prop shaft, exhaust sytem) to the crude "chassis" part of the kit, because the latter would fit the body without further work. This further review of the Doyusha kit gives an idea what an interested modeler could expect. The short text is in German but the nice pictures speak for themselves. http://www.wettringe...&threadID=12112 There was at least one more kit of the RS 3100 in racing trim made by Nitto in the eighties(?). Maybe it is the same kit as the Academy model. BTW the appearance of the RS 3100 in racing trim was nearly identical of the upgraded, but extremely expensive street RS 2600 I mentioned above. I had the opportunity of driving such a vehicle in 1973 for one or two hours on a not very crowded Autobahn. It was simply breathtaking.