Anglia105E

Thanks Pat..... watch this space !!! David

Following extensive work on the 30 windows and divisions between the windows, I made a good start on the central block of the building today, which is the main entrance doorway...... and for the first time, the front wall of the factory made entirely from card, was raised up to a vertical position and photographed. I discovered from a newly acquired reference photograph, taken from a newspaper dated 1935, that the colour of this factory building was cream and blue. This means that my assumption in believing the building was white and grey was incorrect. All my reference photographs are in black & white, of course. Later I shall be painting the walls with Magnolia, and the art deco panels will be pale blue, as will be the sign-writing.. Considering this is a two dimensional representation of the factory frontage, which still has to be cut out of the larger sheet of card and much more detail has to be added yet, I feel this model has a lot of potential. When the structure becomes a three dimensional building, with a styrene square tube framework, and once the side walls and roofing have been fabricated the model will take on the appearance of a real factory building. David

Gary..... most Bentley Franay's do not have the hood ornament missing, so you must have been unlucky! There are sometimes Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornaments for sale, for the Rolls-Royce cars, but I have not seen anyone selling Bentley hood ornaments..... they don't usually become dislodged. David

I have one of these in my collection, Randy...... and I agree that it is a very nice looking model. You have done an excellent job of repairing the rear axle and wheels, and I can understand why you don't want to part with it now. I managed to get my 1947 Bentley MK VI Franay Drophead for a very reasonable price on Ebay by outbidding several other collectors, but they can go for much more money....... silly prices, in fact. It is a very heavy car in 1:24 scale ! David

Good work on the dumpster, Tom........ nicely scratched and scuffed in all the right places..... David

That' is a really nice Danbury Mint 1956 Thunderbird you have found there, Gary...... and it sounds like it was meant to find you ! Only US $ 18.00 is a bargain price. David

That is most probably an accurate description, Tom...... mad, yes..... and genius, maybe? I hope you find the project interesting as it continues. David

Just spent a few days making windows for the Acton factory project....... there are 30 windows along the front of the building in total, and so far I have produced 15 windows. These are hand drawn onto thin white card, then black Sharpie around the edges of each window, followed by black permanent marker pen to block out each window, then silver Sharpie to define the horizontal and vertical bars of the windows and finally, I used light grey Vallejo acrylic paint to block in the divisions between each window. The bars of windows on thin white card are then glued onto the thicker white card using washable PVA glue from Ryman's. Further horizontal panels of thicker white card are PVA glued in place, above and below the bars of windows. This process must now be repeated for the other wings of the factory building, on the other side of the central block. David

So you are going to build the Tamiya Lotus Super 7 Series II, Jonelle ?........ what is wrong with the wheels included in the Tamiya kit ? Myself, I have used the Super 7 kit as a donor kit to provide the wheels for a 1:24 resin body kit of the Ford Anglia 105E, as they are better than the resin wheels supplied. Having said that...... those Welly Lotus Elan wheels are very nice........ David

My daily driver is this 1994 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 TDI, Auto with Overdrive, SWB and well in excess of 200,000 miles. Sturdy and reliable... a real workhorse. David

Picked up this nice diecast Daimler on Ebay yesterday, to be delivered early next week...... it is a 1:43 scale 1962 Daimler 2 1/2 litre V8 in Indigo Blue by Vitesse, which was priced at £23.00 GBP but my offer of £18.00 GBP was accepted by the seller. David

This 1:32 Airfix Lotus Cortina MK I was my favourite in those days, Tom David

Welcome to Model Cars Magazine Forum, Peter...... I am also from England, here in Derbyshire..... used to build Airfix kits between the ages of 8 years and 13 years, then stopped for 50 years, and started again at 63 years of age.... crazy, isn't it? Look forward to seeing your builds posted on here, and you will find many friendly and experienced guys as members who will offer all sorts of useful advice and help. Recently, I have received small parts in the post from Australia, United States and Canada, always from MCM members sending hard to find pieces. I have built a 1:24 scale diorama, also two 1:43 scale dioramas and currently building my third 1:43 scale diorama. I collect both kit built model cars and also diecast model cars. My collection includes 1:24 scale and 1:43 scale models, with a 1:25 resin kit Pontiac on the workbench as we speak. I do tend to specialise in Rolls-Royce model motor cars, but all manner of different vehicles have been added to the growing collection. Biggest was the 1:24 Revell London Bus at 400 pieces, and the smallest was a 1:24 Tamiya Vespa motor scooter at 8 pieces. Cheers, David Watson

I would agree with several other members, Tomasz......... this the most realistic model car build that I have seen on MCM Forum...... the 1:12 scale and the weathering just make this Italeri Fiat of yours really something special.....well done! David

Yes, Pat..... it probably does look quite involved, but compared with the Hooper & Co showroom building that I have done in both 1:24 and 1:43 scales, this factory building is relatively straightforward as buildings go. Breaking it down into box structures and thinking about the line of the windows is a useful process to establish the basic proportions of this factory frontage. The central block has a main entrance doorway, and the ornate surround to that doorway. The Evergreen Polystyrene Square Tube arrived today in the post, which is 1/4 inch x 1/4 inch ( 6.3 mm x 6.3 mm ) and Made in USA ( Des Plaines, Illinois ). The supplier in UK only had 9 packs of 2 x 35 cm lengths in stock.... and I needed 9 packs for this project. The tricky bit now is to be be as economical as I possibly can, with the cutting of the lengths, so that I don't waste too much, and also I don't want to end up one pack or two packs short at the end of the construction. David

This is a very nice Pontiac that you have built, NJ...... especially well done is your interior and under the hood. The paint job and the decals are excellent also, and the Vallejo gold over the Tamiya black works really nicely. David

Started working on the factory diorama this week, which will be the Hooper & Co factory as it was in 1959 at Western Avenue, Park Royal, Acton, London. This factory building will be 1:43 scale and the 75 centimetre baseboard will become a continuation of the previous 75 cm baseboard that is the Victorian terraced houses diorama. The road that is Western Avenue will run along the length of both diorama baseboards. I have placed an order for some Evergreen styrene 1/4 inch square tube, from which to construct the framework of the building, and the walls will be fabricated from white card. I shall use the hot glue gun to assemble the entire factory, and I am treating it as five box structures..... these being the central block, plus two inner wings and two outer wings. The photos show my actual size plan drawing on thick white card, which is precisely accurate to the original plan drawing that was provided for me by Warwick University in England. The amazing coincidence, if you can believe in coincidences, is that the width of the real factory building was 105.78 feet..... which surprisingly translates to..... guess what?...... yes, it's 75 centimetres in 1:43 scale. The whole factory fits onto the baseboard exactly. There will be a forecourt in front of the building, where Rolls-Royce motor cars will be parked, and also a petrol pump (gas pump ) on a small island. This forecourt will front onto the road, Western Avenue and a short road will run between the factory and the terraced houses, called Duke's Road, at right angles to the main road. Behind the frontage of the factory, which is a white art deco building, there will be a corrugated configuration of roof structures that represent the working area of the factory. This diorama project needs to be completed in advance of the RREC Annual Show at Stamford in June of 2020. David

I knew it !..... rear fenders Ford trucks...... did you mean 12 inches, Pat? ( 12E tall? ) David

Whoa, Pat !....... steady there....... me thinks that is way too complicated. Look at the size of those belts ! Would this be a machine for making mudguards for trucks and trailers maybe? David

The following photographs show the latest addition to the 1:43 scale model car collection, which is a 1959 Morris LD 150 Royal Mail Van, by City Vitesse. Arriving early one morning to collect the post from the pillar box on the corner of the street, the Royal Mail van parks at the side of the road, partly on the pavement. We can see that the door of the telephone kiosk is slight ajar, as someone has just made a telephone call and walked away in a hurry. Later, a Rolls-Royce motor car is seen to pull up briefly, to allow the owner to post his important letter....... David

Making quite good progress with the Pontiac build over the weekend..... the rear window glass is in, also the rear door windows and windscreen are fitted. Chrome work has been carried out, the detailing is under way for the interior tub, seats and dashboard. Front and rear registration number plates are in place. Both front door windows are open so that the interior can be seen, to a certain extent. Still need to give the front grilles and headlamps some attention, but the rear tail lamps are in. David

Thanks, David Crowe...... I was aware that the Dinky Parisienne existed, and I suppose with a coat of paint the diecast model could be made to look reasonably accurate. It is a 4-door version, and the LHD could be converted to RHD quite easily, I guess. Usually I tend to go for 1:24 scale and 1:43 scale, but this resin kit is a 1:25 scale, and I believe the Dinky model is 1:43 scale ( some Corgi's and Dinky's are 1:50 scale ). Interesting....... David Watson

Always like to see a well built Pontiac, Ludwig..... and this is a good one. Excellent paint job and nicely detailed interior..... wheels and tyres finish off this model perfectly.... well done! David

This is a test fitting of the tail lamps..... also a mock up of the body shell, rolling chassis, interior tub, dashboard, and the windshield. Work is under way to fabricate a rear window glass, along with the side windows..... two of which will be either open or partly open. The dashboard is a Pontiac version, but I am awaiting the delivery of a '65 / '66 Chevy dashboard which will need converting from LHD to RHD. The front grilles need to be detailed and headlamp lenses will be added later. One thing that is puzzling me a little at this stage, is the front lower panel that goes below the bumper..... there isn't one! None of the kits that I can use have a panel to go in this empty space. Photos of the real car show a panel that has the front direction indicator flasher lamps near the corners, so I might have to scratch build this from styrene. The resin kit did not contain this panel. David

I do like this photo, Pat..... and it tells a story, which is entirely plausible. I have a '70 Bonneville kit that allows the building of that pickup or the convertible version, which was a donor kit for the Pontiac Parisienne conversion. That is a nicely setup scene that you have put together, and the Porsche engine will be hoisted into the pickup without any fuss. The guy with the clipboard seems to fit well into almost any scenario that you can devise. David