Spottedlaurel

Some great stuff on here! I'm not sure my effort is in quite the same league, but hopefully it's at least recognisable....... I know now that the Monogram '55 isn't the best to place to start building a Two Lane Blacktop replica, but I started it in my pre-internet days in the early-mid '90s and it was only ever meant to be a bit of fun (that took me over 25 years to get across the line).

Great to see you tunring your attention and skills to this one Jim, I enjoyed reading through and seeing your progress during yesterday's lunch break. That colour will look fantastic, and with just a little extra attention to detail it looks like you're going to give it the classy look it deserves.

Mine appears to be somewhere between the two, it's the Nostalgic Racer version. It has a set of cute alloy wheels (plus the standard items) and an additional sprue containing bucket seats, steering wheel and seat belt components, along with an extra decal sheet including Sabelt logos.

This is the smallest I've done so far: At the time I found it a bit of a challenge, but since then I've started wearing varifocals.....

Look forward to seeing this one progress Tom, I'm sure I'll pick up some useful pointers for mine. Certainly tiny little things aren't they?!

Rover SD1! That should please many of us of a certain age....

Very nice Michael. Also good to know about another purple paint option, as Ford Purple Velvet won't be so easy to find nowadays....

Nice job. One of the first I've seen built-up - good to know it goes together well. Must get on with mine, someday......

Another great job Gareth!

I'm not familiar with this kit, certainly plenty of parts and detail there. Good luck with it Sonny.

I made one using parts from a Camaro High Roller which I built as a teenager and had ended up in the parts box: Pretty easy to do as I recall.

Thank you Alan. Interesting to hear about your days with the 1:1s - back then these would have been seen here as a work truck and the concept of dressing them up and/or using them for leisure purposes would have been quite unusual. I got the paint on last weekend. It dried out smooth enough that it didn't seem to need a full polishing treatment, I just gave it some Autoglym resin polish: I've used an automotive Halfords aerosol, Fiat Red Orange, with no clear. It was bought as a genric red which I've used on several projects now, as varied as a Ferrari, Massey Ferguson tractor and a Honda Moped.

Birthday money now well and truly spent: The Terrano has lots of alternative/extra parts - for the sake of a different grille there's a complete sprue containg a load of duplicate stuff, including a front bumper that is very close to what I need on a current WIP. I have an older version of the Tamiya Fairlady (280ZX) which was bought part-built and needs some disassembly, didn't realise until last week that it had been reisssued. The bodyshell is now in white, not black like the original. Still has the top half of an engine under the bonnet but the little battery-powered motor has gone! This issue of the BJ44 Land Cruiser will come in handy with its alternative tops. I have a military truck version with no top, so I can use one of them on that and create a couple of different civilian models. I usually see one or two each year when visiting France.

Last week's birthday money purchases have started arriving: I really like the Toyota Chaser/Mark II/Cressida family of cars (a direct competitor to my 1:1 Datsun Laurel). I have a couple of the Aoshima coupes and was pleased to add this 4-door to the stash. I doubt I'll build it with the skirts and spoilers, but they'll be handy for something else. Separate purchases, both cheap as they're slightly incomplete but there's nothing missing that's of concern to me. I'd like to build a stock-looking version of the Dodge and the Corvette will be an engine donor. The retouched photo of the Corvette is terrible, they're just slapped a solid blue colour on it.

Thanks! Can the front and rear pans be fixed before the bodyshell is painted? The chassis is quite a tight fit within the body and I can't see that fitting them will make it any easier.

Good to see progress on the various builds here. I still haven't yet started mine! For some reason I haven't been fully committed to my original idea of '70 Challenger with Viper engine. I think my issue with it is that it's the AMT kit which can be built as a convertible or hardtop, and I wasn't sure how well I could attach the roof and make it look good. Perhaps roll with it being a separate moulding, but the roof having a vinyl finish so it makes the most of it being separate? Or just build it as a convertible and enjoy the weather en-route?..... Time for a mock-up, this is what I'm starting with: More about the wheels and colour in a moment. This is it with the main components, and a spare set of Fujimi 18" wheels and tyres for trial-fit purposes (probably not the actual ones I'll use, but I might give them a go). They seem to fit with the standard arches and it's sitiing well, about as low as a car used on the road would want to go. The hood has a tiny bit of warp,otherwise everything fitted together much better than I'd expected. The BRS M10 wheels are my preference, they're that bit more 'fussy' which I think looks better on an older car. Overall thoughts on colour scheme are a '70s dark metallic bronze with a cream/tan vinyl roof and interior and gold/bronze wheel centres. I think the colour will look fairly subtle, smart but not too racy nor attention-seeking. At this stage I don't yet know how the kit suspension will work with those wheels at that height, nor what cutting is required to get the V10 installed, but I now feel suitablyinspired to start moving this thing forwards.

You deserve an award for your devotion to this kit! Looking good so far. I look at my DoH Charger occasionally ( an '00s issue I think) , then move onto something else....

A run of good weather has brought out lots of stuff locally, a little '60s selection here: This one's apparently a 3.4. Tyres look fatter than standard. This Alpine (not Tiger) sounded great This one is from 1965, but with their late '50s US styling these BMC Farinas looked somewhat dated by the early '70s when the final versions were eventually discontinued. I suppose the same can be said of the Humber above, which was replaced in 1967 or so.

Very nicely done Michael, the colour suits it perfectly.

Very impressive! That engine bay...... The S20 swap from the Skyline does seem like a natural thing to do (and gives a spare L-series engine for dropping into another Datsun). I wonder if Tamiya will eventually produce one or two more variants, it would be easy to do with how they've got separate mouldings for the nosecone etc. I have one in the stash, it's a fantastic kit. Those separate chrome moulding for the window trims are something to behold, I just hope I can do it justice!

Great to see your progress on various fronts Luke, inspirational as ever! The Laurel looks amazing in the paint, along with the big arches it really helps to break up its heavy look.

You've certainly captured the cartoonish look, nice one!

Made use of the great weather here to get 'viable' paint finishes down onto a couple of current WIPs: The AMT Matchbox Hilux's solid red without clear looks like it will need minimal polishing, should be just right for a new truck look, not a show queen. The Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS400) will need a bit of Micromesh etc, but from experience the very fine peely finish it has now will polish out OK. I hope so, this is the second time around for it....

Thanks all! Yes, amazing when you look at a modern Hyundai then go back to where they were in early-mid '80s with the RWD Pony and Stellar. I wonder if the Pony wheels would be big enough? Depends how accurate the scaling is of course, but in theory they're 13" and I'd have thought a Mk2 Transit would be 14-15"? Taller van-type tyres might do the job though, perhaps with the addition of a sleeve around the Pony wheel. I have both kits, I'll compare them at some point.

Very nice. One for the boss of RJ's? Whoever was lucky enought to have the keys would certainly get between the sites prettty quickly....