Spottedlaurel

They do in the UK, on cars at least. Possibly not on trucks now though. As electric cars become more commonplace I imagine more people will be content with automatic only, but at present it's still unusual.

Started taking lessons at 17 in my driving instructor's Peugeot 205 diesel. I failed my first test in that one. Because I was driving my mum's car so much for practice the instructor suggested we use that instead, so the rest of my lessons and my second time test pass were in this very 1981 Datsun Cherry: 310 in North Amercia I think. It became my car the day I passed my test as mum had just got herself a new car and I bought the Datsun off her.

I look forward to see it come together. You've got onto it quicker than I would have done.......

It paid off. Your leading edge of the hood is rather better than on the maroon car, for example.

The little gap barely big enough for the back end of the transmission tunnel between what I d call the inner arches, but you might say tubs?

Interesting kit on the bottom left, is that a rebox of the Revell kit? I have a couple of versions of the Hasegawa kit, looks good. I like the projects you have planned and underway.

A fantastic build, certainly shows that this kit stands the test of time very well. I've never built anything this scale before, but with my interest in 1:1 Datsun it feels like this kit is something I should do someday.

Great work. I'd say no to the side pieces, just try and get the unmodified body sitting as low as possible. Comically small gap between the rear arches!

Well done Pat, a nice job you've done there. I haven't even started mine, I need to get one more project off the bench first.

That looks really good, very effective. Easy to visualise that hard at work and giving faithful service to its owner.

A nice selection there Luke, I particularly like the Caprice and Impala. Amusing artwork for the "wild" version of the latter...... You must have one heck of a box of spare wheels and tyres!

With thanks to Steve for the suggestion, I got one of these lights today. Before: OK, I did have another light I could use but it wasn't ideal and it certainly limited what I could do without daylight. And after: To give it a real test I started the foil work on that '57 rebuild - all good so far. I've only briefly tried working with the 2x magnifying lens, could be increasingly useful over the coming years...... Thanks Steve!

I've been struggling with decent lighting since I moved house, I've just ordered one of those lights and hopefully it'll help me get a decent build area set-up again

You'll probably have it finished by Thursday evening! Of my own stuff, these are the mock-ups of uncompleted builds. Sadly none have progressed too far recently: AMT Ford Courier that's going to be fitted with a Thunderbird V6. The multi-piece bodywork and rubbery quality of plastic isn't enthusing me, must somehow get to grips with it. Toyota Hiace has since been painted. This was as far as I got with everyone's favourite Charger back in 2007/08. Humbrol (Esci) Fiat 131 that I originally built as a rally car a long, long time ago, now being rebuilt as a fast road car. I need to progress these and get one or two more on the go - I seem to have stalled a bit on building since my recent house move and getting some new ideas fermenting might get me going again.

This City playset is an unusual thing, I can't recall seeing one before. Is it roughly of the smaller 1:64-ish scale?

I'm trying not to add too much to the stash this year, but...... This incomplete Mini in a tatty box (but with extra bits and bobs) seemed like good value at a Buy It Now of £11-odd posted. I already have one which I plan to do as a '70s custom, it'll be handy to have a spare bodyshell in case that doesn't go well. Wheels will also be of use on other projects, and if the original one does work out OK there's enough of this new one to build it as a short oval/grasstrack racer. An extra couple of pots of Revell enamel will be handy too. I want to merge this with my MPC California Sunshine Datsun truck to create one standard-ish version and a more radical, late '70s stepside custom. I suppose I could have got the recent reissue, but I like having older boxes and artwork in the stash.

That looks fantastic Luke! A lot of work done to it, yet it looks like it came that way out of the box.

Great to see one of these built, nice work. The box art is amusing, the rear axle looks somewhat awry.....

Really nice work on this one Mario, it looks fantastic! Any problems with it going together? I have a slightly older issue with different decals that I'm looking to build someday, probably as a 1980s style rod.

Good to see it progressing Anton. I should get those road car parts off to you tomorrow, I've just packed them up.

Slot mags get my vote!

I was concentrating on finishing another build over Christmas/New Year and I've only just started to get anywhere with this one: Polished out my 35+ years old brushed paintjob this morning. I'd never heard of Micromesh back then and I was wary of spraying after a bad experience or two! I just relied on getting a glossy finish with Humbrol enamel straight off the brush, and hoping not too much dust would get onto it during drying. I managed to get the glass out without damage, then gave it a gentle wet sanding with 1200 grit paper followed by 3600 down to 12000 Micromesh, then Zero Paints fine polishing compound and finally some Autoglym resin polish. I gave a brush coat of #21 gloss black Humbrol to the hood scoop (the original had ended up on another kit) and glued it to the hood. The latter hasn't been fully polished yet. A comprehensive BMF exercise on the brightwork will deal with most of the places where I went through the paint, and elsewhere I can just touch it up with a brush. I'm pleased with how it's turned out, far from perfect but a good improvement on what was there. It's not meant to be a squeaky clean new build, it'll just be good to have something from my younger days back on the shelf. Also spent some time playing with wheels and tyres. Although I do have the 5-spokes it came with it didn't always wear these as I played around with different styles. This time I'm thinking of going for the Centerlines from Monogram's 1970 Chevelle - not sure yet if the matching set, or big-n-littles. I'll see how it looks when I've got more of it together. I need to find (or build) the leaf-sprung rear axle, but I've managed to locate pretty much everything else. Headlight lenses will come from an Esci Mercedes rally car kit and I found the grille badge since my original post. Might also use the blower from the Chevelle kit. I can imagine it as a clean early-mid '80s street machine, obviously modified in the period but not drastically so, and before the colour-coded pastel paint and billet days......

Great progress Gareth. The interior and exterior colour combination will look excellent, certainly of its time! Is the Vauxhall colour a recent one, or from the 1970s/80s?

Super-slick, looks really mean. And that black paint!.......

Very nice, I'd happily cruise around in that at 1:1.