Junkman

NP. Don't forget to cut out the 'L' from the decals for the bonnet side and in front of the driver's door.

Only early models lack the window and you are essentially talking about a different version. Shortly after the Routemaster (RM) was launched, England upped the standard for buses to allow them to be 30 feet long. Hence all subsequent Routemasters were built to the newer standard. These are designated 'Routemaster lengthened', or 'RML' and this is what the Revell kit depicts. The inital RM - without the extension mid body - is depicted by the Sun Star diecast. Most RMs have been made into RMLs somewhen along their lives, so there must be very, very few RMs left in London. I think there is only one in service today on the heritage line. Hence, if you backdate it to RM spec, the mosly likely engine to use would be the Leyland one, since the Scania was only fitted from 1996 onwards, to bring the remaining RMLs up to EEC emission standards.

Since when is the back of the rear seat missing? I have a WIP from what I believe is the issue from the red box with the pastel green model, and it's missing from that one, too. I thought the kit is just incomplete. Man, I wish they'd re-issue the 1/16 scale one, too. Btw. I really like your phrase 'half-reissue'. Very funny and very appropriate. It should make it into popular folklore and used to slag the manufacturers.

With the ever rising postage costs from USA (currently ~10$ per kit, when you buy more than one), plus what her Majesty's myrmidons from the HMRC pocket on top of that, plus those contumelious £8.00 'processing fee' per parcel, it became quite expensive to shop oversees, let alone the hassle one has to go through. I was thus trying to find distributors for the current kits in the UK or EU to see whether this would cut costs a little, but there don't seem to be any. So here is my question for the UK and EU modellers, where do you guys and gals buy your current US kits?

Sure not, but it is expensive. You could yield a good result by combining the curbside with the Revell for much less money.

The Revell kit is basically sound. One of its biggest drawbacks is the headlamps. Why no aftermarket supplier has jumped on this in all those decades is beyond me. A bit of photoetch and vacuum forming may work wonders here. Also, you can combine the Revell kit with the upper rear bodyshell from the ex-Aurora, now Revellogram, kit to create a quite plausible coupe. This requires surprisingly few modifications. I did this once and it turned out so nice, that the model was immediately taken off me by the owner of a real XKE coupe. The model was indeed inspired by his real car. The IMO best XKE kit around is the Gunze Sangyo (or Mr. Hobby in new money), but it is a curbside. I'd say this can be remedied with the Revell or said ex-Aurora/ Revellogram kit. The Heller roadster is quite nice, too, if you can live with 1:24 scale, but has a similar issue with the headlamps as the Revell kit. The Heller coupe is unfortunately badly proportioned, i.e. the windscreen/greenhouse area is too high relative to the lower body. It really puzzles me why no manufacturer has jumped on the other iconic British sports cars. It appears to be such a no-brainer.

I experience the opposite effect. When I see what you guys can do, I'm tempted to sell my collection and never touch a kit again. For example, what John just did to that 1:12 Bentley kit makes me want to take mine and toss it into the rubbish bin.

The argumentum e contrario works equally well: If there isn't a big skull and crossbones on the container, it doesn't work.

They have to get high on something, since they are not allowed to drink. It used to be common practice to get prosecuted and punished AFTER one committed a crime. I wonder what ever happened to that concept. To punish an entire group for the wrongdoings of some individuals was rendered illegal at the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and is since manifested as such in the UN Treaty.

So let me get this straight. They want me to vote for them or die for the fatherland in some godforsaken desert at age 18, but to spray a model car and enjoy a tin of beer afterwards, I must be 21? Under these circumstances, it's little wonder most juveniles turn out the way they do. With surprisingly many notable exceptions in this forum, I have to add. And another thing comes as a surprise. All minors who spoke out in this thread did so with impeccable grammar and spelling.

What you need is these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-18-1-12-1-24-1-43-chrome-metal-decals-BENZ-2019-/170751600199?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c196a647 I got a set teh other day and they are superb.

Gosh, lucky you. I would have been flattered out of me shoes. I wasn't asked for my ID in 30 years. I'm 47. That's just soooo unfair.

It has worked well for me over the past 30 years without causing even the slightest of problems. To the contrary, it doesn't cause problems I encounter with other materials and it is dead easy to make and use. Hence I will continue advocating it.

If memory serves me right, the EB110 was initially an Italeri development, which came into the Revell AG fundus via the buyout in the late nineties. Italeri had also announced a kit of the EB112 four door, and it was included in their catalog. It never went into production and thus joined the long list of 'ghost kits'.

Yep, that's where I use it. To reinforce the sections of chopped tops from underneath. If it has the right consistency you can even shape it to resemble a headliner. Also good for bonding custom front and rear ends to a body, but always use it on the inside. For the visible areas I agree - better use modern materials.

Yes, I meant braces, of course. I just tried to avoid potential misunderstandings caused by transcontinentally divided etymologies, but there you go. Looking back, I don't think Starsky and Hutch themselves had much in mind with ladies' garter belts, or ladies in general.

I always keep a few so I have a selection of colours. I then dissolve them in cellulose thinners and this makes a superb putty.

I won't argue for a second that the early to mid sixties cars were possibly the best highway cruisers ever built (OK, let's make this the late sixties since they had power disc brakes). I just said that I find them lacking a clear direction in the styling department, like they didn't really know what to do after fins. Starting around '65 GM got it pretty much under control again, first with the Pontiacs. I repeat, this is my opinion. Also my opinion is, that they seem to be in a similar dilemma today, like they don't know what they should come up with after the jellybeans we have grown tired of. And I expect highly paid professionals in a creative environment to come up with something new, not harking back down history lane with this pseudo cool retro nonsense which I just find despicably unimaginative and soulless. Example: We have Generation 1, 2, 3, and 4 Camaros. Each had fresh styling yet again. Then they brought out a Generation 5, which is harking back to Generation 1, instead of having fresh styling. There are worse examples, much, much worse. You don't have to look further than the Rover 75 and the Jaguar S-Type. One literalIy killed its maker, the other one almost did, if it wasn't for good old Henry's money, simply because people preferred to put their money where they got fresh produce for it, in particular BMW, the undisputed market leader in this segment in the UK. I plead guilty having owned one of each, simply because used car prices dropped faster, than a fat man from the roof of an office block. Technically both were darn good cars if one was able to look past the ridiculous Miss Marple styling. We are now in the second decade of a new millenium and I haven't seen a thing I haven't seen already in the last one. Not to be taken literally, but what I am trying to express is that I miss a clear definition of the past and so far also this decade, which each and every preceding one had. If any, the last one will probably go down in history as the one that was festooned with retro styled kitsch. I can only hope this is going to change somewhen in this one. It's probably my upbringing showing through, my mother was a fashion designer (What? Christmas? Again? We had Christmas last year, we need something new...). I really do like your choice of transportation. Mine is now a 1975 Rover P6 V8 and no, I'm not going to elaborate on the wisdom to select a twin carb V8 for a daily driver, when fuel is around 7.50 Dollars a gallon. Maybe I should be sensible and buy a quarter century old turbo car from a defunct Swedish manufacturer instead?

What if they were energy concious? What if they became rich? What if Hazzard County was in Alaska?

You will never believe this... It's "Juhu", pronounded yoo hoo.

We would have to suffer through many posts of ketchup-red Torinos with white suspenders.

What if the Duke Boys were Italian? Or German? Or lived in Venice? Or England? Or weren't into cars? What if this came down your local high street?

Actually I find them both bland, generic, woeful and nondescript. You kind of beat me to it, but I was going to say, that GM is currently in a phase of 'don't know where I'm going' like it was in the early to mid sixties. If I'm right, we can hope for truly stunning GM cars in about 5 years hence.

Too late. I sold them with my '59 Coronet.

I do. That's why most of my kitchen tiles are broken.