sjordan2

We know that the November issue is late, but some of you have it and some haven't received it. Who has it and who doesn't?

My favorite kit ever, the 1/12 Blower Bentley. This one was under the General Mills label version.

He said it's not only a beautiful car but also a babe magnet.

Because of the Bugatti, I've been looking forward to this issue more than any other. But it hasn't arrived yet.

I would also point out that your taillights are incorrect, and look like they're based on the 300 SL roadster. Both the headlights and taillights should come from the 300 SL Gullwing, probably from the AMT Prestige version (I'm not familiar with those kit parts, but I am with the 1:1). I don't know the dimensions of your kit, but I think you could use the roadster or Gullwing grille as well.

Use this one, and print it out to match the whole size of the badge molded onto the nose of your truck, which is correct. 1. Make sure the edges of the molded badge are painted chrome or silver. OR 2. Paint the whole molded badge chrome or silver, and print this art on clear decal paper to put over it.

I found it. Now I wish I could forget it.

Definitely a grand slam home run. I might point out one thing -- you seem to have used the decals from the Testors Italeri 300 SL roadster, which has the incorrect Mercedes nose badge (black & red, used pre-WWII). They made the same error on the 1/16 Gullwing and roadster. The nose badge should be similar to the modern blue and silver with laurel wreath, but with a white star. This is a 1956 Gullwing badge.

Great job. Nice paint and detail.

How did you do the fringe?

I work mostly on vintage cars, and I spend all my time on researching them. I'm intimidated by the prospect of actually building them to the standards they require for me. As a result, my shelves are full of models kits but my display cases are not.

Very, very nice, and the kit wire wheels look unusually good. I was watching a show on the Velocity Channel last night, where they visited the Morgan factory and showed the incredible hand-crafting that goes into their cars. I was surprised to see that all Morgans, including the Aero coupe, still use ash wood frames.

French? I'm thinking "Oklahoma!" -- the Surrey with the Fringe on Top."

[cringe] Hopefully, that will be removable. On another note, any thoughts about adding design motifs to the front like that one and the others?

What I was talking about in "Gigi" (though I think this is misidentified -- Gigi was made in 1958 and the fenders don't look yellow): This black and white shot shows what Harry is talking about regarding the very small size of the original car...Part of the name of the car is "vis-á-vis (face-to-face)" but it looks nearly knee-to-knee.

Just spectacular, Harry. Tonight, I've been watching the musical "Gigi" with the ultra-hot Leslie Caron (the first movie star who really turned me on in "An American in Paris" when I was only a child), and they just had a scene where Louis Jourdan and Maurice Chevalier pulled up to the curb in a DeDion like this -- dark blue with yellow fenders. I have no idea how such a car could run on such thin wire wheel spokes. I think you've done a great job with your wheels.

Do you have any pictures of it? I've got this one waiting in the wings (both maroon and red, and the maroon is clearly superior in quality to the red reissue). The kit is beautifully and accurately detailed, since the Johan team was given access to the real car and went over it in every dimension (shortly before the owner hid it away in his LA salvage yard for exotic cars. It hasn't been seen by more than one or two people since the late 60's, and the owner's heirs refused to let Mercedes restore it for free).

Coming together beautifully. What's the brand and shade of blue?

All of your builds prove that a lot of variation in even the smallest details makes a model look more realistic and beautifully crafted.

Talk about ending up with a silk purse. Great work.

The way you have presented your build journals is becoming the most important part of the forum ––extremely helpful to me, especially tips like using dark window tint to take the curse off of kit chrome and brass. I fear that many builders will not look into this large-scale forum, and I have no idea why the scale size requires a separate forum. I'd dump this and just integrate it with the others.

Not a good point at all. Thousands upon thousands of American companies have outsourced at least portions of their product manufacturing to countries like China, Korea and India to make them more affordable. We live in a GLOBAL ECONOMY and there's no way around it. Any exception to the rule is just that –– a minor exception. We just have to get used to it, and other kvetching is totally unrealistic. Which one of us can make it change? Boycott outsourced products? Not a chance.

Art, I've seen you discuss this subject before, but this is the most concise post yet. I think others may be interested in your discussion of how diecast models don't translate directly to the possibility of plastic kit versions.

I was a little dubious about your color scheme until I saw the yellow one on this page, which is very cool. As usual, your progress is amazing. http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z18001/De-Dion-Bouton-Vis-A-Vis.aspx