sjordan2

How about..."That is so bleepin' amazing, I can't bleepin' believe it!"

Excellent work, and I love to see the less glitzy cars. Who made the kit? I've got to say, those mold seams on the bumpers are not a good thing.

Since I'm mostly into 1/16 and 1/12 kits with lots of parts, I've bought some glue bombs to study how everything fits together, how it's going to look, troubleshoot any issues, and as a resource for spare parts.

You can follow Roger Zimmermann's progress on his 1:12 1956 Continental Mark II at the link below. But be patient - he's been working on this one for 2 years. http://www.scalemotorcars.com/forum/large-scale-cars/36929-continental-mark-ii.html

Terrific all around. What type of paint did you use - is it a pearl or regular metallic? If it's regular metallic, you have certainly overcome the bass boat look.

In terms of REAL death... Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore, was killed on 11 August 1939 at the age of 30 while testing a Bugatti Type 57 tank-bodied race car near the Molsheim factory. "30-year-old Jean Bugatti was killed when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree while trying to avoid a drunken bicyclist, who had gotten onto the track through a hole in a treefence. He is interred in the Bugatti family plot at the municipal cemetery in Dorlisheim. There is a monument to him at the site of his accident." One of your recent Auto ID vintage cars also killed its co-founder on a test drive -- the 3-wheeler you posted. And though it's not a car per se, there's this news item from 2010... Segway Founder Dies in Segway Accident Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway company, died on Sunday after he rode a Segway off a cliff at his estate in Britain. His death appears to be an accident—police say they do not believe it to be suspicious. “A Segway-style vehicle was recovered,” said a police spokesman. Heselden bought the Segway company in December 2009. He was ranked 195th on the Sunday Times’ list of rich Britons, and had recently given some $15 million to charity.

Speaking of shipping, I just discovered why shipping from BMF costs so much. I received a single sheet of BMF copper foil the other day - it came with a backing board in a 2" deep box with styrofoam peanut filling.

I would also point out that I went ahead and placed my order through modelexpo since I couldn't do it on lineotape.com. I'm paying 50% more for the tape and over 3 times the cost of shipping. So what would have cost $5.50 with shipping included at lineotape.com is costing me over $13 at modelexpo.

Great so far. What was your paint technique on the black part of the seats and transmission tunnel?

Interesting. I learned from AACA forums that many hardtop cars in the 30s had canvas rooftop covers because the technology to manufacture the cars with a completely smooth and rounded metal roof was either too expensive or too difficult for some manufacturers to deal with, so they left a hole to be covered with canvas. Several Rolls-Royce coachbuilders were among them. Maybe Art can weigh in on this.

Why couldn't they issue an "Ultimate Deluxe" kit like the '55 referenced above? It would give this old dinosaur a shot in the arm and be a big draw for builders and collectors. They've got most of the tooling and at least a basis for copyright clearances already. (Every different form of a kit requires new copyright approval.)

Interesting on your 275 GTB box art, Christian. Your art has a heavily retouched photo. The Revell box art on their kit shows a basically unretouched photo of the 1:1 car, which bears no resemblance to the turd that's in the box; it also shows Borrani wire wheels, while the kit has poorly made Campagnolo mags. Photos of the built kit on the box are very misleading, as are the box photos on Revell/Monogram's Mercedes Gullwing. The original Renwal kits of these horrors has terrible box art paintings that don't look a lot like the real cars - but are actually more accurate to the kits.

Seems to me that a '57 Chevy convertible doesn't really compare to the overall market for model convertibles. It's a unique icon that stands apart from others. As to demand, do the model companies do much in the way of market research these days, including focus groups, etc.? And how much longer can they continue to sell the same old kits without giving the subject a bit of a pump-up? In high school in the mid-60s, my brother had a beautiful light turquoise blue '57 convertible with a cueball floor shift, and I've kind of kept my eye on these for many years. They were publicized by Hertz in their collection of California Classics rentals in the 80s. They now seem to bring about the same prices as the Belair hardtop coupes, depending on condition - $40K to $80K in great shape, with as much originality and matching numbers as possible. So, while they don't fetch the prices of classic Mopars and muscle cars, they're still highly regarded.

Quit taunting me and making my mouth water, Christian!

Hmm. Something's buggy with the lineotape site. When I try to check out after filling in the info, I get a screen saying my browser can't find their server.

Dreaming of accurate and detailed 1:12 Mercedes Gullwing and Ferrari 275 GTB (which can be made in multiple building styles for GTB/4, Competizione and NART Spyder) to replace the old atrocities. A 1:12 Mercedes 540K would also be appreciated for those of us who can't afford or attempt to build 1:8 Pocher kits, and would like something better than what's available in 1:16 or smaller.

I think that since this subject shows up time after time after time, someone (Harry maybe?) ought to edit the various approaches together and pin the subject in Tips, Tricks, etc. And doesn't this thread belong in Q&A to begin with?

Beautiful, beautiful work. But I hate the wheels. Just my opinion.

Yes, please give us a link. EDIT: Never mind, I found the link http://www.modelexpo-online.com/search.asp?SKW=cat1_bt

Just excellent. Beautiful, realistic job on the wheels.

Interesting how this subject has popped up along with other forum threads on the it. In case you haven't visited the others, here's a fabulous Swiss modeler who built one from scratch in 1:12, over a 45-year period. http://www.craftsman.../Zimmermann.htm

You should see the European classic experts on the Antique Automobile of America forum go off when they see a restored Mercedes or Rolls with chrome wire wheels and whitewalls. As far as I've found out, this is the only 30s Mercedes that was produced by the company with chrome wire wheels, for the 540K introduction at a European auto show. Then, it had dark green paint, a tan interior and red plaid cloth seats. Here it is today. This car was issued by Monogram in 1:24 with a separate hardtop that fits over their existing cabriolet body, with wrong but fixable fender molding, and has the wrong hood vents, which are vertical louvers - the Testors/Italeri 540K Tourer would be a good vent donor.

Nice build, but your Image Shack link bombards me with large pop-up ads.

It just gets curioser and curioser. http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16113380,00.html

I know this is a question, but not necessarily "how do I..?" so you might be able to get more pertinent answers in the Diecast section.