sjordan2

There are precious few pictures of this car, maybe 8, and none of the interior or mechanicals. If anyone wants my reference material (which is pretty large on all Phantom IIIs), please contact me.

Here's a guy who really knows how to light cars, and studio set-ups like these take forever to do. Lord knows how much Photoshop is involved. In the past, when I've supervised photo shoots of subjects with highly reflective surfaces, I noticed one trick that the best photographers used was to hide themselves behind a white paper curtain with a hole cut out for the lens, so their reflection couldn't be seen and the curtain would bounce soft light onto the subject. If there wasn't enough contrasting light modeling on the subject's glossy surface, they would play around with putting strips of wide black tape on the paper shroud that would create interesting reflections that brought out the contours. http://www.photodesignstudios.com/portfolio.html You'll notice that this shot relies entirely on a complicated lighting set-up to separate a black subject from a black background, with strategically placed overhead lighting, rim lighting from behind and a bit of foreground fill. To me, the main degree of difficulty is that these kinds of shots typically entirely involve multiple synchronized strobe flashes, where you can't see what you've got until you study your picture after the flashes went off. Not something for beginners who want to get the shot quickly. Fortunately, today's digital cameras make it easier for the amateur to get good shots without using flash. TIP: Pro photographers and cinematographers often use a background material called duvetyne for still-life work, which is very much like velvet and absorbs light evenly. Pick your favorite background colors and get velvet material from a fabric store. It takes more material than you think, because you need a pretty good distance between the subject and the backdrop.

There's a reason why a British car club in California calls themselves the "Sons of Lucas."

One reason I asked this question was to determine a proper paint scheme for the kit below, a 1937 Phantom III with Freestone & Webb coachwork. I don't like the gold and was thinking about two shades of gunmetal, as I've seen on the later Silver Wraith. This particular car on which the kit is based belonged for many years to a San Antonio aircraft designer, Ed Swearingen, and is now in the Toyota Museum in Japan. I have no idea if this was the original color or not. Kind of gaudy and, as Art suggested, seems to reflect more American tastes. Black and silver would be more commonplace, but there are tons with that color scheme. Also, showing visible wire wheels was not common in England at the time (or so my Brit friends tell me), so I'm going to put on painted wheel disks (dust covers).

I followed a thread on another forum where an experienced builder was using this product. He found it to be very hit-or-miss, and eventually gave up in frustration. For other purposes, I have used a heat transfer method for chrome sticker graphics, which may or may not work with waterslide decals because of the heat applications (haven't tried it). I've made chrome logo horn buttons, etc. Choose paper of the background color you want, copy your art on a printer that uses toner (doesn't work with inkjet), tape the heat transfer foil over the area (available from Papilio), then run it through a heat laminating machine such as that recommended by Decal Pro (usually under $100). http://www.papilio.com/metallic%20gold%20silver%20transfer%20foil%20blue%20green%20red.html

Not worried about durability, just authenticity. So many of these vintage cars that you see these days have been restored to a condition that is not period-correct.

Most of us have seen classic cars from the 1930s with killer silver paint jobs, such as a Mercedes 540K and the occasional Rolls-Royce. I recently came upon a discussion about that paint and they said this: In those days, the metalflake was based on powdered fish scales, and the finish dulled out in just a few years, requiring paint changes or repaints. Does anyone know about the history of what metallic paints were available when? I ask this because over half of what's in my stash is from the pre-war era and this will influence my color choices.

Alfa Romeo Duetto (the car from "The Graduate") Why there has never been a popular scale kit of this car puzzles me It was in production for decades and is possibly the most beautiful if the 60's small sports roadsters" Having owned a 1:1, there is probably no kit because it would fall to pieces.

Just skimming tonight's TV listings and PBS is airing an episode of Antiques Roadshow that features a "Chrysler Turbine model and manual." I wonder what that will really cover, and for how much the hosts will value it. It's listed for tonight at 8 pm Eastern in my area, but I've found that many PBS stations don't air the same programming at the same time or even the same day.

Peter Helck owned one? His paintings are among the best ever done.

I would just like to take moment to mention, as I have on other threads on this kit, that there is a storage compartment on the forward part of both separate running board assemblies that can be seen on the Entex box art. I've never seen anyone add this detail.

This is going to be awesome based on what you've already done. Can you show more photos of the 1:1 or provide a link?

So far, this is the best build I've seen of this kit. Gas tank looks perfect. I used the same detailing technique on the seats. Any thoughts on how you're going to handle the headlight stone guards? The one-inch rings look like they're tough to accomplish (eagerly awaiting your solution so I can use it when I restore mine.)

Insanely cheap, as a matter of fact. Someone had a shipload of 1/16 Fuman Mercers that they were unloading on eBay a couple of years ago, and I got mine for $7.99. Going to use it for upgrading the Aurora Stutz instruments, levers, etc., and adding the monocle windshield.

Just superb.

There are some choices on eBay. Bookmark this and keep looking from time to time if you don't see what you need. Look at the listings closely; some of the sellers offer additional choices. http://toys.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=1%2F16+wheels&_sacat=2580&_sop=10&_odkw=1%2F16&_osacat=2580&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

Fabulous work. As mentioned above, Fuman reboxed a number of 1/16 Bandai kits including the Bugatti Royale, Excalibur SS, etc. The 1/16 Aurora kit is a low-detail curbside, as is the Aurora Stutz Bearcat. I have a Lindberg 1/16 Stutz racer with engine detail and full frame, which I plan to combine with the Aurora Bearcat for a better-detailed stock version.

I haven't seen it, but there's a book called "McQueen's Machines" which has about 5 pages on his NART Spyder, as shown in the index. It may have some pictures showing the plates when he owned it, but I don't know for sure. The chassis number is 10453. Here's part of a review of the book from velocetoday.com... "...the NART Spyder is probably the star of the stars. The car itself was the brainchild of Luigi Chinetti Jr., who figured that the 275GTB/4 would make a great soft top. Chinetti was right on the money, as after Sergio Scaglietti was done with it, the 275 GTS/NART was better looking that the rather bulbous coupe from which it sprang. The first Spyder, chassis 09437 was used in the making of the original †Thomas Crown Affairâ€, which is where McQueen first laid eyes on it. He fell hard and ordered one, chassis 10453 from Chinetti. Typically, he was not happy with the shade of blue and sent it to Lee Brown for a repaint. A few days after it got out of the body shop, it was heavily rear ended by a truck. According to Marcel Massini, there wasn’t an undamaged panel on the car. Currently the McQueen Spyder resides in New York."

Keep on rollin'. This kit may not be up to your Pocher standards, but so far it's the best build I've ever seen of a kit that I know very well.

The best general answer I know of is this: Depending on your camera and your camera skills, use a neutral background. In most cases, this means a medium to medium-dark gray. A white background against a darkly painted body may cause exposure problems, just as a black or very dark background against a light-colored car can do the same. You can't go wrong with medium gray.

Yes, yes, yes.

I'm kind of surprised Gunze never went after the FHC E-Type. I have a Heller kit, looks decent in the box, but have no idea how difficult it will be to build. All E-Type kits suffer from the fact that it's basically impossible to tool up a model w/o seam lines in the body. I figured how to fix it on the Gunze convertible (install interior from outside), but a coupe is another story. I will not build an E-Type w/the seams! Every time I looked at the Heller kit, I ended up frustrated as I couldn't find an easy way to deal w/the problem. Here's a pretty good tutorial about dealing with the body seam problem on the 1/8 Monogram kit. http://www.scalemotorcars.com/forum/building-tutorials/6549-cracking-code-getting-rid-xke-panellines.html

Yes, the gauge decals are very clever and I recommend this process to anyone making their own gauges: print your decal backward on clear decal paper and apply it onto clear styrene. Drill out the gauge openings on the dash, then cover the back of the gauge decals with the appropriate color paint. Depending on the kit, you may want to sand down the back of the instrument panel to make a shorter distance from the dash bezels to the gauge faces. Like you, I made the fuel pressure pump handle from scratch, though I had no idea what it was. It was just there on my 1974 reference material, and I also used a round-headed pin. May I suggest that you fill in the background of the Bentley nameplate on the valve cover? Very easy to do when you wipe off the Bentley name in relief.

Killer. What body paint did you use?

Looking great, hang in there. This information is courtesy of Geoff Spencely from the Rolls-Royce Owners Club. "Those dash lights on the Blowers were pretty standard, and some of them were seen on other models of Vintage Bentley. These were all external lights: Howard is correct that most instruments in the '20s did not have internal lighting. The two tubular lights on the top roll of the dash shone down on the instruments, and as I recall had covers that could be rotated somewhat so you could use them as map lights." Phil Brooks