Matt Bacon

Three displays based on classic 1960s boys' magazine covers in a tribute to legendary Airfix box artist and illustrator Roy Cross, who died this year aged 100. The second picture, from the higher angle, is the best representation of how the real magazine covers look. best, M.

Well, given that the “chrome” finish on plastic model parts IS aluminium, I think that’s pretty effective! best, M.

Something I learned shortly after completing this kit that I think is worth sharing… Back in the build thread, I said I was very pleased that Auto Kits had designed it so the front wheels can swivel and “steer”, which is pretty important for posing it like this. I also thought that the fixed springs would make for pretty sturdy and well braced suspension. As you can see above, I have also taken precautions to help support the weight of the car. What I hadn’t figured out in advance… If the pins on the kingpin/wheel carrier are free to move in the holes on the wishbones, then they can’t transmit any vertical force. Which means that even though the complete wishbones/wheel carrier/spring/mounting is a braced rectangular structure in theory, in practice it doesn’t work. The weight of the car results in a reaction force pushing the wheel carrier upward, and if it’s free to move in the socket in the lower wishbone, the diagonal bracing of the spring to the lower wishbone is irrelevant. The effective weight of that corner of the car is being carried entirely by the two 1/32” white metal struts of the upper wishbone. Which bend. Then the wheel carrier comes out of the lower wishbone completely and goes sideways. Bottom line is you need to glue the wheel carriers in place once you’ve set the desired angle, or make sure they are a tight enough interference fit to transmit vertical forces. Given I’ve put the car in a turn by where Willy is looking and how the steering wheel is turned at an angle, gluing them in place is not a problem for me. But it’s a useful lesson to learn about building white metal models, if you’re an old kit fan like me… best, M.

With Willy Mairesse and his Ferrari 156 having taken the checkered flag, time to get this one back up to speed... I think that's all the body modifications for the 1955 car, after a couple of rounds of filling and sanding. Let's see how it looks under an even coat of primer... The front axle had lost one of its wishbones, and the mounting point of lower right one had also gone AWOL, so I had to resort to a bit of cottage-industry manufacture, the old-school way. I've also removed the chunky axles from the unit and put the 3D printed parts from USCP in place, ready for the 300SLR wires that are waiting on the sidelines. The dash was very badly damaged by the previous owner's over enthusiastic use of glue, so I've made up a new one, and printed a decal for it. Juan-Manuel may look pretty 'armless, but at least he now has a head, which arrived from RS Slot Racing this week. I think it's a pretty good likeness. It's another of the Immense Miniatures range, in this case the "Late Career Fangio" which offers hard helmets instead of leather flying caps. There's also a bare head, which if I compare it to the young Fangio I also have looks genuinely older -- that's clever sculpting in 1/24! I lowered him a bit in his seat. Period pictures show that the "headrest" is more of a back-rest, but his shoulders want to be below a line joining the peaks of the rear fairing and front cockpit coaming best, M

Very nice! I have one and much the same plan, but it has to wait until after it has been handed over at Christmas with the packaging intact! best, M.

Originally made by a company called "Auto Kits" in the early sixties (it's all cast from white metal). Their moulds were later picked up and sold by South Eastern Finecast for over 20 years as Finecast AutoKits. A couple of years back, Squires Tools in bought all of the SE Finecast business and are working towards selling them again. So you can buy them new if they are still in stock, from Squires, or on eBay in Finecast or Auto-Kits boxes. http://www.squirestools.com/ https://www.sefinecast.co.uk/car-kits best, M.

best, M.

OK, I think that's pretty much it. Proper photos in Under Glass sometime tomorrow... I printed the outlines of the "10s" on white decal paper and cut them out inside the lines. As far as I can see Mairesse didn't have the Scuderia shields at the Brussels GP, though he did at the Belgian GP at Spa a couple of months later, and Roy hasn't painted them on the Eagle cover. best, M.

Back in the 90s my friend Sarah was Plant Editor on a mining and construction equipment magazine, and her then-boyfriend was the Ad Sales director. Their flat was just full of these from 4 ft high mobile cranes to even longer bucket wheel excavators, not to mention all the graders, dump trucks, log trailers and skid steers you could want. In those days manufacturers produced these as promos and publicity, and handed them out to potential customers, investors… and business contacts and journalists whenever something new was launched. It meant that yellow was a bit of a theme in their decor, and you had to be careful not to poke your eye out with a jib, or sit on a sharp-toothed compactor roller… best, M

Got the wheels on and the whole thing freestanding today... If you look closely in the profile picture above, you can see the short perspex disk that's relieving the white metal suspension of the weight of the body. The springs brace the wishbones pretty well, but I wouldn't like to be relying on them over the years... Details and decals next... best, M.

Though I say this myself, and probably shouldn't, I'm very pleased with the way the carburetor air intakes have turned out: The underlying white metal "whaleback" shapes have some texture moulded into them, but on my kit it was inconsistent, and in some places the mould was clearly damaged and it had vanished completely. I've been puzzling over what to do for a while. Then I found a picture of the intakes from directly above (in fact it was a picture of the £16K Amalgam model), and printed some decals, extending the mesh "texture" around the intake throats, so the decal could cover the whole of the moulded mesh shape. A coat of matt varnish completes the effect. At a glance it really does look like open red mesh covering three carb intakes... best, M.

There is this, of course: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-08813-bucket-wheel-excavator-schaufelradbagger-289--178045 ...you might have to do a bit of forced perspective on that corner of your layout, but it would be pretty dramatic background scenery... I can only assume that back in the day, Revell Germany was either contracted to produce promotional models of this beast, or bought the tooling from someone who was. It kinda makes sense with this: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-08803-off-shore-oilrig-north-cormorant--939870 best, M.

They weren’t exactly “sprightly”… I watched “Big Geordie” moving when I was a kid, about 50 years ago. It was a big deal taking a “step”! This 20-minute film is about the largest one in Western Europe: https://www.yfanefa.com/record/24662 It does show how it was built… Enjoy! best, M.

I think anytime you need to do anything that’s more than seam filling or surface smoothing, Milliput is unbeatable. Easy to work and apply when first mixed, easy to carve and shape when it gets to the “leathery” stage as it cures, and easy to sand (especially wet sand) to a very smooth surface and subtle curves when it’s fully hardened. I wouldn’t be without it by my bench… particularly when I’m working on a white metal kits, which it bonds to, unlike putties designed for plastic… best, M

Now I can get the wheels to (sort of) stay on, I couldn't resist trying this: The seams have been treated with superglue and micro-balloons following gluing, and I'm letting it all set up solidly before trying to eliminate them tomorrow... best, M.

Hooray! A little package arrived from Squires this morning with the wishbone parts I needed in... So, first test.... does it sit on all four wheels? Yes, it does! And I'm so glad Auto-Kits made ii with poseable front wheel geometry, which has save me a lot of work reproducing that picture! I really can't put off joining the body and sorting the seams for much longer... best, M.

Keeping with the tribute theme, and needing something to work on while Ferrari was stalled awaiting spare parts, I moved on to this "Kings of the Road" build, and there's none more regal than the legend Juan Manuel Fangio. This one is based on one of the Merit plastic kits of the mid-50s. Here's the master at work. The W196 is a sturdy beast, as you can see. Although it's billed on the box as a "1955 Grand Prix Mercedes", the Merit kit is actually the 1954 car. The main difference is that the 1955 car has the big full length supercharger air intake along the right hand side, which is just not there on the '54 car. In the background, you can see the Protar W196 kit. It's got more detail than the Merit kit, but is less accurately sized and shaped. To correct the Protar kit, you need to widen it by 2mm within the wheel base, and deepen the whole body by another 2.5mm. The Merit my be a simplified 1954 car, but it captures the bulk and character of the W196 better. Adjustments begin... The basic shape of the intake is formed by a styrene tube with the underside sanded flat and glued to the body, firmly clamped down to follow the curve. The rest is built up with Milliput epoxy putty and several rounds of sanding, shaping and smoothing. Eventually ending up here. Eagle-eyed readers will spot that I've also filled and smoothed those vents in the cockpit coaming ahead of the driver. Quick check that Juan Manuel will fit, using one of the Immense Miniatures generic "early driver" bodies, which are more upright with arms ready to hold a large wheel. There are specific Fangio 50s heads, which should be arriving shortly. The 1955 body also has scoops each side of the cockpit, and vents on the tail alongside the spine (you can see the cutouts for the parts on the Protar body at the top). So, I've carved some balsa and plunge molded some blanks: large on the right for the tail, smaller on the left for the cockpit. There are some nice resin wire wheels on their way from the Ukraine as we speak... best, M.

I know it's been a bit quiet. I've been waiting for a couple of spare parts fr the front suspension from our friends at Squires tools, so I can take the big step and join the top and bottom halves of the body until they have arrived and the suspension is built. However, I have had time to work on our racing pilot (and get in some more wheels...) Thanks to @Pierre Rivard's prompt, I now have different pattern Borranis front and rear (you'll see elsewhere WHY I happen to have some Mercedes 300SLR wheels around the bench...). Willy M in unforgiving close up. He's made up of one of the Immense Miniatures generic 1960s drivers and 60s heads, with arms and hands repositioned to fit the cockpit layout and wheel. The goggles are molded open, and I've filled the lens with clear 5-minute epoxy. I'm very much hoping that the front suspension will arrive before the weekend! In the mean time... best, M.

I doubt that.... you'll have seen a fair number built as Seafire 47s: when Jen's or the Freightdog bits were new several people (including me) built them and put them on forums (including Large Scale Planes), and I think Jen actually built one using her prototype parts for Scale Aircraft Modelling, so it made it into print as well. In fact there are probably more published internet-era builds of the Seafire conversion than the base kit. It's a cooler-looking plane, for a start and the Matchbox kit is not one of their very best on its own. I suspect the Revell Germany rebox was closely followed by the conversion parts as people decided to make something a bit special with it... best, M.

I was going to suggest the same. The Matchbox kit doesn’t have the contra-prop, though. For that you’ll need a Seafire 46/47 conversion. I did it years ago with a cottage industry set from “Jen’s Brit Bits”, but that’s long gone. Freightdog did a set (they may have taken on Jen’s parts and moulds) but it’s not on their web site any more. Auction sites may be your best bet. On the other hand, the prop’s not the most complex thing to design for 3D printing or turn on a lathe if you have that skill. The blades can be adapted from the ones in the kit and then copies cast… EDIT: those flat paddle blades are way different from Spit/Seafire Griffon blades, so you’d have to scratch/print them anyway and the top surface of the cowling/cam covers are as well. You probably wouldn’t get that much usable from the Matchbox kit… maybe just get an inexpensive Revell P-51D and some good drawings of Red Baron and have at it! http://taichi56jp.g1.xrea.com/ (This page takes ages to load, but is worth the wait) best, M.

Looks amazing -- what an inspired colour choice. Lovely finish and detail painting as well... best, M.

Did Fujimi ever do a “vanilla” early 911 in the “Enthusiast” series? I got the 911R and S when they reissued them last year after hanging my nose over umpteen overpriced eBay auctions, but they are both “specials.” I’m surprised that after the 356s they didn’t start with a base model before getting into the exotica… best, M.

Fair enough; looks like there were some HCs with Lotus (nb: not Vauxhall) 900 engines. But most of them were based on Firenzas and used for rallying. A two door Viva HC “Magnum” with a 900-series engine is a real rarity, and I think the R/T badge was pinched from something else — I can’t see anywhere even in the deep dives into the 900 series engine that there was ever an official Vauxhall production car with that badge… best, M.

Sorry to sound whingey, but I think that’s a one-off. It’s a Viva HC transplanted with the Lotus Twin-Cam engine found in fast Fords. There’s no “Viva Twin-Cam R/T” listed in any Vauxhall model model guide I have, and it’s not a manufacturer GT or Firenza. I can’t find any mention of that “model”online, and even reverse image search only finds one car, mostly on Flickr… beat, M.

You are a lucky man… in both your father and your car! best, M.