Matt Bacon

And since I've now put the 507 to sit on a tile so that the wheels set finally in a four-square, "feet on the floor" position, I thought I'd test out the hardtop again... ...seriously, if someone offered me one of these two cars for real, I wouldn't know which to choose. Nice problem to have, though... ;-P bestest, M.

...and here's the next stage. Wheels on the 507: The Lexus is not so photogenic at this stage, but progress is being made. The body shell now has all its grilles etc fitted, and the lights have been painted. The retracted rear wing has been carbon decalled (using some of the spare "patch" decal from the Tamiya LaFerrari, which has a better texture than any aftermarket product I ownn), because I decided that the blue wasn't a good enough match for the body -- one too few coats of the transparent glaze second colour, I reckon. It just goes to show that the only way to be sure with these two- and three-layer colours is to tape the "add-on bits" into window gaps, for example, and spray them all together. For whatever reason, the "extended" wing is a better match... And here it is... I think it makes the beast look pretty wicked... So... this is the bench tonight. The finish line is in sight, I reckon... bestest, M.

the windscreen is on, now, and I'm glad I did build it up before painting... And then time for another test fit of the hardtop. Still needs glazing, obviously, but the fit is going to be OK! bestest, M.

I'm pleased to report that the "fettling" has been a success... When I left off, the bonnet would open nicely, but hovered open with about a 1cm gap at the back. It would close OK if you pushed it down, but popped back up of it's own accord. Fortunately, I remembered that a while ago I'd acquired some small but strong magnets -- that's one covering the 10mm mark on the steel ruler. Turns out that you can fit one nicely into that silver box at the centre of the firewall. With a magnet in there, and a piece of old knife blade glued to the underside of the wide end of the bonnet, the magnet holds the bonnet closed very nicely. It's strange -- Revell have obviously designed the kit so the bonnet rides high in the middle, to sit flush with the raised chrome grille behind it. It's not warped -- the fit into the corners and along the sides is too exact for that. I can't really see from photos if this is prototypical, but it would be a lot of work to fix, involving flattening the bonnet, reshaping the sides to be straight again, and probably lowing the engine or shortening the air stacks/carbs... Anyway... on with the LFA now. bestest, M.

Didn't do as much on the LFA as I wanted today, but the 507 is progressing nicely... These are all kit parts, just with some detail painting. I decided that the best way to deal with the chromed windscreen and detail parts, which were covered in flash and injector pin marks, was to strip them, glue into a solid assembly, and then respray them with Humbrol Chrome Silver. And the clear part does fit -- I checked before polishing it! Getting the bonnet on and opening was a pain. Both plastic pins on the bonnet ended up being replaced with steel pin segments, and the transverse tube in the frame at the front of the bonnet fouls the crossbar above the radiator,. With it removed, the bonnet opens fully, but there's going to be some fettling needed to get it to close fully tight... bestest, M.

....if the LFA had cup-holders, they'd be made of carbon, gimballed, and pre-tilted by the navigation system based on how sharp the next bend is and your predicted driving behaviour and turn rate... Oh, and the "launch control" would calculate the difference between grande and venti (and work out whether your passenger had one, too) before dropping the hammer... bestest, M. ;-P

The 507 is making good progress as well: Chassis pretty much complete now. I did that detail painting and assembled the front suspension. Further reading makes me think there's a bit missing at the back: all my references talk about the rear axle being suspended on longitudinal torsion bars and located with a "Panhard Rod" and a rear A-frame. The Panhard Rod is the diagonal brace running parallel to the axle; the torsion bars are the black rods running along the car attached to the front and rear axles. I see no "A-frame". I need a shot of the underside of a BMW 507... First test -- does the chassis sit with all four wheels on the ground? Yes, it does... phew! Second test -- does the cockpit sit properly inside the body if it's stuck to the chassis, not the bodywork? Check... it does! Tomorrow should see the 507 with full engine compartment detailing, and the LFA with all the "bits" attached to the body shell interior... bestest, M.

It's been a productive day today: That's the whole chassis completed. Now time to move onto fitting out the body. You can begin to appreciate the engineering of the real thing: carbon tub, aluminium chassis beams and the most complex packaging of all the cooling systems. Plus the engine. Ah, yes... Not many parts, but it's quite the beastie. In these shots you can see the various tones of "black" I've used (NATO black, Rubber Black, Semi-gloss black... and the air box is actually just the kit plastic, polished up) This is the bit I love about modelling. Now, when I hear Clarkson or Evo raving about the engineering of the LFA, I can really understand what's going on under the skin. The kind of engineering that made the guys at Toyota stop half way through the design of the thing and redo it from the ground up with carbon instead of aluminium is clearly visible in the Tamiya kit. You won't get a better insight into the relentless pursuit of "supercar" quality that those guys went on. There are few compromises in terms of what the kit gives you, either, all the whilst keeping the kit buildable. No fiendish complexity and equally fiendish fit like a Fujimi Enthusiast kit -- nope: all the parts you need to reproduce the genius of the original, and no more. This is a car kit like no other I've built, although I hope that the LaFerrari will be its equal. And next, today's progress in BMW-land... bestest, M.

Despite its age, the Revell kit has some nice detailing. I must read up on how this rear suspension works, because I've never built one like it before. It looks like some kind of torsion tubes for the "springing", regular shock absorbers, and a cross-brace to locate the rear axle. It needs some detail painting and touching up, as well. Nearly there with the LFA chassis now... more on that later. bestest, M.

Great thing about the LFA is that you can spec it any way you like, so who's to say that this look doesn't exist! ;-P I decided that the horizontal recessed panel would be impossible to mask and get into with the mesh "carbon" technique, so I used some of the Scale Motorsport decal I have. It claims to be 1/24, but it looks a bit large to me. It's another texture and finish effect in the mix, though... ..and that's the LFA interior done. Once again, not too many parts, but crisply moulded, well-fitting, and just crying out for detail painting... Slow progress on the 507 in parallel, but not much to show for it at the moment! bestest, M.

I've done a lot of "carbon" lately... It's all the usual Zero Paints Graphite Grey sprayed through a fabric mesh mask and Kleared. So much easier than chopping up decal, even if it isn't as accurate.... The doors have "carbon" in the front corners if you look hard, and the two sides of the "bridge" are the same. It's hard to photograph! Seats with belts and "sockets" added (what ARE those things called???). Transmission tunnel insulation is cigarette packet foil... useful stuff! And now you CAN see the carbon effect on the "bridge". You can see why I think the key to realistic interiors is to use a lot of different finishes and colours to reproduce different materials. Tamiya would have you do the whole thing in semi-gloss black and German grey... It's starting to come together now, even if it doesn't look that way! Tomorrow I want to finish the LFA interior and make good progress with the 507 chassis... bestest, M.

I don't build Detroit Iron, so for me it's Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima and Fujimi, with Revell (Germany) hot on their heels. Every company has "misses" as well as "hits," especially among their older tools. But the Tamiya LFA I'm currently building, and the Aston Martin DBS I built a couple of years ago, are hands down the best model car kits I've ever built. The shapes and detail are spot on, the engineering is thoughtful and the fit is perfect... bestest, M.

Model for me. The shut lines don't look crisp enough for the real thing. I reckon it's a die-cast, but a large scale one... bestest, M.

Thanks, Atin... a bit more assembly tonight: The piping on the seats could be neater, but it'll be under the hardtop... Work on the LFA interior is now under way in earnest. bestest, M.

Thanks, Bruce! It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks, but I've got back to the bench now... The dash for the 507 -- a bit of detail painting and the Revell decals for the instruments and radio, and I think it looks pretty convincing. More great kit design and engineering from Tamiya. The front suspension looks the part, but only has about 6 of them -- parts, that is... ..which means that I can officially declare the LFA powertrain *FINISHED* ...and this is where we are this evening... bestest, M.

If they've got any sense, they'll take a lightweight kid (5'8" and 120lbs) who's learned to drive every course backwards, sideways and straight ahead in Gran Turismo or Forza... There's some serious talent brewing there... And it's not quite the money pit you guys are describing -- sure it costs a lot to run, but the potential sponsorship income/value is there too. The playing field is meant to be a bit more level now as well (who knows if it really is...?) so the "smaller" teams can still run a challenge to the big guys, unlike the days of Jordan and Arrows versus Ferrari and McLaren and Williams-Renault. And SURELY the poison dwarf Ecclestone has got to go soon? F1 will implode when he does, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, eh? And F1 without him will be something better than the billion dollar circus that it is now... bestest, M.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks with relatively little bench time, and what I have had has mainly been devoted to progressing lots of individual pieces that need painting, but aren't very photogenic! Anyway, there's finally some progress to report... Once again, mocked up for test fit, and I think it's heading in the right direction. It'll be critical to set the windscreen just right at the correct angle, and get the hardtop to settle down properly, but at least I'm now convinced it will all fit together! The engine is now sitting in the floorpan, and as shown above, it does all fit nicely into the body with a satisfying click... The engineering on the LFA is just incredible. There aren't that many parts (and they often need painting four different colours because one moulding has several different components depicted). But they are literally a press fit in many places, with just a touch of thin superglue to hold them in place permanently. Awesome! Should get some more done tomorrow -- the interiors are being painted, bit by bit... bestest, M.

This site: http://www.licenseplates.tv/european-plates.html Lets you type in any letters that you want, and generates a picture of the resulting plate, with the right layout and fonts, for pretty much any country. If you copy the image and print it out at 400dpi, it's the right size for a 1/24 plate... bestest, M.

I'd add to what Harry has said -- vary the shades slightly as well. Keep the things that are the same material the same shade, but give some slight variation between leather and plastic or painted metal. It would probably have been thrown out by the quality inspectors at the time, but in a model, it just adds to the impression that the interior isn't one kind of plastic in one colour = "toy". I must have eight different kinds of black, from "German Grey" to "Charadon Granite" to "Rubber Black" to "NATO Black" to paint modern cars' black interiors in everything from aniline leather to alcantara, via piano black and carbon fibre... bestest, M.

Thanks, Gary... That's the BMW engine finished... The LFA power train is fantastically detailed, but in relatively few parts. The carbon torque tube is painted with Tamiya semi-gloss black. gently buffed with graphite powder. Close-up compare and contrast... bestest, M.

It was pretty controversial styling in its day (there were Austin and Morris versions as well, before all the different names and badges were replace by "Princess" in 1976) -- even a ten year old noticed the fuss! Interestingly, but maybe not surprisingly, there are only two of these registered in Britain today, whereas there are about 90 of the car it "replaced", the Wolseley Six... bestest, M.

Not to be a pain, but are you sure it's a coupe? The current RoG box shows the car in black, with a metal factory hardtop, but it's not a fixed-head coupe. It's still the 1/25 kit originally tooled by Revell (GB) back in the early 60s... bestest, M.

Oh, I'll be watching this one closely. I have one of these in the stash, and I'd really like to know how to put it together. Some of the parts and instructions have me scratching my head! Good luck! bestest, M.

Even I get it, and I'm in the UK (actually, I don't know how they do it -- 12 months subscription with international postage still works out at less than £2 an issue, when Octane is nearly £5). It is great, and the articles are fun reads as well as having great pictures. The last issue conveniently had a Toyota 2000GT in, just as I was building one... bestest, M. edit: Actually, it's Hemmings Sports & Exotics that I get, and one's just arrived!

Thanks, guys... The BMW engine is now wired (for ignition at least). I drilled out the core of the distributor and cut a Postbox-like slot across it at the back (the wires really do emerge in a line from the side, not the top). That gave me something to stuff the ends of the wires into. The Lexus engine is bigger, but not as much as you might think... The transmission is under construction as well. The 507's seats have distinctive "rollovers" at the top -- or at least they do in all the pictures i can find. Some sprue gives a starting point... bestest, M.