Matt Bacon

Thanks, gents! Lengthy session with the BMF now completed, thanks goodness, not to mention messing about with windscreen blanks. I'm getting there with one, I think... It's a matter of plunge moulding and then trimming very carefully to fit, but I can make more or less as many as I need, now, so one is bound to work eventually! None of the working parts are fixed with hinges yet. I'm thinking that I won't glue the windscreen and rear window in place until I've done all the flexing of the body I need to get the interior in -- I suspect they'll just pop out again if I glue them in place... bestest, M.

For those as are interested, these are the decals in my kit: Mine is a pure Monogram-branded and styled box, but interesting that the decals are Revell AG, eh? I have no idea whether they are the originals, or if they were "acquired" from another boxing by the previous owner of this kit... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... Skip, the logo is just a decal that was in the box... Re-did the rear lights. I started with some clear runner/sprue from a Tamiya Alfa Giulietta kit, which just happened to be the right diameter. And after quite some work sanding and shaping, drilling holes in the back end, BMF and the finishing touch in the form of fuse wire circles for the light bases, here we are: Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. All very much mocked up, so don't worry too much about the ride height, but I think I'm happy with these Aoshima wheels... Still battling with the windscreen. That has to be done before we can progress the BMFing on the body and make a dash for the finish line... bestest, M.

Thanks, Mark... yep, the Aoshima wheels are winning at the moment... Well, if yesterday felt a bit "one step forward, two steps back", today feels more like real progress. I've finally got the front end of the car built. The main chassis and the cabin are just mocked-up here to check the fit of the firewall, which is attached to the chassis. The most useful lesson of doing this was that I wont be able to join the two sections inside the car with the pedals in place (you'll remember ;-P, I need to do that so I can fit them into with the rear valance in place, as I built it earlier for better painting of the main body). So the pedals will have to be added from outside after the chassis is in place, but that's not a big chore. I'm not trying the whole chassis inside the body until it's all well and truly set, but I couldn't resist trying the engine bay out... I'm happy with that. The coil wires aren't connected yet. I don't want to mess with them until the firewall and engine are set absolutely solid on the chassis frame... it can wait a couple of days. I'm now making CORRECT lights from clear sprue as we speak... bestest, M.

Ah. Oh. Darn it! ...anyone want to buy a pair of slightly used Maserati 3500 GT tail lights? Off they come... ;-( bestest, M

Various bits and pieces today, but not much to photograph. These are the new tail-lights... I'm shaping them from a piece of perspex that used to be a recipe-book holder! It sands really nicely, and shapes easily. The two lozenges, waiting for paint and metal details... bestest, M.

These are the K&R etched wheels (left). I'm still not SURE they are better than the Aoshima injected alternative ®, but they do have a wire axle the same size as the Aoshimas, so if I adapt the chassis axle parts to fit, the two options are interchangeable until quite late in the build... The dash completed, with a Renaissance Nardi steering wheel, horn boss printed with Skip Jordan's excellent reference images... The doors will fit nicely. Currently, I'm battling with the replacement windscreen, which needs to have a template cut before I can start with the BMF on the body... bestest, M.

Hey, Skip... the panel gauges are the kit decal, painted over with liquid decal film to hold it together, cut out close to the gauges, and then applied using Klear as decal settings solution under the decal, and in several coats over it as well... And now, spot the difference time... Now with the missing hinge lower part. I also refitted the "parcel shelf" at a lower angle, so that it doesn't end up half way up the back window. You need trim the mounting pillars to achieve this... Some interesting super tough PVC tape is doing duty as the textured vinyl boot liner -- an optional extra, apparently. ...and this is how it all looks together. I fitted the side vents as well (with a little careful trimming so that they slot under the new fairings at the front), because they'll soon need painting on the inside, split between carpet (stone) in the cabin, and matt black in front of the firewall. I suspect the vents are in the right place on the side of the car, but because of the overdone cut out at the base of the windscreen, the firewall is too far forward. Mind you, I think it's also pushed further forward to make room for the "working" door hinges, so maybe THAT drives the firewall/windscreen/dash geometry as well. I'm trying to reduce the visual impact of the "chrome" window frame, because the engraved areas are a bit heavy. This is a bit more high-contrast than it looks in real life. I've used a panel line chalk wash in dark grey (intended for "grey jet" modern aircraft" which delineates the engraving and represents the rubber seals. The wheels in the kit aren't great, and the tyres are in a real state. Goodness knows what they are made of, but as you can see (on the right) they are shot -- and that's before you try to glue in the fake hard plastic "white walls". I wonder if they were regular styrene in the original release... it would make more sense! The replacements (left) are from an Aoshima MGB. Any ideas on how to take the lettering off without messing up the tyre much appreciated -- a sharp knife doesn't work... I found that out already. If not, I'll just live with it and hope no one looks close enough to read the size... Although the MGB tyres are beefier, and the wheels very slightly larger, the overall diameter of the wheel and tyre combo is very slightly smaller than the originals, so they should fit OK, albeit rather snugly under the wheel arches. It'll probably look sporty, though... ...and finally, tonight's bench shot. The doors can be assembled when I've finished the other window, and I've also stripped, filled, sanded and repainted the sink-mark-ridden bumpers. bestest, M.

Lovely job, Jason... it looks really wicked! I love that last shot as well... they look "just like the real thing"! bestest, M.

Biggest problem I've found is wrinkling in the packet, after a while. Once you've got wrinkles, it'll crack where it was wrinkled. It's not useless, but you have to cut your pieces between the wrinkles. And it seems to vary -- my latest pack of Super Chrome is very different from my three year old one. The new BMF is much "springier" and hard to handle. It tends to roll up as you peel it off the backing and stick to itself. If you've got 5 year old stock, and it's not too badly wrinkled, you're probably in luck! bestest, M.

You don't need Photoshop... pretty much any image manipulation programme will do, or just use your printer controls. All you need to do is scale an image. Find a picture of the cover of the magazine you want, and paste it into an A4/Letter document (in Word, even) and size the image to fit the width (most magazines are kind of A4 size -- in the US, they are mostly just a bit shorter). Then print the document, and in the "scaling" box, set it to print at 4% (1/25) actual size. For posters, do the same, but set it to 6% or 8% or 16% depending how large you want the poster to be... Set the print resolution (DPI) as high as you can get away with on the paper you are using... All of these controls should be in the Page Setup or Print dialogue box. bestest, M.

Thanks! It's been a rather busy "holiday" so far, but I finally got back to the bench today. First step, those hinges... They're a very distinctive shape, and pretty complex, because the seat backs tilt both forwards AND inwards to give access to the rear seat bench. Plastic card and rod, and some cursing... The seats are mounted canted up on higher, tapering rails. After a bit of washing with Citadel Gryffonne Sepia and a drybrush with beige, the leather interior is complete. The handbrake is in the wrong place, so I've shortened it and moved it forward. I also carved the cone-shaped gear-lever "glove" into something more soft-leather shaped and brushed it with liquid cement to smooth it a bit. And here's a test fit to see how it looks with the dash. The lighting ain't great, but I think it DOES resemble the real thing... You can see that there will be some fudging, because the firewall will leave the side vents half in the cabin... bestest, M.

We have some stuff called "Sticky Stuff Remover" which is sort of orange-smelling. It's intended for getting tape or sticker residue off (eg price stickers, or when your kids plaster their beds with Snoopy stickers and want to replace them with Bratz ones five years later). It works a treat, and has no effect on paint or gloss coated areas (though check for YOUR paint and gloss first, obviously). Came from a homeware store in the cleaning products section. Lemon juice might work as well... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... some more progress today (it's being on holiday!) Door liners, with body colour at the top. Tan/beige upholstery, done using Vallejo Dark Sand for the seats and a Citadel "Stone" for the carpets. Dash, awaiting the "grab handle" across the glovebox. Coils in place in the engine bay, which was assembled using the chassis as a jig. And the engine bay mocked up, to see how it all fits. I need to build the front suspension before fixing it together properly. ...and this is how the bench is looking tonight. Suspension and those seat hinges next, I reckon... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... A small update... the snow has melted, so I can get back to the bench: The seats are way too skinny, so I have bulked them out with plastic card: The next stage of detailing is the interesting hinges, which allow the back of the seats to fold forward and twist inwards at the same time. Mine won't do that, but it accounts for the complicated "Flash Gordon" shape... I've been worrying about the state of the decals. You can see the cracks across the number plates. I painted this with Microscale decal solution a couple of weeks ago, and I've used Klear to snug it down. It looks OK though, and this is the most critical of all of the decals... the others are replaceable or paintable relatively easily... These are about 1cm (0.4") long. These coils are quite visible on the firewall. Teeny-tiny, but took over an hour to make between them! I hope it's worth it! There's some "bigger picture" stuff going on off-stage, but as my old editor used to say, "only fules and bairns should see a job half done..." bestest, M.

That looks lovely, Tom... great job, and lovely colour scheme. If you want to get the hood to close, it's only the wiper pivots that get in the way. You could pop them off, sand them down and repaint them... bestest, M.

Siku also do diecasts of the Veyron and the Grand Sport for about £4 each, in 1:55 scale, so the licensing can't be a killer... bestest, M.

Thanks, Skip... I'm a bit scared of living up to the billing, now! And today, I finally made it through the snow out to the workbench... Something else I haven't been looking forward to: Not the greatest pictures (the lighting seemed to confuse the camera), but you can see the effect. I've removed the trident from the original one-piece kit grille, which of course doesn't fit the reshaped nose. A combination of Humbrol polished chrome spray and BMF does the rest. The engine with that detail painting and the last bits attached. Citadel metallics blended in various proportions for those details... I think, looking out the window, that progress will be slow the next few days... bestest, M.

...and before parting with that kind of money, I'd want to know a bit more about the people who were building the car. Eagle has been a major restoration house for E-Types (and nothing else) for 30 years, and knows the cars, engineering, panel work etc inside out. The Lyonheart web site doesn't tell you much about the team other than its address. bestest, M.

Too fussy for my tastes -- it looks like a Chrysler Crossfire put through a blender with an XKR. Personally, if I was in the market for a modern take on an E-type, I'd much prefer an Eagle Speedster... (which I would have in a heartbeat if I had the money) bestest, M.

I don't think the main problem with decals is creating artwork. It's outputting the things as artwork you can transfer to your model (I'm deliberately not saying "decals" because I hope there's some out of the box thinking out there...) Most of the professional decal designers _I_ know (YMMV, obviously) use Illustrator, because they are creating (in black and white) colour separations for screen printing solid inks. That's not an option for most of us, obviously. What I'd like to hear is your recommendations, tips and tricks for the right products (eg paper, film, varnish) for printing out home-made decal art. Especially, my single biggest problem is to find a way to print metal/chrome logos. I have no way of printing silver ink, although I've seen some arty "ink-jet foil" (http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.Laser-Transfer-Foils_FOIL-LAZ1M.htm) which might do the trick but I'd like to hear from anyone who's tried it. I have both clear and white decal paper, but it's quite thick, especially when you have the varnish layer on it. The colour density on the clear film is very poor, and the white film ends up with a border (if you don't cut well outside the printed area, the ink bleeds when you put it in water to release the decal). I've had some success with printing artwork on clear and applying it over a cut out plain white decal to back it up. That works OK for simple shapes (eg race number circles) but try cutting out a Vargas pin-up nose art for a bomber... I'd love to hear how anyone manages this without an ALPS printer (and boy, do I wish 1/10th of the effort that's gone into 3D printing had been devoted to a hobbyist 2D printer than can deal with silver, white etc inks...) bestest, M.

Oh, you're SOOO out of practice... ;-P They look great. The Dino is my favorite -- it's one of my top most-wanted cars, and I love it in yellow, which is what mine will be when I get round to building it. I'm not so convinced by the metallic blue on the TR (personal taste, I'm sure), but the build looks excellent. My only nit-pick is that there looks to be a bit of a gap where the dash fits to the coaming and at the undernose panel on the Dino. I've heard that there's some tricky assembly there, and that the chassis doesn't fit in if you build the body up as one piece, though, so it may be there's no alternative... Good stuff! bestest, M.

Here's something I have NOT been looking forward to... This Maserati is a GTi, it appears, with fuel injection. And two plugs per cylinder. And a duct for the wiring. So, armed with some more excellent reference material courtesy of Skip Jordan, we begin. No way can I drill a distributor cap for 12 wires, so I used a piece of electric flex with the insulation cut back to leave twelve wires (with some superglue at the bottom to hold them in). These are glued into the widened end of some aluminium tube, which I then drilled for the individual plug wires. Those wires are fixed into holes drilled into the the plug locations in the cylinder head. Then I drilled the fuel injection system for some more shiny wires for the injector tubes. The end result after some cursing. There's a whole lot of touch-up and detail painting to do, but this is as good as I can manage (no tiny hose clamps for this cack-handed modeller!). And yes, those injection tubes really are a mare's nest like that on the real thing... I wonder if it's something to do with having the same length for each tube, despite some cylinders being much closer to the unit than others. bestest, M.

Thanks! If you're going to buy resin wheels anyway, something like the Renaissance Campagnolos (for the Ferrari 275) with a dish hubcap would look pretty much like the factory options... ... and here we go with the shiny: There are a couple of areas on the body that'll need a bit of a polish, but that can wait a few days until this stuff has set thoroughly hard. You can see the brownish tint to the red here, though. Rectangular grille etch arrived today (along with a Nardi steering wheel) As you can see, the basic mesh turns out to be far too big. However, gluing two pieces together with an offset doesn't look too bad. I'll keep an eye open for something better, but if I can't find it, I think this looks OK... bestest, M.

...certainly am. I just tend to do it with a brush and some Humbrol matt enamel after the outside is done. It's easier than masking against overspray, whichever way round you do it... bestest, M.