Matt Bacon

If you have a smartphone, get Google Translate, download the Japanese language pack, and you can point your camera at the instructions and watch them transform into English in front of your eyes. It’ll struggle with the big blocks of text, but for colour call-outs or “make sure you do this in this order” notes on the drawings, it’s invaluable. Or grab these later multilingual instructions from Scalemates: https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/7/4/6/122746-28-instructions.pdf best, M.

Greg Sacks, it seems... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Sacks He was stunt driving for Tom Cruise as well, so it's not like he was only involved in development... best, M.

The fourth in a series of displays to pay tribute to illustrator and Airfix box art legend Roy Cross. This is the Merit kit from the late 1950s, and it's still a better shape than the much later Protar offering... The body is painted with Tamiya Gloss Aluminium spray, the supercharger intake is built up in Milliput, and the rims are 3D printed Mercedes 300SL wheels from Ukrainian Scale Car Production. The Fangio figure is an Immense Miniatures generic body with "Late career" Fangio head, now available from RS Slot Racing in the UK. best, M.

Back from holiday now, and moving forward (the Scale Model World countdown clock is ticking loudly!): I was a bit worried about getting these home-brew decals to settle down around the curves and over the detail, but they've worked out OK, I reckon. I've got a "recipe" for doing these bases now, so it's pretty much rinse and repeat -- helped by the fact that Roy uses a small handful of different points of view over the whole series, so once you've figured out the front to back slope, the side to side slope, and how low or high the front panel needs to be, they are all variations on a theme... Until I've glued the wheels, it'll roll off, so this is the closest I'll get to the cover pic before Under Glass! ...and a couple of off-axis angles to give a clearer picture of how the base works... Nearly there, now! Best, M.

^^^ Either the nozzle is blocked completely, or the needle seals are gone, or both. Somehow, the air is forcing the paint backwards through the brush instead of out the nozzle… which should be the path of least resistance. I don’t think it has anything to do with decanted versus “ready to spray”. If the latter is acrylic I suspect it has gunged up the nozzle and now you have gone back to decanted the thinner paint has pushed past the seals. You are gonna have to take the whole thing apart and thoroughly clean it, I reckon… best, M.

Goldfish, and their memory, are the subject of this excellent comedy sketch ( ) by John Finnemore, an excellent British comedy writer. best, M.

I most certainly will.... Classic British Kits SIG display this year is a Roy Cross tribute, and I fancied trying something different from Airfix Box Art... best, M.

Thanks, all.... Juan Manuel is now pretty much done. Conveniently, Collector Studio has had some replicas of Fangio's racing helmet made, which provided excellent reference (https://collectorstudio.com/product/1955-7-juan-manuel-fangio-replica-helmet/) The clear epoxy trick with the goggles has worked well again. I'm a fan! Moment of truth: Yes, he can climb aboard and hold the wheel with it on place on the dashboard! Phew.... best, M.

BTW… “Snap!” I think that means they are both mine now… ? best, M.

Absolutely beautiful, Jay. Great finish and colour combo. I love the shot with the orange reflections… fabulous with the green interior… ? best, M.

Finally some progress to report here: I've been plugging away steadily... Some very fetching upholstery from the decal stash, and instrument panel home made from an image I found online. I've scribed the fuel fillers as well. JMF fully assembled and pose adjusted so his hands will (should?!) grip the wheel. Nose finished, with teeny-tiny grille attached on the air intake. Not firmly enough, as we shall soon see... Time to take it for a spin... The winglets behind the wheels are in the original kit, but were missing from this second-hand one, so I've made some. Roy doesn't have them in his picture, but they were on the car in that race, so on they go... Trying on the USCP wheels for size... they look pretty good to me. Now, where is that little grille...? Not easy to see, which is kinda the point, but I've printed out some detail inside the "black holes" where the engine is. Note to self -- put something in the back to stop that being see through... Time to start painting JMF.... best, M.

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