Matt Bacon

That looks to be a really cool build. I know what to expect from an Enthusiast kit, and I _love_ the Stratos, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this WIP. Are you going to use the kit decals/scheme, or go for a true Stradale look in fluorescent red or virulent lime green? bestest, M.

Thank you very much for the kind comments, everyone. I'm glad the motion concept worked for you -- I was looking for a way to deal with teh fact that the doors had to be open or closed, and the engine wasn't full detail. It needed to be built closed up, and that gave me the excuse... Chris... the "Stig" is from the Fujimi drivers set - the most modern figure. He's so iconic that if you paint the right colours on the suit, no one will notice that the helmet and suit are the wrong, somewhat dated style..."White suit... check; blue visor... check; black detailing... check; it's the Stig!" bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! Since the action shot seems popular, here are a few more.... still need to work out how to do some convincing flames. Thanks to Ennis Fargis for the track base image, which is a real Imola corner from a race simulator. I processed that in Photoshop before making the base. All of those are just photographs. This one has a little more help from Photoshop so the wheels are moving... bestest, M.

That looks really good... very interesting and different. I must admit, when I saw the picture my first thought was "so that's where Bonnie and Clyde's ride got to..." bestest, M.

Inspired by Top Gear's run around Imola in three supercars that weren't Ferraris, this is the very nice Fujimi kit, with a Stig slightly adapted from their driver figure set. Paint is Zero's colour-matched Arancio Argos, with 2K clear coat. A beast: A couple shot from a more "people-sized" perspective, which gives a better impression of what one looks like to a bystander in real life... Family portrait: On the track: There's still some more work to do on this display concept, but it's why the Stig is in the driver's seat, so watch this space... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... apologies for the picture-heavy post! As you can see, the beast is now spitting blue flames. The blue is actually transparent, although the lighting doesn't show it to best advantage. The number plate is a correct Italian one from http://www.licenseplates.tv/european-plates.html, and the number is deduced from many viewings of the Top Gear film and the plates on test cars in Evo and Top Gear magazine. Because I'm a sad number plate obsessive, I've also discovered that Jeremy drove two different Aventadors at Imola. If you look really, REALLY carefully, there's one that has a front number plate, in shot very briefly in a couple of sequences, and one that doesn't (the one he drove in the majority of the film). I suspect that after he cooked the brakes, he took out one of the Lamborghini Academy cars, which was conveniently the same colour... Construction of the car is now complete. I need to do the decals, and fine-tune the surface finish, but I'm pretty happy with it now. The base is just getting started. The track is a texture from an open source track from a race simulation. A nice track-designer chap called Ennis Fargis provided it for me after I sent him the Google Earth KMZ file for the corner at Imola I was after. I then blew it up and motion-blurred it in Photoshop. It needs to be mounted up properly, and I'm still debating exactly how to present it. But it is achieving exactly the effect I was aiming for... I'm away from the bench for a couple of days now, but I think we're on the finishing straight! bestest, M.

Apologies if you guys know all about this already! You may want to create realistic license plates for your vehicle (either with "special" combinations that spell something or use your initials, or maybe you know the number of a real vehicle that you are modelling) 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.

Well, thanks to Chris for spotting that the engine bay window surround is black, not body coloured! Fortunately, the blades were glued in with Formula 560 PVA, so after softening it with some strategically applied water for an hour or so, I could pop them off again. 20 minutes of masking and three minutes of spraying later, and here we are: ...it certainly looks much better to me. Otherwise, it's more or less time for decals, with just the windscreen wipers to add of the detail parts... Tonight I'll get the flames on! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! Making good progress... The headlights require some complicated painting! I decided not to go for the recommended "silver" for the main light. I had a look at the Xenon's on my car, and several others in the local supermarket car park, and it's much more like a grey "eyeball", which is what I've tried to do here. The white "Y" really IS a white painted shape in the black housing, and the little lenses are silver tips on a black tube. This is an unforgiving close up... and it looks fine from a reasonable distance. And another major milestone: the chassis and body are now together... It snaps into place quite well. I'd attached the doors to the body before fitting the two together, but I think in retrospect that's better done afterwards. The photos exaggerate the "edge glint" on the windows. It's hard to know what to do about that. The windows do just stick out of the top of the doors -- no frame, no tint, just plain sheets of glass. Maybe a black edge would have toned down the reflection, but there isn't one in real life. Just detail work to do now, before I add the flames, and work on the base... bestest, M.

Slow but steady progress today. These rear lights are a pain! OK, I've made life more difficult for myself by needing to show the darn things actually on, while braking, but they are very complex even without that added wrinkle. I think that today's LED lights and Xenons will need a whole different approach from what we're used to. No longer is a transparent part that you can paint the back of silver and colour in lenses where needed enough. A large part of this light unit is black plastic, and as you can see the "indicator" and "stop light" elements have several parts. I've yet to see how it works in real life, but the "sideways-Y" parts appear to be both brake lights and indicators (with a rather cool > >> >>> effect). With the blades in place, my feeling that the engine is detailed enough was confirmed... YMMV, obviously! ...and this is where I'm at tonight. Home straight tomorrow, I reckon... bestest, M.

Even though it's a documentary, they want to tell a story, and it's better for a story to have heroes and villains. It's a great movie, and Senna comes across very well. But Prost is cast in the villain's role, so you kinda have to think he's a jerk. Real life is a tad more complicated than that. I think it's an excellent movie, and even though I knew what would happen before I started watching it, I still teared up at the end. We should feel lucky, movie-wise, though.. the success of Senna means that the studios have green-lit Rush, a James Hunt vs Nikki Lauda in 1976 movie (coming soon, with Chis Hemsworth as Hunt); "Go Like Hell", the Ford vs Ferrari le Mans battle (one of the best car racing books I've ever read); and "The Drivers", Ridley and Tony Scott's (Alien and Blade Runner for Ridley, Top Gun for Tony) 10-part high end TV series (think "From the Earth to the Moon") about sports car racing in the 50s-60s-70s.... I loved Senna... I'm really looking forward to the rest! bestest, M.

A good milestone tonight: The chassis pretty much snaps into place, supported on two pins at the back and tabs at the front. I wouldn't like to do it too often before finishing (the rear pins are slim), but you can see that it does all go together nicely. Moving along: I'd suggest removing the pins that hold the grilles in - they have flanges that locate them perfectly well, and the pins prevent them slipping in fully (the engineering on this kit is superb, but the tolerances are so tight that you can only just get away with painting it before assembly, and a clearcoat that has any thickness causes problems...) If you WANT to have the engine bay opening, you'll have to rework the cut lines (the part that is separate in the kit is the whole upper rear quarter panel... in real life the panel lines you can see around the window bay, with the T-shaped bit on the right in this image, mark the engine cover opening). I've fixed the separate part down, and I will delineate the opening part with the way I highlight the panel lines. If you DON'T open the engine bay, then as you can see, it looks OK, even without the window blades. The main assemblies. After the mock-up earlier, I'm confident that they will all fit together nicely. I've read good things about the fit of the window glass into the body, so I'm hoping that progress will be speedy... And finally... The two moments in the Top Gear supercar challenge segment filmed at Imola that put an "action build" of this kit in my mind were the glowing brake discs, and the "blue flames" spitting from the exhaust, which really emphasised what a barely-tamed fire-snorting beast the Aventador is. This car is all about presence, and even though it has all the tech (like the McLaren and the 458), it's somehow vastly more "dramatic". If I was buying one as a daily drive, it'd be the McLaren; if I was buying one as a weekend drive, it'd be the 458; but if I was buying one for pure, balls-out, in-your-face fun, it'd be the Aventador. So, this model isn't complete without blue flames. I've been thinking about this for a while, and then I spotted an abandoned soap bubble blowing kit that the kids had left lying around, which was contained in a cylinder of pale blue plastic, as you can see. After some experiments, I discovered you can melt it and mess with it with cocktail stick. A bit of Citadel white, and some yellow ink, later, and this is where we are. They are trimmed to fit into the exhausts, but I'll do that late in the build, so I don't knock them off! Next up, the lights. There's some complex detail painting to do there... bestest, M.

...it looks like modifying a $120,000 supercar into something lethally undriveable on anything but flat straight roads... ;-P bestest, M.

Thanks, Chris... the lights are indeed going to be interesting! I'm thinking chrome silver overpainted with transparent colours at the moment, but we'll see. It might be easier for me, because in my version, they are at least meant to be on! Not sure what you mean about the engine compartment. It is painted, in Vallejo "German Grey" aka Panzer Grey, which is very dark. It looks lighter than it is in the photos on the workbench. It's just a stylistic choice really... when I have something like the cockpit or engine bay which is basically lots of black made from different materials, I try to vary the "colours" between several dark shades to give it a little variety and visual "texture", especially if you are only going to see it through windows... bestest, M.

My driver's finally turned up for work... Not much else to see at present - I've been fitting the etched grilles everywhere, and masking and paint the glass. The clearcoat on the body is hard enough to polish out a few dust speckles now, which will be the next task, then there will be a flurry of assembly. I also need to finish painting the head and tail light interiors, which are HIDEOUSLY complex... bestest, M.

Thanks, Simon.... good to have you on board! And that's the clear coat on. This is Zero Paints two-pack clear, which is currently at the "tack-free" stage. By the weekend it should be thoroughly dry, and I can polish out the odd speck of dust. If anyone wants to offer advice on polishing Zero 2K, then please jump in - I have some Novus plastic polishes, which is what I was going to use, but if anyone has any better ideas, fire away! bestest, M.

Thanks, gents... Here's where we are tonight: Lots of orange... This is just the Zero base colour. I think they are superb paints, but I found it took a while to get the two-part colour to be even and the right colour depth. Make sure you spray the doors and engine panel and body all together to finish, so the colour is identical! I think this is ready for clear now, though... The close-up's a bit unforgiving, but Stig is nicely under way now. bestest, M.

Brakes finished: Once again, simple, but finely moulded, and the decals work very well... This is the Zero Paints two-part Arancio Argos going on. Top is the base coat completed, bottom is three coats of the top coat. Methinks it needs a bit more "blood red" topcoat to be the way I want it... Chassis is done. The parts fit superbly - ie you have to remove the paint layers from mating surfaces for them to fit! The polycaps are a dog to get into position, but do the job brilliantly. And this convinces me that we will be able to see the braking effect when it's done! bestest, M.

Jaydar... I'm pretty sure these are the tires - I bought them direct: http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/p355/%231603-1/24-Tires-Pilots-245/45-18/product_info.html or they might have been these: http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/p354/%231602-1/24-Tires-Pilots-225/45-18/product_info.html They used to do mixed sets of a pair of each for front and rear, but they don't any more... Anyway, at last... some progress worth reporting. There has been a lot of priming, polishing, coat after coat of orange etc, and it seems to have been going quite slowly until suddenly lots of bits started to come together. Body and panels primed with Halfords white plastic primer and polished with 4000 and 6000 micromesh. I've actually started the base coast today, but it's not ready to photograph yet. Did I mention the orange? Lots of coats of Vallejo Game Colour Fiery Orange to get this far. The cabin is very simple - only 9 parts - and only two colours, really. I tried to make it a little more interesting with varied shades of black (the majority is Vallejo German Grey) and some washes. The decals work well. The engine bay. I'm confident it'll look fine underneath the segmented rear window. It would be hugely complex to engineer the rear chassis and suspension and a full engine, and make it very hard to build and get all four wheels on the ground as well. Personally, I'm glad Fujimi took this route or I'd still be doing it next year! I need to see exactly how it fits into the body and decide whether I need to build some gizmology underneath the grilles... Stig -- "mostly 'armless". I need the driver to be turning left, so I knew some modification would be needed. I used some softish aluminium tube to pin arms, having first chamfered all the joints so they could move more freely. I firmly fixed the tube with superglue at one end, and let it slide in the hole at the other. When I was ready to set it up, I used "90-second" epoxy to give me time to adjust everything to fit. When he was fully set in the cockpit, I removed him (I'd left the dashboard press-fitted in place so as to be able to remove him easily) Good old Milliput is perfect for filling the gaps and re-sculpting the figure. Ready for painting the rest of him, now. And that darn visor! ...and finally for tonight... the front brake discs. As you can see, I'm going for the full Clarkson... more on this later! bestest, M.

Next up on the bench, the new Fujimi Aventador. Very crisp mouldings, and excellent fit so far. There have been a fair few complaints about the fact that it's "kerbside," but I'm going to treat it like the Hasegawa Miura, which I thought was absolutely fine. I've fitted together the "body in white" - the bits that will be orange, rather than black/grey/carbon, so that I can spray it in one piece after addressing the fine mould lines. The sills fit great below the doors, but actually don't need the moulded recesses for the tabs ahead of the rear wheel arches, and need to be shimmed out. I have a cunning plan relating to the kerbside nature of the kit, which the chap in the seat is part of. Who is he? Some say he drinks a pint of MEK for breakfast... It's going to be the deep orange, so, I shall be using the black wheels. The front tyres have been criticised, so these have a pair of Pegasus replacements for the fornts, which are lower profile, and stretched slightly to go over these rims. They look OK to me... And this is what's taken most of the time so far - chain drilling and opening up all the vents for fitting the photo-etch mesh parts. There are more in the engine bay and floor pan, which I've also done. Not much fun, and I'm now wondering how much they'll need to be blanked to avoid the "see though" look as well. Time to look more closely at my pictures of the real thing... bestest, M.

Thanks, Harry... yes, next time I'll mask the window seals... Mind you, applying and removing the tape is probably yet ANOTHER way to break the windscreen pillars! bestest, M.

Thanks, Chris... if you're going to build one, there's a few more comments in the build thread here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52236 I'd say, given the choice, go for the 300SLR roadster, which they do in "722" Mille Miglia form. It has all the great engine and chassis detail and good fit of the interior to the body without the nightmare that is the doors... Maybe doesn't look _quite_ as cool, but YMMV. The 300SLR is Tamiya Gloss Aluminium; the SLS is my attempt at "Alubeam" silver, which is polished with SNJ Spray Metal polishing powder... bestest, M.

This is an older kit, with a lot of detail and a complete spaceframe chassis. The engine has had a bunch of wiring and plumbing added, but looks pretty good out of the box. Fit of the chassis and body is excellent; fit around the doors and bonnet is abysmal. Anyway, here she is... And a couple with its "grandson"... ... the Uhlenhaut seems like a big car until you put it next to the SLS... If I were doing another one, I'd fix all the parts of the doors together (inner, outer and window frame) very firmly, with plastic cement, before painting, and live with the masking that entails, because the door structure is very flexible and fragile. I'd also take a lot more care when fitting the glass to keep the glue where it needs to be and nowhere else, and be aware (and careful) of the thin and fragile A-pillars holding the roof. Rigging the spaceframe so that all the wheels are on the round is a challenge (which I didn't _quite_ meet). Follow the instructions strictly about which inner faces of the wheels are back and front. The four parts are NOT identical, though they look it at first glance - there are spacers on the back wheels and not the front. I found this out the hard way! So... if you strip the chrome, don't do it all in one batch - put the parts for each wheel in a separate bath of your chosen stripper... All in all, this was a challenging build, and I'm now looking forward to something more straightforward - a Fujimi Aventador, maybe ;-) bestest, M.

Slow progress, but progress nevertheless... a milestone today, anyway: Body and chassis ready to bring together. The glass is surrounded by a multilayered rubber and chrome seal, so I painted the edges black, then used a silver Gundam marker, and finally blackened the rim on the bodyshell. I was surprised by how well the glass fitted, generally, including the light fairings. Shame I couldn't say the same for the lights themselves. Added a few more tubes/cables to the engine to busy it up a little And finally... It looks a bit like a mummy - I wanted to leave the tape on until the chassis was set, to avoid popping things out as I flexed the body. It actually fits remarkably well! It'll be interesting to see if the bonnet and doors open properly now - they did when I test fitted, but only after a lot of paring down of the bonnet hinge... bestest, M.

The thing is, I've already done what I planned to with that colour: but the colour I was originally aiming at was this: ...and I found various online references claiming TS-22 as a good match for Lamborghini Verde Miura. It looks to me as though once upon a time it WAS a good match, but not so much nowadays... What I'm wondering is whether the paint changed colour, or whether the original recommendation was based on swatches which didn't reflect the paint colour accurately... bestest, M.