Matt Bacon

Thanks, Niko... It's been a long time... I've been travelling, but with a long weekend and half-term break in prospect, I can actually get back to the bench occasionally... Unfortunately, I've just discovered that my Zero 2K hardener has, well, hardened, so this bodyshell is going no further until urgent supplies arrive from Hiroboy! Time to crack on with the interior, I reckon... bestest, M.

Thanks! Windows cleaned up nicely: Light sanding with my finest grade sanding sponge, and then Novus polish, working through all three grades. Body sprayed with Tamiya Dark Blue. It's hard to see the colour clearly, but it IS blue, honest. I'll be leaving that to cure in the airing cupboard until next weekend before polishing it. You can probably just about see that I opened up the bonnet scoop - I can't find many pictures of 250SWBs with the mesh screen that Gunze provides, and lots, including the Rob Walker car, which just have an open intake. This is the dash in progress. It too is dark blue, with black leather on the top. The etched instruments are beautifully done - sprayed black and then lightly sanded to take the paint off the raised detail, and they look superb. Unfortunately, they are ever so slightly too big! Hence the blu-tak supporting them in their bezels. I'll use white glue to fix them and then Klear to add the "glass". One of the little swine has pinged into the distance, as well, which means I'll have to make one... And finally... I _have_ been working on the 458 as well. This has had the mould seam removed (and a broken A-pillar remedied - it hadn't cracked quite right through, but it clearly been crushed at the top. This box must be over-filled, with both this and the windscreen damaged..) This is in white primer. I'd hoped to get the yellow on this weekend, but ran out of time. bestest, M.

This makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable with this build! Grille frame painted with Humbrol Acrylic spray Metalcote Polished Aluminium over Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. There's a little more tidying up to do, but I'm happy that the part that I was most worried about is now there or thereabouts. I'm sure there's lots of other things to mess up, but I'm reasonably confident that the grille won't derail the rest of the build now! bestest, M.

... I assume you've wired up the driver so he actually shifts gear at the right places? That's just beautiful. Awesome job. Don't break it at the first corner... bestest, M.

Thanks, gentlemen. I think I may be going to have some issues with clear parts: These 250 SWB windows have clearly been rattling about in the bag through several owners and international journeys! I have Micromesh and Novus polish, though, so I'm sure they are fixable! This, however, is going to be more of a challenge. I've spoken to a nice lady in Revell Germany's UK office, and she's taken my details and promised that a replacement clear tree will be with me in 4-6 weeks. Fortunately, on this kit, the 458 windscreen drops in from outside, late in the build, so it shouldn't stop me doing anything except attaching the windscreen wipers... Still, both things I could do without! bestest, M.

I didn't say there was anything wrong with the kit's grille, except that it's rather hard to put together! The prancing horse will go on later, just before I put the whole thing into the frame. Forgive me, Phil, but that looks like the Esci/AMT kit, rather than the Gunze one, unless you've cut open the bonnet and used different wheels... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! @Dan, I'll be using the kit wheels but with some lower profile Pegasus tyres. To be honest, I think the SWB is going to be pretty challenging, so I don't want to make life more difficult for myself than I need to on the 458! Revell's "quirky" way of attaching the wheels means that replacing them with aftermarket designed for the Fujimi is more trouble than I want to go to... I think I will stick with using the kit wheels, stripping the chrome, and doing them with a "diamond turned" finish like the DBS (though I think Ferrari's version has dark grey rather than black base wheel colour. bestest, M.

I decided it might be a fun "compare and contrast" to build two of the Ferraris that have been in the stash for longer than they should have been: the Revell 458 Italia, and the Gunze Sangyo 250SWB Berlinetta. The 458 Italia is going to be in a yellow-ish colour scheme; the 250SWB, hopefully, in the dark blue Rob Walker racing colours driven by Stirling Moss. However, I might cheat and NOT try to switch the car from LH to RH drive, because unlike the GTO, the subtly curved dash of the 250 SWB will be pretty hard to flip! Here's the starting line! The 250SWB doesn't look TOO small by comparison... There is one thing I've been dreading with the 250SWB, which is one of the reasons why it has lingered in the stash for as long it has. The distinctive "egg-crate" grille is built up out of 17 individual interlocking pieces of photo-etch. It's a bit of a "make or break" element for this build, and since it's a standalone assembly, I thought I'd get it out of the way first, to face my demons and remove the scary influence it was having on me... I read a few online reviews and builds (few and far between, I must say) and one thing I took away was that the instructions are unhelpful and the slats don't fit in the sequence suggested. To hold the parts as I assembled them, I stuck some Tamiya masking tape tacky side up onto a piece of perspex with double sided tape. Then, I drew around the interior of the grille frame (a chromed part) so I could see the "square hole" that the "round peg" was going to have to fit into. I placed the central verticals either side of the centreline. BE WARNED: the places where you bend the slats at 90 degrees are marked at one end with a slot, and at the other with two holes. The "two-hole" ends MUST go at the BOTTOM of the grille. The folded ends also all fold toward the centreline. It's pretty clear looking at the shape, where the LONGEST slats need to fit. The fold-up ends on the slightly shorter one needed to be adjusted slightly so it fitted below the longer one. The etch-mate/hold n fold (I can't remember which one it is) doesn't come out very often these days, but when it does, it's invaluable. It'd be VERY hard to do all these 90 degree bends in pretty hard etch with out something like it. I'm glad I remembered I'd got one! The shortest slat is clearly at the bottom. Then it's a matter of trial and error with the other three to get as close as you can to the outline of the hole. I know already it's not going to fit first time, but, since I was stripping the chrome anyway, I'd rather slightly reshape the interior of the grille frame until it fits than mess around trying to trim and re-bend the metal parts. When all the horizontals were in place, I applied medium viscosity superglue to the joins with a pin, and once it had set, VERY carefully, lifting by the verticals (which are UNDER the horizontals at every join), I eased the whole thing up and flipped it over back onto the tape. Then I applied the rest of the verticals, a pair at a time, working outwards, and gluing each one as it was put in place. DON'T FORGET: the two hole bends go at the bottom and the bent tabs go toward the centre. (I'm saying it twice 'cos it's a pain in the **** if you get it wrong. If you look carefully at the photos above, you can see that I started with the centre verticals the wrong way up. Thank goodness for debonder). I did it by bending the first of each pair and putting it in the place where it fitted (the first one you bend will always go on one side or the other), and then working out carefully which way the second one would have to bend to go in the remaining slot... Finally, I eased the whole assemble gently off the tape with my flat Stanley-knife blade from the bending kit, and that horrible job is mostly done (I won't count it finished until I have adapted the frame and got the grille to sit nicely inside it...) Apologies for the length of this post, but I couldn't find any assembly sequence for this beastie online, so I hope it will help others. Thanks to the various people who offered advice before I started -- even if I didn't take it all on board, it was all helpful to get me thinking about how best to do it! bestest, M.

Hi, all... I've just started work on a Gunze Ferrari 250 SWB. The radiator grille is built up from strips of photo-etch. The short verticals are slotted half way through on the front edge, and the long horizontals half way through on the back edge. In theory, they interlock criss-cross fashion to make up the "egg-crate" grille. Gunze would have you place the centre two verticals and then the centre pair of horizontals, and then fill outwards vertically and horizontally a pair at a time. The problem is, once you have placed the first pair of verticals and crossed the horizontals, you have to lift the whole thing up to get the next pair of verticals "underneath", and repeat over and over. The fit is good, but not completely snug, so the whole thing can move at any stage unless the joints are stuck. Currently, I've got as far as placing the first pair of verticals on some double sided tape, dropping the first pair of horizontals in place, and marking all the locations of the rest of the verticals. My thought is to remove the horizontals, place all the other verticals at the marked locations, and then drop all the horizontals. I'm worried, though, that if I join the slats with liquid superglue, it'll run down and stick the grille to the mat below. I also might be barking up the wrong tree entirely! Anyone built either this kit or anything like this out of etched brass and have any hints and tips that they'd care to share? Many thanks! bestest, M.

Hi, all... this is the method I use for painting carbon fibre effect finishes on car parts. It's not perfectly to scale, but it gives a good "impression" on a model, and especially if you need it on interiors where it won't be examined too closely. Works well over compound curved shapes which would be a pain to decal as well... You start with some ribbon from your local haberdashers/craft shop/Boyes/Walmart, that looks like this: As you can see, I have two sizes. The one on the left is usable for radiator grilles etc, and is really too coarse, but gives a more clearly visible effect and hence a better contrast "at a glance". You decide whether you prefer the closer to scale look or the clear contrast between carbon diffuser and red bodywork! The base material is just painted black. In this case it's a bit of spare black painted card headlining that I used on the DBS. You need to hold the ribbon CLOSE to the model part. It stretches and conforms nicely, but use tape to hold it down or fix the part in place and stretch it over with your fingers if necessary to make sure it conforms closely to the part. The finer the mesh, the more important this is. If you don't have it close enough, the pattern just blurs and eventually isn't there at all... Spray with your contrasting "carbon" coat. I use Zero Paints Graphite Grey, but any darkish metallic grey will do. You can also paint the base coat in the metallic grey and overspray with black through the mesh if you want to vary the effect, say in an engine bay with several carbon fibre elements. You should up with something like this (the clear coat I used quickly is attacking the black base paint on the card, which is why you can see bits of gold colour emerging -- choose your paints carefully for compatibility!). You can see that the right hand side is much finer patterned than the left. It has a discernible pattern, but from any distance it will merge to grey. The other will give a stronger impression of "carbon" on your model, but if a contest judge gets out the magnifying glass or picks it up, it'll be too coarse for scale. You pays your money and you takes your choice (the ribbon, by the way, costs about 50p for 3 feet, and you can use it over and over...) I hope that this helps some of you! best regards, Matt

The FG wheels are ace. They are resin, though you'd be hard pressed to tell looking at pictures -- they come on a "runner" that looks for all the world like it's been injection moulded . Mine were just primed with Tamiya fine surface primer, sprayed with gloss black acrylic, and then the "chrome" was applied. No filling, no sanding, clean up at all. The hub rears and locating pin are separate, so you can paint the centre disc and bolts chrome separately before gluing the hub in place. I got mine from Media Mix Hobby in Singapore. They were delivered to me in the UK six days after I ordered them! They are currently listed at AUS $13.87: http://www.mediamixh...rands/fg-model/ Now I've got to go check out that Ultimate Edition... (I shall be very interested to see how Aston responds with the Vantage or its replacement when Jaguar's F-Type -- now there's a car that Tamiya should be tooling up -- becomes available in 2013: the F-Type will be state-of-the-art and £60K when the Vantage is a little tired and £100K+) bestest, M

I'm seriously tempted to get another kit and do THIS one: with a largely black interior. bestest, M.

I'm talking here about those real metal foil transfers that are typically used for small chrome details and badges. I had no end of trouble with the ones in my Tamiya DBS kit, with them not sticking or lifting paint (on the engine cover). Previously I'd used a sheet of aftermarket Ferrari logos with no issues, but this is how I finally solved the problem of the Tamiya ones - but only on the last one, so I'm posting it up here in the hope that other people can learn from my mistakes! First of all, there's usually some spare metal transfer - in the Tamiya DBS case, a sort of sheet identifier number on a plaque. Don't ignore it! Just try applying some of this spare transfer to the surface or surfaces you need the real things to go on, and see if it goes on easily. If so, you're set. But if not, you haven't trashed a unique and fragile transfer in finding out (in my case,, "6.0 V12"). This is especially a problem since the elements of these transfers are not actually connected in any way once they are off the backing and cover film. The transfers are most likely to stick properly to a smooth, shiny surface. In the DBS decal sheet, there are several number plate frames where the clear decal film covers the whole area of the plate, but only the border is printed in colour (eg the Italian plate). I applied the metal transfer to some of the clear decal film. You can rub it down HARD on a flat, level surface and be sure that the thing has firmly stuck down. Then, cut the decal film close to the metal transfer and apply it like a normal decal. The glue on the transfer is not affected by the water. I used Klear as a setting solution, and the underlying decal film is completely invisible. Most kits have some spare decals with extra clear film, and if the specific kit you're building doesn't you've certainly got some in the spares box or stash of other kits that will... best regards, Matt

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys. It's much appreciated! +1 on the "More Aston kits" plea! Although the current crop of mainstream cars are a bit "same-y", no more so than Mercedes', I reckon, and the One-77 is a standout supercar to compare with an SLS, Aventador or 599 GTO, all of which already exist in 1/24. And it's not as if Aston Martin is some obscure car maker - as a brand it's been recognised as Britain's Coolest for two years now, pipping Apple. I'm sure that has something to do with 007... There's more to the back catalogue than the DB5/6 as well... having seem them racing hell for leather at the weekend, surely someone could do a state of the art DB4 in 1/24 that could be released Italeri/Protar style as a DB4, DB convertible, DB4GT and DB4GT Zagato just by changing the body shell! The plate is from Demon Plates: http://www.demonplates.com/platebuilder.php You get lots of choices for plate fonts, style, badges etc (all legal and usable) If you go into the "Plate Size" tab, there's a section for "Model Specific Plates" which includes the DB9/DBS (and a lot of Jags and Range Rovers) Their configurator image is a little too "rendered" for my taste, so I messed with it in Photoshop until it looked "flatter" If you look REALLY HARD, the CAR80N is in carbon-weave style lettering, and underneath it, in teeny-tiny letters, it says "Matt Bacon Miniature Motors" ;-P bestest, M.

The Seventies took me from the age of 5 to 15; from Matchbox cars to my first girlfriend; from Ribena to my first beer. As for cars, they were a dead loss. Ain't NOTHING to wax nostalgic about among the British cars of the 1970s, when the cold, clammy hand of British Leyland lay across the car industry, and nothing remotely cool was designed or driven by my friends' Dads ('cos obviously, only Dads drove, then....). The Morris Marina? The Austin Princess? The Austin Allegro? The best you could aspire too was a Rover SD1 or Jaguar XJ-S, and they are only now being appreciated for actually being quite good; at the time, they got a pretty bad press! There was a bit of European exotica to get excited about, especially if you played Top Trumps, where the Countach swept all before it (as did the Huey Cobra in my Helicopters pack, and the SR-71 in the planes one... I also had the world's most pointless Top Trumps set, mostly Group C and Le Mans cars, which since all the cars were built to a set of rules were almost always a draw when you called out the figures on the card!) I had a Countach and an F40 on my wall, alongside Bo Derek and Debbie Harry, but that was about it. So, I guess I'm not nostalgic for any period of car design that I actually lived through. I love 50s-60s European sports cars because they are beautifully designed objects, and I like a lot of today's "Exotics" from around the world (although the Hennessey Venom and new Viper are about the only American "Sports Cars" I have any time for) because they are amazing pieces of engineering and form follows function sculpture, even if they aren't as beautiful as an XK120. So in my case, nostalgia ain't what it used to be! bestest, M.

You'll find a LOT of builds under way in the Vehicles - Work in Progress section over at Britmodeller: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showforum=382&prune_day=100&sort_by=Z-A&sort_key=last_post&topicfilter=all&st=0 There are at least 10 threads, some with conversions, but all with lots of helpful commentary and reference information, and info on the real things as well (there are several hard-core bus enthusiasts on the board) It's probably the best place to participate in a 1/24 Routemaster community! HTH - it's not my thing, but even I'm tempted just by the quality of the kit (same reason I built a 1/72 Type VII U-boat!)... bestest, M.

Done... and what a cracking kit! I can't recommend this kit highly enough... superbly detailed and engineered, and a real pleasure to build. The only issue is those darn metal transfers, which I (finally) figured out that I should apply to some of the "spare" bits of decal, like the number plates, and then waterslide them into place. Colour is "homebrew" Carbon Black - Zero Paints black with some graphite powder - with a "Madagascar Orange" interior. The "Carbon Edition" has more visible carbon fibre interior and exterior (splitter plates and diffuser) and crackle-black coated exhausts. For those not in the UK, that's a genuine, legal UK number plate, BTW... bestest, M.

Thanks, Gentlemen! Good progress today: This is the back end, with "smoked" rear lights (special option for the Carbon Edition) tinted using Klear and a couple of drops of black ink in the airbrush. There really are no visible colours in the light lenses at all... ... and the front end. The lights go together brilliantly, even though I've forgotten the zebra stripe decals for the silver surrounds. They are lost inside the mounting, anyway. I left the lighting bay surround in black plastic, since that's what it is in real life! Clear parts painted. I used the excellent precut masks, and started out with a "write on anything" pen for the first coat, to ensure that there was something for paint to "take" on, and finished off by spraying with Vallejo Model Air black to get a good density. This is a "Because God can see" detail... The carbon edition has quilted leather headlining, which is replicated here using painted textured card from small daughters greeting card making kit... You can't see this at all when it's together, but I like it! ...and now, time to take a last look at that shiny interior... And at last! It's together... Once again, the fit and ease of assembly is superb. There's still a fair bit of detailing to do, and the final decals, but I think I'm on the Home Straight now... bestest, M.

I thought the Hasegawa Miura was one of the best kits I've ever built: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=48008&hl=miura&fromsearch=1 I was coming at it after a Fujimi Enthusiast Model 288GTO, and I thought the Hasegawa engineers had done a great job on creating a kit that fitted together superbly, and had exactly the right amount of detail in all the right places. bestest, M.

Keeping on keeping on over here... Final version of the dash with as much detail painting as these old eyes can manage! And here it is in place. I made the window controls and whatever the little levers on the tunnel are by printing out bits of photos and sticking them in place, and added speakers under the dash... which you can't see at all! Now got it on the chassis, where it fits perfectly. And, again, I couldn't resist (the mechanism for attaching the body to the chassis is simple and repeatable, so why not give it a try?) I suspect the Tamiya chassis doesn't have the full depth wheel arches that Fujimi kits do, which means that the fitting of the body to the chassis is not a "once-and-for-all" gamble with lots of bodyshell springing! Though I say it myself, I'm liking this colour scheme! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! Killing time with the online plate maker at http://www.licensepl...ngland-719.html ... I know which one I prefer! Any views from the assembled crowd? To see which one I like, click below: bestest, M.

Good progress on the cabin this evening: Not quite finished yet -- there are a few details left to add in the doors and central tunnel, and the decals for badges and auto gearbox indicators. And the colour isn't really a good reflection of what it's like in daylight. But I think I'm getting there... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... the wheels are FG Model, bought from Media Mix Hobby in Singapore... brilliant, speedy service (6 days to the UK) and a great price. The interior orange is a mix of Vallejo Model Air yellow and firery red, toned down a little with their medium skintone. Chassis is now complete... the wheels went on more easily than I'd feared they might. I have some silicone "plastic parts" grease from the bike shop, and I applied that to the polycaps before sliding them into place. The "chroming was done using a Pentel Silver marker, with very liquid ink, which dissolves in white spirit. I also had some "rub n buff" silver leaf. By using a paintbrush to mix the ink, rub n buff and occasional brushfuls of white spirit to keep it all liquid, I got a controllable colour which could be carefully brushed onto the high edges. When it had set after several hours in a warm place, I could gently buff it with a soft cotton rag on my fingertip. And finally.... couldn't resist trying it... Now hard at work on the interior... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! Positively galloping along, now... this is Stage 8! It may be all black and silver, but it's amazing how many different kinds of black and silver you can use if you put your mind to it! I'm very glad this is done now! The back end is beautifully crisp, fits well, and is brilliantly engineered -- typical Tamiya! I have to confess, I didn't paint some of the parts -- the plastic is _already_ a nice "semi-gloss black", so what's the point of priming it and painting it the same colour, and making it fit less well while I'm at it? These are the FG DBS wheels in "diamond-turned" form, as featured on the "Black carbon" edition, fitted with Pegasus Models Pilots for the real low-profile look. They were sprayed gloss black with a Humbrol acrylic in a rattle can, and then "chromed" with my own witches' brew of Pentel silver pen ink mixed with "Rub n'Buff"... The centres, with nuts, form a separate piece including the pin that becomes the axle. My only worry is about the strength of the join between that pin and the wheel - I used gel super glue, and will give it plenty of time to set really hard before trying to plug them in to the poly caps in the wheel bearings, but I can easily see a wheel falling off if I'm not careful... bestest, M.

That's absolutely lovely Simon... I think mine will be heading for the bench as soon as I get the DBS finished! Colour looks great, and all your usual exquisite detailing is present and correct. I, too, find it hard to imagine what could be worth First Place if that's "just" a Second! I only have one regret: you put a "Ferrari" badge on it -- I think Dinos should just be Dinos, as they were originally... ;-P bestest, M.