Matt Bacon

Mostly been working on the 250 SWB today: The white base is a ceramic tile, for making sure the wheels all sit square on the ground. ...bit of a traffic jam building up on the bench! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! I've been making progress on the 250SWB this afternoon: The front suspension is also a little tricky, but with the help of gel superglue and "Serious Glue", which give you rather more time to get it finally in position, here we are. These are the exhaust tips. The middle two have been polished in this picture, by chucking them in my Dremel and spinning them using fine wire wool. And here's the exhaust system in place. It'll need some final adjustment when the body is on to make sure the tips float in the right place. The white metal is surprisingly brittle, I discover! ;-( Finally for today, the two chassis moving along nicely in parallel... bestest, M.

Thanks guys! Gregg -- I have no idea what resistance soldering is, so you'd better do that article! 458 chassis going together: And a test fit with the body, which snaps into place beautifully! More time at the workbench this weekend... and many thanks to a fellow car modeller for the donation of one set of Stirling Moss markings from the out of print VRM sheet! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! Slow progress, but now everything is very shiny! The 458 is finished in Zero 2K Clear - no polishing yet. The 250 is Tamiya Dark Blue rattle can acrylic, polished with Novus #2. Back to work on the chassis, now... bestest, M.

It'll be alright on the night.... is what I'm thinking! 250 SWB chassis making progress. Getting the back end together is not trivial... I took several photos because the instructions aren't entirely clear! Your best bet for locating the axle is the springs, which fit solidly onto pins at each end. Do NOT glue the torsion bars in pace at the end of the chassis. The springs are a push fit, which may come in useful... I fitted one side spring, then slipped the torsion bars in place and located the end of the axle in the spring. The torsion bars need to be more or less in place, or else you can't rotate them into position. But don't glue anything yet! Finally, I pushed the other spring into place, which hold it all nicely. If the torsion bars won't just "fall" into place, the you'll have to pull a spring off and do it again -- don't ask me how I know. The props haft can slide within the differential, so I located last of all. Once everything is snugly press-fitted, and sits nicely, use thin superglue to set it all in place... And here's two chassis at more or less the same stage... bestest, M.

Thirded... There's plenty of clear decal film in the middle of some of the number plates and frames... I'd apply the engine transfers to the decal film, rub 'em down, and then cut close to them to apply them as a traditional waterside decal. It'll keep the elements together and spaced, and stick them down better. bestest, M.

Thanks, my friend... And here are those wheels: They're painted in Zero paints Graphite Grey, which is a good match for the Grigio Ferro Metallic option. Revell's wheel construction is strictly incorrect -- there's no interior "spider" at the back, but it's virtually invisible, and I've helped the effect along by painting the "spokes" matt black. They should be very hard to see once the wheels are inside the wheel wells. Ferrari badges are aftermarket as are the tyres -- Pegasus Sport pilots, which are a more realistic sidewall height than the thick offerings in the box. The brake disc detail is crude, but close-up photos like this exaggerate the effect. I'm sure it'll look OK as part of the overall "picture"... The first real "compare and contrast" moment. The outside diameter of the wheels is very similar, despite 15" rims on the 250SWB and 20" rims on the 458. The huge difference in width is apparent, too... bestest, M.

Moving on with the 458 in parallel... Three stages to a "carbon" diffuser. I've moved on from the ribbon, and now have a square metre of toile fabric and some tacky repositionable "Spray Mount" glue. Sprayed one side of the fabric and cut it up to fit the complex diffuser shape; sprayed Zero "Graphite Grey" over the satin black base; then Tamiya TS-13 Clear to finish. Rather that than decal something this shape, I'll tell you! Engine has few parts, but paints up nicely, especially when you near in mind how buried it is! The intake manifold and "carbon" airbox. The intake manifold has received a coat of Plastikote Velvet, then Tamiya Italian red, then finally matt varnish to get the "crackle" textured effect. This carbon is black over graphite grey, just for variety. I'll need to sharpen up the logos on the covers, but I'll do that when I stop handling it (the pipework between the air box and manifolds needs painting yet...) Now on with some modern wheels! bestest, M.

Hi, Simon... the yellow is Zero paints Giallo Modena... I made some more progress today... The 250 SWB wheels are cracking. The tyres, less so. I've replaced these with some spares from a Heller E-type (which, in turn, will be wearing Tamiya Jag MkII wire wheels and tyres). They are the same (and correct for a 250 SWB) 185/15s all round, unlike the GTO tyres which Gunze would have you use, which are noticeably bigger at the back... Dashboard is finally done. I lost one of the little dials, but I defy you to spot it in this shot, and it's not even inside yet! Making progress on the interior. Chassis is trimmed as needed (the GTO uses the same white metal piece, but is longer in the nose). Blue seats, blue carpets... In the background, I've also made the necessary alterations to the WM rear axle and brakes to get the narrower track vs the GTO (all in the instructions, but a DIY job), and progressed the 458s engine and wheels... bestest, M.

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.