Matt Bacon

...and these are shot from further away with a longer lens and lower down, giving a more accurate impression of what you'd see while viewing a real car - compare with the same views above to see the difference! This Hasegawa Miura has to be one of the best car kits I've ever built - crisply moulded, exactly the right amount of detail, thoughtfully engineered, and outstanding fit. The metal transfers and decals are alo a dream to use (though you get a LOT more decals than you could possibly use - even if you remember to put the gear selector knob and ashtray cover decals in place, which I didn't!) Paint is Tamiya TS-22 Light Green overall, polished with Novus after it had throughly cured. Humbrol Aluminium from a can for the wheels and lower body. bestest, M.

Thank you, gentlemen. I'm calling this done, now: Better pictures in decent light to follow tomorrow, weather permitting... bestest, M.

I think you're right, Skip. I'm definitely on the home straight now: The chassis ready to go in. Take a good look, especially at that engine, because this is the last time it'll be visible! And together... in the end I did it three times (forgot the mirror the first time, doh!) but it snaps in really precisely, with only a little bit of "springing" the bodyshell sides to clear the cockpit. I only fixed the transparent window shell at the roof, so that it was free to flex away from the body at the lower edges, to minimise the risk of cracking the windows as I flexed the shell to get the chassis in. NB... you DO need to fit the wheels to the chassis before putting it in! By a quirk of lighting, the last two images are the most accurate representation of the true colour that I've managed to post yet. And finally... I like this one because it does give a sense of peering into a real car, somehow... Metal badges and decals now, then the final breakable details! bestest, M.

Thanks, Rod... I've completed window trims using BMF: ...and oh, look! There's a bit that needs touching up... grrrr. ...and started to add the grilles and lights I need to decide whether this one is going to have external rear view mirrors or not... bestest, M.

Thanks for the support, gentlemen... The chassis is now completed: It all fits together very well indeed. I followed the numbered sequence so that everything fits around and through everything else, except that I added the poly caps and brake discs to the wheel bearings right at the end. The back end looks the part - it's exactly detailed enough, and no more. What a contrast to that Fujimi "Enthusiast" 288 GTO... The eagle-eyed among you will note that I've highlighted the panel gaps a little -- thanks for the reminder, Skip. I happen to have a full set of Citadel coloured washes that are intended for wargaming figures, so I thought I'd try the transparent dark green to wash the lines with. I think it looks OK... not too stark a contrast, but clearly there... bestest, M.

Thanks, chaps... It seems like a million years since I did anything on this: building Box Art dioramas for the Classic British Kits SIG display at Scale Modelworld 2011 (UK Nats ++++) has kept me busy... Anyway, there HAS been progress: ...a Symphony In Black. This is all OOB, including metal "transfers", and painted with a variety of different textures of "black" including Halfords Satin auto spray, Plastikote "Velvet" for the carpets, Vallejo German Grey for leather dash and console, and Citadel "Chaos Black" for seats etc... The decals are excellent, although the carrier film is too big and misaligned, so the dials need trimming so they'll fit. The "engine" clicked into place (it needs to pop out again to fit the rear suspension). It's very well thought out - it looks great where you can see it (behind the wheels, through the window behind the seats) but isn't over engineered, given that the engine bay cover doesn't open. It's not exactly "kerbside", as you can see, but it's not loads of hidden, wasted, detail... either. bestest, M.

Well, if it's 201mm long, then it's 201/4558 scale, or 1/22.7, which is closer to 1/24 than 1/20... And you can find several different lengths for different period FX4s quoted (4580mm, and 14' 5.3" - 4402mm). So I don't think until we see the thing in real life, we'll know. Personally, I'd measure the wheel diameter to be sure... since we don't know what kinds of bumpers they might have been fitted with at different times... bestest, M.

A great kit of probably the best-looking, if not best-driving, supercar ever... It's very green... Tamiya Lime Green from a can, polished with Novus. Interior just getting started... bestest, M.

I guess it's probably to do with Revell's "local market". The 2CV is as iconic a car this side of the pond as the Beetle or the Mini, and neither the Tamiya kit nor the Heller are easy to come by. The Tamiya is £25 and not stocked widely; the Heller is out of production (and not coming back any time soon, since Heller effectively went bust, and are only slowly stepping back into the market with some 1/48 aircraft and 1/35 armour reissues) and not common on eBay, even in ghastly Airfix boxings. The Revell kit will be £15 or so, and widely available across Europe. Revell Germany has always done "popular" cars as well as supercars (Trabant, anyone?) and I think this is squarely in that bracket... They must sell, or else they wouldn't keep making them! Mind you, I'll have the Audi instead... the Mini is the only iconic small European car that I need - I'm a chauvinist, I'll admit... bestest, M.

I agree! The day someone builds a model which doesn't display a single one of the many "issues" raised here is the day the perfect model is built, and we can all give up and go home... I know _I'll_ never build one like that, and I prefer to think that I can learn something from every build I see, no matter how many things about it may niggle me. Just because someone does a bunch of things I may not like on their model doesn't mean they don't do _one_ thing better or cleverer than I know how to do, in which case I can try it that way on my next build. I think what makes the truly great modellers out there as good as they are is that they never stop learning, trying new things, developing and improving... bestest, M.

At the risk of being controversial... I agree with all of the above, but my biggest bugbear in many WELL-MADE models, is a beautifully executed super-smooth, deeply lacquered paint finish... that looks totally unrealistic and not at all like the prototype. The vast majority of real cars - not specially prepared show cars, but the real cars driven around real streets or on real racing circuits - simply don’t have glass-like “ultradeep†paint finishes. And ESPECIALLY not 50s/60s/70s race and sports cars - look at any period photos of a 250GTO, rather than beautiful “art†images of today’s restored and cherished examples, for example... The most realistic finish I’ve yet found is polished Tamiya acrylic sprays, with no clear coat. All those extra coats and rubbing down and clearcoats simply “blur†the details, make the panel lines less crisp, and quite often, frankly, make the beautiful model look toylike. IMHO, obviously ;-) bestest, M.

Does anyone know if there are any 1/24 kits of the Alfa Tipo 33 Stradale available? I’ve found the MFH one, but it’s a) too expensive, and not even available from HLJ any more... Any ideas? bestest, M.

This is Steve McQueen's NART Spider, bought in 1967 after he fell for the one driven by Faye Dunawaye in The Thomas Crown Affair. It didn't last long: it was rear-ended McQueen stopped to talk to a couple of pretty girls in bikinis on the PCH. After that he sold it on, and his wife bought him a Berlinetta... McQueen's mods to the original included a more aggressive rear spoiler, racing fuel cap and Tony Nancy re-upholstered seats. I've tried to capture all of those. I didn't build the aftermarket "radio console" because I have no idea what it looks like... Anyway... on with the pics: Here are a few from what I call the "people-sized" perspective, which give more realistic proportions: And finally... these are intended to match the two pictures of the real car in the book "McQueen's Machines" as closely as I can: And here's the evidence: I think this is a great kit (formerly Protar, I believe), and the mods to give it that distinctive McQueen look are not that challenging. I could wish that the windscreen frame hadn't broken quite so often! Full build thread (with better interior pics) is here: McQueen's NART Spider build bestest, M.

Thanks, Skip! This will probably be the last in-progress update before it's done: All that's left are the smaller lights, the mirror, the wipers and the folded hood behind the seats. I've reworked the hood with Milliput to look a bit more like the one in the picture, so that's setting now. I don't think I'm going to detail the engine bay any more. The bonnet hinge is a bit rubbish, so although it will open, I daren't/can't lift it fully without risking breaking it away completely. The chassis fitted into the body pretty painlessly but without really positive locations, so it could be better! The "rally" rear view mirror is from a Tamiya Jaguar MkII, and it looks close enough to me... bestest, M.

This is where I'm at tonight: Finally, some decent pictures, in which the varying textures and finishes are more or less visible!. The wheel has an aftermarket badge, which lifts the whole thing, I think... This is the chassis completed, with the engine bay more or less OOB. I'm still wondering about how much additional detailing (mostly tubes) to do. I'm hampered by the fact that people only seem to take pictures of the engine bay from the left-hand side! Still, it looks crisp to me as it is... Finally, a couple of shots of the body as it is now. Some detailing is on, but I'm leaving all the sticky-outy bits until I've got the inside, inside... The tape is holding the bonnet in place while the hinge sets, underneath. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the blinkin' windscreen frame broke AGAIN while fitting the screen... bestest, M.

Thanks, Matt, Jon and Skip... I have the book, and the picture above is one of the two of McQueen's NART Spyder in it. As the review says it "currently resides in New York," and I guess those are the New York plates in question... all the best, M.

I'm on the home straight with the 275 NART Spider, and I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea what plates it wore when Steve McQueen owned it? In the book (McQueen's Machines) it has New York plates, but I think that's a more recent photo. Do cars in the US keep the same plates for life, or do they get re-registered by new owners in new states? I guess if it was imported by Chinetti, it would have arrived in New York, so it may have been registered there, but I guess I was expecting it to have California license plates... anyone know for certain? Otherwise I'll just do it with the NY plates in the photo, and hope no one tells me any different later! bestest, M.

Thanks, chaps. One of the things that's hard to see is that there is a "carpet" texture in the appropriate areas, which I've tried to enhance with a matt varnish. I think, looking at the pictures of the real thing that I have, that flocking would be hugely overscale. The carpet is pretty short-pile and smooth, just not the same shiny texture as the leather parts... I'm still not quite there with the "big assembly phase", but this is where I am now: The chassis is now complete, and so is the cabin interior, with the exception of the steering wheel, which is still WIP. The block of balsa taped to the body is shaped to support that darn fragile window frame while I apply BMF to it tomorrow! Completed chassis the right way up. The engine bay will be pretty empty, but I'm going to wait until the parts attached to the cabin and the chassis are brought together before deciding how and what detail to add in this area... It's very hard to photograph this interior, especially in workbench lighting! I think it looks quite crisp with the silver details, but you can't really see the various textures and tones of black in this photo... bestest, M.

This is where I am as of last night: The chassis is just clipped together - there's the suspension to do. The seats have been "re-upholstered" in rather more padded Tony Nancy style. The cabin is a symphony in black on black with silver highlights, so I've tried to mix things up a bit with textures and surface finishes to give it a bit more interest. The 20 year old decals worried me, especially since the waxy cover paper was firmly attached, but the dials worked well after I used hot water to get them free, and Klear as a setting solution. The little Ferrari badge is an aftermarket one, mind you... The suspension is yet more evidence for the quality design and crisp moulding of this kit. Again, not too many pieces, but they fit together very well, and the finesse of the detail is clear. OK, so you don't get positionable front wheels (though you probably could make them turn if you wanted, at the cost of some loss of scale fidelity) I'm pretty sure that this is nearly ready for a big assembly phase... I keep thinking I'm there, and then some other bit that needs painting before I get started rears its head... bestest, M.

Thanks, chaps. 14 wires, Skip! Eeeeek... and tapered, too. I think I'd try stretching a length of styrene tube, with the smaller number of wires at the narrow end inside it, and then stuff the 14 into the big end... Whatever you choose, good luck with it! This is an attempt to capture the colour and effect more realistically - shot outside, against a neutral grey background, in diffuse dull light, and not using the macro mode on the camera... If anything it's a bit too dull, but I didn't remember to put any pure white in shot to get the top-end accurate for my "levels". The colour is dark, but a little more "zingy" and not quite so grey as it looks here... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! I'm afraid my budget doesn't run to wire Borranis - they'd cost three time what the kit did! But, Dave, if you are going to build one of the racing ones (and really, you should do the pale yellow one that had a successful racing career AND was the red one Faye Dunaway drove in The Thomas Crown Affair, which gave McQueen the hots for one...) you'll need to find some Campagnolo alloy wheels - Renaissance from France do them for a great deal less than a set of wires! Anyway, I have actually made some progress in the last few days: There are three things that make McQueen's 275 unique: the seats, the perky ducktail, and the flippy fuel filler. Here you can see the final effect of the latter two. The seats are still WIP. I have a good reference picture of the 275GTB/4 engine, which is what's inside the Spider, which shows the ignition wiring running through a conduit on the cam cover. I cannot for the life of me see how the six wires from the distributor can fit inside the conduit but they do, and they come out in a 1-2-2-1 layout, with the last one straight out of the end. It took a while to figure out how to even attempt this layout, but in the end I decided to use some very fine insulated wire from an old computer cable. I untwisted one end and attached six of the strands to the distributor, and at the other twisted three strands to form a spark plug lead. The other leads are fine lead wire fed into holes drilled at the base of the cam cover. I then stuck the wire over the top to give the impression that the leads were coming out of it. The leads from the distributor are too thin; the "conduit" is too fat, but it's as close to the real layout as I can get. This is what it looks like with both sides done. The water? pipe is painted with Humbrol "Chrome Silver" acrylic (as is the flippy fuel filler), which gives a great chrome effect, IMHO.. And here's the completed engine. There are't that many parts (certainly less than 20), but as I said, the plastic in this kit is very well designed and crisply moulded, and I think it makes up into a very convincing unit. The exhausts are sprayed in Halfords grey primer followed by a deliberately "light" overspray of Tamiya Aluminium, in an attempt to get a slightly rough texture and matt/greyish silver colour, which matches my photo... Next, the cockpit! bestest, M.

Slow progress... and a bit "two steps forward and one step back today"... Got the first coat of blue on: But it'll need a second, and I've got a couple of areas where the blue carrier has "pooled" along a panel line, so I'll have to wait for it to set hard and polish it back before applying the second coat. I've made a socket for the flip up filler cap on the body, and built the actual filler cap, painted in Humbrol's "Chrome Silver" acrylic, which is amazing... I've had one go at re-upholstering the seats, but I wasn't satisfied, so I've taken it all off (hooray for Milliput) and will try again tomorrow... bestest, M.

This is where we are now... Looks a bit rough, but after some 8000 micromesh that'll all go away. The smooth curves of the real thing are now coming together. Unforgiving picture, but if you compare this to the kit, you can see that the ducktail is much more vertical. The plastic in this kit is REALLY good; I believe that it originated with Protar. The detail is fine and crisp, and they've done a great job of figuring out how many parts they need - a great compromise between the soft details of the XKSS I did, and the ludicrous over-engineering of the Fujimi Enthusiast GTO. And this is the colour I've chosen: a Halfords Ford blue. It's impossible to photograph accurately in the sun! The seats with their unique "Tony Nancy" upholstery are under way... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... I'm back at the bench now. Here's a couple of slightly larger pictures of the real thing: If you want to build any of the cars McQueen owned, there's no better reference than "McQueen's Machines: the cars and bikes of a Hollywood icon", by Matt Stone. It covers the man's own cars and collection - if you want to focus on the making of "Le Mans" and the race cars in that, you need "A French Kiss with Death" by Michael Keyser. McQueen's Machines is available from Amazon here: McQueen's Machines bestest, M.

This is the Revell Ferrari 275 NART Spider, which I picked up for £15 on a good day on eBay last year. I want to do it as Steve McQueen's car, which he bought after being smitten with the one Faye Dunaway drove in The Thomas Crown Affair. The car she drove is the most famous NART Spider of them all, with a solid racing history as well as a starring movie role, and would be a great choice for a subject. But it needs Campagnolo alloy wheels, not wires... you can get them from Renaissance, but they'd double the price of the kit, and anyway, I have a "McQueen's Machines" theme, don't I? ;-P Steve McQueen's Spider was modified, like many of his cars. In this case, what it needs is the ducktail spoiler made a tad more aggressive, a flip up fuel filler cap, no bumpers, reupholstered "Von Dutch" seats, and a console for a radio. It's the spoiler that I've been most nervous about, not wanting to cut into a kit that would be quite hard to replace (for a reasonable price, anyway) but last night I decided to take the plunge: I cut diagonally from the angle where the rear panel and spoiler meet toward the blend on the top of the boot lid (ie from the back end of the car toward the front), and then before I'd gone all the way through, simply bent the whole thing upward, aided by some liquid cement along the "scored" bend line. I pushed a sausage of Milliput into the gap from the back and I had a slightly taller, more vertical spoiler. I'm sure it'll take a couple of rounds of filling and sanding to get it smoothly blended in, but from here: To here: has only taken an hour or so, so far... The bumper mountings are gone as well. Now I have to figure out how to find or make McQueen's unique blue, which was specially mixed for the car... bestest, M.