Matt Bacon

I'm using Safari or Firefox on a Mac, Safari on my iPhone, on a Plusnet Fibre to the Home connection which gets 150 Mb/s download and 60Mb/s to the desktop I'm browsing on. I have no problem with other sites running on Invision (eg Britmodeller) with exactly the same setup... pages load almost instantly. It's only been doing this since the "upgrade" which introduced thumbnail images into post listings... best, M.

For me on phone or desktop, the whole forum is unusable today. It’s been getting worse, but now none of the pages render fully, and the thumbnail images all have to load (incredibly slowly) before the page will respond to any navigation at all. It’s not just sluggish, it feels like it’s on its last legs… Sorry, best, M.

I’m going to use Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, which worked perfectly well on the Silver Ghost. I’ll do a test and if there are any issues I’ll use Halfords (auto repair shop) Primer for real car paint. The real trick is to get the body properly clean. best, M.

You'd never know it to look at their shed or the scrapyard next door, but my new go-to guys are clearly well-trained petrolheads in their early 30s who did a good apprenticeship and took it seriously. There's a Corrado out back being fixed up, which is pretty rare groove. They know all the local specialists for things like full gearbox rebuilds, and who might have obscure parts, and there are a LOT of bits in that breaker's yard. I doubt that AMG G-Wagens are that common in main dealers, and they've had two different ones in the last couple of times I've visited (I notice these things...). Plus, very few people know enough to get excited about the little FIAT's funky 900cc TwinAir engine, but they did... best, M.

This is very much not my comfort zone. Can anyone tell me how different this: Is from the 1963 Wllard Battery model available in the AMT/Revel Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame model set: Indycals has the '62 Leader Card decals, so if it's just a paint conversion or some minor plastic fettling, then it might be do-able... best, M.

As a counterpoint to the “couldn’t make it up thread” I just wanted to call out a couple of examples of folks who know what they’re doing… We’ve got a FIAT Panda 4x4… pretty much the only small 4x4 there is. Local shop with a shed full of AMGs and high-end Audi’s were happy to go to work on it. Long story short, the rear diff was shot, and that model only ran 3 years from 2012-2015. They looked all over Europe for a replacement without finding anything less than $1500. After a couple of weeks they sourced all the internals and rebuilt the old one completely from the ground up. Cheaper, better and guaranteed by them. Secondly, today… main dealer said I needed new tyres on the front end of my Skoda at the annual MoT test last week. Don’t like paying main dealer prices for tyres so bought and booked in replacements at my local tyre specialist. Took the car in today and they put it on the ramp. “Why are you changing these?” says the guy. “There’s a few thousand miles in them yet.” So he refunded me the money I’d paid, and I’ll go back in the autumn some time. He could have just changed them and taken my money, like the main dealer wanted to, but he didn’t… best, M.

Hey, all straight sixes look alike in the dark… ? There’s a nice one in the Monogram Maserati 3500 too… best, M.

That’s an “interesting” interpretation. One of the two cars supplied by Aston Martin was the prototype DB5, which had started life as a DB4 Series 5 but hadn’t been upgraded internally to full DB5 spec. The bean-counting guys at Aston Martin justified it on the basis that the production was going to mess with the car big-time anyway and it had served its purpose already as real DB5s were now in production, so it didn’t matter. The second car was a full-fat DB5, chassis DB5/1486/R. Both were used for filming in the UK. The second full-DB5 car was the one that was damaged on the ferry to Switzerland, and the gearbox ragged-out, so the modified “stunt car” with gadgets was shipped out to stand in in later filming. In fact “the” Goldfinger Aston Martin is a hybrid of two cars, differently equipped, filmed at different times, sometimes together. One is a highly modified DB4 Series 5, with a lot of features a regular one doesn’t have, and a mechanical spec that’s a DB5; the other is a DB5 that doesn’t have any gadgets. So to my mind, a “Goldfinger DB5” (which someone has paid a lot of money for a licence for) is a specific car, with a collection of special features which is unique, and a model of it is a model of that fictional car. It’s meaningless to try to allocate “it” to a production Aston series. We’ll be arguing about whether a Lotus that transforms into a submarine is a Series 1 or 1.5 Esprit or what spec of DeLorean “OUTTATIME” is next… best, M.

Time to commit to glue... Obviously, some filling and fine-tuning will be needed, but it's not too bad, considering... that's what all those Swiss files are for... On with the classic Isopon P38 body filler. You could buy this stuff when these kits first came out! It's way too hot for a plastic kit, but just the job for filling and smoothing metal (which is what it's designed for, after all...) Once the filler is all smoothed, this is the stage where you paint the body, which will require some masking in the cockpit. I can feel an inner wall for the far side coming on.... fortunately the Revs Institute pictures show it clearly. best, M.

Thanks, @Pierre Rivard… the main aim of this project is to recreate or evoke the magazine cover at the top. It’s part of a tribute to Airfix box art illustration legend Roy Cross who also did those covers. Roy passed a couple of months ago aged 100. So I will be putting M. Benoist in the driver’s seat. I might do a bit of piping and detailing in the cockpit, but he’ll block the view, mostly! best, M.

Back to the bench after a long work week. Next step, the rear axle... I should have taken a "before" photo, but the rear spring frame was in two pieces and rather bent. I can't complain, given the price I picked up all five of these kits for, but it needed some remedial work. Of course, it had broken at two of the most stressed points, where thin rods join the springs, and they are points that could carry weight. Fortunately as you can see there is a central tab that's _actually_ going to hold the axle, but I wanted to pin it together solidly. Learning a lesson from the Silver Ghost, I have bought some piano wire in 30cm lengths, 0.6, 0.8 and 1mm in diameter. It's a pain to cut, but it is tough. Much more load-bearing than the brass rod I use for repairs to plastic kit parts. I thought I'd check out how the cockpit went together. This is all just dropped into place. Those nice folks at The Revs Institute have some very clear photos of the important gauges, so I just resized them and printed them at high resolution on photo paper to stick behind the moulded holes. The kit has black and white dials printed on the instructions, which would have worked fine, if you had a new kit with freshly printed paperwork... Given the dash is white metal, I thought I'd try my hand at some "engine turning" with the polishing tip in my drill. The real thing isn't, but it adds a bit of interest... Time for another mockup: That's enough to convince me it will all fit together, though there'll be some adjustments needed before committing to glue. One of the things that's clear from the Revs Institute's pictures is that the real thing is very smooth and fitted together almost seamlessly, so other than the shut lines around the bonnet, all the joints between the parts will need to be filled and eliminated. On with the job... best, M.

I'm finding that the thumbnail images in the post previews in the Unread Content stream or forum listing pages take an age to load, crawling in one at a time. It's almost as if although the display size is small, the full resolution image is being downloaded and rendered teeny-tiny... And this slows down any other operation on the page, like scrolling down and viewing older threads. best, M.

Those reflections are a bit of a giveaway: looks like the panels aren’t actually very flat. More like a Hall of Mirrors! best, M.

I’m not sure if this is the answer, but Revell did the i8 both as a stand-alone kit and as a “starter set” with some of their Aqua paints, a brush and some Contacta glue… best, M.

And if we’re talking riffs, has there ever been one better than this? Only 50 years or so between performances… best, M.

More of a riff than a solo: best, M.

Thanks very much indeed, Andrew! All four wheels are now spoked. A bit tedious, maybe, but full marks to the Auto-kit team for coming up with something that at least tries to be authentic. 1960s-vintage 3D printing is hard work, though... There's a LOT of cleaning up of details to do, especially around the little tabs, and some molding gates to remove, but if you do clean up everything thoroughly, you're rewarded by something that fits together very well. The mock-up above is just clipped and taped.... I haven't used any glue on it. The last picture shows the only substantial area of filler and sanding -- a hefty seam around the top and rear of the body tail parts, but that's it, and it buffs out easily ? best, M.

Interviewer to Eric Clapton “How does it feel to be the greatest rock guitarist in the world?” Clapton: ”I don’t know. Ask Prince.” best, M.

Watch it all the way to the end… best, M.

Thank you! @absmiami Not that many, to be honest. I’ve got the old “Profile” publication on the cars, and I’ve found the Revs Institute pictures, but the black Seaman car seems much better documented online than Benoist’s steed. Since I’m building it “in action” I’m not planning to scratch an engine or anything bonkers like that, but any decent cockpit interior views, chassis details or suspension anatomy would always be appreciated! All the best, Matt

One of the most attractive and successful pre-war race cars, winning all five Grand Prix in 1927 in the hands of Robert Benoist and making him World Champion. First, the inspiration: There is a reason for this that will become clear in due course, but there's a clue in the image above. The main parts are typical of 1960s-vintage Auto-Kits -- nicely detailed, well-fitting but with a fair number of casting issues to be cleaned up. As with all Auto-Kits, it's "curb-side" (or maybe "pit-wall") but will buid up to look very like the image in the painting above. A handy jig is provided for spoking the wire wheels using Auto-Kits "Patented" mechanism. Above, the grooved rim and hub are mounted awaiting wiring. And here are the first two wheel, after a couple of hours of eye-crossing work. Goodness knows how 1960-vintage modellers did these without the benefit of superglue. They look OK, I think -- bearing in mind the alternative at the time was a clear plastic disc and a printed silver spoke decal. If you really wanted to, I think you could use thinner wire, and double layer both sides with an offset on the second set and get close to a prototypical spoke density. But I'm doing this OOB as a Classic British Kit... I think this one may take longer than the Esprit... best, M

Thanks, all! @Jim B it is! The number plate Fujimi includes in the kit is the one from the Bond film. @Rich Chernosky this is the interior: The seats and door cards are done using nail art plaid decals. I got mine here: https://www.dippycownails.com/products/waterslide-nail-decals-tartan-red?_pos=14&_sid=5b92776a5&_ss=r They look a bit purple in this picture. If I was doing it again, I'd prime the seats in white, apply the decals, trim them and then paint the green instead of just applying the decals over green painted seats... best, M

The purest version of the Esprit, 50 years old and still looking very sharp. Fujimi's kit is simple, but very crisply detailed, and fits very well. Paint is Tamiya TS-101 "Base White" with some TS-13 gloss clear over the top... but not too much; the finish on these is more like porcelain than a modern wet-look gloss. The interior is lurid 70s style at its best -- jade green upholstery, bright orange carpets, and red plaid panels on the seats and door cards. Pity you can't really see it in any of the photos! One of the reasons I dug the Esprit out of the stash was that I really liked the way The Road Rat magazine had done its studio photoshoot of the car for its 50th anniversary tribute, so I thought I'd give it a go myself: I claim no credit for the idea, or the setups .. they were done in real life with what look like 1m x2m reflectors in a studio. My mirrors are made up from a thin plastic mirror tile, cut up into 10cm x 5m rectangles mounted on braced foamcore triangles, with fishing weights epoxied to the rear corner to keep them upright. Given that the real thing was shot in a blacked out barn of a studio with directional photo lighting, I'm pretty pleased with what I managed to get from a smallish photo lightbox. I won't do it with every car I make, but the style suits teh angles and sharp lines of the Esprit very well. There are still a couple of set-ups in the magazine I have NO idea how they did, even after a fair bit of playing around with a scale version... best, M.

Absolutely beautiful. Great building, detail painting and overall finish. An outstanding build of a stellar kit of a car that may have been under-appreciated at the time but is now starting to be recognised as peak Japanese supercar. The uncompromising design lead has written the definitive book about the LFA which is soon to be published: https://theroarofanangel.com/password You can sign up to be notified when the book is ready, if the LFA is your thing, or your interest has been piqued by building one… best, M.

This is literally the "make or break" moment, and boy does it seem risky as you do it! The rear end goes in OK, with the exhaust through its slot, and then you have to flex the corners of the body ahead of the rear wheel arches a fair bit to get the floor pan inside, but the real kicker is front valance ahead of the arches. That takes some pretty determined pushing and leverage to get the front end in. I shoved it hard against one side and used a thin wooden stirrer to shoehorn the other side in. With a some quite loud creaks and snaps, it finally popped into place... Just the body decals to do, and then beauty shots tomorrow I hope... best, M.