Matt Bacon

...and some arty details...

....which is great for reference... ...but mostly it's the atmosphere or mood...

...some fabulous hardware on show... ...and you can get properly up close and personal...

A grand day out... and a lot of photos, which have taken a while. Let's start with some actual racing... A bit of "Who's the Daddy?" going on here.... Where's the racing line? A day of all-in racing, despite the value of some of those cars... and now...

There was a row of 240Zs at Donington Historic Festival last weekend, and quite a few of them were Super Samuri high performance models fettled by tuning legend Spike Anderson. Like this: I decided I'd like one of those on the shelf. In the stash is a Fujimi PS30 "432R" kit, which is the hottest homologation version from Japan. Despite being curbside (the hood is moulded shut) it has full engine and chassis detail and some Minilite-alike wheels (amongst others). It's a very full box of plastic. What it doesn't have is a front air dam or spoiler. Given all of the engines in these things are constantly being upgraded, I figured that starting from a 432R (which has a Sklyline GTR engine) wasn't a too off the wall. The air dam is not super sophisticated. Looking at a bunch of pictures, mine and other peoples', I worked out that it's essentially vertical, and bends around the corners, but no compound curves. That was a relief... Looking closely at those reference images and the front of the wheel arches, I decided that the logical place for it to fit was where the valance starts to roll over sharply to "tuck under". I marked the line with tape and chain-drilled it. Then I sanded it all flat on a piece of sandpaper on a ceramic tile to get an even horizontal plane to mount the plastic card air dam on. I just cut a strip of card 7mm wide, after measuring from the reference images (which I scaled to 1/24). Coincidentally (or not...) this means the bottom of the air dam is level with the bottom of the rest of the body. I glued it on in stages, starting in the middle at the front, and leaving long "wings" to bend round and meet the arches, which I trimmed off last of all. I need to finish the blending and work out if there's any hint of the wheel arch coming down onto the rear edge, but comparing these two pics to the reference images above, I think it's pretty much where it should be. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've also cut out the bonnet.... what's the point of having that nice engine and hiding it? I've got a Tamiya 240ZG, so I'm going to copy its hinge mechanism and the engine bay details that aren't included in the Fujimi kit, as well as doing some wiring based on the photos I took last weekend: best, M.

Oh, she does… it’s hidden in the back of the chair ? best, M.

This is the X-Plus kit, which goes together really well if you follow the instructions exactly. The only "gotcha" that got me was that you can't build the entire inner figure as a mannequin and then add the outer suit. Read the order of building in the instructions and follow it. The second leg has to be fitted in place AFTER the rest of the body and some of the suit has been assembled. You can still build the "dummy" and paint it first -- just make sure that leg is just press fitted when you do. It's very well engineered, so that isn't a problem. The body is Tamiya Gloss Black oversprayed with Tamiya Metallic Silver and a touch of Titanium Silver for warmth. Base lighting courtesy of a £4 string of battery powered LED lights from Dunelm and some gaffer tape... best, M.

Thanks @Pierre Rivard the nose and tail are big clamshells (basically the silver is the body, the green is the clam). I assume they had to open up or remove the clamshell to access the wheels. I don’t think the real bodywork can have been as tight, though… there’s not much room to turn the front wheels the way the kit is set up (though the real body shell is probably not 1” thick, either…) best, M.

Thank you all… I didn’t spot these later replies until now… Yes, the Merit wheels, ground out to take Heller XKE wires. You pretty much have to use the kit tyres… nothing accurate will fit! best, M.

I hope they are going to include the tailored luggage set that fits into those two trunks in front of the rear wheels... ? Lots of the real things on show at Goodwood last weekend, to whet your appetite... if it needs it: best, M.

That looks fantastic! Brilliant work, and full marks for going with an unusual but very striking livery! All the best, Matt

It’s mostly pre-painted… the livery is especially nice. Quite a few of the details are painted but the wrong colour, or painted without cleaning up the parts first, so there’s a fair bit of tidying and refinishing needed for an authentic look… best, M.

I've been building this since Christmas, more or less, so a few more pictures than usual! Let's say that while the kit parts are generally excellent, it is let down by incomplete and inaccurate instructions (now on the fourth revision and steadily improving, but still...) and engineering that takes little account of buildability. That said, it's a very involving build, and really lets you challenge your skills. Good tools are essential, and there is no way a novice is going to be able to put this together out of the box with just the instructions and screwdriver provided! Anyway, on with the show... I now need to go and build something a bit simpler.... and quicker! best, M.

I've built the 1/12 GT40 and a couple of the 1/9 bikes from Meng, and the detail is plenty crisp, and there's lots of it... best, M.

Formula 560 Canopy Glue from Zap. Fantastic stuff. Very strong bond when set, dries completely clear, fills gaps, cleans up with water, and you can use water to soften it again if you need to remove something later. best, M.

Pretty sure that will take the chrome plate off as well... it's a standard technique for stripping chrome, after all. OP wants to remove paint FROM chromed parts without removing the chrome plate. (Actually a very thin layer of aluminum, which is why oven cleaner or caustic soda dissolves it so well...) best, M.

#218 landed here in South Yorkshire, UK this morning. It had some guy's build of the little Airfix XK-E in it, as well... ? best, M.

Try 99% Isopropyl alcohol and be prepared to leave them in it for a few days. Or an ultrasonic cleaner. Neither should damage the chrome or plastic, and with a bit of luck, the chrome layer should have stopped the paint “keying” to the surface very well… Best, M.

Thank you. Will a clear face shield do the job (ie it's about chips and fragments), or do I need to wear my painting respirator (because it's poisonous)? best, M.

Absolutely lovely, and fully agree on the "just-right" period appearance of the paint. A very crisp build indeed. Did you drop the ride height the hard way by modding the suspension parts, or the "close enough for Government work" technique of just fitting the floorpan on top of the fore and aft lugs rather than between them? Either way, the stance looks just right. best, M.

Thanks, @peteski At last, something the Proxxon is built for -- it spins too fast for most plastic modelling uses, in my experience (I have it because it was on sale very affordably, and I figured one day it was bound to come in useful for something....). best, M.

Hi, all... Picked up a "JLE Scale Models" Packard Roadster kit for a very reasonable £20 on the UK 'bay. I understand that they are Hubley re-pops/re-packages. My question is what are they made of? Are they Zamak die-cast alloy? The cast metal parts (which have a fair bit of flash) are a lot harder/sharper than the white metal of the Finescale 1/24 kits I've had some experience with. With those, I could use regular modelling knives/tools, but this JLE kit seems like I should prep the Proxxon and buy some harder files... It looks like it'll build up into a nice and detailed model, but a lot of clean-up may be required before I get to that stage! best, M.

As I think we may have discussed previously, if you want to do more than just find a specific car or photo, Excel’s list/database capabilities allow you to filter quickly to find all your 1/25 Mercedes diecasts, for example… best, M.

This one is saved at 1200 pixels wide, "Save for web" at 300KB: This one is 1000 pixels saved for web at 200KB: This one is 800 pixels saved for web at 120KB You might want to consider saving one "hero" image of each model at a larger size, and then smaller ones for the rest. best, M.

I use Smugmug for hosting which lets you choose the size of the photo you embed depending on the link. I usually make the max size original I upload to Smugmug in Photoshop, 1000 pixels wide and I use the “save for web” function to say I want it 200 kilobytes file size and PS figures out how much jpg compression to use…. best, M.