Matt Bacon

Well, I’ve had a plastic refill bottle as long as I’ve had the first two pens (which have now been replaced), and it brushes and airbrushes as well today as it did when I got it. You do have to shake it A LOT to get the proper effect when airbrushed, though. Two full minutes is what I give it these days... Not saying you’re wrong, of course, just YMMV... best, M.

Mine have worked fine for ages with no issues. I occasionally zap the 1mm tip with Liquid Reamer; for the 2 and 4mm you can turn the “nib” around to get effectively a new tip... Essential part of my paintbox, for me... best, M.

Wait ‘til you hear about the six different modes the fan operates in, from “virtual long tail” streamliner to maximum downforce braking where it takes 10m off the stopping distance from 150mph. Oh, and it provides about 50kg of jet thrust. The F1 had two fans, says Gordon “but nobody noticed them...” best, M.

...you just need a couple of figures of bohemian ladies chaining themselves to the fence for that final period touch... best, M.

OK, so it costs the best part of $3m., but as Gordon says, for the people who are buying it, it's objectively a better car than the Mclaren F.1 at an 80% discount on what one of those costs these days... best, M.

If you've got 50-odd minutes to spare, you won't find a better masterclass in 1:1 automotive design and engineering than this lengthy guided walkaround of the the new T.50 "hyper-GT" from Gordon Murray. Harry Metcalf is a knowledgeable car guy himself, but this is really Gordon Murray introducing his masterpiece. He never takes pot-shots, but you do end up wondering how much of what McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari are doing is just "styling" rather than design... @Ace-Garageguy Bill, I think you'll appreciate this... best, M.

Certainly looks like a Landy to me, and the colour is just right (full disclosure: my first 6 years involved riding around in a pastel green SWB... the family car) Good job, Geoff! best, M.

You know, looking at that, I wonder whether the best thing to do would be to leave the "windshield" part off completely and just build up the A-pillars on the doors and the front of the roof a bit and add the horizontal scuttle panel from strip. Scaled 1/25 version of this drawing here. best, M.

I THINK it means shave off the two bolt heads/rivets/nubbins at the inner edges of the injector baseplates (F4, F5) between the third and fourth intakes so that part B40 can be glued flush at the bottom of the supports. The “wiring of hi tension cord” diagram to the left shows how B40 fits from above (grey shaded piece with dotted outline). If you have a smartphone and download the Google Translate app and Japanese language pack, you can point a camera at the instructions and see all the text in Japanese translated magically into English. There’s often more in the original text than is translated in the instructions. best, M.

Formula One: Drive to Survive is pretty good, IMHO... best, M.

It would seem a bit odd to call out “antique pistols” in the press release if you weren’t thinking of selling them again. I’ve got a pair of duelling pistols in a Pyro box and they really don’t look like something you could hold up a bank with... best, M.

Those Pyro antique pistols are pretty cool, as I recall... best, M.

Thanks, guys! @Jim N I think flat out it would kill me..! That’s the trouble these days... there are cars at performance levels that would have won Le Mans a decade or two ago that you can walk into a dealership and buy for acceptably affordable prices, AND they’ve got training wheels. But high end motorbikes that could win a MotoGP race a couple of years ago are the price of a family sedan, and you don’t need any special training of license to buy one or take it on the road. Personally, I’d love to own a Ducati, but I think it would scare me; a Lotus Esprit Turbo, not so much... best, M.

If you’re wondering what a large-scale pre-coloured no-glue Meng model looks like more or less OOB with a bit of TLC: best, M.

This one was a lucky accident... call it "dream ride..." best, M.

Meng's "pre-coloured" kit with a bit of cleaning up and fine-tuning. Built as a mojo-restoring "slammer" between more involved builds, and to investigate how good (or otherwise) Meng's pre-coloured kits are prior to the appearance of the 1/12 GT40 on the scene. Personally, I'm pretty impressed! It's a tough finish to photograph...and keep pristine! best, M.

Thank you, gentlemen. I fixed a couple of errors: the lower spoiler is rubber, and there are lights in the bumpers that I missed painting. Thanks to those folks that pointed them out. FINALLY finished now... best, M.

+1 for Formula 560. Not used anything else since I discovered it... best, M.

It's finished now. Proper photos in Under Glass tomorrow when I've cleaned up all the shiny bits. The supplied cloth is excellent, by the way. I shall be holding onto it for the final clean up on shiny car builds! The decals are good, the self-adhesive metal scripts rather harder to manage! best, M.

Slow and steady progress. The rear lights are again, nicely engineered, but a bit fiddly to get together! And don't forget the main rubber saddle piece... don't ask! I think this is going to be quite a serious-looking piece of machinery when I'm done... best, M.

Thanks, @DavidG... I'm afraid this is a 2018/19 model, and it's pretty science fiction, to be honest. Built the front forks this afternoon: Which then fit like this: That lower hose from the radiator into the engine block is a great example of just how well engineered this kit is. It just press fits neatly into the radiator and the other end is in the right place on the block to snap into position. No glue, no fixings... it just goes in and stays in. And then you build the fuel tank. This smoked, mirrored effect would be REALLY hard to achieve at home with paint... So now I know why the kit comes a rather high quality microfibre cleaning cloth... best, M.

Some more progress this evening: If I was doing this again, I would strip the chrome effect off the exhaust, build the whole thing, then prime and paint with appropriate heat discoloration effects. It's the only assembly so far that I think doesn't do the real thing justice... That said, the engineering of the complex 4 into 2 into one headers is stone-cold brilliant. Each pair of pipes has complementary semicircular locating tabs with a "key", so when you bring them together into the lower Y joint piece, the only way they fit results in the top pins going into the engine being correctly aligned with the exhaust ports. You just have to make sure you get the right pipes in pairs (1+3, 2+4). I don't know where this version of the exhaust is sold (China? Japan?) but it's not quite what you get in a UK or US market version... best, M.

So, this showed up yesterday, after air mail from Hong Kong resumed. I've given it a wipe down with 99% alcohol ;-P. It's the "pre-coloured" version. The whole thing is by way of an experiment. I wanted to find my way around my first motorbike model before embarking on the Tamiya Ducati Panigale or Matchbox Vincent Black Shadow that are lurking in the stash, and I wanted something a bit less involved between the XJS and the Heller F1 car that is waiting on the bench. Plus I wanted to see how a Meng precoloured no-glue kit was engineered and went together before deciding whether to invest in the upcoming large scale GT40 in the same format... It's a big box... Which is well filled. Creating a bit of a problem with bench space. There are multiple different paint finishes and plating effects, etch parts, vinyl tubes, rubber tyres and many, many tiny screws. Time to begin. A bit of Citadel wash and drybrushing for relief, but otherwise OOB. The frame is a nice bit of plating and coating, which would require candy green if you had to paint it yourself. The hardest part of the build so far was getting that rear brake hose onto the stub fitting on the frame... As you can see, it's quite a speedy build! best, M.

Thanks very much, guys. Since I took these pictures, thanks to helpful advice, I’ve added the missing lights in the black parts of the bumpers, and painted the lower front spoiler lip black, since it turns out that’s also flexible rubber. Next time I get the photo setup out, I’ll take a couple of pics of the official “final” version! Thanks again, best, M.