Matt Bacon

Inspired by a recent edition of Octane, which took this beastie for a test drive, I decided to build one of my Fujimi "911 Turbo 1976" kits as the Le Mans GTX class winner from 1975. I particularly liked the fact that it was was raced as pretty much the regular road car, with rear seats, tartan doorcards, winding windows and even a radio fitted. There's a roll cage, and some minor body mods, but a class winning "run what you brung" is a rarity at le Mans, to say the least... You can read more about it here: https://www.tartantarmac.com/readers-cars-1975-le-mans-winning-porsche-930/ Probably the most obvious modification is the chin air intake and smooth valance. It's nothing like as aggressive as the 934s or 935s to come, and the air dam is the sames as the road cars... very restrained. The front fenders on the kit body didn't look right to me. The wheel arches are IMHO too tall, and too rectangular. The curve of the arch should be concentric with the circular wheel, with a constant gap between tyre and the top part of the arch. I added some plastic card, and handily discovered a cylindrical sanding attachment for my drill that happens to be just big enough to use to shape the arch into a circular section. Time for a second round of sanding, but we're getting there... best, M.

Well, bear in mind that when The Avengers began, the Beatles were playing Hamburg strip clubs; Cathy Gale lasted from Please Please Me to Help; Emma Peel strutted her stuff in the era of Revolver and Sgt Pepper, and Tara King was only around for Abbey Road. The Avengers was always pop culture for its times, but boy did those times change in eight years... best, M.

Revel’s “astonishing new Land Rover” has some significant simplifications and errors. The 30 year old Esci kit is more accurate, and still an excellent parts donor for improving the Revell kit, albeit quite expensively because you end up with a lot of a fire engine you don’t need... I would also disagree that Tamiya “prioritises ease of build over detail”. Sometimes, maybe. But the LFA, 300SL and FXX-K for example are both detailed and well engineered so that even a complex kit fits together beautifully. I built the FXX-K and Aoshima Huracan Performante around the same time, and while both had similar levels of crisp, fine detail, the Performante has body shape issues that need fixing and some very sketchy engineering and fit around the back end specifically. I’m afraid in my experience, Tamiya is the “gold standard” of model car kits. Sometimes Revell comes close, but given the choice I’ll always take the Tamiya. The annoying thing with Revell is that they’re not consistent, or even improving steadily — there are 80s and 90s Revell kits that are better than the new tools of today. best, M.

Thanks, guys. @Slimguy I started with Shep Paine’s “Building and Painting Scale Figures” and “How to build dioramas” (which is the best. modelling book I know of...) and keep at it... best, M.

Thanks, guys! @Jim B he’s mostly painted with Games Workshop (Citadel) and Vallejo water based acrylics. The shield is a home made decal. best, M.

A really nice kit. He's very well sculpted, although this cunning fox of a character bears little resemblance to the guy on the box and poster art, who looks like he ought to be played by Dave Bautista. The only issue (which I'd have fixed if I'd learned about it earlier in the build) is that contrary to the way he's depicted, the short dagger (Pugio) was always worn on the left, and the long sword (Gladius) on the right, high up on a loop around the neck. The "obvious" solution, with a draw by the right hand across the body, is not how the Romans did it, instead using the right hand to pull the gladius out from high under the right arm. I guess the rationale is that for Roman close order fighting, you need every shield on a left arm, to lock together, and the right hand wields the sword in the gaps between the shields. So if you want to make the figure truly accurate, you need to extend a strap loop around the neck with the long gladius scabbard glued high and more horizontal under the right arm (which means completing the belt ornamentation on that side), and mount the short dagger on the left with the two supplementary straps running from the belt to the top two rings on scabbard... Still he's a characterful and attractive addition to the slowly growing 1/16 figure collection... best, M.

Mat’s a great guy... he’s a regular at model shows around the UK. He used to be a model builder and special effects guy at the BBC and did a lot of work through the years for Dr Who. He’s written a couple of books specifically on car modelling: Scale Car Modelling https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847972918 Mat Irvine's Auto Modelling Masterclass https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1859150896 I have both, needless to say ? best, M.

There you are... you already have a “youngtimer”/modern classic! I’d have one in a heartbeat... and so would a lot of younger folks if the people who own them who pop up in Modern Classics magazine are anything to go by. It’s telling that Modern Classics is going from strength to strength in the UK, but Hemmings shut down Sports and Exotics at more or less the same time as MC launched... best, M.

The “Modern Classics” scene is thriving in the UK, usually focused on cars with a bit of “get up and go”, which I know is a rarer commodity in the US market. Hot hatches, Q-cars, sports saloons and all out GT or sports cars; European, British or JDM manufacturers. It’s fuelled by “I wanted one of those as a kid” or “that was my favourite car in Gran Turismo..”, and the fact that the cars a relatively affordable. My pipe dream classic for years was a Triumph GT6, but the days when you could pick one up for £5k are long gone. I switched allegiances when good GT6’s headed north of £15k, and I discovered you could get a concours condition mid nineties Jaguar XK8 or good fire-breathing XKR for under £10k instead. Still a pipe dream, but a top quality first or second generation MX-5 for £2500 or even the rare groove MX-3 V6 for under £1000 is a lot more realistic and loads of fun in either case... best, M.

You can see what the Tamiya version is like here: http://www.italianhorses.net/Gallery/Tamiya/TamSMSEnzo/enzo.htm http://www.italianhorses.net/Gallery/Tamiya/TamEnzo/enzo.htm Alex is a regular poster here, though not so much lately. Although these builds both use detailing sets, there's a lot of information about the out of the box kit as well... His database is a must visit if you are considering buying a Ferrari kit (or a kit of any specific Ferrari...) http://www.italianhorses.net/DB/F50-F430.htm#Enzo Ferrari All the best, M.

I’ll buy a good kit of an interesting thing more or less irrespective of the subject matter. Whether it’s a 1/16 British Policewoman, a 1/72 Israeli Centurion tank or Sunseeker super yacht, a 1/48 DH.88 Comet or 1:1 scale Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 1/20 or 1/43 Matra or Tyrell race cars, a 1/16 Fairground steam engine or a 1/96 Saturn V... Goodness knows where I’ll put them once they’re done, but I’m confident I’ll enjoy building them and learn something along the way... best, M.

That looks just fantastic. For once, saying “they could be pictures of the real thing” is completely justified. I’m glad I picked up the Tricolore decals cheap in a sale for mine... so stylish. Very, very well done! best, M.

Whilst the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing is indeed a European sports car, it’d fit right In with a collection of 50s/60s American classics... there were a lot sold in the US, after all. And that Tamiya kit has a stellar reputation (I haven’t built mine yet, which is why I didn’t put it in my own OOB list...) best, M.

Tamiya Lexus LFA and new NSX, Moebius 55 Chrysler 300, Hasegawa Miura and Lancia Delta Integrale... best, M.

Hey, Dann.... you might find this interesting: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1858756103/ best, M.

Well, he was 88, so I think we can file him under a good life, well lived. I enjoyed a lot of his books, which in my life followed Biggles and then Alistair Maclean, which seems reasonable enough... He was badly served by Hollywood it seems to me: Dirk Pitt could have been a James Bond franchise, but Raise the Titanic was awful, and Sahara, whilst not bad, wasn’t really the book or characters he’d written... best, M.

Great driver, great developer and setter-up of cars, only man to win a championship in his own car... but engineering innovator? He’s more of a Mark Donohue type than a Colin Chapman, IMHO. I might have missed off Harvey Postlethwaite, though, I’ll admit... best, M.

At the moment, you can get only get one in the recently re-issued Italeri Fire Engine Land Rover kit. But I'm sure it won't be long before some wily caster takes one as a starting point and begins selling replacement Land Rover bonnets for the Revell kit with the spare wheel mounting in the (much more) usual place. Mind you, as discussed here previously, even there you'd probably want to take it off before sticking your head in the engine bay to do a little work... best, M.

Not exactly... the Tyrell had four front wheels to give THE SAME contact patch and steering effect with much smaller diameter wheels, to minimise the front facing sectional area of the wheels. File under “it seemed like a good idea at the time” since it turns out that rotating wheels dragging air with them as they turn are not like big flat rectangular plates facing the airflow, and the hoped for “unfair advantage” didn’t materialise, whilst the engineering and handling turned out to be genuinely difficult. Everyone tries, but the successful engineering innovators in F1 since WW2 you can count on the fingers of one hand: Cooper, Chapman, Murray, Barnard and Newey... best, M.

If anybody hasn’t heard of Meng, or seen their kits, take a look at this review of their new 1/35 Sherman: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235068376-m4a3-76-w-sherman-ts-043-135/ You may be thinking “not another M4...” but Meng kits go the extra mile... best, M.

Thanks very much, guys! @christian-w the hood hinges have pins at the bottom that are trapped by U-shaped arms on a piece that fits into the nose. It’s ingenious and I don’t know why more kits don’t do it. It’s not how the real mechanism works, but it looks convincing up and doesn’t affect the sit of the hood when it’s down... The spoiler on the C7 was in the kit... I just stuck a couple of strips of thin plastic card on the rear edge to make the (I guess) Gurney flap that’s on the Grand Sport version... best, M.

Darn it... just noticed whilst posting the pics that I forgot to cut the trunk shut line through the go faster stripes.... sorted now! best, M.

All done... probably the nicest Revell USA kit I've built in terms of detail, fit and engineering. Any problems I had were the result of the poor instructions, which are badly drawn, unclear, and occasionally inaccurate! best, M.

Thanks! On the home stretch now, I reckon: That's the chassis completed. Fitting the wheels sucks, but a bit of rework got them all on... Light details left to add, and then plates, and she'll be done... best, M

There's been a lot of painting parts various shades of black, but at last some visible progress to report: Still some decals to put on, but I think this is about the most accurate and best detailed OOB rendition of a modern engine I've seen in a Revell kit, from either side of the Pond... Front suspension, for reference in case anyone else is doing one. Unlike the kit, the instructions are FAR from "accurate and well-detailed", and it took a while to figure out how all this goes together. The drawings are terrible... Drops in place very nicely... The radiator is trickier to get in, without any positive location of the radiator in the chassis or onto the shroud (snorkel, apparently) over the top. In the end, I glues the radiator vertically onto the rear edge of the shroud, and fixed the lower hose to the radiator and the upper one to the engine To get it in place, I tucked the forward lower edge of the snorkel into the chassis frame at the front, and rotated it down until the snorkel hose met the engine and the lower hose could be wiggled into its socket on the engine front. Not fun... A quick test in the body looks convincing, though... Dreadful picture, but a few labels and spots of colour liven up a very grey dash... Tamiya Black, NATO Black, Rubber Black, Semi Gloss Black, Citadel Abaddon Black and Black Templar Contrast...not quite fifty shades, but a lot, to create a black cockpit made from different materials. Still fits inside the body... And looks reasonably convincing through the window... best, M.