Matt Bacon

Still waiting on my Audi R8 LMS GT3, which doesn't seem to have even left Japan yet. In the mean time, I picked up a few more 'deep cuts" from the Heller 1/43 range: On the hunt for the Peugeot 604 and VW K70 now... I'm not so bothered about the 1950s French cars, which are much easier to find... best, M.

Well... both Zvezda and Revell have managed the cars of "Cars", so it may be hard, but it's not impossible... best, M.

Shop’s got to make a margin (say 30%) to cover their rental, employees, taxes etc. Wholesaler/distributor’s got to make a margin to cover their warehouse, inventory, wages, loans on their vans and trucks. I’d be surprised if Model Master sees much more than $1 of that $4... best, M.

A friend of mine’s dad’s garage in Liverpool ran those. They were based on a Ford Zodiac or Zephyr, with surprisingly heavy fibreglass bodywork, and were good for about 20mph max... ? best, M.

It’s “cobalt green” and sadly it’s only available currently as a PS colour, for polycarbonate R/C body shells. It won’t do styrene any good at all... best, M.

This is not _all_ I've been working on the last week or so, but the rest is mostly shades of black on the chassis and interior! The engine and transmission in this kit are top-notch.Nearly as good as the best Tamiya (the LFA) in terms of detail and engineering, but let down slightly by the slightly soft moulding and "soapy" plastic... best, M.

Mike does have a rich seam of those that he mines from time to time... best, M.

I had a heart valve replaced in October, and I was equally nervous. Think of it as serious, but routine (for the surgeons). You’ll be scared of the op itself: don’t be. You won’t know anything about it between when they take you in and when you wake up in the cardiac ICU. The first few days you’ll be weak and your emotions will be all over the place. You won’t be in pain, though, because the painkillers will be doing their job. The nurses and care team will be brilliant. You’ll probably feel the benefit of the bypass right away. I know I did. You will likely be up and about surprisingly quickly: I was sent home after 6 days. You’ll be worried about the scar — it will likely be much smaller and neater than you are imagining. Mine is less than 6” long, and is steadily fading. The thing that takes time is for your chest muscles and bones to go back into place and knit together. But even that’s less painful than you imagine. I was taking paracetamol four times a day for a couple of weeks, but I could tail it off to none after a month. Getting in and out of bed and from lying to sitting is tricky to begin with, but you’ll quickly find a way that works for you, and after a month or so you’ll be able to move more or less normally. The main thing to remember is that you’ll feel a lot better quickly thanks to the bypass doing it’s job, and that although it seems a long time as you live through it, three months after the op you’ll be able to look back and it will seem like it didn’t take long to recover at all. Listen to all your health carers and do what they say, and don’t try to push yourself. You’ll know what you can do when. If you want to ask anything or just chew it over, feel free to message me... All the best, Matt

Very nice build of a rather basic kit! It’s not really a Ford car like the GT40: it was a privateer offering “with help” from Ford, intended to take the Ford-Cosworth DFV F1 engine into sports car racing, and run by Alan Mann Racing (hence the red and gold scheme). Just goes to show that sometimes “if it looks right, it’ll fly right” doesn’t work. At a glance it doesn’t look much different from a Porsche 908, but it wasn’t the DFV engine that didn’t work in competition... best, M.

Oh, you mean the Mustang e-SUV... ? Seems like Ford saw the value in the licensing deal they did with Tamiya for the GT and are happy to do more with it. I guess GM need to decide whether to follow suit, and then it’s a case of how long it takes to close the deal... best, M.

The decals either didn’t like the setting solution I used, or the combination of setting solution and 2K solvent ;-( I was kinda hoping the clearcoat would help, but the “Diamond” 2K is so darn transparent, it magnifies the effect... I’m going to live with it, though... you can’t see it so easily in normal light on a shelf, so I’m going to chalk it up to experience... beat, M.

Got this one under way... I thought I'd post this because you can clearly see the difference between the Zero basecoat matt, and how the colour changes and gets richer and deeper when you hit it with clearcoat. I've put a light coat of clear where the "go-faster stripe" decals need to go on... And this is what you get with the clearcoat on. The panel/shut lines are emphasised with the new Citadel "Contast Colours" Leviadon Blue Engine/transmission is under construction... best, M.

Looks like Italeri are re-releasing the Protar Mercedes W196 this year, which is good news if classic Formula 1 cars are your thing — it’s been quite hard to find lately. They’re also re-popping the Esci Mercedes 500 SLC in street and rally form. But the BIG news is a new addition to their 1/12th collection: a Lancia Delta Integrale, in Martini livery, of course... I’m very tempted! best, M.

We should all be so lucky as to have friends like this in our lives: best, M.

It is. You’d certainly know about it if it landed on you while you were inside... ISTR the wheel and tyre weighs around 75 lbs... which is why you don’t want it above the cab like the prototype of the Revell kit, which is unusual verging on the unique. Back door mount is common, but needs a frame or it will put a lot of stress on the door hinges. Pickups often have it mounted on the bulkhead behind the front seats, but obviously that eats into rear compartment space. Some military types carry spares high on one or both sides on a frame behind the front doors. Bonnet is one of the lesser of all the potential evils, but it pays to take the spare off before any serious work under the hood... best, M.

It might sound like an odd question, but how do the Greenlight 1/64s compare in size to Hot Wheels and Matchbox? My son collects them, and has a few Japanese (Kyosho) "1/64" cars among them, and they look noticeably smaller. Mind you, the bburago Ferrari 1/64s are noticeably bigger than HW, so you win some, you lose some. At least Siku puts the actual scale on the underneath of each car (Mostly 1/55-1/62)... (It was only when I saw my first Veyron in real life that I realised how small it was. It's the same size as Siku's Bentley Continental, which it really isn't...) best, M.

This one put up a lot more of a fight than the Rover SD1 -- in particular the seams between upper body and chassis, and the front and rear valance panels were hard to get right, and hard to eliminate. And this one is even smaller than the SD1: ...with the Fujimi 1/24 for comparison. The Heller kit comes with the headlights popped up, so since I dislike that "frog-eye" look, I closed them with plastic card. No need to convert this one to RHD. I still can't quite decide if I like the shape of the 928... but I'd have one in a heartbeat if I found an affordable, mechanically sound daily driver. best, M.

Simple to build but exquisitely detailed in parts, with fit that's great in some places, not so good in others... It's really not very big... Got quite a little stack more of these little Hellers as light relief between larger scale builds... best, M.

That looks great -- beautiful finish and detailing, and those wheels really fill the arches (I have the version of the kit with the Brabus wheels). My only observation is that we have a couple of SL63s around here, and they look really low, long and wide on the street. I don't know what it is... I'm sure the Aoshima kit is dimensionally correct, but it looks "chunkier" somehow in the pics than the real thing... best, M.

It looks great! Good job... as an aside, I’ve never had any issues with Zero over Tamiya primer. If you spray light coats, the colour builds up. Zero basecoats aren’t meant to be sprayed heavily, still less in wet coats. For a regular colour, I do probably 3 coats, with 10 minutes between; for multilayer, I do a couple of coats of each one. One thing I have learned is to keep all the coloured parts (eg doors, bonnet and body shell) together while spraying them, so they all end up with the same density of each layer. In the ones where you have a coloured glaze over a metallic base coat, the final appearance is critically dependent on getting the same depth of colour on the glaze everywhere... best, M.

I can see at least one feature that probably brought out the lawyers, as well... best, M.

There have been a couple of occasions recently when I’ve needed to spot apply some Tamiya TS paint because there was no easy way to fill and fix specific seams before final assembly. Both times I was using a metallic colour: light blue and light gunmetal. In both cases, the airbrushed colour came up a lot lighter and brighter than the areas that had been sprayed using the can. In the case of the “gunmetal”, I’m going to have to mask the windows and do the whole body again, because the difference is stark... Anyone else had this happen? I think it’s to do with the much more even distribution of the metal flakes in the airbrushed coat. Any ideas how to get the same colour, or should I just resign myself to using decanted paint or the new LP pots with metallic colours? best, M.

Darn it! I wonder how my two built and seven (four street in two scales and three race, all different generations) in the stash got there, then. I must have been given them by a friend or picked them up with packets of cereal... ? Best, M.

I wouldn’t get too scared just yet... that’s just a picture Revell has of an E-type. There’s no evidence it’s the box art of a new kit, still less that the model inside the box when it comes is going to look like that. I wish Revell would use the 3D CAD models Of new releases like Airfix does, but they haven’t done that except when promoting the Land Rover on their blog... best, M.

Hi, all... apologies for the delay in putting up the results... I was away after New Year and back to work with a bang, so things have been a little hectic lately! Anyway: '64-'66 Mustang Aston Martin Ulster TVR T350C Facel Vega II Jaguar E-type V12 Ford Model T Chrysler Series 70 VW Type 34 Karmann Ghia Buick Roadmaster Jensen GT Jowett Jupiter Aston Martin DB5 I had three entries, from @maltsr, @Richard Bartrop and @carsntrucks4you, all of which were very near perfect.... very well done, gentlemen! After a random draw by my lady wife (who is also a priest, so you can trust her...), @carsntrucks4you is the lucky recipient of the prize! A copy of the Winter 2019 issue of The Road Rat magazine will be wending its way to him as soon as I get a mailing address... https://theroadrat.com/products/issue-004 Thanks for participating... and to those who looked but didn't enter... Happy New Year! All the best, M.