Matt Bacon

Renaissance do some 13” Minilites intended for ‘70s Escort rally cars, which might do. Sadly, 12” ones are harder to come by... there’s a set in the SE Finecast white metal Mini kit, but it’s out of production (and an expensive kit, when you can get Revell or Tamiya kits for £15 or so...) best, M.

Try now... best, M.

Be still my beating heart... See catalogue here: best, M.

...I'm offering a special extra prize (a particularly vintage smidgeon of kudos, highly polished and carefully metered...) for anyone who wants to tell me what it ISN'T, as well as telling Michael what it is. If you track it down, and look into more than just its identity, you'll know what I mean, and I'll look forward to receiving your PM (no extra clues here, as always...) best, M.

Very nice indeed, Bruce. It’s a very classy colour combination, and your detail painting is exemplary. Having done one myself, I know that it’s no shake and bake kit, but Heller kits of this vintage are worth the extra effort... best, M.

That looks fabulous.. . a classic from the days when F1 cars actually looked cool! If I can get anywhere near that with mine, I'll be happy! Any steer on what the "fitment issues" you found were would be much appreciated... All the best, M.

Well, it’s a Yorkshire Dales ice cream van behind it... ;-P best, M.

Isn't that the normal way to chill your Vodka in Tampere..? best, M.

The more I look at pictures of the real thing, the more I think it’s a VERY difficult shape to get right, especially working from photos. It’s made up of subtly double curved elements with changing radiuses, and sharp faceted transitions between them. I suspect the Aoshima designers were trying to build it in CAD from simpler elements and got a couple of the intersections between them wrong... The only way to really do it justice would be to laser scan a real one. For example, compare the panel above the “wall” running up to the roof outboard of the engine cover with the 1:1 image... On the kit it’s basically flat with a slight twist. You can see from the reflections that it actually also has a bit of a “hump” and flares out and down towards the top. best, M.

Lovely build, and nice colour combination. Reminds me I must promote mine up the build pile... best, M.

Not only that, but the fender is held on by only two bolts, and thanks to the air suspension it jacks itself up and stays level with three wheels on the ground... beat, M.

This has gone straight to the top of the build pile, since I have a local one to copy, and boy, it looks cool... So, first problem: I've seen various people mention the weird "pinch" at the front of the doors that Aoshima got wrong, but I haven't seen the vertical wall at the top of the rear wheel arches discussed as much. It's not there on the real thing: This is the actual car I'll be making. There are more pix where this came from... A fair bit of Milliput and several rounds of sanding later, this is where we are. Time to build up the rest of the body and take off the "normal" moulding seams... best, M.

Thanks, that's interesting to know... if anyone felt like scanning me a copy, I'd be very grateful! All the best, M.

Thanks, all... I found Harry's full build thread, thanks to someone on another forum... it'll be a tough act to follow, but then I knew that ;-P. My copy of "Scale Models" magazine from Dec 1978 arrived this week, with a full build article in. Lo and behold, it was written by Ted Taylor, a doyen of British modelling (very involved with Matchbox kits, back in the day, and a good friend of our "Classic British Kits" IPMS SIG), who passed a few years ago, so this is now for both Harry AND Ted... best, M.

You could try soaking it in Isopropyl Alcohol. Otherwise there are two kinds of nail polish remover in my local drugstore/chemists. One is “hot”, acetone based, which definitely will soften the plastic, but the other skin/environment friendly one won’t, but may still be effective on the nail varnish — or it may not! NB: both come in plastic bottles: the fact that the hot one doesn’t eat a polythene bottle doesn’t mean it won’t eat a polystyrene kit.. best, M.

Looks like Tamiya, Fujimi and Aoshima all do one... opinions, anyone? best M.

Mine’s on the high seas. Shame they didn’t fix that weird crease at the front edge of the door, but it’s easy enough to sand out... best, M.

I'm staying with my uncle while working away from home, and when I arrived this week, he told me that his next door neighbours had been clearing out their garage, and found a few boxes of model railway stuff that had ended up in THEIR garage 20 years ago when the wife's dad died. My uncle's a model railway buff, so they thought he might make use of it. Well it was the wrong scale, so he kept a few of the nicer vintage Hornby wagons, still cast in metal, but the rest wasn't much good. However... among the boxes was just one kit, which he thought I might be interested in. And I was... All the bags are still sealed, apart from the yellow tree (if it had a bag in the first place), but all the yellow parts are present and correct. Everything looks crisp and without flash, and even the decals look good. There's an "issue number" on the instructions, which is "1/77", so I think it's one of the first releases of the kit in this country. I've always like the look of this kit, and the models built from it, but it's a bit of a "wild card" for me, and I've never seen an affordable one. But now I have one, and it's going to get built. I managed to get the December 1978 issue of Scale Models, which features the kit on the cover and a full build article/review, for the princely sum of £3 on eBay, so I think I'm good to go. Not sure whether Harry ever built one of these, but it definitely would have been one of his kind of thing, so when I build it, it'll be for Harry... best, M.

Most excellent! Ive never seen an XK120 look sleeker. It just oozes class, and, frankly, could be a Mike Zumbrunn picture of the 1:1 from the "British Auto Legends" book... best, M.

An excellent collection: great finishes and plenty of variety. Highlights for me are the Harley, Porsche tractor and Firebird. Love the colour choice on the latter particularly. Now, what's next? best, M.

Big enough that Airfix pulled their planned re-release of the Indy last year because they couldn’t get a licensing deal agreed. I talked to one of their guys about it: licenses are very specific, so the fact that there are licensed die casts, or even in Airfix’s case licensed Scalextric (also part of Hornby Group) models, doesn’t mean a model kit is easy. He told me that even reissuing kits of defunct brands, like the Triumphs or Morrises, is complicated by the fact that the rights are partly held by British Motor Heritage, and partly by BMW (picked up when they bought Rover Group). best, M.

As I understand it from talking to the Revell Germany guys at Scale Model World this year, their ratings are purely based on number of parts. So I guess if you have a kit with multiple alternative parts it'll score higher than one with fewer total parts, but more of them used in any given build... Arbitrary, for sure, but I guess it's a start. best, M.

It does say specifically "new tool" in the IPMS Deutschland list, and they normally have good info. And here: http://www.kitreviewsonline.de/revell-neuheiten-2019-das-ii-bis-iv-quartal/#more-40975 You can find: "07047 Land Rover Series III (New Tool) 09/2019 Kit Level 3 with long wheelbase with engine reproduction, right and left hand drive version" I'm a bit suspicious that it's only a "level 3" even though it has an engine, but it's good that it has both RHD and LHD options. I guess it won't have TWO engines, because I'd like at least a V8 and a diesel... best, M.

Beautiful, all of them... best, M.

You probably could, but at the price they want for one Beetle (never mind the new issue “Technic” release with lights) you could have both the coupe and cabriolet kits and detail the one with parts from the other... best, M.