Matt Bacon

Thank you very much, gentlemen! As for Betty-Lou, she's putty in my hands... When we first met, she was in pieces, and it was only thanks to my help she pulled herself together. She's been at my beck and call ever since. ;-P bestest, M.

Certainly with the Tamiya "hot" acrylics (TS and AS sprays) they go on shrinking and curing for several days after they appear to be touch dry. They recommend (or at least the expert painter who wrote the notes on the Tamiya USA site/blog does) that you don't need a "wet coat". Just keep laying down light coats (very light at first -- "spatter" coats, he calls them) and build up the density slowly. The early light coats stop the paint "drawing back" from around details and panel lines, which it is prone to do if it is too liquid. Even if it looks like the surface is slightly orange peeled when you finish painting, after a few days in a warm airing cupboard or a few hours in the food dryer, it will have disappeared as the paint shrinks back into one consolidated layer. bestest, M.

I've had this happen a couple of times -- it's when the clear coat dissolves the base coat enough to free up the metallic flakes to move. so they cluster, and also don't have the random distribution of orientation that makes for a homogeneous "sparkle". There's not a lot you can do except respray. For future reference, you can either lay down more mist coats than usual, making sure each has dried before doing the next, so that when you get to the wet coat stage all that's immediately underneath the thicker layer of clear is more clear. Or you can can spray your base coat, and follow up with several coats of mixed base and clear, steadily increasing the proportion of clear until you get to pure clear. Of course, that only works if you're using compatible products (eg Tamiya TS spray and TS-13 clear). Good luck! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys. And yes, grrrr... I have missed the front indicators. Fortunately, I have now located them on an offcut end of formerly chrome sprue that has been stripped, and repainted them chrome silver. Tomorrow I'll do the orange and then I can add them and this thing will REALLY be finished! bestest, M.

Well, she's finally done! And finally a couple shot with a different lens that should be a better approximation of what a human eye sees looking at one of these: A really nice base kit, much enhanced by the Fine Molds white metal parts (plus you end up with a spare 427 engine!) bestest, M.

That looks like a couple more to add to my "McQueen's Machines" project... bestest, M.

That's taking the "angry shark" look to extremes, isn't it? ;-P bestest, M.

That looks fantastic, Harry! And what a coincidence -- that route ran right past the house I used to live in in South London in the late 80s (not that the trams, or even lines were still there, mind -- it wasn't the 1910s!). The depot that they started from was down in central Woolwich, and the power station that drove them was in this building: https://goo.gl/maps/ryzcGfFwsWG2 which, by the time I lived there, had become one of London's first comedy clubs and a popular music venue: http://www.glypt.co.uk/tramshed/ I saw Billy Bragg there, and Wilko Johnson's band played a storming evening... Anyway, enough of my nostalgia. Fabulous model, and probably rather large. Have you ever posted a picture of your "big Boyz" display area? bestest, M.

The GTO is exactly the same. Like you say, warming and bending works, and I found that thinning the hood hinge pins down a bit helped as well, so the bonnet has a bit of "wiggle room" to settle down when you drop it shut... bestest, M.

Very lovely indeed, and a fantastic (and familiar) colour combination. They are spectacular beasts, aren't they? Did you manage to get the bonnet/hood so that it closes properly at the front...? ;-P bestest, M.

On the home stretch now... just the windscreen and various detail parts to add: ...looks like I have some cleaning to do! bestest, M.

I'd go with Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola, and probably Eastwood (though I suspect if I'd seen Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, I'd certainly include him...) bestest, M.

Hi, all... have any of you any reviews to share of the Heller BMW 328? Especially any build ups with the gotchas nicely listed out for me? ;-P bestest, M.

Well, crikey. I'm glad these are done. The Fine Molds parts include the makings of much more in-scale jacking hooks (if that's what they are) than the inch thick cast iron slabs represented by the plastic parts. Four bits of etch to fold, a length of brass tube to cut up into the mounts, and a reasonable number (ie more than you'll need) of rivets/fasteners. Fold the etch, wiggle the fasteners through, slide the brass tube on the end. Eight times. Did I mention that they're tiny? Tack'em with superglue, and this is what you get. These'll be painted black, because I don't like the look of chrome, and I found a car with black ones fitted (the same one that has the black roll hoop that I already borrowed...) bestest, M.

Sorry... that one's _clearly_ a kids' pedal car... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys. The next steps were pretty quick! bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... I haven't been idle the last couple of weeks, but progress has been slow. Got the Patto's Place decals on: mixed feelings about those. You could certainly do with some spares to stuff up before you get the hang of them. You should soak them much less long than you think you need to, because if they even start to separate from the backing paper in the water, you're in all kinds of trouble... Really, I should have painted the stripes, but I should have thought about that BEFORE doing the blue... bestest, M.

There are only four 330P4s (as was) in existence. You want a 1967 "Rosso Corsa": Scale Finishes Zero Paints Gravity bestest, M.

Depends whether you want a real, in-period 330P or not... The green one above is a David Piper rebuild "continuation" model that didn't exist in period, and the yellow one is an Ecurie Francorchamps Ferrari 412P... which is much the same but you'll need to tweak the engine. bestest, M.

Both the Heller/Union and Fujimi kits are pretty good. Which one can you find cheapest...? bestest, M.

A-ha! Look at the upper corners of the rear window: they are much sharper and less radiused than the corners on the AMT/Esci body in my pic. So I'm now fairly confident that it isn't the Esci kit... bestest, M.

This is the AMT/ESCI: Sadly, I don't have an Italeri one to compare, but I'm sure somebody will have... It _looks_ to me like the one in your pic has separate door handles and an opening bonnet, but that could be "fettling" by the original modeller... bestest, M.

Interesting thing, the Hemera... it looks to me much more like a Pixar "Cars" caricature than the Cevennes above, IMHO. I was wondering about what went on between PGO and Porsche, as well. It can't be _just_ the visual "homage" they object to: I was reading recently in Hemmings Sports & Exotics about a guy in the US who is building new Porsche 550 Spyders with not just the blessing of the company, but active support. And they're obviously OK with what Singer and Sharkwerks do, which may start life as 964 911s, but by the time they're finished probably have as much in common with a 911 as the Cevennes does with a 356... bestest, M.

Well, I did look into this when I was doing mine, and indeed found that picture. I can't find any evidence of blue engine blocks in original 427 S/Cs as built, just black... though there's precious little documentation of that in pictures, especially out of the car. Trouble is, 99% of what you can find on Google is from companies building or rebuilding Cobra engines, and they obviously go with making them super nice to press all the right buttons in someone who's paying top dollar for them. As far as I can see, though, black and silver are the dominant colours of original engines, not blue, white and chrome... bestest, M. [completely expecting someone who knows much better than me to come along any minute with 50+ photos of a start to finish restoration of a barn-find original 427 S/C to prove me utterly wrong...]

Blue-tiful ;-P Lovely build, and great photos. A couple of them look just like grabs from the Ferrari Configurator, except I don't think that "Blue Chiaro Bambino" is an option... bestest, M.