Matt Bacon

Neither -- the 250LM is nothing close to that line of racers. The nearest you'll get for the engine is the Hasegawa 250TR (TestaRossa) kit. The chassis is more or less unique, though you might be able to find some usable parts in the Fujimi Dino 206GT kit, which is some way back up the "family tree" that led to the 250LM... bestest, M.

I saw it at SMW Telford this weekend, and it's definitely the Italeri kit. It looked really good, but unfortunately not easy to photograph. Somebody with a camera rather than a phone may have some pictures -- I'll keep an eye open. According to the Revell boss-guy on the stand, it's due in UK shops in December, but he wouldn't _promise_ that it would make it before Christmas... bestest, M.

Yeah -- I just watched 10-15 minutes on the new James Bond Aston DB10, with the car in the Garage and then taken for a spin. Jay had Marek Reichmann to talk him around the design and ride shotgun on the drivealong, and who better? It was a proper in-depth and informative discussion with the actual car's designer, not remotely just a trail for the new movie. All the JLG segments I've seen on YouTube have been similarly in-depth and informative, as well as fun and drool-worthy. I think it's the best way of getting your fix of real car-guy goodness... bestest, M.

Hi, Steve... they are all statics indeed. They are for a Classic British Kits SIG display at Scale Model World in November, which is celebrating 60 years of classic railway plastic. These are all Kitmaster engine kits dating from the very early sixties. Some (Schools Class, Mogul, Battle of Britain Class, City of Truro, Evening Star...) went on to be issued by Airfix alongside their own railway kits. Eventually, a few went on to Dapol when Airfix stopped doing model railways, and are still available today. The interesting thing is that all of them are proper OO scale (though on standard OO/HO track gauge), even the Continental and American prototypes, so you can compare sizes in a constant 1/76. That was probably a big marketing mistake by Kitmaster (who's going to want a 241.P "Mountain" or Baureihe 23 on a UK layout, or a 1/76 giant on a 1/87 scale model railway in Queens or Reims...?) We think we are going to be able to display a full set of all the Kitmaster locos on the display (and yes, there is actually a layout running Kitmaster rolling stock hauled by motorized Airfix locomotives for passers-by to "drive" past all the Airfix plastic scenery that was such a big part of their range of kits) bestest, M.

Yep... they definitely worked. They started being needed as boilers grew in size through the early 20th century. The taller Victorian chimneys gradually shrank down as the boiler and firebox diameter grew, because the height of tunnels and bridges etc was fixed, so the locos had to fit into a specific cross section, called the "loading gauge," which didn't change. With a simple blunt front end, the air has to split around the front, leading to a low pressure area below the chimney, which sucked the smoke back down and tumbled it along the boiler sides, right where the driver needed to see. The "smoke deflectors" channel the air into an upward blast, carrying the smoke up and over the top of the locomotive instead. One further complication was that as piston mechanisms became more and more efficient at extracting energy from the expanding steam, the lower pressure the output to the chimney. Rather than blasting smoke and steam out like a Victorian engine, a 20th century loco had to work to "draw" the exhaust out of the chimney... bestest, M.

And finally, a few of the whole line-up, as it stands tonight: bestest, M.

A couple more headed toward the Classic British Kits display at ScaleModelWorld 2015. First up, the german general purpose loco, Baureihe 23 (Class 23): Then, the New York Central Railway Hudson (not the super-cool streamliner version....) bestest, M.

Revell seems to be having some trouble with the pictures at the moment, but the newsletter is here: http://www.revell-news.de/display.php?M=114256&C=9c703e743de608183b910bacd933aa65&L=36&N=173 and you can pre-prder from Hannants here: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/RV7056 bestest, M.

Yeah.... because the F12 was so lacking in grunt and handling... ;-P 0-125mph in 7.9 seconds??? That's a pretty respectable 0-60 time! Clearly they had to build something that could out-accelerate a Tesla S. I like the look of it, too. And as a wannabe "gentleman driver", I can appreciate the work they've put in to making it not a monster ;-P bestest, M.

I've heard tell that Tamiya Fine Surface Primer in pink works just as well for yellow as it does for red... bestest, M.

Yep. Depending how sophisticated your camera is, how you set it will vary. Most have settings for "daylight", "tungsten", "fluorescent" etc. On higher-end cameras you can set the "white" point according to the "colour temperature" of your light (redder light is "colder", bluer light is "hotter" -- my "daylight" fluorescent bulbs have a colour temperature of 5500K.) Dedicated photographic lights will usually tell you this temperature, and you can Google around for approximate temperatures for most kinds of lighting. Finally, you may get an option to take a picture of a piece of white or neutral grey card, and use that to set a "custom" white point for your specific set-up. That's the most accurate, obviously. If you can avoid it, you don't want to use the "automatic white balance" setting for car model photos. It makes decisions based on assumptions about the range and type of colours found in a real life scene, which usually don't apply when you're taking pictures of a large single coloured lump in the middle of a single-colour background under artificial light. If you're not careful it'll try to turn your blue background into grey... bestest, M.

...they didn't get any better looking, though, did they? ;-P bestest, M.

Very cool-looking! ...as a matter of interest, since I know nothing about dragsters, how much of the "original" car does an altered need to contain? I'm not seeing much '32 Austin in there! bestest, M.

I can't shake the image of a wagon train heading West with that bringing up the rear, carrying the lah-di-dah folks from the big house to their new estate in Colorado... bestest, M.

When I had to replace the water trap on my set up, I had a "doh" moment. For ten years I'd been using the coiled hose attached to the airbrush, and a straight length from airbrush to water trap. I though that the coils were supposed to work like an old telephone handset cable. But no! The nice chap who I bought the replacement from told me that the coiled hose should be fitted between the compressor and the water trap, to cool the air without taking up too much room, and the straight one from the water trap to the airbrush. Much better all round. As Harry says, you'll get a million options for preferred kit. I started with a Badger 150, which was OK, but I fairly quickly moved on to a double action Iwata BC-S which has served me well for the last decade. These days I use it alongside a H&S Evolution Al+ 2in1 with a smaller needle. If you wanted to, you can get an additional handle for the Iwata that allows it to work like a single-action brush by setting the needle position in one place. I tried an Aztek for a while, before the Iwata, but I really didn't get on with it at all. For a compressor, I have one of the attached. Mine's a SimAir branded version, but they come with various brands.It's been bombproof, quiet and effective for 10 years. My best advice would be to try to find a "real world" supplier, and go and talk them, try a few different set-ups out, and find the one that suits you and your usage. Even if you can't go in person, I'd still recommended finding a specialist airbrush retailer (these days, that may not be a hobby shop -- they're just as likely to be used for "nail art" or full size graphic art) and giving them a call to talk over your requirements and budget. Unfortunately, the two very helpful and friendly companies I've used (airbrushes.com and little-cars.com) are in the UK. You may be able to find a supplier among the trade stands at a model show as well. bestest, M. edit: These guys: http://precisiongermanairbrush.com are about an hour up the road from you in Brooksville. The owner's cell number is on the web page, so I'd give him a call!

Just got my "New Model Kits Autumn 2105" e-newsletter from Revell, and kit 07056 is 1:24 Ferrari 250 SWB: It's probably the older Italeri kit, but that's pretty good, much better than the Esci/AMT version, and it will be a lot easier on the wallet than the Gunze Sangyo kit. I'll be having a couple, for sure! bestest, M.

The only time I'd consider using a silver base would be if I wanted to block the dye from a red plastic body leaching through into the top coat colours (and I've seen 2K Clearcoat suck the red _through_ a layer of yellow base which looked completely unaffected when it was sprayed first). In this case I'd probably spray the silver coat directly onto the plastic, then prime, then shoot the top coats. Except these days, having been burned twice, I have some dedicated Zero Paints Sealer basecoat which is specifically intended as the tool for the job. And really, really, get a mask and some extraction. Even with water based acrylics -- you may not smell much, and the vapours aren't actually toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, but fine mists of particles do horrible things to your lungs whatever they are made of... bestest, M.

I've often wondered about why the models I take pictures of don't look quite how I expect when I've seen the real thing. In particular, supercars never look as flat and wide in a photo as they do in real life. The following aren't my best models (don't get bent out of shape by the SLS's surface finish, a really hard to photograph attempt at "Alubeam", or the 458's shut line enhancement, which needs re-doing). But they are two cars that I've seen often enough to recognise, and I've measured up both kits so I know that the models are precisely and accurately scaled in all dimensions. Anyway, after a bit of internet research, and some tests, I reckon that for most DSLRs, a 35-40mm focal length lens and a camera height 2.5" - 3" above the "ground" gives a pretty good representation of what you'd see looking at the real thing... bestest, M.

That looks fantastic, Jurgen. Excellent scratch-building and detailing, as always. Having done one myself, I know exactly how much you've made a silk purse out of... let's say unpromising materials. I know you prefer to build everything "buttoned up" -- it's just a bit of a shame in this case, since the Alfetta and Talbot-Lago are the only ones where Merit actually gave you an attempt at an engine! bestest, M.

Excellent stuff. Looks fantastic. Are the decals in the kit, or did you go aftermarket? bestest, M.

OK... no contest. This is going to be the colour scheme for my "Weissach" 918. I'll use the Martini decals on an all-white "vanilla" 918 built from the other kit... bestest, M.

The Heller kit looks to be way more detailed -- "124 pieces" versus the "over 50 components... with cement" of the Airfix. With luck, it'll be in the great tradition of Heller 1/24 kits, with plenty of parts that are very faithful to the prototype. At least with a tractor, the engineering of the real thing is pretty chunky, unlike some of the suspension components of the "golden age" cars that they are just starting to re-issue! I'm definitely having one! bestest, M.

Completely new and in honest to goodness 1/24. I just think it's cool that the "Holy Grail" of Airfix collectors now has an alternative, state of the art, new-tool kit. Sometimes it can take decades, it seems, so don't give up hope on some of those subjects that have never been done by anyone except Palmer... bestest, M.

Apologies for those of you who know this already, but it's interesting to us "Classic British Kit" collectors. The very first Airfix kit was a Ferguson tractor. Initially released in 1949 as a built promo for the Ferguson company, it was also released as a kit from 1955-59: It's about 1:20 scale. And now, here come our friends from Heller, almost 70 years later! bestest, M.

I tend to use a medical tape with a fine woven texture. It's white, but takes paint or marker pen colours very well. It can be stuck onto lead foil for precise positioning of posable belts, doubled over and sliced into strips to use as a pure fabric belt (handy for supercars where it disappears into an inertia real behind the seat), or stuck onto something slightly springy like thin brass or plastic card when you want to do a standard "B" pillar mount above the tub: If you bend the spring material outwards slightly, then as the tub goes up into the car, the upper mounts will slide up the B pillar, pressed up against it by the springiness of the belt. bestest, M.