Matt Bacon

The Lindberg "Jolly Roger Pirate Ship" isn't a pirate ship at all, but a rather good model of a Napoleonic-era French frigate, captured and used by the English as well. If you're a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, this is as close as you'll get to a plastic model of HMS Surprise... http://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/ships/ewaldpi.htm http://www.internetmodeler.com/scalemodels/flships/Lingberg-s-Jolly-Roger-Pirate-Ship.php All the best, Matt

...sadly not, I'm afraid. There are only two Airfix-originated 1/24 car kits: the James Bond DB5 and Toyota 2000GT Spider. All other 1/24 or 1/25 were bought in from elsewhere, often as bagged kits. A lot of them originated with Heller, and many of those are now being re-issued by the rejuvenated Heller (like the Bugatti T50, Delahaye 135, and E-type OTS and Coupe). The Bora, Silhouette and Pantera were, like a number of the others reboxed Japanese market kits from makers like Eidei. These were often originally motorised models, and the interiors and details are compromised to make room for the motor installation. The MGB is the rather good Aoshima kit (I have an AIrfix box and a couple of Aoshima's that I found in a charity shop. They also issued a few Gunze Sangyo kits, including (if you can find them) "Hi-tech" boxes of the E-Type convertible (which comes with white metal engine and a lot of pins to be cut up to join bits of metal frame together) and the 250GTO (which, sadly, is not the version with the engine, but DOES have some of the best etched wire wheels I've ever seen) For us car modellers, the best Kitstarter can offer would be a number of quite good 1/32 British cars of the 60s and 70s, and the occasional exotic (like the Maserati Indy, which is already being re-issued this year). bestest, M.

The difference between the Revell "wish list" ideas site, and the Airfix Kitstarter (which a lot of the people making requests in the Airfix forum don't seem to have grasped), is that Airfix are asking which existing tools from their back catalogue people would buy kits of. It's NOT a general "wish list". There's obviously no guarantee that any request will get enough support, but it's probably viable to load the tools onto an injection moulding machine for a few thousand kits. Revell have got to decide which kits have enough support to justify designing, tooling AND moulding a new kit, which tends to mean only the most popular, that will sell in regular model shops, will ever make it through the process. With the Airfix approach, if you can find another few thousand "1:1 scale wild bird" modellers to join you, you can have your choice of Tits... bestest, M.

I'd say the models are fantastic, and your photo tent and lights are doing a good job! All the best, Matt

I thought I'd heard that the newest RoG release was the Italeri reboxed, but it looks like I was wrong. Apologies if I got anyone's hopes up! bestest, M.

I think the main question is: how many people WANT an Aston Martin DB4 - DB6 series car who AREN'T going to know it well enough to know that it doesn't look quite right themselves? It you want a "James Bond" car, then the Doyusha one, with its bells and whistles, will certainly look the part, mostly BECAUSE of its bells and whistles. I've built two of the Doyusha kits now in one form or another, so I'm obviously not dismissing them out of hand. My problem is that I personally think that the DB4 series III or IV are the pinnacle of those cars' good looks, so I'm going to "go the extra mile" when I build mine to try and capture them a bit better. Back on the digressions, for the Aston and Maserati 3500GT I can understand people still buying the Aurora/Monogram kits, because they are the only game in town. But I can see NO reason at all for buying the "caricature" 250GTO or E-Type. The ancient Revell 1/25 E-type is not at all bad and re-issued again recently, and Heller is now selling its Coupe and OTS kits in 1/24 again. You're spoilt for choice with the 250GTO, with Revell boxing the pretty darn good Italeri kit at the moment, and Fujimi's outstanding kit also available at a bit of a higher price. I'll take a look at the Monogram DB4 engine in the next couple of days... bestest, M.

A real legend -- another of the "old guard" from the days of motor sport that produced "larger than life" figures. His inspiration will live on, in Sweden and beyond, I'm sure. RIP Erik... bestest, M.

Oh, there's a simple answer to that. No, there isn't. The Airfix James Bond release of 1967 is the only one with a reasonably accurate body shape, engine details etc. Except the tooling doesn't exist any more, it's not been available for years, and if you can find one today you'll be paying collector prices. Apart from the digressions, most of the rest is about discussing what needs fixing with the two other more easily available (but not currently in production) kits from Doyusha and Monogram. Does that clear things up? ;-P bestest, M.

Anyone know of a transkit to transform a Tamiya CLK-GTR into this baby? bestest, M.

Looks fantastic, though personally I wouldn't have gone for the bonnet decal. Those lines look great really stark, and simple... bestest, M.

The Doyusha is basic, to say the least: I can't find the pix of the Bond version, but it's much the same with a radio-telephone and a neat attache case for your guns... I'll try to dig out and photograph the Airfix chassis, engine and interior. One seat and the floor are messed up to accommodate the "working" ejection seat, but the rest is reasonably well-detailed, IIRC... bestest, M.

In the UK, you're looking at about £120+ for the Airfix Bond kit (£40 just for the BOX!), about £35-40 for the Doyusha DB5 and £40-£50 for the Bond version with the figures included, and maybe £25-£30 for the Monogram DB4. The Airfix box of the non-Bond Doyusha can occasionally be had for £20-£25 (I got mine as a "I'll never build it" for £20 for the "cut and shut"). I've never seen an actual kit of the Airfix DB6 for sale, but the box (with parts for "spares or repair", sometimes) goes for maybe £20. If I only knew a good resin caster, the Airfix Bond DB5 body could form the basis for a resin DB4 Srs I-III body (shorten and blend in the Monogram front end for the headlights), DB4GT (shorten and leave the headlights alone), DB5 (using all the kit parts) and, with a bit of work, a DB6 (though the best bet would be, maybe, to use an Airfix DB6 kit and rework the roof line and tail). My plan, I think, is to take the Monogram DB4, glue some thick sheet to the bottom edge and sand back the body to a more curvaceous shape, rework the window line, and narrow the floor pan to fit inside the curvier body... bestest, M.

Hi, all... does anyone do a '48 Buick Super Convertible in kit form? I'd really like to have a bash at building this: http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/videos/a25418/jay-leno-garage-icon-derelict-1948-buick/ bestest, M.

Sorry, Snake... will do. ;-P Sounds as though when Airfix re-tooled the DB5 into a DB6, they left the front half alone, and tried to keep the changes in the back half. But the 2" additional headroom starts at the top of the windscreen, which is taller, but more raked than the DB5. That would explain why it all looks too squashed. The wheelbase extension from DB5 to DB6 was to give the rear passengers more legroom, so adding that in behind the doors is accurate, but without raising the roof probably makes it look even flatter than it should. And once you've got the roofline wrong, the taper to the tail is always going to be a mess... (I've never seen a DB6 version of the kit in the plastic, built up or not: you don't feel like taking a few pictures, do you, Snake?) So basically, we're left with the ONLY accurate-ish Aston Martin in 1/24 scale being the original Airfix James Bond DB5, whose moulds were vandalised to produce an inaccurate DB6, and have now disappeared entirely. Surely THAT's an opportunity for Tamiya? ;-P bestest, M.

You should take another look in the box, Richard. T'interweb seems to think that the MPC DB6 is the same as the Airfix one (the Doyusha only ever appeared in an Airfix box as a DB5). If that's true, then it's the same kit as the James Bond one (at least engine and body shell wise... no ejector seat and machine guns...), but with the tail end retooled to the DB6 Kamm tail. Which means that the body should look pretty much like the white one above. So if your MPC doesn't, then the internet sources are wrong (what? WHAT? The internet might have a fact wrong? ;-P). bestest, M.

Thanks! This: Is the Doyusha kit "cut and shut" to make a racing DB4GT. If you look at the rear of the "greenhouse," you can see the fuel filler cap on the wing (there's one on each side). Another thing the the original Airfix DB5 kit captures much better than either of the others is that width of the "ledge" around the top of the wings. I could see in photos that there was plenty of room for two full size fuel fillers on the real thing , but the ones on my model are "as big as possible" but still pretty weedy, and they are really set into the apex of the wing, not sat on top of a flat plane... bestest, M.

Thanks, guys... a bit of a test, now. I traded the EOS400 for an EOS40D, because the 400 was consistently underexposing, and all the shots had to be messed with in Photoshop. These following are straight out of the camera with the 40D. That in itself is a big difference, but I think they are actually better coloured, better dynamic range and slightly sharper. But I may be kidding myself... What do you think? bestest, M.

Getting slightly back on track... ;-P White plastic is the Airfix "James Bond Aston Martin", silver plastic is the Aurora/Monogram DB4, the built one is the Doyusha DB5 in its Bond incarnation (came with rather nice Bond and Oddjob figures). The Airfix James Bond tooling was modified to make a Kamm-tailed DB6 and then disappeared. Later Airfix boxes called "Aston Martin DB5" have the Doyusha plastic in, with no Bond accessories. The non Bond version is also available in a Doyusha box. The Doyusha is pretty slab-sided, especially at the back, but not quite as much as the Aurora/Monogram. As you can see, the original Airfix Bond DB5 does a pretty good job of rendering the curves and undercuts of the real thing. The Airfix is also the only one to get the window line along the roof right. All in all, it's probably the most accurate starting point for a DB5 model (or a DB4 Series III with the faired in headlights, if you cut and shut it, taking a section out of the doors). The only problem is that they are rare and highly collectable. I bought mine for £7 in a charity shop, so I've got no qualms about building it... bestest,M .

There was a recent-ish article in Octane about the reproduction build as well. If I remember rightly, it's being powered by two Kawasaki motorbike engines, airworthy Bugatti 50C engines being in short supply these days... http://bugatti100p.com bestest, M.

http://www.fishermodels.com/product/bugatti-100p-record-plane-124-scale When I saw this, I HAD to buy it... it's a record breaking Bugatti in 1/24...except it's a "what-if?", and it's a plane... My plan is to build it into a diorama with the the Heller Bugatti T50 and a couple of period figures. I need a super sleek pilot (think Howard Hughes) and a super cool engineer (think Levon Helm as Jack Ridley in The Right Stuff), so an ideas where to source those guys would be much appreciated! bestest M.

Thanks for the positive comments, guys! Matija, Christian... the great thing about the Academy box is that it's in production now -- the only reason for eBay is to find a Korean seller. I haven't seen an Italeri-boxed version for sale ever, and the only RoG one I've spotted was ridiculously expensive. I wonder if there's some license that's expired between Italeri and Ferrari. I emailed their team a couple of years ago to see if they were planning to re-release any of these "classics", as they are doing with the Porsches, and they told me a firm "NO." There was also a strong rumour a couple of years back that RoG was going to re-release the Italeri 250 SWB, which is way better than the Esci/AMT abomination, and that came to nothing. (Though RoG DID do the 250 GTO recently). In theory, Italeri could release at least the 250 California, 250 SWB, 250 GTO, 275 GTB and NART Spider, Daytona... Christian... I do have a few Rosso Corsa Ferraris, but I also have 'em in blue, black, silver, yellow and now "Aubergine". There's a lot of scope for interesting colours in the more "GT" rather than "Sports" end of the range... Helmut -- those are the wheels and tyres in the box. I don't think they are too bad -- put them next to a set of Renaissance Borranis or the etched wires that come in the Gunze 250s and they look a bit clunky, but I could buy two boxes of the entire kit for the price of one set of Renaissance wheels... Thanks again, all! bestest, M.

Yeah... by comparison to the Jaguar E-Type Coupe and the 250 GTO, the DB4 and Maserati 3500 GT are actually pretty good! Hard to believe that there's still no accurate state of the art E-Type** in 1/24*... bestest, M. *(OR 1/25) **nor a 1/24 or 1/25 F-102 either, for your diorama scene... I guess you could do it with a 1/48 model and a couple of 1/72 versions and call it "forced perspective..."

...and with her build partner: it's much quicker to go curbside! bestest, M.

A hard to find kit in an Italeri box, but it turns out that it's been reboxed for the domestic Korean market by Academy, as "European Classic Car". No mention of the maker, nor any Cavallino Rampantes on the box art or decal sheet. However, all the bits are there, and it can be had for a bit less than £20 delivered from eBay. Some detailing under the bonnet to fill the empty space, with a fair few bits and pieces liberated from the spares box or scratch-built. Otherwise it's pretty much OOB. Colour is a home-brew "Vinaccia" (so much nicer than "Aubergine") made with Zero paints components, and the interior is Ferrari "Tobacco" aka Vallejo Tanned Flesh with a dash of yellow added... bestest, M

Thanks, all... my work here is done. Full photo set in Under Glass... bestest, M.