Harry P.

I think you're right about us working on two different body styles being the difference in results we're getting.

The problem isn't on the user end, it's with the photos themselves and how they were saved (what size, resolution, etc.). I downloaded one of the photos and tried to open it in Photoshop... got an error message: Could not complete your request because a JPEG marker segment length is too short (the file may be truncated or incomplete). Not sure exactly what that means, but if I can't open the image in Photoshop (or in Preview, or Adobe Bridge, which is sort of a "preview" software, either), that tells me it's not my computer, but the photo.

Au contraire, mon frere. That's French for "no way, José".... I lowered the cowl and the hood sides by the same amount, so the louvers still line up. If I took 3/16 off the bottom of the cowl and 3/16 off the bottom of the hood side panels, how could they not line up? Actually you can see in this photo that I really should lower those side panels just a hair more... Also... I don't want bolt heads visible on the outside of the hood, so I'll stick with CA. It's worked for me many times before on hoods like this. True, I'll have to mask off the center hinge when painting, but so what? It's easy enough to do.

Beautiful! Excellent job. And to me, the tires look great. I wouldn't change a thing, this one is a real beauty!

I'm sort of "on hold" with this project until the hinges and window channel I ordered arrive and I can start building the doors, so in the meantime I'll take care of some miscellaneous "busy work." I lowered the firewall in order to get the control rod for the starting carburetor to run parallel to the ground (and the engine), and not slope downward. I wound up lowering the firewall almost 1/4 inch. Since I lowered the firewall, I obviously also had to lower the cowl, or there would have been a huge gap between the top of the firewall and the cowl. Lowering the cowl affects the hood panels... the side panels were now too tall at the trailing edge (where they meet the cowl). However, the leading edges were ok, as I hadn't moved the radiator from stock position. Sooo... I had to remove a wedge from the bottom of the side panels (marked in red) to get them to line up correctly with the cowl... The old "back side of the blade" technique is perfect when making long, straight cuts like this... Because the bottom edge of the side panels was now at a different angle in relation to the trailing edge, I also had to remove a small wedge where the side panels meet the cowl (marked in red): I lowered the cowl, but did not move it further forward, so I was kind of surprised that the hood top panels were quite a bit too long. The part marked in red had to be removed: Pocher designed the hood hinges to be attached by melting protruding pins down over the hinges and "trapping' them in place. I don't want to rely on that method alone, I also want to use CA to glue the hinges in place, so I used a small grinding bit in my Dremel to rough up all the mating surfaces between hinges and hood panels, so that the CA will have something to grab on to...

Pretty nice overall, but the stark black door and headlight panel lines don't make it. It's a common mistake... almost everyone makes it. Panel lines are not black in reality, and making them black gives a toylike, "modelish" look that isn't realistic. Look at the photo that's the overhead shot of the hood and front end. Notice that the real panel lines (around the hood and between the body and front fascia) are not black... they are a darker shade of the body color. One way to get realistic panel lines is to use a darker shade of the body color after you've finished paintuing... pretty much what you have done, only not using black. But there is a better way, especially if you are using an airbrush to paint your body. I didn't think of this myself, several others here have posted it in the past, so I don't get the credit... but it's a good method so I'll pass it on. What you do is first, scribe the panel lines deeper on the bare plastic body, before any primer and/or paint. Most panel lines on model kit bodies are too faint and not realistically deep enough. Then go ahead and paint the body as usual. Bet here's the trick: after painting, add panel lines in black (yes, in black)... but then, you add a coat or two of thinned-down body color. Those final couple of coats tone down the blackness of the panel lines, and the end result is a very realistic look without those stark, modelish-looking black lines. If you've ever seen one of Marcos Cruz's models, you'll see immediately what I'm talking about... he uses this method.

I'll second that...

I have the same problem. No patience. (Good thing I'm not a doctor... get it? Ha ha!!! ) If only they could invent glues and paints that dry instantly, I'd be the happiest guy on the planet!

Scott, I hope I'm not hijacking your topic here, but seeing as how we're talking Pocher Bugattis, I hope this will be ok... I just want to publicly give a shout out to Paul Koo. He's the man who has done those terrific Pocher build CDs, where he goes through the buildup process step by step, in great detail, along with hundreds of photos, describing exactly the various problems and pitfalls you'll encounter when building a Pocher... and more importantly, how to solve those problems and get around those pitfalls. IMO, Paul's CDs are a must-have when building a Pocher. They are cheap insurance against the typical Pocher problems. After dropping several hundred bucks (or even up to a couple grand in some cases) on a Pocher kit, you must also buy his build CD. Anyway, it turns out that the seller of the Bugatti I just bought was Paul! I have two of his build CDs (Mercedes and RR), so I was familiar with him. Along with my offer, I mentioned that I owned two of his CDs. He had the Bugatti listed at a BIN price, but I figured what the heck... I'll shoot him a message and make an offer. What's the worst thing that can happen? He'll say "thanks but no thanks," right? So what did I have to lose? Well, it turns out that not only did he agree to my offer, but he threw in one of his Bugatti build CDs for free! I want to give the man a public thank you.

Absolutely fabulous from what I can see, but for some reason all your photos are "squashed" side to side, making the model look short and stumpy, This is how your photos look on my screen.. Am I the only one having this problem?

Scott, all Pocher manuals are available for free download at modelmotorcars.com... http://modelmotorcars.com/pocher-manuals.html Don't ever pay for them! They're free!

"Going nowhere and nowhere fast, we shame ourselves to watch people like this live."

I'll go real slow on the Bugatti...

Thank you my friend. I hope that happens before I am 'Under Earth',,, Yes, let's hope so!

If that's true, then I don't mind the backup at the doors. But as far as actually cutting down on shoplifting, this new procedure is basically useless.

Went to the local Walmart today to pick up a few odds and ends. They have a new policy there.. there's an employee who stands by the doors and looks over your receipt before they let you leave. Now I know that a lot of Walmart shoppers use their "five finger discount" when the "shop" there, so I can't blame Walmart for trying to catch some of these lowlifes. I would do the same. But what Walmart is doing is completely pointless. The little Walmart employee (usually a tiny, elderly woman) takes your receipt, looks at it, gives you a quick once over, hands back the receipt and says "have a nice day." In fact, most of the time they just smile at me and don't even ask to see my receipt at all. Guess I don't look like a shoplifter... But even when they ask to see your receipt, they don't actually cross-check your receipt with that's in your shopping cart. So the point of this little exercise is...??? All this accomplishes is to hold up people who are trying to leave the store. It's a completely useless little charade. Why? It's not like there's ground up diamonds in there. What on Earth can possibly justify a cost like that? I mean, besides "because they can." Man, I hate this new "combine all your posts into one reply" thing. Very annoying..

Absolutely. It's next up on my "to do" list... probably will be my winter project. And I'm happy to have snagged one of the early issues with the geared rear end. More parts = more fun!

Getting a Bugatti finally completes my Pocher "classics" collection... Fiat, Alfa, Mercedes, Rolls... and now Bugatti.

I know it's from Paul Koo. In fact I just made him an offer and he accepted.

I am officially very jealous. There's one on ebay right now for $1200 BIN. I almost pulled the trigger... been lusting after one of these for years... but couldn't quite do it.

That says it all. Glad you're here.

Welcome, Kierlan. You can keep Dublin Boy company...

As I recall, you once did an auto ID on a British car manufacturer that started out exactly that way -- converted around WWII to serve as shuttle/mail cars. Good memory!

Once again... people who dismiss diecasts as "unworthy" are missing out on a treasure trove of fine models... most of which they will never see in plastic kit form. Their loss. BTW... Chuck, your "downgraded" F150 will be in a future edition of the mag...

Very nicely done. Could almost pass for the real thing, and that's not easy to do.