Bugatti Fan

Didn't know that Cosworth had anything to do with the 6R4 engine. Thought it was a B L Special Vehicles in house thing. Nice model taking shape here Pat. Fabric is a nightmare to use on seatbelts. You may find it easier to cut strips of aluminium kitchen foil much easier to use.

Badly built kits really lend themselves to bring the basis of or source of parts for creative modellers to really let their hair down for very little expense. This looks like an interesting build taking shape here.like The C Cab fitted to part of the school bus body makes it look a bit taxi like. Looking forward to following more of this build.

Just shows the potential of some 'toys' if they happen to be reasonably accurate representations.

I have been looking at the VW Phaeton luxury car. A really nice motor car but the VW badge did not have the same cachet as BMW, Mercedes Benz and other cars in that luxury sector. It would have been very interesting to see what the demand for that car would have been if VW had badge engineered it as a Bugatti as part of a range aimed at the senior management sector, instead of making elitist Bugatti super cars for the mega wealthy. Pitched against BMW and Mercedes in that sector I think that VW might have done a lot better using the Bugatti name on it. The Bugatti name has a lot of history, particularly due to its sporting and luxury forebears that only the very wealthy could afford, and I guess that VW saw the very wealthy as the most promising market for the name. I watched a YouTube video of a Chiron struggling to come out of a London showroom across a kerb onto the road across temporary ramps so that the front end would not scrape the ground due to the minimal ground clearance. Wouldn't be wanting to drive the car along any roads with speed bumps. Ouch!

Not the most aesthetically pleasing on the eye car, but interesting as a bit of an oddball model build just the same. Nice to see models being built of more unusual cars and this project is taking shape really well. A blend of kit bashing and scratch building techniques unfolding should yield a very unique model.

To err is human Bill. But I do agree with your last post sentiments. Been there. Done that etc. Usually diligent and think things through first. Only myself to blame !

Interesting to see a military fire truck. Nice model.

Sink the Belgrano A very interesting account about a British nuclear attack submarine HMS Conqueror sinking the Argentine Cruiser Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War. The only time since WW2 that an active belligerent warship was torpedoed by a submarine. The book outlines the strategy of the RN nuclear subs operating in the South Atlantic.The main target was the Argentine's aircraft carrier that managed to evade being targeted by sailing within Argentine territorial waters.

You could write a book on building 1/12th scale MFH kits Chris ! Joking apart. Another fine build in progress.

Nice concept of yours taking shape here Les.I Incidentally, no one makes Skoda jokes any more !

Really showing the potential of those old Matchbox car mix !

Very nice model of this show rod. Skeleton looks good too !

Not a lot !

Not a lot !

Coming on nicely this build. Those old Hubley kits are a bit clunky so a bit of a building challenge to whoever takes them on.

Pure nostalgia. It's how us folks here in England saw the US of that era. I England absolutely dull by comparison , until the Beatles that is.

My late father served in WW2. Try as I may I could not get him to talk about any of his experiences. All he would ever say was that God willing I would never be dragged into being called up like he was.

Great progress. What woods did you use on your model Charlie ?

There appears to be a bit of confusion in this thread about machine origins The Unimat was made in Austria originally and I believe the later Unimat 4 was made under licence in Taiwan before being discontinued. My machine is one of the Taiwanese built Unimats and built quite well. I do not know why the parent company decided to discontinue production of those very nice little machine tools. The Sherline was built in Australia originally, but the rights were acquired and bought out by Joe Martin and production moved to the USA. The Sherlines are currently in production and able to take advantage of the market space now that the Unimats are no longer in production. The Sherline range is an excellent high quality package available for miniature machinists.

If you like geo political techno thrillers have a look at the series of books by Frank Gardiner who still works for the BBC. He was shot whilst on an assignment in the Middle East a few years back and paralysed from the waist dosn. His books due to his personal experiences and being still very much hands on as a studio researcher reporter give him a very good insight into the political, espionage and military things happening in the world today.

Why is it that as you get older the years seen to have got into top gear !

The Sherline miniature machine tools look like quality pieces of machinery and available. They do have a UK outlet. I have a Unimat 4 that is an equivalent that I have had for many years and use it regularly. Unfortunately the Unimats were discontinued a few years back. The Proxxon machine is the nearest equivalent now in Europe. To anyone starting out with a miniature lathe and/or milling machine no matter what make, I would thoroughly recommend Joe Martin's book by Sherline that will give a very good general grounding about using miniature machine tools.

I guess there are people out there willing to pay silly money on eBay for kits that are often indifferent quality wise. I would love to get hold of a Pocher Bugatti T50 even a started one, but not at the crazy prices being asked. Well over 1000 UK pounds generally for what is basically a big old plastic kit of 1970's quality.

It may be possible to simulate a textured valve cover by spraying the matt colour you want, sprinkle with fine talcum powder whilst the paint is still wet and shake off the excess. The talc shou!d absorb the colour whilst sticking to the paint and give that textured finish.

The posted methods described are good solutions to the white wall painting dilemma of the model tyres have no raised sections to work up to. If a model tyre has a raised section that can act as an edge to paint up to, so much the better. I have used a Posca Acrylic White fine line marker to draw the circle by the raised section that will be the outer edge of the white walled area. The fine line marker being rigid is much easier than a paint brush to use for this type of application. Once the circles have been drawn as a guide the rest of the white wall on each can be brush painted with artists acrylic titanium white.