Bugatti Fan

Played drums in Blues Rock Group in the 60's (they were called groups in those days). What we understood by bands then were Brass bands like the Sally Army. 'Bands' seems to have now become a generic term for vocal groups as well as instrumental/vocal groups as I knew them. My particular group did not hit the big time but we played support to many big names touring in the UK at the time. Had a great time at all the different venues back in the day. Back then all the big names did the dance halls so you could get up close, not the dot in the distance performer at the modern huge venues of today. Heady days! The one actual concert I went to just watch was the Beatles. Great atmosphere but could not hear a thing with the girls screaming. They only had Vox amplifiers on stage back then that were not up to it. I would think that most of those screaming girls now get more turned on by visiting their local garden centre!

Back in the 50's when I was still at school, here in the UK Corona was a fizzy drink that was delivered to your door in returnable bottles with flip top seals. Long gone!

I have one of those in bits somewhere in my stash for more than fifty years. Hot Curl and the Bike have long gone however.

Those big separate engine and chassis kits, great for museum and technical displays, but as a sideboard model in a domestic situation...………..Maybe not.

Sherline, Taig and Emco Unimat small lathes have retro fitting milling attachments for each table top machine that can be either fitted later or bought with the initial purchase. This may be a viable alternative to a separate milling machine depending on the size of parts you wish to make. Owners of these machines know of this already, but anybody contemplating buying any of these machines may like to know of this option.

There was a lot of inaccurate stuff about in the old days when many kits were in fit the box scale and aimed more at an adolescent market where a vague resemblance to the prototype was deemed good enough. Things have moved on fortunately, and pressure groups like IPMS have helped bring about change for the better over the years. Mark mentioned about the only kit of a particular subject may be an old one that would need work done on it, and I accept that may often be the case. Some see old kits as a challenge, others not if better, newer kits are available of the same subject. It is a case of whatever turns you on basically. Different folk get different satisfaction from the hobby depending on their approach. Some like the challenge of something difficult to correct whilst others prefer a kit that falls together. Nothing wrong with either approach!

My neighbours one looked a bit more sporty than that one. Not sure of the actual model though.

Joe, regarding me looking back with a jaundiced eye, you are quite correct. I have been building kits since the late 50s when I was at school. Seen a lot come and go, good, bad and indifferent over the years Some older kits were quite nice. Yes I have come to expect better quality and got used to better kits to build. Things have moved on and my observation about many old Aurora kits was subjective rather than unfair. One must remember the mass market those old kits were aimed at in their day. Today's market is very different and modellers these days rightly expect both accuracy and good assembly as a norm. Put it another way. Would anyone be satisfied with an old black and white TV when you can now have Ultra High Definition?

From what I can remember of the Aurora kits the ones I came across were not very good. For example embossed national insignia on aircraft kits. How were you expected to get a decal to stay down on them goodness knows. Did they make a Maserati 2300 kit along with another and the moulds are now in Revellogram's hands? We look back in nostalgia at some of these old kits with rose tinted spectacles sometimes when in reality most are best forgotten.

A neighbour of mine had a Fiat Saloon with similar body style to the Abarth but in Orange with black interior. Looked good in that colour scheme. I quite liked the square (ish) body styling of that period.

It is only plastic after all. Consider this...….rarity? Only of value if you are intending to use kits for trade or as collectables If If you want to build and or convert it, go ahead and enjoy it. Sometimes we forget what the kits were originally designed for!

In a post in section 1 of this thread, Snake mentioned that he had the Pyro 1/48th scale Gloster Gladiator kit and said that people speak highly of it. The Gladiator kit actually originated over here in the UK and was part of a small range of inter war aircraft kits made by a company named Impact. I think that a Hawker Fury, a Bristol Bulldog and a Fairey Flycatcher were the other three. They may have made some pioneer aviation subject as well. They were not in production foe very long before the moulds were shipped to the Pyro Company. The quality of those kits was very good and would stand up well against more currently made kits. It would be interesting to see who has those moulds now.

If Tamiya made a 57 Chevy Bel Air in 1/24th or really big in 1/12th with their quality it would make a very popular kit. There are too many kits of this car from clapped out moulds getting re re re re issued.

Pete. I did LOL,you live and learn! I was unaware that "using some T Cut" and "putting the Hoover around" were not terms in general use in the US. So please then let me explain it to our American friends. Us Brits refer to any mild commercial polishing liquid for restoring a dull finish on a car as "T Cut". It was first brought on to the market by a company named Car Plan in the UK, so the name T Cut became a generic term for this sort of product over here regardless of make. OK, you all are familiar with the name Hoover as a brand of vacuum cleaner. I really don't know how the Hoover name became a generic term for a vacuum cleaner in the UK. The expression "put the Hoover around" has been used over here for as long as I can remember regardless of what make the vacuum cleaner is. HTH.

ACA, ACC, AC? It is all just Superglue to me! Just like the generic terms such as T Cut for polishing up dull paintwork on cars, and most vacuum cleaners being referred to as the Hoover.

Tom, there is nothing wrong in your approach. Like you said it is a hobby after all. Regardless of whether anyone goes the hand skills route like yourself or partly uses machinery like me is irrelevant as long as we all enjoy what we are doing. Having done some scratch builds I tend to use machinery simply because it often takes the hard work out of making some things accurately that could also be done by hand and take a lot longer to get right. It really comes down to any modellers personal approach and of course their budget.

For the ultimate multi medium GT40 kit have a look at Creative Miniature Associates website.

Justin, you are quite right about everyone having different levels of experience and budgets, and both will influence each person's approach. There will be many who have little or no machining experience so not only will they have a learning curve to go through but also need good information about any contemplated machine purchase. On the other hand people like myself who have trained and worked in engineering machine shops pretty much know what we will need having that experience, but even so our budgets can differ considerably and influence what we can afford to buy. I will have to have a look at Joe Martin's table top machining guide. Looks to be an interesting read.

Gary, there is nothing wrong with 'old school' techniques at all. Basically like any other method, no matter how sophisticated it is after all a means to an end. Your Bugatti T57 stalled project. Don't let the fact that LMM and Renaissance have kitted this in resin put you off as you already appear to have the body well sculpted. I think that you can buy sets of wheels in photo etched from either company. Justin, you have made a good point about most probably getting their first experience of machining by using lathes at school or college. My very first experience was a wood turning lathe at school when I was 13.

Raymond, I looked at that fantastic precision milling and drilling machine. Very impressive. Very expensive also I would imagine if you could locate one. Pat on Ontario, I looked at the Taig Machines website and used their UK distributor link. As I suspected the Peatol name came up so it is one and the same machine. I used to think that the machine was UK made and marketed abroad under the Taig brand, or alternatively manufactured in the UK under licence..The site shows the USA manufacturing facility..Looking at the machine itself and it's accessories it appears to be of very high quality. Some of the unique features of the tail stock look very different to the Unimat and Sherline's more conventional ones. There is a company named Warco in the UK that supplies Chinese made machinery to schools erc. But I do not know if they have any miniature lathes or mills for sale.

Pat (Landman in Ontario) your Taig lathe looks incredibly very much like the Peatol Miniature lathe that I mentioned in an earlier post. Could it be the self same machine under a different brand name? Last time I saw one was at a Model Engineering Exhibition about 20 odd years ago and if my memory serves me correctly you had to buy the basic machine and add things like the motor etc. Justin in Montreal, I think that most people go the lathe route first simply because it seems the logical place to start only having 2 axes X longitudinal and Y front to back. A milling machine has a Z axis (vertical) also to contend with. Having said that it very much depends on what sort of things one wants to make from the outset that will determine which machine to go for. As modellers there are many different small machines available to us like miniature lathes. milling machines, circular saws. fretsaws. wood lathes. routers, thicknessers etc. Have a look on Proxxon's website to get an idea of their awesome large range available. Having mentioned Proxxon before, and before somebody asks, I have no connection with that company. It is just that they have a very comprehensive range of miniature machine tools especially designed with model makers in mind. Don't take my word for it. Just have a look for yourself. Dremel also have a range of accessories to make their tools more adaptable. One that comes to mind is an adapter to make the Dremel tool into a miniature router, so some of theirs may be worth a look if you already have a Dremel. Their tools seem to come and go over here in the UK. but I understand that they are a mainstay hobby power tool and very popular in the US. I bought one some time a go over here and it is a good bit of kit.

Checked my tablet (Amazon Kindle Fire) but could not find an option amongst the settings to disable the auto correct. I will just have to be a bit more attentive when posting. With regard to small(ish) lathes there are two companies in the UK who have supplied machines to the educational sector for many years. Boxford and Denford. They still supply machines to education, mainly CNC machines now. But back in the early days technical colleges and schools used their conventional machines. I can remember using Boxford bench top lathes at Tech College when I was an apprentice way back in the 60's. There must be a number of these machines around second hand it anyone wants something a bit bigger than a Sherline or Unimat 4. Boxford I believe still hold spares for all of their old machines, and possibly Denford also. Another machine that comes to mind is the Myford lathe. Very popular with model engineers. And also the Colchester Student Lathe. Both of these are excellent machines and are free standing units.

Edit worked on my original as you suggested Pete. Thanks for that. Thought that posts could not be edited once committed and left for a day or so. I will check out my tablet and see if I can disable the auto correct check function on it.

Please excuse the typo in my last post. Hailstorm should read tail stock. Thought that I had edited it. Must have forgot to save the edit. Hope it makes more sense now. My tablet has a habit of auto changing words unlike my PC.

I saw a short video showing a turret attachment being used on a Sherline lathe. Great for repetitive work as it effectively converted the little Sherline into a capstan lathe by replacing the tail stock with this device. Furthermore the machine had an extra tool holder at the back of the cross slide with an inverted tool to allow for the direction of rotation. Does the little Sherline not have a reverse rotation gear built in? If not it will be similar to my little Unimat only being able to rotate in one direction.