Bugatti Fan

Like Pete with his Sherline. I have bought accessories for my little Unimat lathe as and when I needed them. It is surprising how soon your kit starts to get a bit more comprehensive as time goes on. Incidentally, Pete, thanks for putting my straight about Sherline making Metric versions of their machines as other readers of these posts might be considering buying a Sherlineif available in metric. Michael from Montreal. You mentioned in your post about considering a micro milling machine. Have a good look at the Proxxon website as I am pretty sure that they make a very small mill that may suit your needs, and be a lot less expensive than watch makers machinery. As I have mentioned before Proxxon make a fantastic range of small model making machines and hand tools. I have one of their swivel vices that is similar to a Panavice and it is a good piece of kit that I use often.

in the UK Halfords White, Grey and Red Oxide primers are very good. Have used them on many models with various manufacturers top coats without any problems. Could possibly use their matt black as a primer also.

Pete, the Bugatti engines you are making are superb. I have a feeling that on another thread where we conversed you mentioned that they were to replace the engines in the Fisher 1/24 Bugatti 100 aeroplane resin kit. I was going to approach Paul Fisher about some extra engine castings but learnt about the disastrous forest fire that destroyed his house and business in Paradise CA. I hope that he can recover the business eventually, but as for losing all those precious family items. Sadly irreplaceable. As other posters said in this thread they will not consider buying a lathe but will find other ways around making things by fabrication methods rather than machining. My scratch builds are 90 per cent fabrication although I find a lathe and milling machine come into their own for making certain things. Every one has their own way of doing things that works best for them and there is nothing wrong with any approach to scratch building. The main thing is to get fun out of making all your own parts and learn about using different materials and modelling methods along the journey. Having said that, there is a lot of challenge in super detailing or modifying a kit with parts you make yourself, and by doing this type of work a lot of transferable skills will probably be learnt and mastered before doing a scratch build. The only reason I started to scratch build was because there are certain subjects that I like that will never be kitted. Once I got going it was not as daunting as I first feared. It was just getting my head around a different way of doing things like preparing my own drawings from research if none are available, and basically, scratch building is making your own kit to eventually build but without instructions!

The Sherline history is interesting. I read about how the company was formed originally in Oz. I had a brochure of theirs some time ago from a UK distributor, but not heard anything of them being available in the UK over recent years. I guess they are not being marketed in the UK at present. If they do not make metric machines there is probably very little demand on this side of the pond! I must admit that I am a little surprised that the US is still using the inch system after all these years. The UK went over to Metric in the early 70s. The funny thing was that in the early days many of the 'metric' drawings were simply converted from imperial, and phased out as new products were actually designed in metric. I was brought up on Feet and Inches but now find metric so much easier to use. We also at about the same time decimalised our currency from pounds, shillings and pence to the present system of 100 pence to the pound. The old system was so cumbersome with twenty shillings to the pound and twelve pence to the shilling equating to 240 old pence to the pound! The Cowells machine is probably a rarity in the States and tends to be favoured by model engineers rather than general modellers in the UK. There are a couple of other machines that come to mind. The Peatol Lathe where you buy the basic unit and add your own motor and accessories etc. There was also a little Japanese made lathe named a Toyo, but I think that this is no longer in production. There is a company named Clarke who makes small lathes and milling machines. My mill is a Clarke machine and is pretty good for what I use it for. Great for machining engine blocks etc. from Perspex, brass or aluminium plus guaranteed squareness. There is a company in the UK named Penny Farthing Machines who specialise in small second hand machines, particularly watchmakers lathes. Their site is very interesting and has some unusual equipment on it. I looked on the Sherline site and watched a video where the machine had a turret fitted and an additional tool on a back tool post also being used. Great for repetitive work when set up. I made a 4 way tool post for my Unimat that saves a lot of tool changing. Unless industry trained there will be a bit of a learning curve to go through if new to machining, but enjoy what you are doing as you get a feel for the different materials you will be working on and the tools you will be using. Scratch building is very rewarding compared to building from a kit. Having said that, however, many kits can be greatly improved upon or converted with scratch built or machined items. It is a case of lateral thinking as opposed to building and finishing a kit with after market items, have a go at making them yourself. Scratch building is not as hard as it seems. One tends to get blown away when looking at a scratch built model that is well made and finished. You just have to develop a different mind set from kit building and be prepared for mistakes and scrappages along the way. It is just part of the learning process as is the research and preparation of drawings to work to if none are available...………….Scratch building takes a long time, so enjoy the journey. If the enthusiasm wanes sometimes (and it does) I break away from it for a little while, knock up an easy kit so I can see something finished fast, and come back to the scratch build.

I guess the Alpha Resins Bugatti Vision will be a similar kit in build to their Chiron?

There is one Silver Ghost kit that I can think of in 1/24th scale. It is a white metal kit by South Eastern Finecast (ex Wills Finecast) in the UK. It depicts the Silver Ghost in the UK National Motor Museum at Beaulieu near Southampton in the UK.

Nice to see the model depicting its original colour scheme and wheel centres as original. The original car car as presently displayed in a museum was restored by Charles Chayne and the colour was changed to an overall cream colour with dark green lining.

Pete, you asked about the Unimat 1 modular machine. Yes I do own one. It was my first machine purchase. Basically it does consist of square section aluminium extensions with T slots on each side. The modules are clamped together internally with special T bolts and a rigidity plate bolted on externally to keep the extensions aligned with one another. As an engineer myself I could see that it had a lot of limitations, but for someone wanting something versatile and reasonably inexpensive it made a good starting point for working on lighter materials despite its size limitations. It cannot machine to the very fine accuracy of my Unimat 4 however, but it is versatile as a small modular bit of kit. My Unimat 4 is a nice machine although Emco Maier were getting them made in Taiwan from the model 4 onwards. The earlier ones were Austrian made. Even the 4 has its size limitations, but since I have acquired an Emco Unimat 8, altogether a much bigger machine plus a bench top milling machine. I have seen the Sherline machines and they are very good quality machines. Proxxon of Germany has a lovely and comprehensive range of model making machines that are also of excellent quality. The ultimate miniature lathe is made by Cowells. Very expensive but of tool room quality.

The Sherline equipment is good but a bit pricey for many. However, there is an inexpensive alternative, a Unimat 1 modular machine that can fulfil most modeller's needs for machining plastics, wood and softer metals like aluminium, copper or brass. The set allows different configurations of machine to be made from the same modular set, and extra accessories can be bought and added as time goes on. It is an ideal piece of kit for most of the sort of stuff we do in lighter materials. Look it up on the internet and you will get some idea of the versatility of it although quite a small machine set.

Matt, Have you looked at Hiroboy;s UK site for the Bentley kit?

The GT40 has been well served of late with the DeAgostini Die Cast in 1/8th scale. In plastic by Trumpeter and Meng in 1/12th scale, and also a very expensive incredibly detailed multi medium kit in development by Marshall Buck of CMA (Creative Miniature Associates) again in 1/12 scale.

As Tom has shown, one has to be imaginative and try to perceive what can be made from all sorts of odds and ends.

You are right Jim. A lot of the fun is in the figuring out how to do things and what you can make or adapt. I have used all sorts of things like domestic plastic pipe , moulded shapes from packaging, odd bits of hardwood, discarded kids toys etc.

Mikr, I will have to look for one of these kits. In 48th scale it will be a fairly small model I guess about 6 or 7 inches long. Just out of interest, there is a Spanish company named OCCRE that make a multi medium kit of a SF Cable Car in 24th scale. It is part of a series of tram kits they make.

You are quite right Trevor. There is a big sense of satisfaction when you build a model having made every part yourself. It is both fun and frustration having to bin parts that you get wrong and have to remake, but very pleasing when you get them right!

Thanks for the feedback Trevor! I had a look at the site you recommended the T50 wheels certainly look good.

I seem to remember that they were the original manufacturers of a San Francisco Cable Car as well.

Scott, the coach I was on stopped off a couple of times right next to the Rocky Mountaineer train. One of my ambitions is to take the CP across Canada and also do the Rockies train. We will see!

Muncie, the Airfix Veyron Tyres are quite good. The wheels outer detailing is also very good except that the backs are hollow but not noticeable when the model is built. I took advantage of this to model disc brakes a!l round on it. I detailed up the interior myself but as another poster suggested a die cast might be cannibalised for this purpose.

Scott, I too have been drooling over that new MFH T35. £525 here in the UK.... Don't know what the Canadian Dollar price would be though, A few years back I did a 2 week coach tour in your neck of the woods out from Vancouver in a big loop to Jasper in the Rockies and back via the Inland Passage to Vancouver Island and had a little time in Victoria. You certainly live in a nice part of the world!

Bob, you have made a superb model from that old Casadio kit. I have your article in one of the Kalmbach specials and it makes very interesting reading. I can remember another of your articles in MCM some time ago when you did a super detailing job on the old Hubley Duesenberg SJ. Just Fantastic! My IPMS 50th Anniversary Austin A30 Custom Van was featured in the same issue I think. Nice to see some old classics super detailed, Don't know if you might have a copy, but there is an article of mine in an old 2013 copy (I think) of MCM about my scratch built Bugatti T59. Looking at your 'handle' BSteinIPMS I guess that you are a member of IPMS USA. I have been a UK IPMS member since way back in 1974. I am a good part of the way with a book I am writing about building model cars that hopefully will sit nicely between those on basic techniques and scratch building and would like to use some photos of your work. It is all a bit speculative at the moment as when it is finally finished it will be a matter of finding a suitable publisher!

Scott, I fell upon this thread recently, a few years on from when you started it, but must comment on what a lovely model you have built from that old Casadio kit.

What drives people to scratch build? In my case it was the reality that mainstream kit manufacturers would not risk tooling up the sort of subjects that interest me. So I had no alternative but to scratch build. So far I have built a Bugatti Type 59 in 1/16th scale, the Dubonnet Nieuport Astra Hispano Suiza ( the wooden planked one) in 1/12 scale, and have almost completed the Brooklands Napier Railton in 1/16 scale.

New categories paid out fairly logically. Personally I would like to see Motor Cycles given their own work bench and finished sections instead of being grouped with aircraft scisince fiction etc.

Aluminium foil or thin pewter sheet works quite well cut into strips and interwoven. Another thing that is a bit more scarce to find these days is the very soft foil from wine bottles that resembles soft lead in malleability. The nice thing about each of these is that they can be shaped easily to drape realistically. You can do this first and set the shape before painting.....less chance of the paint cracking when bent to shape.