Bugatti Fan

Nice to see your new project Mark. Remember this being a fantastic kit in its day. Look forward to seeing your magic worked on it. Next GSL winner?

Still looking for a blue bomb Renwal! Virgil Exner Bugatti to renovate and put on display at the Bugatti Trust Museum here in the UK. If anyone can help with one gathering dust somewhere please get in touch via the forum private message service. I am a retired on a limited income, so not looking for a pristine kit from Ebay. An old knocked about one with bits missing would be fine. Hope someone out there can help me with a donor model for this venture. Even just an old body on its own would be fine.Thanks.

Junkman, the craftsmanship of Tom Kirn, Roger Zimmerman and Louis Chenot is known to me, and is well up there with the skills of the professionals that I mentioned in an earlier thread. I have two articles about Tom's Packard and Duesenberg models that were in Scale Auto Enthusiast a few years back. I read about the Wingrove Kirn visit to the Auburn, Cord Duesenberg Museum and think it was mentioned in one of those articles, as your mention of it rings a bell. Roger Zimmerman's fantastic builds can be followed in the Scalemotorcars Forum. Louis Chenot's incredible 1/6th scale model can be seen on the Craftsmanship Museum website. The true to scale engine was actually test run for its only one time before being fitted to the model. I think there may be a UTube video of this being done. These three remarkable model engineers it must be remembered built the models for their own pleasure and to.meet the challenges involved. I am sure that there are many other skilled amateur craftsman artisans beavering away in their workshops making fantastic creations as we!l.

Not aware of that magazine Greg. Way back in the sixties I managed to get hold of just one or two copies of Model Car Science. American Car Modelling magazines were as rare as hen's teeth in the UK back then.

Probably not Greg, but their creations are much sought after by well heeled collectors in the know, and in demand through the top auction houses. I would urge anyone to look at models made by these masters. A quick trawl of the web will unearth pictures of many of their fantastic scratch built models.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so each to their own! But comparing Gerald Wingrove's creations with Picasso or Da Vinci? Completely different genres? Maybe comparisons with past car modelling artisans like Henri Baigent, Michel Conti, Manuel Olive Sans, Rex Hays, Carlo Brianza or Giuseppe Da Conte would be more appropriate. Hopefully their legacy will inspire another generation of like master modellers.

Kurt, I think the gentleman you were referring to who displayed at one of the GSL shows may be Tom Kirn. I read a couple of articles about him somewhere and besides being inspired by Gerald Wingrove, Tom actually met up with him at least once. Tom built a classic Packard and also a Duesenberg that were featured in the articles. I am not aware of any more that he made but do remember that in one of the articles it was mentioned that Tom had also restored a full size WW2 Jeep.

I recently learnt that world renowned master craftsman professional car modeller Gerald Wingrove passed away during March of this year. Also that he lost his wife Phyllis last year who was an extremely active partner in their business. Many of their excellent plan drawings were done by Phyllis on their CAD program. Many of you will be familiar with his scratch built masterpieces and his Complete Car Modeller Books 1 and 2 in which he shared his techniques. Having met him from time to time since he went professional in the early 70's, I found him to be most generous in sharing his knowhow both face to face, by mail/email and of course in his books. He and Phyllis will be sadly missed, but their legacy will live on.

I recently learnt of the death of Gerald Wingrove , internationally renowned icar modeller in March this year. He lost his wife Phyllis last year who also played a very active part in their professional life. R.I.P Gerald and Phyllis.

Holy broken bones Batman! You will soon be paying similar prices to Europeans for your kits! Joking aside, Ebay and second hand sales at model shows should keep most of us happy if things get a bit expensive. Can't remember the last time I actually bought a new kit! Now what happened to that Bogwart 500 Deluxe Convertible that I had in my stash?

Back in the 70's 80's EMA (Engineering Model Associates) issued a kit (if you could call it that) of a steam traction engine that had to be built up from Plastruct. Skip mentioned Harry Pristovnik's book that went to print shortly before he sadly passed away. I have a copy and it is a very nice publication. Harry's Pendle Princess model was really good within. Shortly afterwards I think the magazine began to extract and use the content chapters from within the book to make up a series of articles in the magazine.

The Renwall Revivals series of the Virgil Exner Classics Redesigned in 1/25th scale. The Pyro car kits....nice 1/32 scale range.

Wasn't aware of that one Tim.....Had a quick look at their website and looks an interesting magazine.

If the guy in question is such a good truck modeller, maybe he should put his abilities to more better use like writing articles for Truck Model World Magazine, Scale Auto or MCM instead of wasting his time and every body else's by trolling under different pseudonyms. A bit like the saddo at the end of a bar muttering into his beer about how the world is against him instead of doing something positive.

A beautiful build. Trumpeter has certainly chosen well with this subject in this scale. The only other GT 40 kit in preparation that I am aware of in this scale is a multi medium kit by Creative Miniature Associates. Do not know if Model Factory Hiro is doing anything similar.

Heard a rumour about the GSL show competition in Salt Lake City being phased out. Any truth in this?

Has any body made a resin body and 7 spoke wheels to retro fit either the Revell or Heller Bugatti EB110 to convert it to the SS version?

99 per cent of all kit boxes are inherently weak, and shipped to retailers from the factory / distributor in suitable packaging. It is when re sellers and retailers ship odd kits that the problems generally arise. We all have some idea of how parcels are handled either by post or courier and need to pack accordingly. It is not rocket science.

Quite right Bill, I whole heartedly agree with you that leaner run companies can do well in a tough environment, where layers of middle management have been stripped away. In a former life I was a production engineer, so understand what you are saying.

Thanks for that Richard, it looks like the Daniel Creations were aimed at the model kit market. Seen some Barris and Roth creations in kit form by Revell and Eldon but not sure if any were done by Monogram. Mark, thanks for the feedback on the BHE, was unaware that two had been built! I forgot about Darryl Starbird. Did he create the Custom 3 wheeled Volkswagen that was kitted by Monogram? Cannot remember its name.

I have a very old article cut out from Model Car Science about building and weathering the car kit built as per the original in the TV series.

Built the Tijuana Taxi first time around, but would like to build it again with the benefit of 40 years more experience. Was the Boot Hill Express a Daniel creation that made it to being built full size?

re Moebius, an Interesting observation there Bill, but I do not think that they run the sort of quantities that Revell, Airfix and Tamiya do, and from what I have seen they cater for more of a niche subject market than the big mainstream boys. Nice to see that they are running profitably in a tough market.

Sad to see this happen to that nice Delahaye? The event organisers probably have good insurance that will cover this, unless the company is proved negligent and a payout refused. Restorers have repaired / restored much worse! What about the classic sports/racing cars that get pranged at classic race meets? They have to be repaired at the owners expense. At the end of the day it is just a car (albeit a rare expensive one) and can be re built, but to get this into perspective, it could have been a lot worse, so hopefully no one got killed or injured in the accident.

Trouble with a holding company like Hobbico and Amerang for example, if they go down all the individua! firms they own get dragged down with them. Revell have been owned by a number of holding companies in the past! If they are viable they get bought out. If not they close. This thread about If I Ran Revell has really been more about a kit wish list than running Revell actually when it comes down to it. I stand by what I said that Revell know their market better than most of us and they probably sell more aircraft, afv, ships and star wars kits than cars and trucks. Wishing for obscure subjects from a mainstream manufacturer is a pipe dream best left to the cottage industry resin casters.