Bugatti Fan

The pic that Geoff posted at the beginning of this thread of a C1 models MGBGT Body looks great. The Aoshima roadster moulds have done the rounds between different companies so should be obtainable relatively easily as fodder for his conversion. Having seen the GT body it will be interesting to see what other allied parts will be included in this trans kit. There will certainly be many MGBGT owners and ex owner modellers very interested in this. Matt Bacon mentioned in one of his replies about obtaining a Wills Finecast white metal Rover V8 engine. Matt, I think that South Eastern Finecast (ex Wills Finecast) still supply the engine you are looking for. HTH.

Talking of Burago die cast scales being all over the place, I bought what was supposed to be a 1/24th scale MG Metro road car. One glaring error was that it did not have an MG badged grille at all but the one used on the Austin version at the time. The scale error was that the model was nearer to 1/20th scale. As luck would have it I had also bought some time ago a resin kit by a now defunct UK company named MRM International of the MG METRO 6R4 Rally Car purportedly in 1/24th scale. It was nearer to 1/20th like the Burago Die cast. The resin kit body did not look right at all as the roofline was much too low. It was pretty useless as a straight build, and then I thought of the Burago diecast and checking this out the body was at least accurately shaped. I decided to do a kit bash by cutting out all the parts useable off the MRM resin kit and modifying the Burago body to take the MRM parts. After much hard work I ended up with a quite passable model of Tony Pond's Works 6R4 in 1/20th scale or thereabouts that is now a unique model. Basically I enjoyed the challenge of cutting resin and die cast parts that were usable and grafting them to make my model. No sooner had I done all of this work that Belkits announced that they were making a 6R4 kit in polystyrene in 1/24th scale! I understand that Le Mans Miniatures and Renaissance have 6R4 kits in resin also in the same scale already available.

Specialist art suppliers are a good source for very narrow vinyl striping in various widths and colours. Could be used as is for stripes or for fine masking. Takes much better on a gloss surface.

The thought of wading through 10,000 replies to this thread!

Was that the old Aurora kit originally released along with an Aston Martin DB4?

I had forgotten that Hasegawa made that one! Nice finish Matt. Look forward to seeing the rest of the build. Out of curiosity, a mate of mine Mick Lomax migrated up to Yorkshire from Luton with his HGV job a couple of years back. He is a member of the Black Sheep Modelling Club up in your neck of the woods. Is it very local to you?

Striving for perfection. I have a few scratch builds and conversions already done and had to adopt a different mindset from straight out building and detailing. He prepared for long haul modelling, and suffering scrapping of parts made that do not come up to the standard strived for. Unlike kit building you will be constantly checking the fit of the pieces you make that would normally be taken for granted with parts from a kit. Also good preparation of each part before you commit to paint. I am not trying to put anyone off, but pointing out the reality of what has to be taken on. Enjoy the challenge of each part you make as a model in itself, as much of the process is getting your mind around what basic shapes make up your assemblies. Patience and perseverance have to be your main attributes when doing this sort of work. Although the modelling will take a lot l longer, enjoy the challenges, chill out a bit when things go wrong, after all it is only some more of your time and a bit more material being used. Enjoy the learning experience as you will be surprised at what you can achieve with a bit of practice and just a willingness to give it a go! Why did I start scratch building/? The reason is simply that some of the classics that I am interested in will never be kitted by mainstream manufacturers. MFH do some more unusual and challenging highly detailed (and very expensive) kits in larger scales but I do not consider them a mainstream manufacturer like Tamiya, Revell and Airfix etc.

A very nice model Matt of what I consider to be Jaguar"a most iconic saloon car.

Those old Jo Han classics were not the easiest of builds, but have plenty of potential as this Mercedes Coupe build is showing. I built one of these way back along with Jo Han 's Chrysler Turbine Car. Anyone know if the moulds have been sold on and to who?

The Lazy Susan cake decorating turntable has been around for years and as Tom has found it is a brilliant piece of domestic hardware that can be used for our type of work, and relatively inexpensive too.

Thanks for the info Les.

Alex, if I were shelling out the sort of money that a De Ag will eventually cost I would expect all brake, fuel lines, carb throttle linkages etc to be included in the kit. These kits are clearly aimed at enthusiast modellers and in 1/8th scale things like that should not be missed out. I expect that some after market outfit like Model Motor Cars or similar will come to the rescue with extra add on detailing. Who knows?

Thanks for the feedback AFX. The scorpion badge was not obvious in pictures I have seen before.

Jim, those seminars you linked to made interesting reading. Cheers!

It is amazing what people will pay for old desirable cars. I was watching a UK TV program named 'Bangers and Cash' about a car auctioneers in Yorkshire. He came a cross a barn find original Mini Cooper 1275S that was basically a rusted out wreck. Offers of thousands of pounds from all over the world were coming in for it. He removed the original factory ID plate to ensure that the buyer got it as the car;s body shell would probably have to be completely rebuilt by a restorer. I likes Pete's Caddy...……...Nice car to enjoy.

I can remember using the AMT colours way back when. Funnily enough I still have some Testors Metallics after all these years in the little glass containers.

David, Placement advertising and subliminal advertising are two different things. Subliminal is to trigger a brain reaction without you actually being really conscious of it as the product may be flashed up in just a single frame. Placement is as it says and has things located in places for all to see in a very obvious manner as a part of the movie or TV show.

It's amazing what can be built from an accumulation of parts from many years modelling.

I notice that the familiar Abarth Scorpion badge did not seem to feature on these cars. Any particular reason?

Force, I think that you need to look at the Wingrove Workshop website. It is still up to show this late master craftsman's work. Zeger's work is very, very good, but I think that you will be more impressed by Gerald Wingrove's scratch builds.

Don't know if it is illegal or not but, anyone heard about subliminal advertising? Our eyes and brains are more perceptive than we realise, as in subliminal advertising a car commercial could be running and just one frame might show a picture of a chocolate bar for example that screens in a fraction of a second in the middle of the car ad.. The viewer does not realise it when it happens at the time, but later may feel a craving for the chocolate bar.

James, thanks for sharing all that extra info.

Matt, thanks for the feedback and correction about Daimled's own V8. I can remember their sports car being way out of sync with what they normally did. I think some UK police forces used a few of them. Did it have a GRP body?

There was a Daimler version of this car. I believe that it had a Rover V8 engine instead of the Jaguar unit. The grille shape was almost the same shape but had the fluted top reminiscent of the Daimler Marque The Rover V8 unit I believe was a Buick design and made under licence in the UK by what was then British Leyland. This engine was used in the big Rover Saloon and Coupe in the 70's, but most were destined for the earlier Range Rovers. The Tamiya kit is very nice having built one. I think that a River V8 engine kit is available from South Eastern Finecast in the UK so there could be a conversion possibility here.

A very unusual model. Thanks for sharing your work in progress.