Bugatti Fan

Pocher made a T50 I believe in 1/8th scale a number of years ago. Could not afford at the time. Now........Silly money on Ebay!.......Still cannot afford one! Bandai made a nice little T55 in 1/20th scale a number of years ago. Their Type 41 Royale in 1/16th scale was a nice kit to build.

My pleasure John. Just out of interest, Airfix re released this kit last year with a different number plate for another short chassis car. Hopefully, they may have sorted out the position of the Winged B emblem on the radiator shell. It should be where John placed it during his build. I cannot understand why Airfix got that detail so wrong as they had full access to the real car when it was in Neil Corner's ownership in the early seventies to develop the kit. The radiator shell is the 'face' of any classic car, so if anything should be got right on a kit it has to be the radiator shell. It beggars belief that in all the times they re released this kit over the years this one item had not been sorted out. Also, in the latest re incarnation of this kit, the parts that were previously matt plated are now just plain plastic, and the kit is not packaged so well inside the box as it was before. More loose stuff in bags.

The kit itself mint, straight out of the box leaves a lot to be desired, so having resurrected one that has been badly built is a real credit to your skills and patience. Must have taken hours of clean up ready for the black finish. That must be one of the most difficult colours to get looking good on a model car.

Hi John I have been studying your posts of the Bentley build with great interest. It really goes to show just what you can do with an elderly kit with a bit of imagination, lateral thinking and an eye for detail. My own particular interests lie with the older classic cars and I am very impressed with your superb build. Kind regards Noel Smith

There were some rumours going around at about that time that Pocher were going to make a Willys Jeep kit in 1/8th scale.

I think that there is a company in the UK that carries all the tram kits named Glendale Junction. They may ship abroad.

Lovely model Harry. The only tram kits that come to my mind are made by a Spanish Company named OC-CRE. Is it one of theirs? Besides the San Francisco Cable Car, they have a number of trams including, London, Lisbon and Berlin trams to name but a few in their series. Look on their website for more...all in 1/24th scale....nice! I can remember building many years ago a little San Francisco Cable Car kit by Hawk models in 1/48th scale (I think!). Maybe Testors have the moulds and re released it? Perhaps someone can confirm this?

Jurgen, That really was a labour of love to super detail that old 1/200th scale Nichimo kit. It just shows what can be done with something that is very basic. I had this kit once and sold it on. But I can remember it being very simplified for radio control and it is one BIG plastic kit, so I can appreciate the amount of work that you have put into it to turn it into a highly detailed display model. Tamiya have retooled their 1/350th scale Yamato recently along with a lot of photo etched stuff to go with it, but even that can not look as impressive as the model that you have built. If only you could get it from Germany to show at the UK ScaleModelworld Show at Telford in England?

Harry, I really like your model Buckboard....Looks very convincing. Some of the techniques used were most interesting also. I expect that you already know about the late John Thompson's books from the UK about horse drawn vehicle models, as you are into that sort of thing. There is a society named the 'Guild of Model Wheelwrights' here in the UK. They have a website that you may find interesting to have a look at if you do not know of them already. I am looking to scratch build a Hispano Suiza car model with shaped wood planking on the bodywork, and have noted your techniques for staining.

Further to my earlier posts my article about scratch building the Bugatti has been accepted by Model Cars Magazine. It should be in a late 2013 edition.

Glad to be of help Skip. One of my must sees is what was the Schlumpf Collection. It is now the French National Motor Museum and is located at Mulhouse in North East France. I believe that there is also a Railway (Railroad) Museum, and an Industrial/Technology Museum also close at hand.

Your project is looking good Francois. Look forward to seeing it finished. If you do not already have it, there is a book by Master Modeller Gerald Wingrove named The Complete Car Modeller 2. This second book of his on scratch building features how he built a 1/15th scale model of the Weinberger Royale. You will find this book very interesting. It is published by Haynes in the UK...ISBN 0-85429-857-6 His first book is about scratch building model cars in general. I recently scratch built a Type 59 for the IPMS Scale Modelworld Show at Telford last year. I used Litho plate to make the hood so maybe you could use litho plate for the vents on the hood sides of your Type 41. Look for my Type 59 in the Big Boyz section of this forum and you will see what the hood looks like. I formed each louver in the litho plate. It is very thin aluminium and works well. A printer may be able to give you some Litho plate.

I have been using a Panasonic Lumix LX3 for some time now. It is an excellent little camera, with a fast Leica Zoom lens. Great for taking pictures in low light without flash or a tripod, and I don't have to lug a bag full of gear around the shows any more. The zoom range is a bit limited but the optic is superb. Since the LX3 was released, the LX5 and LX7 have become available. The LX3 can be picked up second hand for a reasonable price these days. About £150.00 in the UK ($200.00? or maybe less). There are a number of other slightly older generation Pro Sumer Compacts worth looking at such as the Nikon and Canon top end compacts.

Hi Skip In answer to your question After spraying with a white primer from an aerosol, building up the solid colour from mist coats, the colour paint that I used was French Blue and it is one of the Zero paints range. It is ready to Airbrush and dries off semi matte. A coat of automotive clear laquer from a rattle can was what I used to finish it off to a nice gloss. The supplier here in the UK is a company named Hiroboy. I am sure that there will be a supplier somewhere in the U.S. Perhaps Zero Paints have a website of their own with a listing of any suppliers in the U.S.A. What is described as French Blue is basically a Light Blue colour, so if you cannot get the Zero paint another light blue should suffice. I went to a Bugatti Owners Club UK meeting some time ago and noted that the shade of light blue varied from car to car, so maybe there is no definitive Bugatti blue. As an alternative you may find an automotive light blue acrylic gloss off the shelf that looks about right from a local auto accessory store may be easier to source. Hope that this info is of some help.

Tom, Thanks for the heads up on the Plastruct Hexagonal Styrene Rod. It does not seem to appear on any of the Plastruct racks I have seen in model shops here in the UK. I will keep a better weather eye open for it now I know it does exist. A company named EMA (Engineering Model Associates) in London seem to be the main importers, so I will try them first. The proprietary punch / die tools you mentioned. I have seen them at shows and they are very good (and quite pricey too!) However they are precision tools so the cost has to reflect that. It's just a question of how affordable they are.

Hi Skip In answer to your last post, have a look at www.partworkmodels.co.uk Pick up on a thread by a friend of mine named Peter Buckingham who is currently doing an Airfix Bentley build on it. We met up at a show recently and he took a few pictures of my Bugatti and kindly inserted them into his Bentley thread for added general interest. One of the views he took looking down will show you how the rear brake cables attach to the rear wheels on the driver's side. You should be able to get a good idea from this. hope this helps.

Was not aware of a 1/8th scale Miura kit.......Who made it? The only 1/8th scale Lambo that I am aware of is the from the resurrected Pocher label The new Aventador kit released this year. I think that a Miura was done in 1/16th scale back in the 70's or 80's. Perhaps there were others in different scales that other posters are aware of. The Miura was certainly a very stylish car.

What a a beautiful build Harry.!.....Looks like you also have a passion for the older classics in model form. Entex was mentioned as the manufacturer. I remember Bandai issued this kit in 1/16th scale way back in the 70's. Did Entex re pop this one or is it a different kit?

Regarding making bolts (or rather bolt heads). I looked at proprietary stuff like proper tiny bolts for modellers and also the various photo etched stuff as well.....Too expensive! Could not find any hexagonal shaped plastic rods to slice, either from Plastruct or any other company and that I found surprising! I also tried the old heat stretched sprue method on a hexagonal a bic biro outer case. Stretched it ok but it was too brittle to cut even with a a razor saw. I needed lots of bolt heads of different sizes. So how could they be made really cheaply and made of plastic so that they could be cemented in place with a spot of Contacta or similar? Then I hit upon an idea! Maybe I could punch them out of plastic card? I got a cheap set of Allen keys and selected some of the smaller ones that looked about the right size for the bolt heads that I wanted to make. I hacksawed off the long straight section of each key I needed and ground one end flat to give sharp edges to each side of the hexagon shape. These would become my PUNCHES. Next job was to make a COMBINATION DIE that would take each size. What I used was a piece of 1.5mm (approx 1/16th inch) gauge plate (mild steel would also do) about 75mm (3 inches) by 50mm (2 inches) then got a a piece of wood battening about 20mm (3/4 inch square) and cut 2 lengths from it of 50mm (2 inches). I drilled 2 holes to take suitable screws at each end of the 3 inch long piece of steel plate. These are to screw the 2 battens to the underside of the steel plate to make a bridge shape once all the die holes are drilled. Now I drilled a number of suitably sized holes to match each of the punches in the plate positioned in the centre section that would be between the support battens to act as die holes for the punches to go through. To determine each of the hole sizes, I carefully measured the diameter across each of the Allen key pieces from point to opposite point (not across the flats) that were cut from the Allen keys. After drilling a set of holes as dies, I then screwed the bits of batten to each end of the piece of steel plate to form the bridge section. This was to make some clearance for the punched hexagonal plastic card shapes to fall through onto some card that was located underneath. This method is a bit crude, but it works. Basically we are punching a hexagonal punch through a round drilled hole. This will have to be set up on a small bench drill press for accuracy. The selected punch is be mounted in the machine's chuck and brought down to accurately align and go through the corresponding drilled die hole. The die bridge part will need to be clamped down at this stage. If you have a small milling machine this is much easier as the die can be clamped in a vice or on the machine bed and the X ( RH to LH), and Y (Front to Rear) axis movement handles can be used to accurately align the punch and die required. This is a very cheap way to knock out loads of plastic card hex bolt heads once the machine is set up. Trial and error will show how thick you can go with the plastic card however. Hope that this is of help to other modellers.

Hi Skip When I said in my post about the number plate not changing, I was actually referring to the actual car UR6571, not the Airfix kit. Having read your post and upon reading my post again, I see that I made a typo. and referred to the car as UU6571. My mistake and I agree with you that it would be read incorrectly whilst referring to the kit. So apologies on my part to any readers for my earlier post causing confusion and thanks for picking up on my mistake. I take on board that you were guessing about any legal issues. I was simply speculating from this that there could be an issue if the UR6571 number plate was still used on the re released kit. As I see it, it is just another kit of a classic Blower Bentley. The UR6571 registration number continues to be the intellectual property of the UK licencing authority as a means of identifying that particular vehicle. So the owner of the vehicle does not actually own the registration number. this has to be surrendered back at the end of the life of the vehicle. I am not sure if it has to be surrendered when a vehicle is sold and shipped abroad however. Does the American Vehicle registration process work in a similar way? UU 5872 the number plate on the the latest release of this kit is for another short chassis variant, and the bodywork on the real car when looked at casually is very similar to that on UR6572, but there may be a few subtle differences.

I hope that Airfix have corrected the radiator shell on this latest release. Th flying 'B' badge was far too low down on all the earlier releases of this kit. The comments about Lauren's lawyers was a bit surprising, considering that Airfix had released this kit back in the days when Neil Corner owned the car. It subsequently went to Anthony Bamford (Boss of JCB) in the meantime before Ralph Lauren bought the car. The number plate has not changed. The only people who own the rights to the UK registration number UU 6571 would be The DVLA in the UK, a government body. The registration number has to be surrendered back to them when any UK registered vehicle is broken up or written off.

This is quite an interesting post as I have recently built this kit 'from the box'. It certainly makes up into a very impressive model, but I found that the fit of some of the parts could have been a lot better in places. I did not like the black colour scheme as per kit and went for a two tone scheme of blue body with white roof instead, that I thought might look a bit more 'Rock n Roll' considering the late 50's era the car was built in. Only wish that I knew about the Model Car Garage Photo Etched parts for this kit beforehand. Cameron's engine detailing work looks really good and he will certainly do justice to the rest of this popular car model. Really looking forward to seeing how his build progresses. The kit is showing its 1970's origins now and really cries out to be retooled and brought up to the standard of modern kits. It is such an iconic car that I am sure that there would be a good market for a more detailed accurate new kit to replace this one. Basically it looks like an upscaled 1/24th scale kit when you look at the way the kit goes together. I had a bit of difficulty aligning the hood on the body as it was slightly distorted. Trouble is, looking at it in the box it seemed to be O.K. It may have just been my particular kit that was at fault, but I would suggest that anybody building this model physically check the alignment of the hood to body before doing any painting to be able to sort it out first.

Hi Guys, and thanks for your comments. In answer to some of the questions that have been brought up My wheels were sort of scratchbuilt from the plastic wheels from the Burago die cast. I removed all the incorrect cross over spokes and maintained the rims only. Plastic card discs were cut out and used as an infill for the backs of the wheels. The conical wheel centres were plunge moulded from plastic card and cemented to the plastic inserts. A dividing head was used to accurately drill the 32 32 16 spoke patterns in the rims and conical wheel centres. Thin stainless steel wire was then used and each spoke fitted individually. I used the Burago tyres as they attempted to follow the Dunlop Racing pattern for the time. The tension chains were given to me by a model maker friend to stop me going crazy trying to scratch build them. I think that they were from a Revell Ducati motorcycle kit. They are in plastic and make up from individual links. A bit overscale for this model. The Photo Etched Acu Stion ones may be a better option although I have no experience of using them. As for the carburettors, I simply used bits of plastic card, plastic tubing and plastic rod to make up the assembly. It is a matter of looking at the drawing and try to imagine breaking the main parts down into individual round and square bits. The linked geared quadrants were cut out of and made from small nylon gear wheels...and yes they were fiddley! I will try to get some more pictures up as soon as possible. During the build I took many photos as I went along, and have put a lengthy full build article together. I am thinking of submitting it to the editor of Model Cars magazine, but I am not sure if it would fit in with the magazine's requirements. It would be nice to see all my efforts in print and hopefully may be of benefit to other modellers.

I managed to complete my first scratch built car model ready for the IPMS Scale Modelworld Show at Telford UK in November 2012. It was built utilising Gerald Wingrove's books as inspiration, and adapting his working methods to making a model in plastics, (except for the hood that was made from Litho plate). The model was built in fits and starts over a period of about 2 years in all. 3 Pictures I tried to post failed. Perhaps files were too big...High res JPEGs. Will have to retake in low resolution and try to re post. In the meantime, there are a couple of pictures that can be seen on one of the Scale Modelworld sites. If you do a web search and type in Scale Modelworld Bugatti Type 59, hopefully some pics may be found.

Anybody looking to build an EB110, there are only 2 different plastic kits available. The Revell one (also marketed under the Monogram label) The Heller one (also marketed under the Airfix label) Back in the 90's I had both kits side by side to review Both manufacturers had their own vision of how this car should be kitted. The Heller kit is not as complex as the Revell version, but both make up into nice models of this car.