Bugatti Fan

Interesting thread. Wonder if it is possible to cut and shut two of these kits to make a long wheelbase Phantom.3 limousine version of this car. If it could be done and twin headlamps fitted it might by possible to build John Lennon's Rolls with the psychedelic paint job.

Dan, I know Beenham quite well where you stayed. I was born and brought up in Reading and when I got married I moved to Newbury. Beenhsm is sort of between the two a little North of the A4. All that area was my neck of the woods until my job moved me to the Bedford area back in the early 70's. West Berkshire is a nice area of the country to be staying and there are a number of nice villages around the Beenham area. Back in the day I used to play football in a local league team and have played at most of the villages in the area at some time. Looking at your list of places visited you certainly got around a bit during your two weeks. I too have visited most of them over the years. If your mum likes Port Isaac in the Doc Martin series the village is also featured in a film Fisherman''s Friends that was released a couple of years ago It s a heart warming story about how a group of fishermen in the village were discovered for their sea shanty singing. I think you and your mum might enjoy that film too. I enjoyed visiting Canada a couple of times in the past. Once on the East coast on a cruise up from Boston to Quebec, and the second time the West and did a coach tour out of Vancouver around the Rockies and did the inland passage, Vancouver Island and Victoria. Very memorable. Glad you enjoyed your stay in the UK.

Trust you had a great stay over here in the UK Dan, and a good flight back to the USA or Canada wherever you live. Did you get to visit any other places over here that you have not mentioned already?

Very nice model in the making. I will be following this one!

That looks a very nice restoration and mild customising job you have done there Joe. Those old VW Beetles have something about them so it is not surprising that they have such a dedicated following. They are a bit of a fun car to drive and the old beetles also have a large following over here in the UK. It was well worth the wait in your case to do it when you were ready to tackle it.

Brooklands was brilliant when I visited it about 2 years before covid hit. They were very accommodating to me as I had arranged with them before my visit to research the Napier Railton for my scratch built model. They let me have full access to the car to photograph every nook and cranny and take measurements. There are a couple of pics of my model in 'Let'x see some scratch built things' on this forum. Chertsey where you were staying allowed short trips into London, so I guess you might have done that a few times? The old AC car factory was at Thames Ditton, and very close to Chertsey. Lots to see and do in the capitall. Such a variety of museums, galleries theatres and well known sights besides the more commercial attractions

Different culture over here Dan. Because our weather is always quite changeable, it never puts people off taking their cars to or going to shows. Did you make it to any other motor museums over here? The Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset is to the West of where you were in the New Forest Area, and there is Brooklands Museum, near Weybridge in Surrey, just south of London too, East of where you were staying. Both very interesting. The Brooklands one has been featured in a TV series named 'Secrets of the Motor Museum' and we have another TV series named 'Bangers and Cash' that is about a Yorkshire Car and Automobilia auctioneer who gets just about anything and everything coming through the door that I reckon you would find really interesting. A far different auction experience to the auction houses dealing in cars for the mega rich. If you can get them on your TV they will be well worth a look. I have seen programmes like 'Chasing Classic Cars' overt here and 'Jay Leno's Garage' that are a different experience altogether.

Dan,did you get to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu as that museum is located near to the New Forest? Lots of interesting exhibits to see there. Hope you enjoyed your visit to the UK. Our local vehicle shows will certainly be full of vehicles that you probably don't normally get to see, and you get to talk to the owners. One of your photos showed an Austin 3 Litre that reminded me of the one my late father in law owned and travelled in many times. When he bought it, I got to buy his Wolseley 6/110 from him. It had very comfortable all leather seats and burr walnut trim. They used to get called 'Poor mens Rolls Royces' over here. Of all the cars I owned it was the most comfortable after a long drive, and had that lovely smell of leather as soon as you opened the doors.

Had a Gunze TR some time ago and sold the kit on as I did not like the seats and tonneau cover made in vinyl. What was the point of using that material for parts. It's bad enough tyres being made in it. Had some loose in a box stored for some time to find the tyres had chemically fused themselves into some of the polystyrene parts ruining both.I Tyres get separated out in all kits I buy now, and the wheels when built get a barrier of foil fitted or painted to avoid direct vinyl to plastic contact.

Noticeable, the sheer volume of desired plastic kits on here being nostalgic Americana. I'm sure there must be many modellers looking for their pet European cars to be kitted too, but as MCM is not sold through retail outlets in the UK and Europe, there are many over on this side of the pond who do not even know about MCM, let alone this forum. Hence the overwhelming bias towards American cars on here.

The craft paint market is totally different to model makers. Depends on whether hand of spray painting BUT priming is essential when doing either. There are many cheap own brand store acrylics out there aimed at children, students and crafters. However, serious artists will use products from well established makers like Winsor&Newton, Rowney, Liquitex and Reeves to name the most well known. Recently I have been using Revell Aquacolour that I have found to be excellent acrylic paints for brush painting, with a large colour range and designed for modellers, although fine artists could use them for their work also. Diluted they can be used for air brushing too. There are many beginner books available from art suppliers about the various qualities and uses of acrylics that will be an invaluable reference to the newcomer using these paints, but being aimed at artists so most of them do not generally go into the use of acrylics through air brushes.

Bob, I saw your confused emoji. I was referring to a major software overhaul mentioned by Xingu in the post before mine when I used the phrase 'Maybe that's just what it needs' from the film Shooter as an analogy.

Nice conversion to that old British Ford Thames van. Brings back memories of the first car my dad owned when I was still at school. It was a Ford Anglia, and I have thought about remodelling the Revell Anglia funny car into my dad's old puddle jumper as we referred to those old Ford Anglias and Populars back in the day.

Like the government official said to Mark Wahlberg when he was exonerated in the movie Shooter. 'Maybe that is just what it needs'.

Kalmbach made a CD Rom available of all the Scale Auto Enthusiast magazines from issue 1. It would be very nice if the same was available of Model Cars Magazine. Any chance of this happening? Many of us started taking the magazine a number of years after it went into production.

Cranky will probably be able to capitalise on painting and selling artwork much easier than writing about car modelling I suspect. Just someone going off in another direction and exploring new fields. An easel and paints are less hassle than all the paraphernalia that we modellers need to create anything, So, good luck in your new endeavours Cranky, but also hope to see you maybe modelling again sometime!

Nice to see unusual car moels of that era. Very Art Deco!

Very useful technique outlined here. On bigger models I have used smooth plumbers self adhesive aluminium tape. It is a bit thicker than BMF and buffs up really well but the application technique is basically the same.

A very nice addition to your 1/12 scale stable Mark. You have brought that old kit back to life really well. Doing a relatively quick build or restoration every now and again in between the more ambitious long haul models I find keeps the modelling mojo alive. Maybe you find this also?

This looks like the start of an interesting build. I can remember the old Route 66 TV series from way back when one of the early Corvette cars featured. I think it was a slightly later version of this body style with twin headlamps fitted used in the TV series.

Really taking shape now Louis.

Is this kit 1/25th or 1/24th scale? Could not make it out from the box set in initial post. This has been an interesting build resulting in a really nice finished model.

Thanks Les and Hanjo. Your replies will be very helpful.

Does anyone have some good detail pictures of a Type 51 Bugatti Twin Cam engine taken when out of car? There are plenty of pictures of cars with the hood open, but what I am looking for are detailed pictures of an engine that has been taken out of a car for restoration or for a rebuild. Any help would be appreciated as I want make do a scratch built model. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback Les. Those are areas I would not have thought of. Probably for working models I suspect.