Bugatti Fan

I have a couple of the Airfix Bugztti 35B kits in 1/32nd scale. Actually quite nice kits from back in the day. Airfix did a weird thing though with that particular kit. It has a beautifully detailed firewall but no engine. It is as if they intended to make the kit with an engine but stopped short when developing the kit. At first I thought it was a sprue missing but the second kit was the same. With an engine it could really be a nice model.

Interesting to see if Revell follow on in this Bond series with the V8 Vantage from the Timothy Dalton Bond films?

Yikes Bob! 105 bucks for a kerbside plastic kit of a Z4 in 1/24th scale. That's about 85 Sterling over here. I may be keen, but not that keen! At least you won yours in a club raffle. Lol. Joking apart, you have made a very nice job of it!

Nice interesting model project. Incidentally. Who makes the Photo Etched Wire Wheels?

Emre, I don't think that Atin intends to cross kit any Ferrari bits into the Royale. It was shown as a compsrison to show the gargantuan size of the Bugatti. Yes it definitely is the car in the Henry Ford Museum. The Lindberg kit (it has also been issued by Revell I believe somewhere down the line) has been around since the 60's/70's. The car was originally black with a yellow body trim and edges to the wings. It was originally bought by a Dr. Fuchs and had coach work made and fitted by Weinberger of Munich. Dr. Fuchs left Nazi Germany and the car found it's way to the USA via Shanghai. It eventually ended up in New York and was left almost derelict in a dealer's yard after the engine block froze and cracked. It was almost on the point of being scrapped when Charles Chayne a motor industrialist found and saved the car. He had it restored to how it appears today at the Ford Museum. Besides changing the body colour and interior trim, he guilded the Lily a bit with non original wheel trims, and other additional exterior accessories. The Lindberg kit as mentioned depicts the car as it is today. Those wishing to return it to original will need to rob an Italeri Royale of its wheels. Looking the Gerald Wingrove plans, the kit appears to have a rear inboard quarter elliptic spring that was fitted directly under the chassis member missing on each side.

Wheel distortion by the weight of a 1/24th scale plastic kit? Well that does surprise me considering the total weight is displaced through four points, and a plastic model is quite light in weight. I could understand it if the wheels were fitted to a white metal or solid resin kerbside kit being that much heavier. Pete in an earlier post was considering having the wheels plated. Would this process lead to the spokes looking a bit heavy and defeat the object of their scale appearance due to the build up on each spoke? I would guess that Alclad 2 or AK Interactive chrome might be a better option. Just paint the tyres first, mask off and spray the wheels themselves afterwards should yield the result desired. I guess that Motobitz made them in the way they did as the tyres and wheels in the kit are too wide. Saw some of the Motobitz wheels at Telford last year. They really look good. And they make them in 1/32nd and 1/43rd scales too.

Pleased to hear that you could get and know that Italeri can supply that very small bore tube. Your CAD renders of the handbrake system make it very clear how it all operates. I like the way that you are upgrading that old kit both by embracing new 3D Cad and Printing along with good old fashioned hand work.

Further to my last posts, another regular series comes to mind. Cannot remember what the actual cars were, but used to watch the old Highway Patrol series starring Broderick Crawford. But I can remember the closing statement at the end of every episode, 'Remember, it's not the car that kills, it's the driver!' Not a sitcom, but with cars of of that era, like the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud (I think) that Gene Barry drove around in Burke's Law.

Single strand wire from electronics suppliers may be a substitute that could be used. I have a number of coloured single strand wires taken from a piece of old telephone cable that are very useful as another source.

Lovely model of a motor that looked quite unusual and futuristic in its day.

This Caprice Taxi is really taking shape well and will really look the business when finished. I have been modelling since way back over 50 years but would never have thought to use 'Silly Putty' material as a flexible masking medium. Just shows. You live and you learn! Since my last post I have learnt that Franklyn Mint did a Checker Cab in 1/24th and a Chinese company Sun Star did one in 1/18th scale. Both die cast models.

David. What a coincidence. My late brother in law's first car was a maroon 105E also. Knowing that your first car was an Anglia 105E, thinking about it, if you are looking to make a model of your own first car look to Harry Potter. I am pretty sure that I saw a nice little 1/24th scale die cast of the one featured in one of two of the films advertised somewhere. Looks like it is a standard car so should be very easy to make yours from I would imagine. The Potter one is light blue from what I can remember, so a respray and possibly getting it apart to change the interior trim colour if necessary should not be too difficult. Incidentally, Motobitz make old style UK number plate decals for cars of that era.

Nice model build David. Apart from being a tribute to your Dad, it is nice to see a model of what must have been Ford 's best selling UK built car from the 1960's, and in the larger scale of 1/16th.

Nice model taking shape. Remember riding in one when visiting NYC a few years back. This thread got me thinking, has anyone ever kitted one of the iconic Checker Cabs?

There was an Australian making resin kits of this car in 1/24th scale I believe a few years back. He might be able to help with either information or a kit you can scale up from? Not sure if he produced drawings to make this kit or simply made moulds from the old Monogram kit parts. I seem to think that I have seen a photo of a large scale model made by someone, somewhere. Possibly on this or some other forum. Maybe seek out a New Zealand Rod and Custom club who might be able to track down the builder of the full size replica is another thought. Must have worked to some sort of plans I would think.

Came back to this thread after a while. Lovely vintage racing car model Andrew! Makes a refreshing change from all the modern racing and rally cars.

Wire wheels have always been the Achilles Heel in the majority of plastic kits where the subject has them. 3D printing has changed the goal posts as more people are offering very acceptable scale wire wheels wheels in this medium, especially for much smaller scale kits than the Bentley. Gone are the limitations of the injection moulded process as spoke configurations can now be made correctly and successfully by 3D printing. The wheel set that Francois is having made will certainly be a vast improvement over the kit items, and will take his model to a different level along with all the other improvements he is making to it. Nick Edwards at Unobtainium has taken a different approach using 3D printed rims and hubs and the wheels being built using real wire for the spokes. He is developing these to be supplied as kits for those wishing to upgrade their big Airfix Bentleys.

Nice conversion Scott. Been following your build on the International Scale Modelled Forum. The kit was originally made by Matchbox when they made plastic kits back in the seventies and eighties. Scott said one of the tyres split due to getting brittle that he had to repair. If anyone is about to build one of these kits or has one in their stash, there is a UK company named Motobitz who I believe makes resin cast tyres to replace the kit items. Looks like others must have had this problem to prompt resin ones being made?

Whilst I respect others points of view about collecting, my views will remain the same. Each to their own. I reckon Bill has summed it up in his last line.

Kit Collectors? What is the purpose? What is the point in hoarding loads of kits never to be built? I suppose some people like looking at box ends on their shelves. Whatever turns you on I suppose! They will probably be lost forever when the collector passes on and the family either dumps the lot or sells cheaply to a trader not knowing their perceived worth. As for someone asking 1000 bucks for an old MPC kit on EBay plus shipping. Are they having a laugh or something? Always someone gullible enough I guess! I am of the kits should be built not hoarded train of thought.

Sorry that I got the wrong impression David. You never really get over the loss of a parent as I also know. As this particular model will have special personal memories, I would be inclined to go the individual display case route to protect it long term within the family.

Nice model. Brings back memories of when I owned one back in the Seventies. Should buy a kit and model my old car.

That frame looks good fitted to the chassis. So good you could alternatively build a skeletal model of the car showing how coach builders used Ashwood frames for the bodywork.

If the logos stick out quite a bit you could try the dry brushing technique. If doing this mask off as close to the logos as possible so as not to get any paint on surrounding areas. Use a good quality masking tape like Tamiya's or Washi thin paper masking tape. In the UK, Wikos sold Washi tape. It was red in colour. I think they sell the same thing but now call it paper masking tape and the colour is now buff. I use it a lot on my models. It is both good and inexpensive. When dry brushing make sure there is next to nothing on the brush hairs and drag almost horizontally across the very top of the lettering. He patient and build up very, very gradually until you obtain the desired effect. As another thought, as you are making this for your dad, a nice finishing touch would be to buy a dedicated acrylic display case and mount the model in the case. It will protect the model both from dust and unnecessary handling to keep it in pristine condition. After all you have invested a lot o time and trouble to make it for him!

Came across this trolling old posts. Beautiful model of a beautiful British sports car.