Bugatti Fan

Rumours and speculation can be very damaging. Dusty's comment appeared a bit dismissive. Yes there are plenty of replacements. But one has to remember that if any company ceases trading a number of people lose their livelihoods as a result. I sincerely hope that this is not the case with Alclad who have been around for a while and one of the pioneer companies in that field. Maybe Alclad should be contacted directly to confirm their current status?

Very , very nice model! Telford entry this year Matt?

Nice to see an older airbrush restored to working order. I think that I saw the Thayer and Chandler brand within the Badger website. Perhaps they have acquired the brand name and hold any spares?

Where did you hear that from Dale?

That is one very old kit Pierre. I think it dates back to the 60s when the car raced. I think that Airfix did one in 1/32nd scale way back.

Chad Truss and Bill Allen your posts unfortunately had degenerated into a bit of a slanging match. At least Bill.posted an apology after realising the way it was going. We all get a bit passionate at times and may disagree with one another, but need to keep it civil as this is an open forum.

I try to be a perfectionist, and building a few scratch builds has certainly improved my model making having to get my head around things. It doesn't always go well, so some scrapped parts and reworking becomes par for the course. Over the years I have enjoyed competition modelling and have had reasonable success. But you win some and you lose some, but I never get hung up about it as a judgement is just someone else's opinion about my models. But however, the worst judge of all can be yourself. Try not to get hung up about any of the imperfections in your model building as most likely you are the only person noticing them. If you get to the point where numbers of incomplete kits are being shelved through perceived building imperfections, you are not really enjoying it as a hobby any more and really need to change your mindset. Far better to complete something, learn from any mistakes and move on in a positive way. I can fully understand some people's mindset of they are working on a very expensive kit like a MFH for example if things go a bit awry and shelve it until later. But as long as they go back and complete it has to be the goal. We can all lose our mojo when things do not always work out. Best do something else temporarily and come back when feeling a bit more positive.

I have seen what is advertised as a artists LED lighting unit. It is mains powered, and designed with a flexible stem and clamp, presumably for portability to attach it to an easel or shelf edge. It is designed with two sets of LED lights that are in a movable Vee shape and the actual lighting levels are adjustable too. Am thinking about buying one for the extra lighting capacity around my workshop. At present my lighting setup is two angle poise lamps set on each side of my work bench with cold white light LED bulbs fitted. Works well for the modelling and when I set up for work in progress photography. Glare has not been mentioned. I wear an old baseball cap as the long peak keeps any direct lamp glare out of my eyes.

Lovely model taking shape. Lancia pulled out of UK road car sales many years ago when one of their models proved to be a complete disaster due to rusting bodywork problems. They never lived that reputation down unfortunately as they now make nice cars.

Without trying to seem morbid, a suggestion would be for each member to write a letter that could be kept in a safe place outlining where and to whom to contact to dispose of kits, tools and reference materials. For example, contact details of local club, dealers who buy complete collections of unbuilt kits etc. Also with regard to reference material, books could be donated to loca! university or high school libraries. Old magazines, particularly Auto Modelling magazines and brochures etc. could go to the Model Car Builders Museum, Sandy, Utah.

The old Aurora DB4 is the only kit of that particular version, and the moulds I think may have gone to Monogram as was along with their Maserati tooling. The DB4 has virtually the same sort of body style as the DB5 but had standard round headlamps whereas the DB5 headlamps were set behind clear covers. Airfix way back also released a DB6 kit in 1/24 th scale. Almost identical to the DB5 but for the boot having a turned up rear edge acting as an aerofoil. I hope the new Revell Bond DB5 is a brand newly tooled kit and not a reissue of some other.

Have AMT improved their decal quality? I can remember decals from their earlier kits where the white was so thin you could still make out the colour painted underneath.

Quickshine is a US product so should be easily available in the States.

Sleek looking motor!

My method uses a dip pen with a fine nib, often referred to as a mapping pen. I thin down a little paint in a very small shallow artists ceramic mixing bowl until the paint consistency is just thin enough to flow. This gives great control for lining in fine edges. Once the edge lining in is done the remainder can be filled in with a fine paint brush. I find that Revell Aquacolour Anthracite gives a nice simulation of the slightly shiny rubber finish on windscreen surrounds and interior rubber mats. Permanent market ink can be a bit of a nightmare to remove or disguise if you happen to slip with it when lining in, so it is not my favourite unfortunately.

Enamels are oil based paints and should never be over coated with acrylic. Acrylic is actually a very thin airtight plastic coating when it dries. Enamels take ages for their solvents to evaporate out, and even though they.might feel dry to the touch the solvents are still leeching out for weeks of months after.

Interesting comments guys. Like most of you have said, there is good and bad, new and old. Depends on what you want to build can influence what quality the kit will be depending on whether clapped out old tooling was used or new. The Internet is a good source of reviews to find out the wheat from the chaff. However, an old clapped out mould tooled kit may be the only one in town so no choice sometimes.

Kit quality is bound to be an emotive subject. Back in the old days before the Japanese accession to the throne of best quality car kits, Monogram's car kits appeared (to me at least) to be the bench mark in the ear!y 60's. Rapid forward 50 plus years and we have a totally different scenario. We come to expect much more from newly tooled kits with, you guessed it, Tamiya being at the forefront where they have been since the 70's. The old AMT, IMC, Ertl, Monogram, Revel! and MPC kits that favour popular US subjects that are loved on this forum by many but really are showing their age being continuously re popped down the years. The Japanese and European kit manufacturers make kits that they consider will appeal more to a world wide customer base so the subject matter will be very different to what many American modellers might desire. The old US firms of yore really mainly just catered for a burgeoning domestic market, hence all the Nascars, Muscle Cars, Dragsters and Custom Show Cars and to a certain extent have remained in a bit of a time warp. So we are where we are as the world market has changed considerably with the advent of more specialist kits like MFH also coming onto the market plus a plethora of 1/43rd scale highly detailed kits too.

I built the Hubley Duesenberg SJ and the flash I had to clean off was awful. Eye protection and one of those old disposable covid masks should be enough against bits you grind off. A good set of small warding files will be a good supplement to using the Dremel. The old Hubley kits were with a few exceptions mainly Zamak metal that die casts are made from and plastic. Unpainted Zamac should not cause any toxicity problems when ground. Incidentally the Monogram Metal Master car kits were similar in having Zamak bodywork and the rest in plastic. Wills (South Eastern Finecast) and many other kits were made in White Metal that is very soft compared to the die cast metal ones.

To UK modellers, Holloway House Quick Shine is stocked and available at Lakeland in shops and on line. A bit more expensive than the old Klear from Johnson's though at about £16 per carton. Make sure it is the green carton liquid you buy and and not their cleaner that they also sell. There is a YouTube video demonstrating it being used on a model I think, maybe linked on this site somewhere.

Amazing what can be done with something starting life as a toy as Ismo has shown us. Some toys have great potential to be upgraded to proper scale models when they have a good body shell moulding.

Nice model in the making there Patrick. It is amazing just what some vehicles get converted into in real life so this off beat subject has its own appeal as well as curiosity value.

Thought so. Thanks Casey.

And there are many more NOT like that in IPMS clubs, so let's get this into perspective please before this becomes a club knocking thread. Guys, ALL clubs suffer generally from a minority elitist and nerd faction that are full of their own self importance. We all know what they are like, full of criticism, put downs on who they perceive as lesser than themselves. Like empty vessels they make the most sound, say very little but talk a lot and become elusive when asked about placing their own stuff on the table. Then on the other hand you have someone who quietly just makes something superb and puts it on the table and modestly steps into the background. The sort of guy who always takes more interest in talking about what fellow modellers are doing rather than himself.

Was a smaller version of that figure in the MPC Wild Ones Woody/Pickup kit?