Bugatti Fan

Geoffrey, those old Jo Han kits are a bit challenging. I would suggest it you are new to the hobby, put it to one side and have a go at some more up to date kits to develop your skills first, and have a go at the Mercedes when you feel ready.

Some interesting comments guys. I think someone mentioned older car colours being difficult to source. Not sure if this is quite true as recently I looked up an automotive paint specialist here in the UK who could supply.me with an aerosol 1960's Porsche colour for £14.00 (equivalent to about 18 to 20 dollars I'm guessing). Another mention was made about this being expensive to spray one model. Depends on the scale of course, but would imagine the poster in question had a 1/24 or 1/25 body in mind although he did not say. In which case, maybe so. Scale finish! The human eye is forgiving when looking at a model as your mind compensates but the camera is not. Overscale Metallica have already been mentioned. I have seen beautifully polished 1/43rd scale models but when photographed look as though they have a 6 inch coat of Dyna Glaze in scale. A real scale finish would look dull to the eye on a table however.

At 0.0015 this new foil is still very, very thin material it has to be said although 3 times thicker than Bare Metal Foil. Like previous posters mentioned, all different thicknesses of aluminium foil will have their uses on our models. It is a case of horses for courses depending on the area of application needed.

Not seen any activity from Virgil on here for a long time. Any idea what he is up to, anyone? Has he got another book on the go or something?

Alan, you say you are looking for a Mercer Raceabout to compliment your Aurora Stutz. Were you aware that Bandai produced a 1/16th scale kit back in the 70's? Maybe worth a look on Ebay?

Being 1.5 times thicker than BMF should be a bit more forgiving when applying. Sorry, bad arithmetic on my part. 3 times thicker as Peter has pointed out in a later post.

Another way of getting matching automotive paint finishes is go to a supplier of automotive paints. Many have the facility to produce acrylic aerosol paints mixed to manufacturer's specification. Good for plain colours only as metallics will be well over scale on a model, unless of course looking for a scale metalflake finish.

Bill, the 3D printed wire wheels by Randy Ditton that you mentioned are something I was unaware of. Will have to look and see if he has a website. The Lindberg and Revell Jaguar disc wheels do look nice. Had both kits at some time but sold them on.

Those diecasts by Burago and others lend themselves to some rebuild/restoration work. At the cheaper end the wheels and tyres always look to be a compromise though.

A very nice model of a quinticentially English sports car.

Old average built kits are good fodder for creative modelling to cut about. It's only bits of plastic after all. If you mess up so what? Regardless, you will have learnt from the process. I like the subject of this thread and Jesse's model is looking good and very original.

I agree Scott. Some of the prices expected by some sellers on EBay border on the ridiculous. If I were looking to make a Jurassic Park Jeep and could not get the Tamiya one for a reasonable price, there are plenty of jeep kits out there where the kit could be modified to the rectagular headlamp style. After all it is virtually a flat panel where the lamps are mounted, so should not be difficult to either convert a lot part of replace with a scratch built one from plastic card. Only real problem might be the wheel style.

I looked on Fabrizio's website and found two pics on there. Fabulous model. Sent him a PM to ask more about the model and his painting techniques for it, so hopefully he may get back to me. It was picked up that my reply was to a thread that was six years old. How this came about was that I did a search using just the Porsche model number only (to avoid zillions of Porsche threads to wade through) as I was seeking other builders of the Revell 1/16th scale Cabrio. Happened to come across the Janis Joplin car that piqued my interest. I don't tend to look at dates of threads, only ones that look interesting to me like many others of us I guess.Just a pity I could not open the pictures on the original thread. I was amused by Patrick's gas station analogy.

Thanks for the feedback Les.

Fantastic. Wasn't the Silver Cloud kit originally issued by Hubley back in the 60's?

Fabrizio, I could not open any of your picture files on my tablet, but am sure that it was a great challenge to do.

I read some of your comments about this kit elsewhere Ken. Sounds like you had a bit of a mountain to climb with the windshield frame and assorted sink marks to fill in. Done a great job though. Perseverance paid off. Don't know what your religion is but I admire your faith!

Could not open your picture(s) in your last post Erik. Can you do a straight attachment of your presumably jpeg files?

A friend of mine uses cellulose thinners to thin enamel for airbrushing. Says it dries off much faster. Has anyone else on this forum tried this? Would be interesting to know, as enamel seem to be getting replaced more by acrylics these days.

Jesse, what I meant by donor kit was what kit is your model based on. The only Escort kit with that body style that I can think of is a Revell kit going back a number of years. I think they only issued it once that I can remember.

Was the donor kit the Revell Ford Escort XR3?

The McLaren, yes that was the other one I was trying to think of. A friend of mine built one and he politely referred to it as being 'very challenging'.

Nice model. I like the lines of some of those older cars from before the fins n chrome era.

Now that the magazine is back on track, how about the possibility of marketing a CD Rom of the first 200 issues. And then at each hundred after. Or maybe make available on a USB jump drive or SD card? Kalmbach marketed CD roms of Scale Auto magazine in the past. It offered a good catchup and resource for many. Many of us only got to start getting the MC magazine long after it was established.. Perhaps a collaboration with the Model Car Builders Museum in Sandy Utah might be feasable as they probably hold copies right from issue 1.

The Deeks wheels certainly improve the look of this model. I admire the other extra detailing being done too. A set of Fernando Pinto wires would be a more costly way to go with the wheels. Heller's Talbot Lego would make a nice companion to this mofe!.