Bugatti Fan

Anything is fair game for model making from around the house that can be adapted with a bit of imagination and lateral thinking.

Regarding Art Acrylics....There are the cheaper brands that you can buy in general stores. The better ones with more concentrated pigments are marketed in art shops only or on line from a specialist art product supplier.

Agreed it is free. If you can utilise it. Not quite as consistent as veneer or ship modelling strips, but if it works, why not? I like the lead like foil from wine bottles for seat belts. Sadly it seems to be diminishing in use, but aluminium from a takeaway tray is almost as easy to.use.

Horses for courses. Paint by its nature is subjective, depending on what you are using it for, and how you are using it. It is good fun experimenting with different types of acrylics, artists oils, enamel and lacquer paints. The list goes on. I love going into an artists suppliers shop who carry large ranges of other colouring mediums to use that modellers may not normally think of.

Bill-E-Boy credited me with making wheel hoops. Not me I am afraid. You need to credit the Bill Newcomer who's post preceded mine. PCB board drilling bits. As mentioned they are made from Tungsten Carbide and extremely brittle. The smaller diameters break very easily when subjected to any sideways stress and needs a flat surface to drill into, whether the end of a bar in a lathe or a piece of material sheet or block. Presenting anything flat at an angle or something with a radius to one of these bits is asking for a breakage.

Charlie, did whoever bought your Bugatti Bodysbell finish the model? The stage you got to with it looks very impressive as is this current build.

Bill, thanks for putting up the Big Boy footage. What an impressive locomotive!I It was interesting to read your comments about a cast steel frame as opposed to a welded fabrication with regard to structural integrity. It would take tremendous stress to fatigue a solid cast steel frame compared to welded box sections.

As I suspected Kit having pulled up the where to buy list link you placed in your post it looks like Stateside only. No UK retailer is listed.

You are right Richard, they were Heinkels! My mistake! Incidentally the film company actually blew up a WW2 hanger at Duxford UK whilst making the Battle of Britain movie. That was back in 1969. Today the hanger would be a listed building like all the other surviving hangers on the site, that is now one of the UK's premier aircraft and military vehicle museums. I count myself lucky as where I live is about 45 mins drive from Duxford and the Shuttleworth Collection is only 5 miles from my home. London is a quick 1/2 hr train journey from a town 7 miles from me. The huge Airship hangers at Cardington just outside Bedford are 15 mins drive from me. The ill fated R101 flew from there. Today one of the airship hangers is owned by a company named Cardington Studios. Big blockbuster movies like some of the Star Wars movies are partly made there where huge sets can be made up.

Anyone remember the Battle of Britain movie I think made in 1969. Loads of well known British actors. Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine and Robert Shaw to name a few. Used a lot of Spanish Air Force versions of the Me109 and Dornier 111 aircraft loaned for the film.

Those American streamlined monster steam locomotives are certainly something to behold. I understand that some of the non streamlined Big Boys have been preserved. One of our British locos, The Flying Scotsman has toured in many countries including the USA and Australia. I saw a video of the Scotsman running parallel to an Australian steam loco. The Scot was on standard gauge track and the Aussie train was running on wide gauge track. The Flying Scotsman pulls enthusiast trains every now and again in the UK as do other restored locos. The Mallard that holds the world speed record for a steam locomotive is on display in the Railways Museum in York, but does not run any more.

Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. The original version with Richard Burton narrating the story. The later one has Liam Neeson narrating, and although good, his voice does not have the same gravitas as Burton's.

That engine model is sweet in its own right!

There are so many grades of aluminium, steel and brass that engineers have to often look up the best type for what they are designing or making. As an engineer myself I have been brought up with grades of materials. But many model makers starting out machining do not have the benefit of that experience. From a non engineer perspective, asking for free machining material is the safest way to go.I Generally the brass and aluminium bar stock sold in hobby store racks is machinable material.

Master and Commander was a good movie and very enjoyable. Whoever designed the theatre poster for it did not have a clue though. Two ships firing at each other, all cannon ports open in a raging sea? Both would have flooded instantly and gone down to Davy Jones' s Locker! Another movie I particularly liked was Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom and Eva Green, but it did not do so well at the box office as some of Scott's other movied.

Really interesting project. Makes a real change from all the more modern subjects. As an engineer I always find scratch built models fascinating, and this one is coming along really nicely. Regarding thin leather, bookbinding leather has already been suggested. Another source is the craft fraternity. Some time ago I purchased a bundle of soft leather off cuts in different colours from the outlet store of a glove manufacturer Pittards in the UK that they sold for crafters. If all you want is enough to cover a single seat, maybe taking apart an old soft leather wallet or an old pair of ladies thin leather gloves might be enough for your project.

Kurt, your 250LM is taking shape nicely. Look forward to seeing the finished model. Incidentally, Airfix made one in 1/32nd scale too many years ago to remember. I am not sure if they ever re released it.

This thread has just about run its course guys. I think that we have all voiced our respective opinions. So PAX! The moderators do the best they can under the constraints they have, so like I said in my first post, cut them a bit of slack! Me? I'm just a serious auto modeller who doesn't take himself too seriously!

Joe Srodlowski (SfanGoch) you took me to task about not referring to you by name earlier when I referred back to one of your posts. My apology for the omission Joe. Perhaps too many of us are getting a bit sensitive about the forum and what wordage or subject matter that might be contrived as being contentious should or should not be used on it. There is a simple answer to all this. Guys, just use a bit of restraint before pushing the Post button and review what you are about to send. We can all tear the moderators to pieces about violations being missed, and you, yourself mentioned that being a moderator is a thankless job that they all volunteered to do. Just the four of them. So what is the answer Joe? Yes they voluntarily accepted rather than were delegated the job of moderating. However, they simply cannot man their PC's 24/7 to monitor the site. Given the amount of criticism being aimed at them by a number of different people, would you be prepared to take the job on, lose out on probably a big portion of your modelling time, as well as attend to much more important stuff that has to take precedent like earning a living to keep a roof over your head and family responsibilities? I certainly would not. Some guys get a bit too passionate about things on this site and it can be in danger of becoming an 'office politics' scenario. But, like I said before. we need to get some perspective on this. It is JUST A HOBBY website after all, set up for like minded auto modellers to enjoy sharing ideas, tips, builds and photos.

Cut the moderators a bit of slack guys. There are only 4 of them. They are all human and give up quite a bit of their own modelling time to do this necessary job, and probably for no financial reward. One poster suggested that they acquaint themselves with colloquial slang from around the world. Come on! That is asking the impossible. Slang varies from region to region within different countries and is so diverse. Also, there are so many daily posts and responses on this site, they cannot always respond immediately as many would wish. Other much more important things they have to attend to like earning a living and attending to family needs will always take precedent over moderating a hobby website to get this into perspective.

Michael, thanks for explaining about the 30 day moderation. How I read this is that once a person is being moderated for that period, any posts they make get diverted to a moderator for approval before they can be viewed by other users? It goes without saying that anything offensive or abusive has to be dealt with a ban. As far as something being inappropriate goes, yes there are comments that would absolutely be inappropriate to make. But there could be times when someone might fall foul of this without realising it by making a comment or criticism. Sometimes there is a fine line between an opinion that is ok to make or one that could be deemed contentious, provided this sort of situation is not dealt with too heavy handed, and therefore a judgment call has to be made in those circumstances. You moderators must have a bit of a job on your hands at times as this site is always quite busy, and probably more so now that the Scale Auto site has closed. People should realise that you guys are doing a good job and giving of your own free time to monitor this website and ensure that users and viewers can go on to it with confidence about what they read and see

I have an Emco Unimat 4 and it has been one of the best investments I have ever made for turning small pieces. As machines go, further versatility is obtainable by adding the milling/ drilling attachment. The little Sherline lathe made in the US is very similar to the Unimat in concept, being able to add a milling/drilling attachment like the Unimat. I go through loads of plastic rod, tube and other extruded shapes for my modelling projects as well as brass and aluminium tube and bar. Often, I need to make multiple lengths of tube or bar to the same length. An easy way to do this is set a stop in a chuck in the tailstock. Put a parting off tool into the tool holder. Once the stop is correctly positioned and the tailstock holding the chuck is locked, it is just a matter of keep pushing the material you want to cut similar multiple lengths from through the chuck against the stop, close the chuck, part off and keep repeating until you obtain the number of similar length parts you require. Another tip. If you do not have a centre drill, put a small drill into the chuck with about 2 to 3 mm (1/8 inch) only protruding to keep the drill bit rigid and this can substitute as a centre drill to start a hole.

Les, You are right, Airfix did re release Little Nellie just a few years back, but I don't think it is a current kit anymore.

Dave, does being moderated for 30 days constitute being barred for that time or being closely monitored? Does this replace or supplement the current moderation practice of penalty points that are never 'spent' after a certain period and always stay in place? Maybe the new policy needs spelling out to people line by line as a notification post so that there can be no mis interpretation about what constitutes 'stepping over the line'.