Bugatti Fan

Irk by Irk An every day story of auto model building folk !

Very nice model. Judging by appearance the Chrysler Atlantic could have actually been a Bugatti Concept Car with a changed front with horse shoe radiator shell instead. It certainly took its cues from both the classic Bugatti Atlantic body style and having wheels retro styled on the T41 and T50 cars.

I don't think that this has been mentioned yet as a first 'to do'. Even before priming, regardless of the primer to be used I always key the surface with a fine grade wet n dry abrasive paper used wet to give a key to the actual plastic, white metal or die cast of the kit. Washing off the residue with detergent also gets rid of any mould release agents that may be present on the surface. I have never used Zero or Tamiya primers so cannot comment on either. My tendency is to use automotive acrylic primers straight from an aerosol and have not had any bother with these on my models. As a UK modeller I use Halfords own brand primers, white, grey or red oxide, and have used their matt black as a primer too.

Never knew that Renwal made that 1/12th scale kit Rich. You live and learn ! Lovely build considering the age of those kits. I think that Autograph in Germany madame a super detailing kit for Revell's 1/12 scale die cast Ferrari model comprising engine and Borrani wire wheels. Not sure if the Revell model is the same type of Ferrari as your Renwall kits. I can only remember seeing a Revell one quite a number of years ago.

I have been following this build and pleased to hear of your recovery from that injury. Really nice model reaching its final stages here and found the old school engineering of this model fascinating. I would imagine that there is more of a sense of satisfaction making a model from scratch like this than could ever be achieved by designing a kit or parts for a kit to be 3D printed. As an engineer I really like to see models built using traditional engineering methods, turning, milling, drilling, panel beating, soldering and brazing and then painting and finishing to a high degree as displayed on this build. Before I get castigated by the 3D printing fraternity, I am not downplaying their skills in any way having done 3D design work myself in the past, and fully recognise the 3D design skill set required takes time not only to master the CAD to ensure that parts designed fit together properly but also the foibles of using a 3D printer. It's just a different skill set as a means to an end as I see it.

The DeAg E Type looks great built up. Another company, Agora make a 1/8th kit of the Roadster version that to my.kind is the nicer looking car of the two, but both look great none the less. I saw the Agora one built up on their stand at Telford last year and must say it was very impressive along with other items in their range. I have a very rare 1/24th scale E type kit in white metal by SMTS. Looks to be quite accurate just by checking out the bits in the box. SMTS normally make 1/43rd scale but looks like they dipped their toe in the water with a few 1/24th scale kits. The Jag E Type that I have, and they also made the AC Cobra and a Ford GT40 that I know of. Keep looking at my kit and wondering whether to build it or not ! The Gunze kit was nice that I can remember and didn't it have some either white metal or die cast bits? Pretty sure Airfix made it under licence for a while. Apart from that the only others that I can think of may have been made by Heller, and really way back by Aurora/Monogram? Frog made a 1/16th scale motorised kit too.

Wait long enough and Revell might well re pop those old 1/8th scale Monogram Hot Rod kits now they have the moulds. The Big Deuce was the nicest of the rod kits they made, but that's a personal opinion.

A place for everything, and everything in its place. Sound advice from Ace. There is logic to Ace's advice once one becomes self disciplined enough and design a bench layout with holders in an ergonomic fashion will speed up your work where the most used tools are always closer to hand. It can be a combination of various things. My bench has a couple of small multi drawer units plus a number of glass jars for longer items. Getting back to Dremel, they are good tools generally. Regarding losing keys for them, they are generally made of steel so a strategically mounted magnet above your work space might be an idea.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Looks like Cranky has taken another direction away from this particular hobby.

Dr Cranky (Virgil Suarez) was one of those larger than life characters. Is he still about? He used to be a big noise in the hobby what with his books and all. Has he drifted into something else ? Doing his own thing now ? Just simply lost interest? Whatever ! He was certainly good at self promotion, that's for sure. Good car modeller who's style is a bit unique. So where the blazes are you these days Cranky ?

It's well worth a bit of lateral thinking and not be hide bound to what model making paints are on offer. Those Createx Acrylics Brian suggests look interesting and will have to see if they are available in the UK. I have used different artists paints on my models to great effect over the years. There are a number of good makes of artists paints and waterproof inks for brush and air brush like Winsor&Newton, Rowney, Liquitex, and Reeves products that are high quality and been around for years. Lakeland make good ranges of coloured pencils and pens. I have recently used some 0.7mm Posca Acrylic fine tipped pens to do a fair bit of the paint job on my Janis Joplin Porsche which was mostly hand painted with various artists acrylics. What with all the various dedicated and general modelling paints available these days, the model maker never had it so good. Back in the bad old days it was good old Humbrol, Pactra 'namel, Aifix and Testors that were the only paints I can remember, and ofvcourse the AMT spray laquers.

You nailed it with this one Carl ! A nice custom job that retains the lines of the original car with good choice of wheels,colour and trim.

Thanks for the feedback Matt. Those engines got into quite a few tanks. A Conqueror is at Duxford and not too far from where I live. It sure is a big old beast. Don't know of any other examples, so perhaps that might be the only prototype?

Sound rules for cammers from Dan in his post. His encouragement to be polite, understanding and courteous to other road users is to be commended ! LOL ! He forgot one thing to recommend in consideration for other road users. Attach a plate to the rear of your vehicle that says 'Horn broken. Watch for finger !'

Merlins to Meteors for tanks. Didn't know that. You learn something new every day. Not being into AFV's what tank(s) will have been fitted with the Meteor variant of the Merlin ?

I don't have a favourite die cast. But there is one I would like to have. The 1/8th scale IXO Rothchild Bugatti Atlantic Coupe kit to build !

Don't worry about the review. It's what he does to the scammers after locating where they operate from !

So the object is to open the box in 1st December (not Christmas day) and build it day by day running up to the big day when the model becomes completed? A bit weird if it is meant to be an actual Christmas present instead being a supplementary one. At least unlike normal chocolate filled advent calendars what comes out of this one can remain on display.

What did I learn today? Not to go shopping with my wife! I can live with food and essentials shopping. But ! Never sit it out when they go into a clothing store. Typical scenario. Will take two dresses for example and ask which I like best. When given a answer she will immediately ask what's wrong with the other one ! A lose, lose situation.

Anyone watched Jason Statham in the Beekeeper movie ? If only ?

Striations, layer lines, voxels whatever ? I can see where this conversation might be going. Not everyone is au fait with 3D printer usage terminology. The OP and Pete used the term striations probably like many others including myself not knowing what else to call them. I can understand a manufacturer defending their corner so to speak with regard to product quality. No matter how passionate, but picking up on someone else's use of that term and saying that they were 'out of their league' for not understanding regular users 3D printing terminology could have been worded a bit better I feel. I recently bought a 3D printed car body to make a model of a car I used to own. The layering looked like the contours shown on a map that needed lots of rubbing down and filling. There can be big differences between various manufacturers products. They can differ from high quality to indifferent to downright poor. My particular example did not impress. What is offered is so dependant on both CAD programming ability and 3D printer quality. Some manufacturers are extremely good at what they do and make high quality products Then there are the dabblers who think they are better than they are and start putting out stuff prematurely and will quickly fall by the wayside. We have seen parallels in white metal kits and resins made from masters. The better ones survived and the poor quickly disappeared into oblivion. Getting back to the OP. After a lapse of a number of years perhaps getting back into it with a regular injected plastic kit might have been easier than committing to a 3D printed kit straight away. John and Les have both come up with good suggestions. Apart from their suggestions I found full size automotive primer used on my model worked quite well for me.

I would imagine those coffin sized boxes for 1/200 scale Titanics must be in the running ? Getting back to the OP. What a waste of packaging for a 1/25th/1/24th scale kit. I saw on the box an advent calendar appeared to be included. If the box was actually opened on Christmas Day it sort of made the advent calendar included a bit redundant I would imagine.

Manually driven cars with a clutch to operate (or stick shift cars as you Americans call them) are still more the norm over here in the UK and Europe generally compared to Automatics. I quite like the measure of control a clutch operated vehicle gives the driver over an automatic especially when driving a performance car. But that is a personal preference. My son in law has just bought an automatic Audi and loves it compared to his old manual car. But then he does a lot of driving in heavy traffic regularly so I can see where he is coming from not having to bother with constantly using a clutch. I owned a Wolselely 6/110 back in the seventies that was an automatic for about 3 years and it was quite relaxing to drive. Nice car with walnut burr dashboard and Connolly leather seats (often referred to as a poor man's Rolls over here!).

Great Britain. Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the days of Queen Victoria and high noon of the British Empire when 'Made in Gt.Britain' meant something. Today. Not so Great Britain. Hardly makes anything any more in volume. Get it cheaper from China attitude leaving our industrial base completely hollowed out and less self reliant.

Developing and making very low production items costs. Period! That's why they are relatively very expensive. As for copying kits, unless just making for oneself then the copyright bean counters might get involved if they get marketed without a licence. Even if a company has been defunct for a number of years one might not know if the licences have been bought out even if the kits may have not been produced for many, many years. Cannot ever see the big companies ever doing limited runs by 3D printing. Just not worth their while to do it. 3D printing despite ever improving developments by way of the process will never, ever compete with the speed of an injection moulding machine for mass production. Where high definition 3D printing does come into its own is being able to make fully detailed and refined complete items that would never be possible either on an injection moulding machine, die casting machine or by conventional resin moulding processes. As I see it 3D printing will continue to satisfy niche users by being able to make things in better definition and pretty much replacing the market that the after market resin parts maker does. It will thrive in making complete kits that mainstream manufacturers would not even consider, trans kits to do conversions, modification parts and better defined replacements for kit parts. This is how this modeller sees it going at least for the foreseeable future.