Bugatti Fan

Some YouTube videos showing actual builds are brilliantly conceived and produced. Unfortunately a great many are pure drawn out dross, and a huge proportion of the box opening videos are just that.

Easy to knock kits on here. But if they are the only game in town for the time being ? Forgot that C1's Escort was a standard car, but it looks darned good to me despite using the Esci running gear. If one wants really good kits of those mentioned in the Esci/Italeri list of doom, maybe by doing something positive about it and lobbying Nu Nu or Belkits if you want Polystyrene Plastic might be a good idea. Otherwise start lobbying some of the specialist resin outfits like Rennaissance, Le Mans Miniatures, USMC or other European makers more attuned to those types of cars. C1 might be worth approaching to make a rally version of the Escort to add to their range. If they did, I am sure they would turn out a very good replica.

Box opening videos that drone on and on with boring narration and no particular purpose, except perhaps for the You Tuber making them to get enough views to start making some money. Do I sound cynical?

First off I would have most of the money deposited in a number of off shore and Swiss bank accounts. Can't have the tax man arriving with a swag bag can I? Having retained some fun money from it a nice luxury place with panoramic sea or lake views, a couple of classic cars (one of which would have to be a Rolls) and a newish Lexus runabout would be my main purchases. When the grim reaper comes to call, all the assets would have been consolidated into trusts to lawfully avoid tas that would be water tight for named recipients.

Maybe Italeri might be tempted to do a works Metro 6R4 to add to their 1/12th scale rally cars. Now that would be nice! Night Owl said that he would like to see those old Esci/Italeri Mk2 Escort kits sent to purgatory and retools done. Well then Night Owl there is an alternative made by C1 Models in the UK worth having a look at.

I can remember the 1/32nd scale table top classics being quite nice kits. The Pyro Auburn Speedster in 1/25th scale was a kit I acquired recently. Quite disappointing, so might cannibalize it to make some sort of retro rod from it.

Very nice concept car model. As it is a car, what is it doing in the all the rest section?

All will soon be revealed !

What has that poor guy let himself in for? Husband? No, madam's servant ! Looks like some lawyer will make some profit as a divorce won't be far down the line!

Very good show by the looks of it. I visited Victoria B.C. a few years back and thought what a lovely capital city to live in or near. Thought that Vancouver was a nice city too, although a bit more cosmopolitan whereas Victoria was more traditional looking.

I have found that owners of classic cars tend to warm to model makers who show a genuine interest. Looks like you struck up a good rapport with that particular owner Les.

Very interesting motor Les. Anyone up for converting Airfix 's big Bentley kit? Lots of scope here for the converter/scratch builder. Engine bay particularly and this car featured looks like a long wheelbase version.

It it ain't tariffs or inflated EBay seller's prices the car company bean counters will get you with their licencing fees on kits. LOL. I'm not desperate enough to pay well over the odds for any kit. Plenty of alternatives out there to build.

It would appear that all postal services and parcel delivery couriers operate excellent 'Crush a Kit' services as a free bonus with their deliveries.

In the UK a company named Kit Form Services has some very nice pinstripe decals. Besides the lines each sheet has L shaped corner pieces in different sizes and various corner radii.

Many town corporations in the UK used to operate their own bus fleets with their own distinctive coloured iveries. The new UK Stagecoach colours mentioned by the OP look ok to me. Stagecoach is a fleet of buses and coaches that operate nation wide in the UK as does the rival National Express fleet and Arriva.

Les (Stitchup) mentioned in an earlier post that buy and sell might need to be a premium paid up feature to avoid scammers. A UK site allows buying and selling but only after signed up site members have contributed 100 posts or more. Xingu mentioned it being discussed shout only leaving the wanted part of the market place free to use, and the kit and bit disposal part a fee paying tier. Not sure how that would either pan out or how users will react to it?I From what I can gather the execs have lots to discuss this weekend, and it will be interesting to learn what decisions will be made, and how people react to them afterwards. I guess the final decisions will need the site owner's approval whoever that may be.

The ads don't really bother me. If they pay for the site to be run, that's fine by me. A small price to pay for free usage ! The nature of some of the ads that could be deemed very undesirable appear to be out of the site's control it would seem. I'm afraid we just have to live with that sort of content in ads these days. It was pointed out in an earlier post that they are viewed by all guests looking at the site as well as members, so from the advertiser's point of view this forum and many others too are a rich vein to promote their products. It this forum goes over to being fee paying, and other free to use forums up to now do the same, then the users will be forced to be selective about what sites they chose to use eventually. Could be some attrition as a result overall.

I am retired on limited income and would like to see a buy and sell on here, but not as a 'premium' item requiring a regular fee.

Can we just stick to suggestions about forum changes and improvements? The thread drifting onto posts about AI and flip flops is all very interesting but I cannot see the relevance. One small suggestion is that the heading 'Market Place' he replaced with 'Swap Space'. It is not really a market place at all if no buying or selling is allowed. So Swap Space might be more reflective of the area. Personally, I cannot see why buying and selling is not allowed on this site with a disclaimer and that all transactions are deemed legally to be purely personal between buyer and seller. Other sites allow selling and buying, so only allowing swapping on this one seems a bit archaic.

You are correct Kimmo. It was of the late Tony Pond's car.

Are you a builder, collector or opportunist? That is the question. ( In an upper class English Shekesperian tone ! ) LOL. Alas poor Yoric ! You have a dilemma !

Some may lose access to sections that will become described as 'Premium' according to Xingu in a previous post. So, does this mean that we will the forum access will become two tier ? Nice I guess for the affords who have more disposable income who will be able to access those designated premium sections. So what will those sections be that will actually warrant premium status I have to ask? And, what will be the proposed charge to use them? Also, how much extra benefit would there be in having them? At the moment there is no suggested manifesto about what shape they would take so users are unable for now to read any informed decision suggestions. There may be many folk on limited incomes that might not be able to afford it depending on the proposed charges, and it would be disappointing if the site as a result were then to be perceived as an 'us and them' user experience. One previous poster suggested a limit to the number of photographs that could be loaded according to what they have paid, and if they go over that limit they would have to delete photos in some of their previous posts to accommodate adding new photos into their newer posts. How is that supposed to work? The effect it would have is doing a Photobucket leaving gaping holes in posts that would have text left but no photos for other readers to refer to. I don't think that idea has been thought through properly given the implications. Introducing more layers of fees is both undesirable and unworkable as some poor unpaid souls would be faced with administering it.

MPC has been around quite a while now, so kits at 'of an age' so to speak, but not bad generally. MPC I believe marketed the 1/12th scale Airfix Bentley under their name some years ago under a reciprocal arrangement where Airfix sold some MPC under their own name in the UK. There is so much swapping of mould usage in the industry that often the same kit emerges under various manufacturers names from time to time over the years.

I get where you are coming from Gary, and you have made a good point. Sometimes we have no choice and have to resort to what is available. I forgot to mention that Stanley make good quality small knives with interchangeable blades that many hardware shops stock.