Bugatti Fan

Well Mike, you certainly did a good job ' Polishing a turd' as you described it. I Those old Heller kits are a bit shall we say 'challenging' at times. I have their Renault Paris Bus to build and hope it is less fraught with the problems that you needed to overcome on the E Type Jag..

Steve, Thanks for your feed back. I have only built the Hubley Duesie and Packard and was not aware that the Fords have no plated parts.

Last time I looked on their website CMA (Creative Miniature Associates) are developing what must be the ultimate GT40 kit in 1/12 scale. A mega buck model kit I would imagine, but with Marshall Buck's reputation for accuracy it will be unsurpassed as a scale model kit of this iconic racing car.

Peter, Thanks for the further information that you kindly offered in reply to my post. I had not thought about cutting decal film sheets vertically to put through a printer to save waste, so that is a very good tip for me to take on board. Having not looked at clear or white decal sheet prices here in the UK I simply speculated that it may be expensive, so I will have to have a closer look. Straightliner, Thanks also for your input for saving waste. Very similar to Peter's but working horizontally as opposed to vertically. The standard paper size used in the UK is ISO A4, but the principles outlined in both your post and Peter's can be applied in just the same way.

This has been a very interesting thread to read. I have not tried printing my own transfers yet, but something I learnt from this is to print on white decal sheet would be better than on transparent. I have a modest hp inkjet printer so hopefully when I get to try this my end results may be passable. I would guess that one would need to maximise the number of designs on a sheet at the drawing stage otherwise a lot of expensive decal sheet could be wasted. Unless the model is big, one decal sheet would have to be utilised to best advantage for multiple projects. One of the other things that came over is not to get stressed out. It is just a hobby after all, and by dint of its nature, experimentation and learning by mistakes and gaining experience are all par for the course.

Great model that you built Tomasz of a very iconic racing car. You have made a marvellous job of your first MFH model build! At IPMS UK Scale Modelworld show at Telford 2019 I took some pictures of another modeller's build of this kit with cut away sections.

Thank you for coming back again Manfred. I had a look at your YouTube videos, and see that you are building a different style of Cable Car to the Occre one based on No20. What I found very interesting was that you are scratch building No9 that has the enclosed indoor area at one end whereas the Occre No20 has it in the middle. It looks like you had the floor and some other parts laser cut from a CAD file and sourced many other parts and raw materials from various suppliers. Besides the 2D plan drawings you are working to I saw the Bill of materials that you prepared for the job. I am a retired engineer, and looking at your plans, material lists, 3D CAD drawings in your You Tube videos suggests to me that you are also an engineer. I see that you use Proxxon machines that I know are very good. I only have their adjustable swivel vice that I find very useful. My other workshop machines are Emco mainly. You kindly offered to send me extra info off your hard drive by email, so thank you very much for that and I will PM you with my email address. Many thanks and kind regards. Noel

Manfred, thanks for your feedback, and I will certainly look at your YouTube videos. My daughter visited San Francisco some time ago and I would like to build this model as a surprise for her as she has said to me in the past that she would like one of my models. Do you have any scale drawings that you used to correct any mistakes on the kit? Some of the things you mentioned look as though they would not be too difficult to sort out. I looked on the web to see if there were any scale plans available for San Francisco Cable cars but found none. Kind regards Noel

Junkman said in an earlier post on this thread that Fine Scale Modeler Magazine disappoints. Well it probably does it you are looking for a lot of automotive content in it. Now that Scale Auto has been axed by Kalmbach it was muted that content would be 'absorbed' into FSM. Realistically it has to be remembered that FSM is a general modelling magazine that has to balance subject interest amongst different genres. We all love our model car and truck building but the stark reality is that aircraft and military are the main interest as modelling subjects out there and FSM will always reflect this. One only has to look at the number of specialist model aircraft and military modelling magazines that regularly appear in bookstore and Bobby shop shelves to support this.

Manfred, what did you not like about the OCCRE kit? I am thinking of buying one. Your model looks like a scratch build, so did you use the OCCRE parts to use as templates to make pieces from plastic card or metal?

It is a known fact that Polystyrene plastic degenerates with age and it is not only model kits that suffer. Naturally the chemical consistency of the plastic will determine how long it would take before any signs of deterioration take place. I pulled our Vax carpet cleaning machine out from a dark cupboard where it had sat for at least 7 or 8 years or so unused. The main moulding on the lower part of the machine almost fell apart when I lifted it up where it had gone brittle and cracked up. It is no small wonder that auction houses and the like tend to shun most models made from plastic kits. The only exception I can think of may be very well made classic Pochers. I am not sure about the durability of models made from resin however, and I guess that time will tell with these. I have also heard some horror stories about the metal in some but not all collectable and cheap die cast models deteriorating.

The Taig mini lathe has been marketed as the Peatol lathe in the UK for many, many years. Having looked at them at our Model Engineering Exhibition they are a very well made piece of kit. They tend to market to model engineers rather than general model makers so they offer a very basic machine that model engineers can customise to suit their specific needs. Sherlines are well made machines that are obtainable over here in the UK but less well known to the UK and European modeller than the Emco Unimats that also have many accessories available in a similar fashion to the Sherline machines. Another well made mini lathe is the Proxxon of German origin. Proxxon make a comprehensive range of machines for model makers, both for metal and woodwork. In fact you could fully equip a model making workshop with their range of bench and hand tools. Well worth a look on their website. Almost all the others tend to concentrate on lathes and milling machines. In the UK there is a manufacturer named Cowells who make miniature lathes. They are considered the Rolls Royce of miniature lathes and are built to tool room standards with a price tag to match I might add! I have an Emco Unimat 4 that is adequate for what I use it for and a larger Emco Compact 8 for bigger stuff. I decided to go for a separate milling machine as I felt that the milling attachments as fitted to the Sherline and Unimat 4 would only be a compromise due to their size limitations. Over on the Scale Motorcars website forum there is a section devoted to scale machining that is well worth looking at.

There was a guy who did the shows here in the UK that had a little BD5 in 1/72nd that he used to park on the wing of his Airfix Vulcan Bomber model.

Thanks for straightening that out Pete. I got the impression as Hobby Lobby and Michaels get mentioned so many times on this forum that they were similar to our Hobbycraft stores.

In the UK we have warehouse type art and craft shops named Hobbycraft. I would guess that Hobby Lobby and Michaels are a similar thing in the US?

In the UK there is a company named De Luxe Materials who make and sell a large range of model making adhesives and other sundries for model makers like scenic materials. I use their 4 minute epoxy that comes in separate adhesive and hardener plastic dispenser bottles that enable good control over the quantities being mixed. Another really good product of theirs is Perfect Plastic Putty. It is one of the best filler materials I have used. Normally I have a good buy up from their stand at Telford every year! I would thoroughly recommend anybody look at their website and see the large range of their products.

Danno, Kalmbach is a long established commercial publishing company. They probably had sound reasons for axing Scale Auto, because circulation in all probability was dropping including the advertising revenue within that magazine, and because they have Fine Scale Modeler that has a wider circulation, more advertising revenue ( that can now also pull in the SA advertisers ) and also being a general interest modelling magazine they can run auto related articles within it. I do not think that being ' fussy old women' is any reflection on the decision they made, just a cold commercial decision based on the profitability of SA as a stand alone magazine. I will miss it along with many others who were regular readers, but that is the hard reality of running commercial publications in this day and age where there is so much on line information available. Personally, I like a proper magazine, but have to be pragmatic as to the way in which things are going!

Thanks for the reply Larry. Les Budge posted to say that WHSmith besides their own shops distribute out to independent newsagents as well. This may be where local hobby shops in the UK get their magazines from also.

Larry, how about approaching WHSmith, the UK's largest chain of newsagent, bookstore, stationers who have stores in just about every high street in the UK. They carry all the other popular model making magazines, so why not set up MCM?

Dave, thanks for the feedback about MCM regarding the UK. Local hobby shops are getting to be as rare as hens teeth over here. I guess it is the same in the US. Maybe MCM should approach WHSmith who are a large UK multi store newsagents, bookseller and stationery I guess similar to your Barnes and Noble chain who have outlets in just about every town and city.

I like Tom and Russell's light hearted bit of banter in the last two posts. Nothing like not taking ourselves too seriously!

I bought the Robustelli PE parts about 25 years ago. I expect Robustelli may no longer exist if you cannot find them.

We all buy kits with every good intention of building them 'someday'. Someday seems to slip away all too often when one does the maths equation; Too many kits plus too little time = having to sell off shed loads.

Thanks for the feedback Geoff. I don't hold out much hope about MCM being available here, in UK but asked the question anyway. A bit reluctant to subscribe at present, so I will just wait a bit and see how the revival pans out.

I have used C1 Polishing Powder over gloss black and found it to be quite durable.