Bugatti Fan

Hopefully the magazine will be sold over the counter in the UK, and will keep a look out for it.

Mike. How's that turd you are polishing coming along?

Pat, Thanks for the further into about the turned finish panels. Looks like a good method!

It's coming on very well Pat. Looks like you were already one jump ahead of me with the Shapeways wheels. The box art you referred to has them drawn ok, but the kit wheels were well off the mark. Look forward to seeing your finished model. Those wheels will make all the difference. Did you print the engine turned finish onto decal sheet? Not quite sure from your description how you achieved this as it looks very convincing. Any chance of a step by step description of how you produced it? The Superprofil was also kitted by Pocher in 1/8th scale as a variant to their standard T50 kit. You never know, Shapeways might make a Superprofil body in 1/24 scale yet for the Heller kit

Just out of interest, the Heller T50 wheels are incorrect. A company named Shapeways can supply 3D printed wheels that are correct for this model.

Scale Auto magazine and forum, sadly missed as an alternative sounding board. There is quite a bit of reference and speculation going on about Model Cars Magazine's resurrection. However, Model Car Builder Magazine just quietly keeps going, so at least there is one regular Automotive modelling magazine available in print for the time being until MCM gets its act together again.

That van is a French icon! It is amazing how many of these things are turning up in the UK and being restored and converted into food and drinks vendor vehicles.

Revell had the test shots build on their stand a Telford last year. Looks good! It was about time that they re tooled that tired old kit of theirs from the sixties. The new one I believe is in 1/24th scale as opposed to the old one in1/25th

OK guys, I can see where this is going where people are starting to take offence at perceived ageist remarks. I am in my seventies, but don't lose any sleep over such remarks normally made by individuals not thinking it through first. People who make such remarks intentionally however, need to remember that as every day goes by they are getting one day older. And they also need to know that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it! So guys, live and let live!

Using styrene for vac forming is nothing new. The model aircraft fraternity have been building vac formed kits for years! Only more recently though the trend is going more towards resin kits for low volume subjects. As for raw materials, look out commercial plastics suppliers to industry. It may be much cheaper to buy a few large sheets and cut them down to a useable size either for the vac form machine or just general use.

You make a lot of big, very detailed models Ken. It might be worth contacting Just Bases and having some custom made clear acrylic display cases made to protect the large investment made in your kits, particularly your ships that must be a nightmare to keep clean and dust free.

Those old showman's engines make eye-catching models. As far as I know this Bandai model is the only large scale plastic kit of this subject. EMA at Feltham marketed a box of Plastruct sheet plastic, tubing and extrusions with a set of plans for a scratch build in plastic way back in the 70's I think. South Eastern (ex Wills) Finecast in the UK markets a number of white metal kits in 1/32 scale of period steam vehicles such as the showmans engine and other commercials. KP's model is coming on well and look forward to seeing it completed. Going on to horse drawn vehicles, it surprises me that no one has kitted a Reading Ledge Caravan ( more familiarly recognised as the highly decorated Romany Gypsy caravan).

Last time I posted I was using a tablet and although I described my method I could not put up a picture of my Napier Railton. So here it is now.

It is a tough time to be trying to get a magazine up and running again with a number of hurdles to overcome, so I can only wish Larry Greenberg the best in taking on this venture. There has been no mention of a publishing company being approached or taken on board in all this. Normally, such an outfit has the resources, especially with the print and distribution side to push a magazine to both subscribers and over the counter sellers. Editing and layout are enough, without all the commercial print, distribution and financing being a big ask for such a small band of people to take on. Also, let us not forget the financial risk they are taking on as individuals unless a limited liability company has been set up for this purpose. Kalmbach, a long established magazine publisher has recently dropped the Scale Auto Magazine for what I guess must be a commercial decision within their organisation. Naturally, this leaves a slot in the market that MCM can quickly take advantage of provided it can be got to market quite soon. My own feeling is that it is time for an established publishing company to be got on board in order to achieve this.

Why use white wall decals all? Try acrylic white paint instead. There is usually a circular ridge to work to around the tyre wall to line the paint to and then fill in the rest down to the edge of the aperture in the middle.

Thanks for the info about the qualities of the Hasegawa TP3 saw set Pete. I will have to look out a set to add to what I have already. Looks like they would be handy for tight precision cutting situations.

Pontoon fenders can be built up bread and butter fashion from plastic card.

I have an old British Made fine Exacto to that has lasted me for more years than I care to remember. Also one of the coarse toothed Tamiya saws with interchangeable blades. I have actually cut die casts with this saw. Not tried the saws with photo etched blades. They look too flimsy to me for all but the most delicate work, and I guess that without the rigidity would bend easily.

Forgot to suggest in my last post not to pull in pictures from Photobucket, unless of course you like about a quarter of each picture greyed out with the Photobucket logo.

Hi Pete, aircraft undercarriage legs are the bain of most of us where any weight is involved. Most plastic aircraft kits must suffer more breakage in this area than anywhere else. Where metal is concerned, like your model it is usually sagging after a period of time. In the past I have suffered this problem with larger scale white metal car models. I am currently in the process of building the Paul Fisher resin kit of the Bugatti 100 Racing Aeroplane. When I looked at all the parts in the box I decided that the landing gear would be a weak area on the model. There is no internal metal strengthening rod in either undercarriage leg. The model is quite weighty and I felt that an accidental sideways knock could result in one of both legs breaking. My solution to this was to remake each undercarriage leg from turned aluminium bar for the legs and fabricate the small wheel spats from aluminium sheet metal to take the kit wheels. The blind holes inside the undercarriage bays I thought also would not be stable enough to locate the legs precisely. To overcome this I turned two stepped bushes from aluminium. The lower flat wider part to sit snugly inside the bay, and the smaller diameter part to fit snugly around the turned undercarriage leg. The bushes were epoxied into place ensuring alignment with the blind hole under each. The through hole in each bush allows the leg to go right through the Bush and right into the blind location hole in the resin. This made for a much stronger and positive location.

I would choose the Pocher Bugatti. It is probably the best of the bunch. Generally their old classics were not the best kits in the world despite all the hype! They certainly can be built to a very high standard, but they are not for the inexperienced or the faint hearted modeller! One only has to look at the number of abandoned projects that come up for sale to see why. Just one or two of these kits with the sheer amount of corrections and extra detailing would keep most expert modellers going for the rest of their lives. The revived Pocher name now marketed by Hornby/Airfix in the UK will probably be much better than the old Italian kits from the 70's and 80's although still for the experienced modeller. The new MFH Bugatti Type 35B looks very tempting as a very highly detailed kit to build...................for me anyway!

Tom, that would explain what probably has happened to many moulds of USA origin. Do not know what liabilities old moulds would generate in other countries though.

Anyone remember the Merit brand set of 1/24th scale racing cars from the 1950's that were produced in the UK? I learnt back in the 1970's that the moulds were sold on to a toy company in Italy, never to see the light of day again. That is apart from just two, the Alfetta and Talbot Lago kits that went on to be made by SMER. I heard recently that Atlantis may now have the moulds if someone could confirm this? Anyone know what happened to the Renwall Revivals moulds? As far as I can recollect they were only issued once during the 1960's. They were 1/25th scale kits of the Virgil Exner concepts of old classics in 1960's styling. Apart from moulds that have been lost or incomplete, many that have survived are so clapped out that the quality would be unacceptable in the face of modern kits.

Thanks for looking these out Pete. The detail is fantastic! You must have had a lot of pleasure building this model. Looking back at your previous post with the PB pictures, I really like the way you chose to display the model on a polished wood base with the turned brass support finial to bring the fuselage up to horizontal.

Regrettably, the largest scale model show in the world at Telford has been cancelled this year. Dates have been set by IPMS UK for 2021 2022 2023. Hopefully things will be back to some sort of normality by then.