Bugatti Fan

Thanks for the help and feedback about the CA guys. I had a feeling that the gel CA may be the way to go.

I have used craft acrylics for interiors, detailing and mixing up washes. Provided that the surface being painted is primed with either flat white or grey primer they go on pretty well. We also have some inexpensive store brand craft acrylics over here in the UK and generally the quality is ok. One must remember that the target market is artists for these paints, not model makers. It is true to say that you only get what you pay for, so if you are looking at art acrylics then Winsor & Newton, Reeves, Liquitex and Rowney are the top end products. It is all down to the pigments used and the own store brands are not quite so refined. But hey! The store brands are inexpensive paints and well worth experimenting with, and are good for painting figures to go with the vehicles.

Modern technology. Gazing into a phone instead of looking where you are going on the street! Is that real progress? (Joke)

A sad loss of a British Icon. She was inspirational to servicemen and women during WW2.

Seen a lot of modelling magazines (not only auto related) come and go over the years. It has always been a bit of a fickle business, hobby publishing, so we will have to see how it all pans out. Over here in the UK Airfix Scalemodelworld and Tamiya magazines carry civilian automotive articles as well as FSM that we can get off the shelf over here. Scale Auto seems to be stable. Model Car Builder and Model Cars Mag are unavailable in the UK so do not know the SP about those two publications. WH Smith ( I guess our version of Barnes and Noble) carry a number of Aircraft and military modelling magazines regularly.

I used to build batches of the Solido 1/43rd hybrid kits wirh die cast bodies and plastic innards for Modeltime Wholesale the UK distributors back in the 80's. Fairly simple kits but they did have nice Cartograf decals in each kit giving three options in each. Used to be French manufactured I think, back in the day,

I have used epoxy reasonably successfully on resin. Is there anything better to use on large flat mating areas? Would gel cyano be any better, as I have not tried it on resin? Any help would be appreciated. I am a UK based modeller and recognise UK trade names, so if any of our American friends replies please describe the type of adhesive you recommend as I may not recognise US trade names. Many thanks.

Not seen one of the MGB Roadster kits customised like that before! Very innovative, and a very good build. The earlier chrome bumper versions of the real production car were always the nicest looking before the rubber bumper version was introduced to conform to US safety standards at that time.

Justin, Wingrove's book has gone to reprint a few times. I think that the latest publisher was Haynes Publishers in the UK. Not sure if still in print or not, but Amazon or eBay may be a good bet if not. HTH. He has also written a Complete Car Modeller 2 book that mainly describes his Weinberger Bugatti Royale build. Regards Noel

Bart, the paint brushes I use are just normal but good art/hobby paint brushes about 3 in all. A small, medium and large. I do not use sable brushes for liquid cement, only for painting as they are very expensive. The sort of brushes to aim for have synthetic bristles. Do not buy dead cheap ones as they shed hairs. Most craft hobby stores stock good ranges of relatively inexpensive brushes that would be most suitable for this purpose. Humbrol's own brand or similar are just fine. You do not need to clean the brushes after use, Just store them with the bristles facing upwards after use. As soon as you dip them into the liquid cement again what has set on them will become flowing liquid again. Looks like a number of you guys on here are extolling the virtues of the Flexifile Touch and Flow Applicator so I will be buying one based on the comments on this thread and see how it goes!

Gerald Wingrove's book The Complete Car Modelled No1 has a tyre moulding process explained in detail within. The book was written back in the 80's but the techniques have not changed. However, newer moulding materials have been developed since then.

I have been using Plastruct's Weld Liquid Cement for many years not only because it is good in itself, but works on other plastics like acrylic and ABS as well as polystyrene. My preference is to use a small selection of paint brushes, sizes dictated by the coverage required. I keep my Plastruct bottle in a shallow glass jar with just enough clearance around the bottle to store the brushes bristles upwards alongside it inside the jar. The applicator brush set into the screw top I found to be a nuisance as it gets a curve set into it where it bottoms in the bottle and this makes it awkward to use as you have to keep turning the brush when removing it when going to use it. That is why I use separate brushes. The other cement I regularly use is Revell Contacts from its precision applicator needle set in its container. There are others of course, but these two generally work well for me.

Terrific model Ken and your build rate is quite prolific from what I have seen of other threads of yours (like ship models) in different forums. Must admit to loving the look of classic cars with polished wood bodywork.

The pic that Geoff posted at the beginning of this thread of a C1 models MGBGT Body looks great. The Aoshima roadster moulds have done the rounds between different companies so should be obtainable relatively easily as fodder for his conversion. Having seen the GT body it will be interesting to see what other allied parts will be included in this trans kit. There will certainly be many MGBGT owners and ex owner modellers very interested in this. Matt Bacon mentioned in one of his replies about obtaining a Wills Finecast white metal Rover V8 engine. Matt, I think that South Eastern Finecast (ex Wills Finecast) still supply the engine you are looking for. HTH.

Talking of Burago die cast scales being all over the place, I bought what was supposed to be a 1/24th scale MG Metro road car. One glaring error was that it did not have an MG badged grille at all but the one used on the Austin version at the time. The scale error was that the model was nearer to 1/20th scale. As luck would have it I had also bought some time ago a resin kit by a now defunct UK company named MRM International of the MG METRO 6R4 Rally Car purportedly in 1/24th scale. It was nearer to 1/20th like the Burago Die cast. The resin kit body did not look right at all as the roofline was much too low. It was pretty useless as a straight build, and then I thought of the Burago diecast and checking this out the body was at least accurately shaped. I decided to do a kit bash by cutting out all the parts useable off the MRM resin kit and modifying the Burago body to take the MRM parts. After much hard work I ended up with a quite passable model of Tony Pond's Works 6R4 in 1/20th scale or thereabouts that is now a unique model. Basically I enjoyed the challenge of cutting resin and die cast parts that were usable and grafting them to make my model. No sooner had I done all of this work that Belkits announced that they were making a 6R4 kit in polystyrene in 1/24th scale! I understand that Le Mans Miniatures and Renaissance have 6R4 kits in resin also in the same scale already available.

Specialist art suppliers are a good source for very narrow vinyl striping in various widths and colours. Could be used as is for stripes or for fine masking. Takes much better on a gloss surface.

The thought of wading through 10,000 replies to this thread!

Was that the old Aurora kit originally released along with an Aston Martin DB4?

I had forgotten that Hasegawa made that one! Nice finish Matt. Look forward to seeing the rest of the build. Out of curiosity, a mate of mine Mick Lomax migrated up to Yorkshire from Luton with his HGV job a couple of years back. He is a member of the Black Sheep Modelling Club up in your neck of the woods. Is it very local to you?

Striving for perfection. I have a few scratch builds and conversions already done and had to adopt a different mindset from straight out building and detailing. He prepared for long haul modelling, and suffering scrapping of parts made that do not come up to the standard strived for. Unlike kit building you will be constantly checking the fit of the pieces you make that would normally be taken for granted with parts from a kit. Also good preparation of each part before you commit to paint. I am not trying to put anyone off, but pointing out the reality of what has to be taken on. Enjoy the challenge of each part you make as a model in itself, as much of the process is getting your mind around what basic shapes make up your assemblies. Patience and perseverance have to be your main attributes when doing this sort of work. Although the modelling will take a lot l longer, enjoy the challenges, chill out a bit when things go wrong, after all it is only some more of your time and a bit more material being used. Enjoy the learning experience as you will be surprised at what you can achieve with a bit of practice and just a willingness to give it a go! Why did I start scratch building/? The reason is simply that some of the classics that I am interested in will never be kitted by mainstream manufacturers. MFH do some more unusual and challenging highly detailed (and very expensive) kits in larger scales but I do not consider them a mainstream manufacturer like Tamiya, Revell and Airfix etc.

A very nice model Matt of what I consider to be Jaguar"a most iconic saloon car.

Those old Jo Han classics were not the easiest of builds, but have plenty of potential as this Mercedes Coupe build is showing. I built one of these way back along with Jo Han 's Chrysler Turbine Car. Anyone know if the moulds have been sold on and to who?

The Lazy Susan cake decorating turntable has been around for years and as Tom has found it is a brilliant piece of domestic hardware that can be used for our type of work, and relatively inexpensive too.

Thanks for the info Les.

Alex, if I were shelling out the sort of money that a De Ag will eventually cost I would expect all brake, fuel lines, carb throttle linkages etc to be included in the kit. These kits are clearly aimed at enthusiast modellers and in 1/8th scale things like that should not be missed out. I expect that some after market outfit like Model Motor Cars or similar will come to the rescue with extra add on detailing. Who knows?