ShawnS

Hi guys, after yet another stagnant year this 3 car build has kicked back into life. I'm keen the get the next one done for personal reasons so I have been working on the second version that has upgraded detail . I have finished all of the chassis plate and just have the decals and final assembly of the body left to do. Here is the chassis plate with weathering and fuel and brake lines added. Hopefully I will finish the rest soon so keep an eye out in the showroom in a couple of days time. Cheers ShawnS

Good to see another Aussie race car being built and you are doing a great job so far, but you need to know that the car didn't run the aero kit or wheels that is in the picture of the restored car. The kits own wheels and aero kit are as the car ran in '94. The wing and the front airdam on the restored car are from 1995 but the B+H car didn't run in the '95 Supertouring season. I hope it's not too late. By the way this car is one of the two that were involved in the infamous crash and subsequent clash between the two drivers that has made many a sports highlights clip show. Skip to 0:45 I am going to have Longhurst's B+H E30 M3 in progress soon to sit with the Sierra he drove in 1988 that I finished last year and as I am also considering this car too I will be keeping a keen eye on this thread. Also, who makes those decals? Cheers ShawnS

Such a brilliant idea and some outstanding work to bring that idea to life. Well done so far Daxman, keep up the good work.

Great work Dale. Good tip for the springs too I have locked that one away for the future. I have a couple of these in progress at the moment so I'm watching with interest.

Yes. I agree on a move to 1:24 for all new kits. Although I haven't purchased any recent release Revell kit as there is nothing in the catalogue that tickles my fancy, it seems to me that the new Revell owners need to take on the world. One Ford GTLM and some old Porsches aren't world beating market changers nor will they raise Revell's market share or profile in non-US countries. Take Beemax, Belkits and Ebbro as examples, They came on the scene and started to issue kits that the rest of the world wanted and the rest of the world is buying those kits and the aftermarket for these kits is firing on all cylinders as well. Even Hasegawa have seen the light and are releasing new subjects and re-issuing some great old kits. If Revell are to survive and thrive in a supposedly dying market then most future new Revell kit subjects need to have world appeal not just kits for someone whose grandpa drove one back in the day.

I feel that Tamiya really dropped the ball when they stopped making the 60's cars, not just F1 cars but their 1:24 road cars as well. They did a great job with the VW Beetle, Alfa, and little Honda kit sports car kits. It gave me hope that perhaps they were going to expand on the 60's theme and that we would get some really amazing unkitted non- American 1960's subjects but nope Tamiya seemed to get bored with the idea and went back to releasing more kits of the same tanks and aircraft that every kit manufacturer has.

Hopefully one of the aftermarket guys will come up with a badge-less grille so we can get stuck into those Trans-Am versions.

I have 6 Tamiya Sierras on the bench at the moment. Two are restorations of old builds, two are half finished projects from years past and two are new builds. Each of them will be built differently with different roll cages, exhausts, RHD conversions and dash layouts so there is enough to keep me busy for a while. I painted the bodies, interior and chassis pieces last year and have recently been focused on painting all of the small bits and sorting out all of the details that are specific for the version that I am doing at the time. Sometimes it seems that I have bitten off more than i can chew but I'll get them done.

That's a beautiful model Tulio. Seeing those models make me love those old Fords even more. Great work.

Very nice. A mean looking race car that looks just as mean in scale. Top job

A lovely well finished model Raoul. Such a great colour too. Good work.

Amazing work Pat. Just needs some spider webs . Well done.

HI guys thanks again for the nice comments. Trevor, the radiator mesh is indeed PE and it's made by KA Models. It comes in a small sheet that can be cut to size for your own requirements. It's available from several sources on the net. Cheers ShawnS

Holy cow that's brilliant, Great stuff Frank, well done.

Cool little VW. Well done.

That's a mad looking little beast Luke. Great clean looking build with some killer photos too. Well done.

Lovely build of a cool cop cruiser. I love watching 70's cop shows and movies and seeing the body language of those big ol things as the stunt drivers throw them around. Good fun.

Thanks guys. I'm very happy with the way the engine bay turned out, would you believe that it's only the third engine that I've detailed? I never used to like having to do them and I avoided them like the plague but I'm warming to them so expect more in the future. I've had a massive build season so far as I decided to finish some previously started builds so there are more models to come. Cheers ShawnS

Hi all. This is a bit of a grail build for me after not having any real opportunity to buy at least one of these kits since they were originally released, I jumped at the chance to grab 3 of them upon their re-issue a couple of months ago. I always wanted to build the three TWR Jags that were entered in the 1985 Bathurst 1000 here in Australia. The race was won by the #10 car driven by Aussie legend John Goss and German touring car ace Armin Hahne with the #8 car driven by Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy coming home in 3rd after splitting an oil cooler late in the race with the subsequent lengthy pitstop costing them the win. The #9 car driven by Aussie Ron Dickson and Brit Jeff Allam DNF'ed early in the race with mechanical issues. I decided to only build one engine and totally go all out on the detail and leave the other two as curbside. I added plug wires, throttle cables and linkages, added fins and a bracket to the alternator, fitted dual electric fans, rebuilt the two induction scoops and made the ducts from wire and teflon tape, added heat sheilding, scratchbuilt the twin oil coolers up front and added a lot of braided hose and fittings from several sources. I also remade the tow hooks and front brake ducts on all three cars. The rest is built as stock. The decals are a combination of kit, studio27, Pattos and my own. The build took a couple of months but they were fun to build with only the seat belts and the rear brake ducts causing any frustrations along the way and I would recommend the kit to anyone. Cheers ShawnS

Hi Smokey. I spent many hours searching the web for the best pictures that I could find. There are a few forums that have dedicated Falcon owners who post pictures of their cars and even do their own 1:1 WIP threads too so I was lucky that there are these guys who take pics of their cars when they strip them down. I also searched e-bay for pictures of parts that I was trying to replicate. E-bay provides a wide range of pictures from clean new and re-conditioned parts to whole assemblies that are covered with years of grime. I used an aftermarket workshop manual but it was of limited use as the pictures are very low -res and in black and white. I did also have a PDF of Fords own spare parts manual that came in very handy but I lost that in a computer hard drive crash as well as lots of pics of the build that I didn't save to USB (back up your files kids). At no stage did I have access to a 1:1 nor did I even attempt to seek one out so its all done from pictures but I was lucky enough to get some measurements from an owner of an XE Falcon that was a great help (thanks Glenn R.I.P.) I was very fortunate that I found pictures of everything that mattered even though it was frustrating at times. Hope that answered your questions. Cheers ShawnS

Wow thanks Alan it's been my pleasure to bring this project to everyone. Although I had scratchbuilt parts for other builds I had never even come close to doing things as complex as a lot of the parts for this build so I didn't know if I had it in me to even finish one model. One thing that I did want to get across was that I didn't come into this project as any sort of expert in scratch building and that I was learning along the way so you guys needed to know not just the highs but the mistakes and the feeling of frustration and even burnout that I went through over the years just the same as everyone else does. I think that you guys even taught me a thing or two as well so we all learned together. I didn't originally intend to give so much detailed info about how I went about doing things the way I was doing them but it became apparent that it was important to a lot of you guys that you needed to know and I was more than happy to continue doing it. I think that taking a lot of photos helped me as a builder too as sometimes I could see things in a photo that I couldn't with the naked eye so I had to keep things clean and that snowballs into a cleaner build all round. Thanks to everyone for your support over the years. Cheers ShawnS

HI guys I've got a couple of works in progress with completed engine bays. First is Tamiya's BMW 635csi GpA. I added a few parts from an incomplete Fujimi 635 kit to get a little extra detail that Tamiya couldn't be bothered with. And finally Hasegawa's Jaguar XJS TWR HE. Plumbed and wired with some added extras to fill out the engine bay a little more. Without the air intake ducts With the ducts added. It's got scratch built twin oil coolers mounted at the front and it took a long time to sort all of that plumbing out. You cant see the twin electric fans and some of the other things that I added but they are there. Cheers ShawnS

Hi Gavin. My response from this earlier post still stands. Thanks for your interest, I'll add you to the ever increasing list of interested parties. Cheers ShawnS

Hi Gabor, Studio27 have a decal sheet that contains the white stripe so if your budget allows and you haven't stripped the body already you should check it out. I have three of these Jags on the bench at the moment and it seems top be a fairly good kit. The seat belts are very fiddly and take a bit of patience but the rest goes together easily.

Yeah there has been quite a bit of interest from all around the world. A final decision about if I will sell copies or not won't be made until well after I have finished the last of any intended builds. It kills me to have to tell everyone that because I would love to see what others could do to one, I'm also too busy to do any extensive casting at the moment. Thanks again everyone Cheers ShawnS