Chimpion

Can't help thinking it's a Ferrari that wishes it was an Alpine ...

Maybe it's a trick of the camera lens, but I'm surprised how small the Mercury looks compared to the Yaris.

These are connected. A successful business will usually find a new owner when the previous one retires.

Hard to believe, but when growing up in the 70s I never realised that the Elf and Hornet were badge engineered Minis. Makes them still a bit special to me.

I was also there. Cycled from home in Buckingham which was much quicker than trying to get there by car. My sister had a friend with a farm just opposite the entrance, so I left the bike there. In those days you could just pay on the gate. Wonder if I still have some photos of the day somewhere...

Only just found this. Amazing work and it's looking stunning.

Is this badge original? It's clearly a Morris Minor pick-up. Were some of these sold as Austins?

Revell Contacta in the pots with a fine tube dispenser is a great general purpose glue for non-clear plastic (polystyrene). Strong and easy to use and perfect for beginners. The only issue is the tube tends to clog with dried glue. I stick a spherical headed dress-making pin in the end after use and it stays clear. The stuff lasts forever.

Really impressive work on the chrome - what approach did you use?

I suspect it's the train business that is struggling. It's now more a hobby for the fairly wealthy middle-aged rather than for kids, and none of it is cheap. Added to that, they use a different scale from the rest of Europe resulting in them having virtually no export business to Europe as far as I can see. Model shops and high street toy shops stock some Airfix in Germany and Austria, but although model railways are still big business here, it is all HO or N gauge. It seems to be all Märklin for trains, Kibri for static vehicles models and Faller for buildings. I also almost never see Scalextric - Carrera dominates the market. Corgi is also completely absent from shops here.

The one on the right. The "go faster" stripe is missing on the other one!

It's looking great! Really coming together nicely. Think I should bring mine closer to the front of the stash queue. Just need to clear the WIP first...

These can sometimes be very entertaining though - along the lines of "People who bought this chainsaw also bought this prosthetic leg".

The idea was great - combine Nissan reliability with Alfa style and driveability. Unfortunately they ended up with Alfa reliability combined with Nissan styling and driveability.

Indeed, even the colour is quite literally mint.