Noel Smith

A really cute custom car.

Veg. Your friend's Bugatti. Going by the wheels alone, is it a Type 51? Basicallly derived from a T35 but with a twin cam engine instead. Been toying with the idea of converting the Italeri kit to the twin cam motor.

The ads can get a bit annoying, especially if they go on for ages. I watched Inglorious Basterds the other night. Started to watch film at 9 pm and it finally finished at 12.15. You hardly got back into the film and the next lot of ads kept rolling up. There must have been at least 6 lots or maybe more during the film, each lot long enough to boil a kettle and make a cup of tea and still get back before they had finished. Sheer advert overkill that really distracted from enjoying watching the film because of the frequency.

This has the makings of a very nice model with the refinements being done to it

Talking of films generally You Tube appears to have access to many movies as well as the normal streaming services that can be accessed on a PC.

Dave. Thanks for putting me right I got the NEC weekend date totally wrong and have corrected my original post. So I just might be able to get there after all. Cheers ! I have a feeling that it is on the same weekend as the IPMS Scottish Nationals at the Dewar Centre in Perth.

Yes Veg! It's the blue car following the Bugatti in your picture. Malc, I will be having a look at what I might be able to use on it from the Airfix Bentley, as I have one intact kit and a box of bits from another. Nick's wheels might be worth a look at compared to replacing the spokes in the kit wheels with wire. Having re spoked wheels before, we will see. Am currently finishing off a Bugatti T41 chassis model from an old Bandai kit where the bodywork was badly broken beyond repair. So just building a chassis on its own. Kit item was a bit crude so lots of scratch build additions going onto it. Following on with the Italeri 35B so the Barnato Hasson will be a long way off yet. Lots of research to do on it whilst building the 2 Bugattis for now.

Could not get there myself this weekend. So, anyone who went to it, what were your impressions? Sorry Guys, Please IGNORE THIS POST ! I got the dates completely wrong. The show is actually on Sat 27th and Sun 28th of April.

1/12th scale. As far as materials go, it tends to be from all sorts of odds and ends kicking around my workshop. It just depends on what lends itself to whatever part(s) I am making. In the main I use plastics, metal and wood. I don't 3D print anything or mould resin parts as I prefer using mainly hand tools and some small standard engineering machinery, a lathe, toggle press and milling machine being my main go to items. What many guys are producing off 3D printers is absolutely amazing, don't get me wrong. But it is not an avenue I wish to go down with my model making a I get more satisfaction by manually making things. Before retiring I worked as an Engineeriing Cad Cam Technician at a local high school and before that in industry as a CNC machine programmer so pleased to get away from PC screens in my workshop and using paper plans.

Thanks for the feedback guys. The David Ayre restoration workshop looks like a good source that Matt Bacon suggested having restored the car. Also the pictures that Farmer Matt placed on here. Both will be good starting points for me as that light blue single seater is the one that I wish to model and will be a nice challenging scratch build project. Sabrejet. Thanks for responding with the owner's name. I will try to make contact via the VSCC.

Neddy, why don't you just go and see the show for the day and talk to those guys.

I am looking out for another book that is about another famous Confederate ship the CSS Shenandoah's activity during the American Civil War. She was still at sea for a considerable time unaware that the war had ended. The captain learnt of this via newspapers passed to him from an British registered ship. So the CSS Shenandoah by circumstance became the last active military unit of the Confederacy. Upon learning of the news about the war ending, the Shenandoah made her way to Liverpool where ship and crew were handed over to the authorities.

I would like to make a scratch build of the Barnato Hassan Special that ran at Brooklands. If anyone has any info about the car, it's restorers or if the actual car can be viewed I would be most grateful. Thanks.

Not about modelling the CSS Alabama, but I have just read again a copy of a book named 'Shark of the Confederacy' The Story of the CSS Alabama, written by Charles M Robinson 111, and originally a US Naval Institute publication. I would thoroughly recommend this book as a fascinating read about how the Alabama was built in secrecy at Birkenhead, Liverpool, how she was commissioned as a warship by the Confederacy and a detailed treatise on its epic two years at sea, finally being sunk by the Kearsage off Cherbourg in France. Also some interesting facts about what happened after the event to Captain Semmes and his crew, and the political fallout afterwards. The Alabama was never a privateer or corsair as many think but a commissioned warship of the CSA. HMS Warrior has been mentioned for comparisons as a ship of that Victorian era. Billings as far as I know is the only company to make a kit of the Warrior. It is enormous and much bigger than the Bluejacket and Revell kits.