Alan R

Hello again... I know that I have just posted an update only a few minutes back, but the actual work was done two days ago, the glazing was only done last night. So, two stages in the build... I got the glazing in last night. The engine cover is held in by the rear window, which after removing a fair amount of flash, and clearing up the rather prominent sprue gates, fitted with no fuss. Then I fitted the main glazing into the body-shell: Note that at this point I discovered a small problem. The glazing is supposed to fit over a couple of small pins in the roof, thus: See the two small red circles. However, due to the placement of the ejector pin marks, one of the holes in the glazing just wasn't there. So, out with a small drill in my pin-vice and hey-presto, a hole in the right place. I used the zero paints crystal clear PVA glue to keep it in place. Much safer than CA glue or poly-solvent... It fitted well. So, here are some other images: Now, I need to paint the roof-lining. I think, pale grey rather than black... Thanks for looking. Cheers, Alan.

Hello All, I have made further progress, mainly around the engine department and luggage compartment. Mind you, you won't be able to see any of the luggage compartment as I glued up the bonnet (hood?). Still, I know it's there... So, this is where I have got. This is the spare wheel, The rear engine deck and the louvres for the engine cover. These have been primed and painted in abbodon black. The louvres are the most disappointing part of the kit. They aren't proper louvres so that if you looked carefully, you should be able to see the engine. They are just solid lumps. Still, after fitting them to engine cover, which they fitted really well, by the way, they didn't look too bad. Here are all the bits, ready to attach together. I have also blacked in the window frames. I'm not sure if they would have been black on a car of this vintage, but I saw some pictures on 'tinternet which showed them as black. You can't see it here, but I have also blacked in the 'clam-shell' divide around the waist of the body. This angle shows the waist strip better. The engine cover wasn't too good a fit in the body. leaving it a bit proud of the back of the car. It showed as a large gap at the rear between the back of the body and the engine cover. After a bit of investigation, I saw that the sides of the engine cover were binding on the read buttresses of the body, thus: (Where the red ellipse is). So, I shaved of a tiny amount off the cover at the offending place, thus: I re-primed the shaved section, and covered the now grey bit with Tamiya X-8. The yellow was a close enough match to the body colour. This is the body after 'blacking' the window frames and clam-shell line: You can see here that the engine cover fits quite well. Well, good enough for me anyway. You can see the engine cover shuts reasonably now, The gap ther won't show (I hope!) when the body is attached to the floor. The floor. You can see the fabricated disc brakes here as well. Onwards and upwards. Glazing next. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Easter Monday, four or five VW transporter camper vans varied vintage from 1950's to 1960's Tuesday on the M4 heading east, A yellow C5 Corvette Today on the M4, heading west, A Jensen Interceptor. Cheers, Alan.

Looking good! Cheers, Alan.

Stunning! ... Simply stunning! Cheers, Alan.

I made this many years ago. It's a sweet little kit of a sweet little car. I love MX-5s Cheers, Alan.

My next one for 2017. Must be the third, I think. I handed it over to my daughter last night, and she was well pleased! The smile on her face said it all. (She's 20 by the way) So, here are the images: I like the 'arty' 'up-hill' look. Actually, it was me with the camera at a skew angle! On the whole, a very pleasant build. I had a few problems during the build. Some of them were my own (The clear-coating being the major one) and one was the kit (The wheels!). I have just noticed that on these pictures, the little 'sting' aerial is a bit off straight. I corrected that after the pictures were taken. Any comments, positive or negative are welcome. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hello all, Well, that's it. All done. I finally got the last bits done, the mirrors in, the decals on and the little stingy aerial on the roof. Pictures in Ready for inspection, here: Thanks for your interest, Alan.

I actually owned an Alfasud way back in 1979. It was silver, mind you. I bought it brand new from Ian Swift cars here in Bristol. My first new car! Absolutely loved it. Only kept it two years and rust was appearing on the boot-lid and wheel-arches! Still, it was a cracking little thing. Cheers, Alan.

They are really popular here in the UK. You can't move on the roads without seeing at least five or six on any journey! I don't think the rear seats issue would be a problem for my daughter as she would only be using it for short journeys and the occasional forays home from wherever she will be living. She's still a uni student and can't afford to run a car. We can't afford to sub her either. more's the pity. All the best, Alan.

Nice build. I love the highlight off the bumper! It gives it that 'star' quality. Cheers, Alan.

Hi Robin, Thanks for your kind comments. It hasn't been plain sailing all the way, as you could see with the wheels. I actually like it (afterwards mostly!) when I have a problem to solve. Not all of the problems get solved satisfactorily, but I get great satisfaction rescuing a 'lost cause', so to speak. This was a satisfactory conclusion. I couldn't fail on this one as it is a build for my daughter, so the stakes are higher than usual. Kind Regards, Alan.

Hello All, Another update. The wheels are on, not without an awful lot of trouble. No matter how hard I tried, the little poly-caps would not fit over the pins in the brakes. At this point, after a fair amount of time (about a hour and a bit), I almost threw the damn thing in the rubbish bin. After some calm consideration, I tried to enlarge the holes in the poly-caps, but to no avail. The wheels still did not fit. Then I realised what the problem was, the hubs on the disks were flanged, and the axle on the wheel was supposed to fit inside the flange. That was where the problem was, the diameter of the axle was just a teeny bit too wide! After some effort, I managed to increase the diameter of the hollow in the flange so that the axle fitted. Bingo! Or so I thought. I had enlarged the holes in the poly-caps too much, and as soon as I had put a wheel on the pin, it immediately fell off! Another near bin (death) episode... However, after further calm thought, I realised that I had some 1/32" evergreen styrene tubing, that nearly fitted the hole in the wheel where the poly cap went. The hole in the tube was definitely too small to fit over the pin, but could be carefully drilled out to be the correct size. I cut four lengths of tube the same size as the poly-caps, then carefully wrapped and cemented .005" evergreen card around each section of tube. A fiddly operation, not made easier by the card wanting to uncurl at every opportunity. Still, after some effort, I had wrapped .005" card around each piece of tube and had carefully drilled out the hole in the tube to fit the pin on the disk brakes. I cemented the thickened tube into the hole in each wheel and let the cement set for about 2 hours. Once set, I then carefully cemented the wheels onto the pins. Fortunately, the wheels did not fall off. The wheel axles fitted the flanges and the cemented in tubes fitted over the pins snugly. On the principle "Quit while you are ahead", I cleaned up my work bench and left the car sitting on my work-mat to allow the cement to cure overnight. That was last night. This morning I went into my workshop and took a look. Success! The wheels are on solidly, and what's more they still turn as they should. A cherished project rescued. I couldn't face letting my daughter down. So, here are some pictures: There's still some work to do, mainly the decals (not many) and mirrors, number plates and the radio aerial (that's a diddy little thing about 2.5mm long). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel ... (or is a train coming the other way?) Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hello All, I have had this one on the back-burner for years. I have finally decided, what with the FIAT 500 nearly done and another couple of cars nearing completion as well, to resurrect this one. It's the Fujimi 1/24 246 Dino. It's one of their 'enthusiast' kits, meaning loads of fiddly tiny parts. I have already done a couple of the Porsche enthusiast kits and apart from a few niggles, they went together well. I just wish I knew where I had put them in the loft for safe keeping. I started it a while ago and then put into storage, where it got forgotten for a long while. I have painted all the major body parts in Halfords' 'Broome Yellow'. It has come out quite well, even gloss cover and no serious imperfections. This is the dinky little engine: I have put a few more parts together since these photos were taken. I am planning to add ignition leads as it looks a little bare without. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hello All, I have put the lights into the body, but no glazing over the lights, yet. Again, this proved to be a simple task with the chrome parts that make up all the lights fitting perfectly. Here are the pictures: Sorry about the fuzzy image, the camera focussed on the wrong place, and I had set the aperture to wide (about F4). I haven't taken a picture of this bit, but after a small amount of effort, I have put the body onto the floor-pan. Thanks for looking, Alan.

I'd just love a bike!

I have bookmarked those pictures! My Tamiya MkII is that colour. Though with red upholstery! Chief, I love your build as well! I hope mine comes out as well! Cheers, Alan.

A bit more progress on this. I have assembled the cabin, thus: Since these pictures were taken, I have attached the door panels and fixed the cabin to the floor pan. More pictures soon. Thanks for looking, Alan.

Hello All, More progress over the weekend and today. The masking worked, to an extent. I forgot to seal the masking with clear to stop some bleed under it. This was especially important as the mask was made up of strips of masking tape, and therefore more prone to bleeding. The end result was that I needed to do some remedial work. This is what it looked like immediately after removing the masks: Not the best, but not a disaster. I used the sharp end of a cocktail stick to gently remove the 'bleeds' which on the whole was a success. The paint was still a bit soft, so it came off leaving no marks. However, since it was a bit soft still, some came away wit the mask! Still, I carefully restored that with a very thin brush and a steady hand. On the whole, it was worth the effort. I must remember to seal it first! One thing that did surprise me was that the Tamiya Masking tape left a bit of residue on the glazing. However, I was easily able to remove it by using a fresh bit of tape to 'pull' the residue glue off. Next came the window frames. I saw that someone on Britmodeller used a sharpie black permanent marker to paint the window beading. It worked for him, so I thought I would try the method. This was successful. There were places, mostly to do with the slightly thick nib, that didn't get covered, but I managed to touch those spaces up with Humbrol Satin Coal Black, an almost perfect match. In fact I can't tell the difference. Anyway, cut the waffle, more pictures: The 'white' bits on the black are highlights. That's my story and I'm sticking with it The last bit I have done on it so far it gluing the glazing in. I use the Zero Crystal Clear PVA glue as it doesn't attack the clear polystyrene, and it's easy to clean up if you do manage to get some on the window surface. I clamped it for about 20 minutes to allow the glue to cure, thus: Well, this nearly appears to be getting near the end. Only the interior to paint, the light fittings and the wheels to fit,and final assembly to go ... oh, wait! That's quite a lot! Thanks for looking, Alan.

I can't remember if anyone else has said this. How about a 3-Litre Capri Mk1. Our GP had one when I was still at school. Cheers, Alan.

No, it was the Granada that was available as a fast-back. If I recall, there was a Granada estate version as well. Cheers, Alan.

My dad had one of these in the late 70's early eighties Wonderful old bus.

Definitely a Mk 1 Lotus Cortina! Complete with engine as well... How about a 1/6th scale Norton Commando complete with proper wire wheels. Or a more modern 1/6th scale Triumph Speed Triple? I live in hope, though not holding my breath, Alan. P.S. Oops! 1/24th cars. I would still like those bikes anyway!

Hello Chaps, Well, the cabin is complete. All the seats are in and it's attached to the floor pan: The side panels are also attached, and attached to the floor: The next thing that I need to do is to mask the windows to put the black framing in. The main window glass is a single piece affair, with the bits to be blacked out slightly frosted. It's a real challenge to hand paint that. Fortunately, Fujimi have printed a series of masks but not on any masking film... So here goes an experiment. I photocopied the masking templates off the instructions. Then I put strips of 18mm Tamiya masking tape onto the shiny side of some baking parchment, butting each strip up to the last. I covered the joins with 6mm Tamiya masking tape, then glued the template onto the non-sticky side of the masking tape. So far, so good, now I have to cut out the templates and see if the templates stay in one piece. Here they are: Underneath that lot is several 'bonded' strips of Tamiya Masking tape stuck onto baking parchment with the templates glued on with 'solid' PVA glue from a glue stick. More to come. Thanks for looking, Alan..

Hello Chaps, I finally found the ideal time and conditions to apply the clear lacquer to the body. It's been quite sunny and warm today, so I decided to take the opportunity to spray the lacquer. I realised that there were two problems that I had encountered last time: 1. The temperature was too low (about 5-8°C) 2. I forgot to put the sealing washer on the lid of the air-brush bottle. Without the seal, the airbrush wouldn't spray properly. This time the temperature was more like 15-16°C, and the seal was in the cap of the bottle. I fired up my compressor, and applied two fine mist coats first, with a 5 minute gap between them, followed by a heavier 'wet' coat. The end result was much more pleasing. So here are the pictures: Now that I have got the technique right, I am really pleased with the Zero Paints 1K clear coat. The finish is so much better that the last time. This gives me hope for all my other cars that nead clear coating. Thanks for looking, Alan.