Vicarage Vee

Take the man up on his offer 🙂 It's what the machine was intended for after all. I made five dozen, yes five dozen, Halifax bomb door actuators with mine, no way could I have made three identical let alone that many, and it took minutes, it would be perfect for seats.

😈 Yes, I am evil. 😆 A good choice to stick with the slicks as Scheckter's qualifying was a bit more auspicious than his race. Of course the big challenge would be Depailler's runner up car with tyres worn to canvas.... Anyone? I would, but you know, been a bit busy etc. etc...

There are wet weather tyres available for the Fujimi version e.g. here, I don't know whether they would easily fit the Tamiya. Were you planning to use them?

Looking really good now. I bet that etch set is feeling sorry it crossed you 😉 Only suggestion would be to try take-away tray foil or wine bottle foil or similar for the belts: IMO they end up looking so much better than tape as they can be made to drape realistically.

Below are the three main suppliers of plastic sheet, rod, strip, profile and specialist embossed sheets for brick, panelling, fencing etc. You should be able to find what you need in one or more of the ranges. Have a search for suppliers, model railway shops/online shops often carry a good range and you may be able to combine elements from each supplier in one order. Slaters Evergreen Plastruct

It depends whether parts are going to be painted on the sprue. For large parts that I'm going to handle, test fit, fettle, fit etc I'd rather wash after the assembly is completed.

I like that a lot! Great rescue, it's so satisfying resurrecting a decades old part-build and finishing it, especially when it turns out so well.

If you're having fun with it, it's never a waste of money 🙂

As an aside, the EF-111A can be obtained from (e.g.) Hobby Link Japan now.

For disassembly, and you'll need to clear some space for this, stick it in the freezer overnight. This tends to weaken the glue joints, but be careful when separating parts not to use too much force and actually damage them. If accessible, you can use a razor saw, but probably the best route is to disassemble as much as possible and not get hung up about the bits too stubborn to come apart and work with the maximum number of parts that you can safely achieve.

You may well have hit on a theme there Mark. I recall the one for the Airfix Mosquito was so far out that it sits in my spares to this day: it was easier to just scratch build it. I have the Whirlwind and the etch set to do.... Forewarned is forearmed.

Ah, memories. My first Novo kit, from a stall in Dunstable (don't laugh) some time around 1978/9. I still think it can make up into a very nice model.

Yes, patiently waiting for my order too. On a side note, does any kind soul happen to have a set of the original Air France decals for this kit that they would be willing to send me a scan of? 26 Decals made a lovely set in the old livery but sadly they fit a proper scale Concorde and not this 'concept' version.

Tack it down with white glue?

A really nice build indeed. The yellow looks spot on, which did you use? It deserves a mini diorama, either coming in to parc ferme in first place or parked up on some grass with dirty tyres and smoke coming out!

Make that two. I never came across that photo when I made mine. I've turned it the other side on in the cabinet now.

@BristolBlue best avatar on the site 😉

I do wonder what was the issue with the Novo decals. I wonder if it was something like the carrier varnish soaking into the paper too much so that the colour print effectively went straight onto paper? Or maybe there was no backing varnish at all? Or no adhesive? My initiation was much like yours Troy, but with the Wessex. It got some spare roundels and my first (awful) attempt at making my own on the sticky edge of an envelope flap!

Wonderful! Those take me back, brilliant that you got Ronnie and Patrick too. Yes, so true about saving the shots with only 24/36 to play with! Thank you for posting them. Also quite sobering to think where they all are now. Of those I think only Emmo and Mario are in particularly good health (as far as I know) of those still with us.

Wonderful job on the car and the photos. Do you have any more from the day to share? Did you take any of the support races (especially the F3)?

So nice! 🙂

There was a Model Alliance sheet that covered these in 1/72 & 1/48. It might come up second hand. I can’t recall if anyone acquired the rights to the series.

We aren't talking about the plastic here: I quite agree on the quality of the Tamiya plastic. They (Tamiya and any others) are inaccurate in that if they are built from the box and they do not contain a full complement of markings to depict how the car appeared at a particular race then they are inaccurate in that way. Tamiya haven't historically been faultlessly accurate either. An example of being inaccurate without the full markings would be any of the 1/20 F1 cars re-released without appropriate tobacco advertising: they aren't all accurate shape-wise for the German or British GPs. The Lotus 78 is re-released with what are described as markings for Ronnie Peterson's British GP 78 used on the second day of practice, but it lacks the John Player decals and the kit isn't accurate for the 1978 spec car, Although they are now 'old' not all of the 1/20 series were 100% accurate, the Lotus 99T was only the very early season version and not the version used in German or the British Grand Prix for which markings are supplied. For the 1/24 kits, albeit the older ones as the new ones are too expensive for me now, the Porsche 965 New Man Joest version has the wrong wheels. Going back even further the 1/12 Lola T70 MkIII has the wrong engine for the race it is supposed to depict.

The whole issue of licencing the logos seems utterly bizarre. The companies sponsor the cars for exposure and promotion, models are surely a spin-off that increases that exposure. How much of that do you cut off by wanting more money for the reproduction of the branding and rigorously squeezing every last ounce from your your IP? Are Tamiya just very litigation-averse? Are the other manufacturers and the aftermarket producers not worried about being pursued? I'd like to know because it's a bit of a conundrum. The upshot is that it makes the models that are released a) very expensive and b) often inaccurate and needing more money spent on aftermarket decals.

That is superbly done in every detail. I can say no more!