cmatthewbacon

There was supposed to be a big Kaboom... Brilliant.... love it! best, M.

Absolutely lovely. Exquisite finishing of a good classic kit of one of the world's most beautiful aircraft in a timeless livery. My hat's off to you, sir! All the best, Matt

Normally you’d set up the car for each track with suspension and aero adjustments (lots of corners in Monaco very different from long straights end gentle curves of French GP circuit at Dijon for example). But I’d expect the practice and race cars to be set up the same way. More likely there was some failure that required an urgent switch, though the drivers of the 72 did develop preferences for particular chassis… best, M.

Has the usual IPMS Deutschland round up list been published yet? I can’t find it. I like the way it pulls together all the vendor announcements into genre/scale categories (so I can find all the 1/24 and 1/25 cars!) best, M.

It’s Men at Arms Autographed Collection MA163 Mounted Mongol. I can’t post a link because the only one I can find is on eBay. But if anyone out there has one with instructions they’d still be appreciated… (the accoutrements are flipped from the picture, and I’d like to know which goes where on the model). best, M.

Thanks to the steers from @spruecutter96 and @Black Knight, I think he's a cross between these two guys: The armour, the arm brandishing the mace-like thing, and the horse pose are all like the first one, and the sword, bow and case and quiver are all present and correct with those in the second image. The, ahem, "dead" giveaway that I should have spotted before among the secondary parts is the bag with the two severed heads in! So either it's a single figure with features from both images, or a kit for a small vignette that's missing the main part(s) of one of the figures... best, M.

Ahh… good point on the stirrups. The way the New Hope Designs Men at Arms series worked is that they were based on plates from the Osprey Books, and as far as I could see the Mongols were not depicted with such complete armour… I’ll try looking again best, M.

I'm wondering if he might be the guy in the background here: From the Men at Arms "Sarmatians" book... a Roxolanian Horse Archer best, M.

Bought from eBay for a song 'cos he looked cool... I could see he wasn't the Hinchliffe 75/JB13 figure on the box label (who is a 75mm Landsknecht)but he looked interesting. Lots of detail parts as well, including bow and quiver. There's a little plaque that says New Hope Design Men at Arms Autographed Collection "signed" by K. Durham. There are, however no instructions about how to put together the many detail pieces around his person and on the horse. I could probably busk it from a picture or two of a built up figure, or even the Osprey Men at Arms plate that he's based on, but if anyone has the same guy and the instructions they could share that would be very much appreciated... There are a good few "Mounted Samurai" figures on the web, but none I've found looks like this guy, and especially not his horse. Of course, if he's NOT a Samurai, but a Mongol Archer (or Persian Sassanid....) it would be good to know that too! Any help greatly appreciated. best, M.

Very gently wet sand it off or use a sponge backed “nail buffer” to get back to a smooth surface, then do what real car painters do and mask off all except the panel where the marks are and repaint. If there isn’t a real panel, mask along shut lines or window frames at much as possible. If he has polishing compound he can use that to “feather” in any hard edge along the masking if it’s unavoidable. Or model the car as it looks near the end of “Skyfall”… 😜 best, M.

The Motobitz 3D printed wires are excellent, but they are designed for an E-Type. They are a brilliant upgrade to any 1/43, 1/32 or 1/24 Jaguar or anything else that runs on 185/15 tires on wire wheels… best, M.

@Southern_northerner That looks good! What clear coat did you use with the Zero colour? For a 250GTO, you probably don’t want a wet look clear coat. Tamiya straight out of the can or Halfords FIAT Racing Red, possibly polished with Meguiars would do the trick. best, M.

Thanks @keefr22 say my name three times and here I am: Best, M.

No, that’s the right way round. “Better” is in the eye of the beholder. The first one would not cut it for print reproduction, because it’s not sharp, and it’s quite distorted. Neither has been processed at all except to fit the file size needs of the forum. That was kinda the point of posting them both. iPhones do a lot more work to make the picture you end up with on the phone as good and usable for every purpose as possible, and try to figure out what you might be wanting to do with it to make it even better. The DSLR and lens is optically more capable (hence the depth of field resulting in being in focus everywhere and accurate shape reproduction). I could change the lens (and often do in my RFIs) to get a more dramatic and striking (and distorted) image. And I can process the picture in Photoshop to adjust the lighting, contrast, sharpness and anything else. Magazine picture editors like to do that themselves, in my experience. Hence my view that investing in more light is the best bang for buck in getting better pictures compared to a new phone or separate camera. As @spruecutter96 points out, if you just want painless forum pictures then the iPhone will do a “better” job. If you want a magazine to publish your work, though, you’ll need to go the extra mile. (Or find an iPhone app that does focus stacking…) best, M.

I dunno, 100 hours at minimum wage or about 25 at a a skiled craftsman’s…? It looks very nicely done, but those of you have built one will have a better idea of how long it takes to finish one to that standard. Part of the reason I’ve never wanted to turn my hobby into a job! best, M.

I don’t know. They’re the best wires I’ve ever seen in plastic, alongside the Fujimi 250GTO. Photo etch is fine but rarely gets the in/out through lacing right. 3D printing is producing amazing one now, but really only recently have they been available and affordable, and the range of sizes is limited. You’re OK if you want an E Type or GTO, but you won’t find a set for a Big Healey! best, M.

Jsut liked this one: best, M.

For the sake of comparison, this: Is taken using Spectre on my iPhone 11, and this: Is using the EOS70D with a Canon 50mm macro lens... ...both in exactly the same lighting conditions. It's a bit of an unforgiving close-up, but even at 1200 pixels wide for display (compared to the 4000 or so in the original image), you can see that the DSLR manages to have every part of the image in focus, with minimum shape distortion, whereas the iPhone is doing a creditable job, but the "fish-eye" is more pronounced and the tail and far side are blurring. Now, I could mess about with the settings in Spectre, and shoot from further away using the x2 lens on the iPhone to improve matters, but I haven't really experimented to find out how much better I can get it, since I have the DSLR to hand. As you can see, though, lots of light really helps! best, M.

They do indeed: best, M.

That’s the French-market one, I thought, mostly because I’ve only ever seen it in a model shop in Paris. The almost-mythical one is a Revell boxing that appears to have escaped into the wild in the US a 15 years or more ago but never seems to have been officially released. It was long enough ago that I think I was discussing it on rec.models.scale, not in a Forum! best, M

The Dog Sabre is one of Revell's very best. Really nicely detailed, great fit, and very easy to build: There's an almost-mythical F-86K version as well, and a slightly more obviously available French-market special edition K that includes the Revell D kit and two new fuselage halves. best, M.

The iPhone 8 has a 12MPIx camera, which is the same resolution as the SX240. You might be as well to get both more light, as Mike says, and the lightbox if it suits the models you're taking pictures of, and also invest a few quid in a camera app for the phone which gives you more control over the camera settings. Lots of light, a small "aperture" and longer exposure time (you might need a little tripod/phone stand) are the key to getting good pictures with good depth of field, and the aftermarket camera app will give you control over those things. Camera+ is popular and not too expensive, Halide is even more functional, but more costly... best, M.

I've got a little Canon Powershot SX240 which is perfectly OK for in progress shots and most things if you're not trying to get them published in a magazine. You should be able to get a second hand one for less than £100. I also use a Canon EOS70D for magazine pictures and more demanding photography. If you want to go the DSLR route the EOS 40d or 50D are less than £100 from www.mpb.com, but of course then you will need a lens as well, which is likely to run around £150. Good lighting makes all the difference (probably even more than the camera, TBH). So look at some kind of pop-up lightbox with bright LED lighting. best, M.

Well, this isn’t one you’d guess… a load of Sicilian Oranges floating down on little Tricolore parachutes? 😜 best, M.

And here's the Land Rover with the DB5. Since it's headed for a layout, the Land Rover's going to need some weathering and some cargo before it's officially finished... best, M.