Andy G

We, EBMA, had a good show and it was good to meet customers old and new. It's a long drag, six hours each way from Manchester, but it was worth it. Financially we're in the black from it, just don't even think about the eight man days it took up. As for my feet, well they can still feel the concrete - will definitely need to sort something out to deal with that next year. Coffee break over, time to get the stock sorted and put away somewhere.

EBMA Hobby & Craft will be there - busy making stock for it at the moment

I'm back! Son's kitchen and bathroom are all finished, in fact the house has been sold. Here's day one of the work Yes, that's the bathroom you can see through where the ceiling should be. Two weeks later its all done I've finally got back to the Ulster this week and have been plodding forward with it. One of the first tasks was to paint the leather retaining straps on the bonnet which required quite a bit of masking The engine has been finished as well. Various different metallic shades and blacks were used. I was going to replace the moulded representations of the ignition wiring but then realised that there were much more significant chunks of metal missing from the engine bay such as the steering linkages. I made the decision to leave as out of the box otherwise it was going to be a very deep rabit hole. And in place I've started putting all of the little bits on and heading towards completing the car. The wheels are just pushed on at the moment. The mudguard is also just positioned at the moment. Those on the real car are not positioned close to the wheels but I think getting the kit's mudguards to line up properly may be troublesome. Cheers Andy

looking forward to this as the subject is similar but not the same as our wedding car. I’d love to find one at a reasonable price. Cheers

It's been a while since I've posted. Progress has been moving forward most of the time, but slowly. All of the small parts have been prepped and painted The small parts on the coffee stirrer were painted with a Molotow pen which hasn't come out as shiny as I remember it previously being. The wheel nuts and steering linkage were painted gloss black and then Zero Paints Chrome. Quite happy with these. The exhaust has been painted with Alclad Burnt Iron and the manifold end finished with MRP Semi matt clear. I have however subsequently removed the moulded in heat shield which goes alongside the 'door' area. This will be replaced with a 'rope' insulation as seen on the real thing. The insides of the headlights have been painted silver and then filled with Mr Hyde Putty before the outside was painted green. This hasn't gone well as I've had to sand them back a couple of times probably because of getting too much paint on them. The last week has been spent on the body, largely chasing my tail trying to get a good finish. It's been very much a case of fix one small issue only to create another in the process. I think I'm happy with the main body now and the bonnet has just received a coat of gloss. The bonnet has split in half down the join a couple of times and this has now been re-inforced with a piece of plasticard. Once the bonnet has a good enough finish the leather straps and the hinge need to be painted. The suspension parts have been hand painted using Humbrol acrylic black from the new dropper bottles. I had hoped to be able to pick out the details on what I presume are the dampers, however, they are immediately behind the headlamp supports so I can't get at them which is disappointing. I've forgotten to photo the engine which is complete but not fitted yet. That will wait until the painting of the body is complete. There's plenty of detail painting left to be done before I can bring it all together. How fast progress is going to be over the next week I'm not sure as I've got work to do on my son's house before he can put it on the market - bathroom and kitchen fitter hats to hand. Cheers

A few fiddly little bits have been cleaned up and some grovelling around the floor undertaken. Thankfully I put laminate down on the floor so the carpet monster is starving. I've found a use for one of those self sealing bags that come with the lateral flow tests, just hope I don't lose the whole lot! Having trawled around the internet during the night looking for photos of the engine I've now decided upon the body colour. I found a photo of the subject from 1975 reportedly still in its factory applied British Racing Green and also photos of another of the cars in BRG. Both examples were a darker shade of BRG and this is what I'm going with. I've a bottle of Zero Paints Dark British Racing Green and have started applying that to the bodywork and mudguards. Cheers

Bit of a bumper update as I apologise for not updating this topic during the week. The next stage of the build was dry fitting the body and running gear. At the rear the axle and springs are intended to be fitted before the body is glued to the chassis. Whilst the springs won't be a problem to brush paint the axle as it goes through the body will be. So I came up with a cunning plan that would enable the axle and springs to be fitted after the body and chassis had been painted. Chop the axle in half and glue small pieces of plasticard to one half in order to stop it flexing up and down when put back together. Testing it showed that the plan would work. Then I looked at photographs of the real cars and almost all of them had everything painted body colour. The modification will at least mean that I can paint and polish up the bodywork without the springs and axle in the way. The chassis rails were then painted acrylic Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue as they are partially visible through the cockpit. Unfortunately this isn't the current formula of the paint and I won't be painting the bodywork with it, but it sufficed to get the rails painted before the body was assembled. Here the body has been glued to the chassis rails, the lifting spare wheel cover has been glued in place and the two halves of the bonnet glued together for the first time. I decided against having the spare wheel cover operable preferring to tighten up the gap. The gap still isn't brilliant but thankfully neither is the real thing. Some of the front end gubbins have been attached in order that radiator grill can be fitted and the bonnet halves aligned. All of the mudguards have seams down the middle which unfortunately are not replicated on the real thing The ends of the mudguards have been thinned and rounded to improve the appearance Lots more parts have been cleaned up and primed. The engine block has been painted gloss black. Some parts still need more primer. Looks good in black primer (MRP) The biggest problem I've got now is finding the right colour of paint. The instructions say Humbrol 15 Midnight Blue but this appears too light and trying to get hold of the new formula locally is problematic. I've picked up Mr Hobby Midnight Blue but that's almost black and more grey than blue. Their navy blue is also too grey. I think another visit to Mr.Jolly will have to happen soon.

Managed to get started yesterday. First of all the chrome was removed. It's the first time I've done this and having raided the kitchen cupboards I plumped for some drain unblocker granules and a chinese take-away tub. I think I may have overdone the concentration as the made up solution fizzed away, got quite hot and the chrome was removed in under five minutes - job done. The sprue was scrubbed in running water afterwards. Most of the day was spent on the floor of the cockpit which took quite a lot of masking in order to apply the different paint. Various shades of MRP black/grey for most of it with MRP Silver Aluminium for the gear box parts. A black oil wash was applied to the seats and gearbox. The pedals are actually in the wrong order - the thinner, longer one should be in the middle and there should be a gap below the gear stick. The dashboard has also been painted up. For the bezels and white markings I used Poska pens. The silver was ok after the dials were backfilled with Humbrol acrylic matt black, but the white could be better. Pretty cruel close up - This has subsequently been covered in masking fluid before being glued into the body. The body and spare wheel cover parts took quite a bit of cleaning up as there were the odd scuff marks on them and the joint edges needed dressing. The inside of the body has been sprayed black and the bulkhead white aluminium. The body interior around the opening has been masked off before the floor pan was inserted. The seats came unstuck but as they can be inserted afterwards this is actually a blessing as it makes masking easier.

Well it's nearly time to get started, so here's my entry for the build. I built this at some point in the 80's and painted it blue as per the instructions. Other than enjoying the build I don't remember much about it. I hope it goes together better than the Airfix Escort I've been trying to wrestle into shape recently. The car matching the registration used by Matchbox is quite well photographed as can be seen in the two links below. It seems to change its paint quite often, I've seen it in two shades or British Racing Green and also in a Royal Blue which possibly explains why the instructions depict it in blue but the box art in green. https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo17/monterey/lots/r129-1935-aston-martin-ulster-competition-sports/430432 https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/cg/850/Aston-Martin-Ulster.html - car in question is chassis B5/549/U Matchbox have not replicated the bulge in the bodywork on the right hand side of the engine and I'll probably not fix it either. I'll strip the chromework as the real thing has a lot less chrome than the kit does. Here are the sprueshots I'm not sure how usable the transfers are, but I only intend to use the reg plates anyway. Cheers

Hello, I've been lurking for a while wondering whether to join in. The answer's yes, if you'll have me. I had thought of doing the Mk1 Harrier which I think is the first Matchbox kit I built, however, I see from the list that nobody has put their name against the Aston Martin Ulster (PK301) which I added to the stash last year. So I propose to join in with this Thankfully the plastic is in better condition than the box.

Cosford is off. Things are looking grim up North. As a trader from Manchester this is pretty dire. Our next IPMS show is Milton Keynes and then a week later the Scottish Nationals in Perth. After that we're hoping Stoke and Avon can sort something out, otherwise we're all the way around to Telford. The model railway shows aren't any better, we've got Stafford in February and I need to contact Macclesfield about their show in March, but that's it. Cheers

Hi Ed, We haven't got anything yet. Another customer has suggested storage for the Tamiya sanding sheets and it's possible that the two may be combined. What I'm probably going to do is something like a toast rack so that the sprues run from the front to the back of the unit. I think that is at 90 degrees to your suggestion, but will hopefully reduce the restriction on size of sprue, i.e. they can be bigger than the width of the unit. As they say, watch the space (but don't hold your breath!) Cheers

It sounded that way, but it was a brief conversation.

There was someone with him on Sunday who was going to be taking over. I was asking after the Landrover engine and gearbox as separate parts to go into Revell kit and the new chap said he’d bear it in mind for the future.

Hi Jack, The underscore meaning a second aircraft makes more sense. If I remember correctly 195 was born out of C Wing of 115 Squadron, probably explaining the commonality of the squadron code. 195 also used JE at the same time as A4. Cheers Andy