malpaso

Just reaching the end of my dog walk whilst visiting my mum yesterday, blue smoke clouds heralded a chap pulling out of the lockups in a 1936 Morris 8 2-seat tourer. He was impressed I’d identified it from 50ft away - easy really as my Dad had always banged on about his first car being a 1937 4-seat tourer (the only year for the upright 8s with the kleenezee wheels). Dad’s had only cost a fiver (if that) and broke it’s chassis so probably scrapped even before the invention of the MOT in 1960 emptied the UK streets of most older cars. Then a plethora of varied classics going the other way as I journeyed home, mostly bug related as there was a VW event at Beaulieu.

In answer to @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies , back in my Spitfire days, I had a couple of friends with gitfires; whilst they went and sounded great, they handled like pigs with two extra cylinders sticking forward. This was the general impression of anyone who’d done this (late 80s/early 90s). I guess the extra weight at the rear on a GT6 helped balance the car better? At that time the go faster choice was the Cologne V6 plus granny(?) vented disks to be able to stop - this engine swap seemed particularly popular with German owners where TUV meant things had to be done properly. I’ve seen a few Spitties and GT6s around this summer; at £5k you would be only halfway to a concours one back then, now you would be buying another 30+ years of salt, neglect and deferred maintenance! I loved my Spits in the day, but if I had a Time Machine to bring them back they’d still need the price of a decent ND to get them really nice! I remember the Mx-5 arriving in the UK. At shows the MG owners would all be chewing their flat caps whilst foaming that this was the end of civilization. Meanwhile the generally younger and obviously waaay cooler Triumph gang were impressed by a “British”-style sports car that might actually work reliably. If only the Mazdas hadn’t been so expensive (we forget how gouging UK car market was then), which is why the Eunos types got imported in such numbers.

I think an mx-5 is the answer. At £5k there are some reasonable NA, NB or even NC around. But rust checks are essential, even the newest NC is 8 years old now. The other types at that price will be even more knackered than the same price-point Mazda, and maintenance even more costly so likely to have been at least as neglected. My daughter wanted an NA or NB as her first car, she ended up with a Fiesta and I bought a brand new RF. I did the weekends under the car from 1981 to 1994 and didn’t fancy revisiting that part of my youth!

My previous terrier climbed onto the dining table and took an SE5a fuselage for a chew! I think she was jealous of the attention paid to the model?

Lovely model. It really makes an imposing Landie! On the subject of 007 LRs, was anyone else amused in the latest (execrable imho) film at the extent of JLR product placement that proved their state of art vehicles were inferior to a fairly old Toyota? Probably the most realistic aspect of the movie! 🤣

Gladiators in service look to have aluminium paint finish on metal panels to (more or less) match aluminium dope of fabric parts. Same types of finishes used on undersides of early spitfires. By the time of Gladiator I assume the RAF had better things to do than polish cowlings, which was the finish on the Hawker biplanes. Polished bare metal finish takes a lot of maintenance in the British climate.

Lovely build. I prefer the 78 to the 79. I built the 1/20 back in the day, when it came with proper livery and was boxed as its real name JPS Mk.III, none of that Lotus 78 nonsense! 🤣

Last year my premium with LV plummeted by 50%. There was a new rule (law?) that required insurers to give loyal customers exactly same deal as new ones. Of course that benefit has washed through every one after 12 months so now normal(?) underwriting rules apply. Not looking forward to mine in November - supposedly protected NCB but still will get hammered for a significant claim. 😭

A clubmate has built the Apple Porsche but in 1/24 and v nice it looks too. I think 1/20 was “a thing” for a while with the Japanese manufacturers, giving more room for motorisation. I built jeeps, mitsis and minis in that scale back in the day. But apart from GP cars, I think any mainstream 1/20 car available now is a repop of something from the 70s with all that implies. Much as 1/20 gives slightly more presence and possibility for greater detail, I think that ship sailed 50 years ago…

To be honest all paints vary in appearance. I’ve just had some panels repaired on my car and I can tell the difference. The body shop used the manufacturer paint that should have matched. And said manufacturers paint always looked subtly different even brand new from the factory in certain lights as the substrate was steel, aluminium or abs on different panels. What I am saying is a WW2 Spitfire (say) in dark earth / dark green will look completely different on bright sunshine from a grey cloudy miserable winter light. Most of our models are displayed indoors so you need to use your artistic side to decide what is the right compromise for you; as I’ll hazard that no Spitfire has ever been displayed under the rxact lighting scenario of your living room.

It is actually as per the title of this thread! I tried googling; but I see your point… https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/

One can’t necessarily equate serials other than very close to being the same build, as these were issued in batches to cover various builders, not even necessarily in the obvious order or even across Marks. I have a 1984 book Spitfire Survivors which lists 18 Mark XVI at that date in the UK, of which four are high-backs. Intriguingly these are the four in RAF service during the last months of the war, all the low-backs illustrated were taken on charge after VE Day. These four have TB serials, which logically would be in the middle of the low backs which are in RW, SL, TD and TE series. Of TB752 it states “built at Castle Bromwich and delivered to No.33 M.U. At Lyneham on 21 February, as such it must have been one of the last Spitfires built with the traditional canopy shape, the tear-drop canopy and rear-view fuselage being introduced onto the line that month”.

Googling “seagull outboard motor” would be the obvious start. More info than you can shake a stick at!

In 1981 I had a colleague who lusted after the Equipe; clearly slightly mad as his wheels at the time were a Dolly 1850, admittedly not Sprint but with the Sprint wheels etc! The 1850 was no slouch.

A black Diablo bimbled past as I was out for a walk yesterday lunchtime. Lovely looking and sounding.

The Jeep would be an M38A1, from 50s onwards.

I assume that the pointy rudder was adopted to overcome the 50%+ hike in power from the engines compared to the early marks. Hence why early IXc have the old rudder, as the Mark was ostensibly an interim type until the MkVIII got into production.

As a car mad kid in the UK, i never ever saw a proper LandCruiser like this until 1980 or so - and that was on a beach in France! At the time it seemed a behemoth compared to a Series! I assume most of the ones you see now are recent imports.

Looking great with the chequers. When I read JHStevens book, I came to the conclusion bracing wires and rib tapes weren't something worthy of mention, as (in 1933) everyone knew they were present. Move forward to the plastic kit era 1957 on you get the starved horse look because now it was abnormal from a stressed skin plane.

Just come back from setting up, ready for tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing lots of you; bring lots of cash to spend on the Tombola which yours truly will be running!

A fairly easy option would be to graft the Aeroclub vacform conversion fuselage's nose onto a more modern Vc, IX or VIII fuse and sort out wings with various spares. The Aero club comes with a nice white metal prop and exhausts. I have two but then ended up with two Xtrakit XII kits. These four and a Brigade XII decal sheet cost about twenty quid all told at various shows. I'll let you all stew in your jealousy! 😎

If the adjacent building is listed, any part of it and it’s “curtilege” would form part of the listing and therefore need at least “Listed Building Consent” from the council.

Have you tried warming the decals? I have a coffee warmer that can keep the decals nice and warm so the thicker ones seem to snuggle down nicely.

This looks like it’s coming together nicely. I assume it will have the kits 6-cylinder so will you nail the bonnet shut or is there a cunning plan (or just assume re-engined from a 109)?

I generally use all acrylics nowadays, but in the past have happily painted acrylic over enamel and vice versa without any problems. I even accidentally mixed acrylic and enamel for a colour once; despite it curdling it brushed on okay and dried out fine. Not recommended practice though!