Fastcat

Hi Ian, Have a look at Airscale's stuff. While it's not car related, there should be something useful. After all, in this scale no-one's going to read them (famous last words!). Without checking, the Merc's may be black on a white dial face so you should find something of the right size. The Merc star you might find something suitable from Carpena Decals. They do a range of scales for German car badges, also instruments. Failing that, do a search on eBay. There are quite a few decals available from home made sources. Dave

Lovely little model Bill and amazing attention to detail. All those little fiddly bits..................................! One to be proud of. Dave

Hi peekay, That's a stunning build of a very old kit. You can only appreciate the lines of the car with the bonnet closed so being curbside is a positive. The '90s re-issue was all plastic i think. I have the original Monogram issue with an all metal body and I think the fit is a bit better but if I manage to make it look this good I'll be well pleased. Lovely work. Dave

Hi Tomo, Some more detail here: Linky Might come in useful for some of the fiddly bits later on. Dave

Hi Ian, Great little model and a good choice of colour that really shows it off. Hard to believe it's so tiny. Lovely work. Dave

Hi Greg, What an amazing improvement - well more of a remastering. Great to see how it's progressing. Such a pity that Karaya didn't do a better job. Mikromir have an 1/48 S5 in progress. Wonder how that'll turn out but at least they seem to be doing their homework. Maybe the dog ate Karaya's. Great work and dedication. Dave

Lovely build. Looks so much nicer in blue. Great work. Dave

Hi Jo, Well spotted. There aren't many good pre 1932 shots of the left side of the car without someone standing obligingly in the way! A lot more was done to uprate the engine power for the '32 season and reliability of the blower versions was always a problem. Also, many of the races at Brooklands were over a fixed distance such as 500 miles so that some idea of distance covered would be useful. Dave

Hi Jo, Yes, you'd think so but as it's only a block of wood and the board that it's mounted on is black, who's to say. It may originally come from somewhere else on the car. It would be virtually impossible to read the gauge while driving but I like your idea of it being a mileage monitor. Makes a lot of sense. Dave

Hi Jo, I know it would seem to be an odd location for a speedo. I saved the original photos but don't know how to post here and couldn't locate the source. Found it just! Link Just scroll down and click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture. The whole gauge isn't visible but you can see what I take to be a speedo with a digital type odometer built in. What looks like the numbers 1 9 5 7 are visible. Plus you can see the graduations going from 10 to past 130. The speed graduations on the large tachometer may not have been accurate enough for road use because the road speed would depend on the gearbox ratios and tyre size. The car was driven on public roads quite often during it's later life when owned by "Rusty" Russ Turner so the speedo may be a later addition whereas some kind of tacho would always have been fitted. Thanks for the link Dan - most useful. Incidentally, the blue colour in parts of the cockpit where the stickers is thought to be the original colour of the car when it was first raced. Dave

Hi Jo, Great work and a very fine model. The instrument in the blue mount is, I think, a humble speedometer. In searching around on the net, I've found two pictures, neither of which show it clearly. What they do show is that it's calibrated in tens from 10 to at least 140. At the top centre of the instrument is a linear odometer, just as in an ordinary car. I presume that since the beast was driven on public roads, a speedo was mandatory so was fitted to comply with the law, but in driving, more attention was given to the rev-counter which is larger and has a much more prominent position in front of the driver. Dave

Hi Chuck, As Paul J says, the wings and tail were almost certainly doped silver. However, I think you're confusing the two red Vega Gulls. Lady Sherborne's was registered G-AFBC and had what looks like a natural aluminium engine cowl. The aircraft with the white stripe, G-AFBW, was owned by R.E. Gardner and borrowed by Alex Henshaw for the DH 88 Comet rescue depicted on the box art. Good picture of FBC here: Link and here : Link and here: Link. There are a couple of other pre war shots at ABPic. Use the search function on that site Only problem is........................in the last link, the fuselage is described as blue! Date of photo is said to be 1954, the year in which it crashed and was written off. John Aero may be able to clarify this - I think he helped with the kit and usually has a definitive answer. By the way, I don't think that Lady Sherborne flew this aircraft in the 1952 King's Cup. It was loaned to Flt Lt Severne for this event. I believe he came eighth. She did however race this aircraft in the 1950 King's Cup but I'm not sure of the race number. Dave Have just found this copy of the 1952 King's Cup programme which clearly states that it was Blue and silver. Link

Hi Rob, From what I can remember, the surface detail was very finely done and it had a nice little engine. Being a trike, the nose required a lot of weight. General fit was OK but not great. Main problem is with the windscreen which is much thicker than necessary and as a result not overly clear. Side windows are a little better but again not great. Basically it's a product of it's time, advanced in terms of surface detail but lacking in terms of fit and engineering. Dave

Well, apart from the usual stuff (like how to tie ones shoelaces and how to avoid falling out of bed too often), at the moment I'm researching the Jaguar XK120, Art Chester's Jeep, Red Wolverton's Ace motorbike and the Thomas Flyer (which most certainly didn't). Also had a look at the Bullitt Mustang car and various Mustang and Corsair racing aircraft. Plus, Dora Wings have a very nice Vega Gull and Proctor, the latter another type frequently seen at Elmdon. Nosing about's often as interesting as making a model .......................... Oh, almost forgot the Model T. Dave

Hi Tomo, Not sure if you've seen this:Link or this:Anuvver Link or even this : Even more Links. Also have a look at Getty Images. Some nice period pics amongst all the dross! Dave