Fastcat

Great to see one of the lesser cars of Le Mans being modelled. Profil do tend to go for the unusual! Personally I liked the Spice cars - nice looking and colour schemes to suit all tastes. Just begging to be modelled. Dave

Charles Gardner won the 1937 King's Cup Air Race with G-AEKL. It was rebuilt after its tragic accident, originally being built for the Schlesinger race and designated "Miss Liverpool" and painted black and white. When owned by Gardner, I think it was dark blue with light blue trim. Dave

Strictly speaking there was almost no weathering until later in the race as it was dry but by this time the care was looking distinctly second-hand. There was a large dent in the front where Moss hit a hay bale and a big dent in the driver's headrest where a mechanic was slow in getting clear after refuelling. So there's plenty of weathering but it depends on the stage of the race being modelled. See car in garage after the race. Dave

Upstairs was good but no place for a non-smoker! My routes were the No.96 Lodge Road (Town and work), the No.8 to Aston (home) and the No9 (school). Plus others of course but not as often. Dave

Hi Mike, I'm not sure that they did. I know they used Daimler, Guy and Leyland but I think the Routemaster was designed for London Transport. They did use an AEC Bridgemaster but that's a different thing. I'm not a keen follower of buses so perhaps someone with more knowledge than me can give a definitive answer although Ido come from Birmingham! Dave

Great work so far but I think the handlebars are in the wrong position if they have been fixed in place. They should be angled slightly downwards and back towards the rider. Of course, if you haven't fixed them yet, it doesn't matter! Dave

Hi CC, Yes, as far as I know a 3 spoke steering wheel was used in the race and Toftdale's post of the cars in the Merc garage after the race confirms this. Moss says that the steering wheel was changed immediately before the race began. He was impressed with the Mercedes organisation and their ability to make last minute changes to keep their drivers happy. Dave

Hi CC, There are photos of 722s interior but they are not complete. I have no idea who these belong to and will take them down if asked. I came upon the pre-start photo after my model was built but the main addition should be the grab handle on the passenger side. Denis Jenkinson alludes to there being more handles in his account of the race but doesn't say where they are. You can see this grab handle in Toftdale's post of the cars after the race in the Mercedes garage. Jenkinson also says that there was some means of keeping the check tickets in the car (the race was run like a rally and at various check- points, race officials had to stamp or sign their tickets). I'm not sure of the drinks holder. It seems unlikely that a drinks bottle would be provided for the driver and nothing for the passenger in a 10 hour race. I think only Moss had a passenger and in subsequent races passengers weren't carried. Jenkinson describes peeling oranges for Moss in his account so the holder may be a later addition. The photo also shows a 4 spoke steering wheel but I think this was changed to a 3 spoke just before the race began. Dave

Hard to believe these are scratch-built. Fine work and a great result. Dave

A truly beautiful little model that belies its scale. Lovely work. The cat's good too! Dave

Hi Thierry, That's great. Hope you get on well with them. I bought mine over three years ago on a whim and now they're my first choice. Dave

Hi CC, Nice work on the exhausts. I used aluminium tube for my exhausts. I polished the end of the tube enough to make two exhausts then separated the two lengths with an old modelling knife. It's very easy to get a chrome-like finish and doesn't take long to do. The ends of the tube were thinned with a knife. It matches any chrome in the kit which isn't really chrome anyway - it's aluminium. In any case, because it's such a small area, any colour mismatch isn't noticeable. I did the heat bluing pretty much as you did but if I was doing it today I'd consider a Tamiya weathering kit for exhausts. It uses waxy colours and fine powders and although you might not think it would stain a polished metal finish, it does work. It gives a much more subtle effect than paint. I've said Tamiya but I think that there are suitable weathering powders from other suppliers - there's such a lot of stuff available to aircraft and armour modellers these days. Dave

Forgot to say, there's also Le Mans Decals for all the variations that Indycals don't do. This enables the Targa cars, Dundrod cars and also, for the more adventurous, the Le Mans cars. They're based in Spain and have a terrific range in all the popular scales. And not just Le Mans cars either. They cover F1 and many others including some rally cars. Meant for slot cars originally they're good quality and service has been good when I've used them in the past. Well worth trying for that hard to get item. Dave

For anyone thinking of any of the Mille Miglia cars, I see that Michael Portaro of Indycals has released a decal sheet for each car which makes it much easier to achieve. The decals are in the correct font and much more realistic than the ones in the kit. In the past, Indycals have used an all-over carrier film so the subjects need cutting individually from the backing sheet but that's a very small price to pay for an accurate set of markings. Dave

Hi CC, Have a look at : link If you also look at CMC's model of the engine, you should see it as they've modelled it. They're the large cylindrical pieces that join the two sections of exhaust pipe together ie the chrome end pipes to the natural metal pipes from the engine. You can see them through the access panel aperture Dave