Jo NZ

Painted a few years ago, it's been sitting in it's box because all the vinyl deteriorated and the tyres split. They were crossplies anyway! I finally got hold of some Mk1 Escort rally tyres and cut them down to look like period radials. This is the high detail kit with the cast chassis and wheels, and photo etched badges etc. Sadly the Sprite badge on the back (it looked great) was sacrificed to the carpet god. Other bits and pieces: the exhaust was replaced by aluminium tube, front bumper discarded (it was an optional extra at the time and my Frogeye never had one), and it's painted in BMC Cherry Red - an unusual colour, only used on the Mk1 Sprite, I think. Rattle-can paint was mixed by an automotive supplier. The colours are as my car was (hence the black seats). I used red and orange Sharpies to colour the rear lights - I think I might do it on the next car too, it's really easy to get a good finish. With an 848cc engine (with twin 1 1/8" SUs!) it could never be described as fast, but it was good at overtaking on roundabouts. I drove one a couple of years ago and couldn't believe how small it was.

You might also want to get rid of the large plastic channels at the bottom of the firewall and bolt it to the chassis directly. See my Monza below...

In that case go coarser - 150 or even 80 grit! I took the tread off the Airfix 1/12 Bentley tyres on a lathe with a coarse (I.e. fatherless child) file and then sanded with 150 grit. Here's the difference:

Try sanding the tyres with 240 then 400 grit to get rid of the tails, they will also grey up a bit.

Being very very very very nit-picky on the photos of David's "Star"...the auxiliary headlamps in front of the grille are cable driven to turn with the front wheels, so they should point in the same direction as the wheels. It is totally awesome though. Another thing that I discovered when I photographed the car at the Coventry Motor Museum sometime last century - the bonnet won't open fully, it fouls on the Spirit of the Wind mascot which has to be turned to face backwards. Well I needed pictures of the engine bay....

Going back to the paint, I find that the best way to kill red is with grey primer. Unfortunately it's also usually quite thick.

Whn I built my Monza someone asked me if there were parts that I hadn't modified in any way. I had to think for a long time before I came up with one - the steering outer shaft... This goes way beyond that! Incidentally have you extended the front dumb irons? I have a feeling that they're 6" longer than on the Monza chassis (as supplied in the kit). Following on from Codger's comment - it may be worth taking a mould off the body when it's finished. It's looking closer and closer to a real car with every cut....

did you anneal the ally first?

The chassis is dark blue - not as it says in the instructions. You will also need to find decals for the McLaren racing stickers on the side windows, and also for the stripe on the rear spoiler. As you're not trying to make all the opening bits work you've saved yourself about 90% of the grief!

It ought to be round...

Beautiful. Complete works of art. However... as I found after I'd made aluminium friction plates for my Pocher Monza, the plates are actually wood - Maple was used in period, now they use Beech on the rebuilds. Of course if you're going to paint the whole assembly it doesn't matter, but wooden leaves would add another material to the build and look cool...

Also the RAF liveried AEW trials Comet - XW626. It will need a conversion for the front radome.

Re "you may disagree" My favourite is " I'd like to agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong" And - I would put the Ferrari 330P4 a close second to the DBR1

Perhaps it's a reverse lock-out lever?

I don't know about the ashtrays in the Shack, but the ashtrays in the Nimrod were Escort mkII rears-the 180 degree swivel version.

The schmitt!

Absolutely sweet as!

Welcome to the hand spoking club. Now you have to get it right 3 more times...

Hi Olivier Just to add to the colour information.... Full size chrome plate is usually three separate platings. First, a copper flash is applied which acts as a primer. Then a nickel coat, which gives the colour, and finally a chrome coat which gives a hard and shiny finish. There isn't much colour in the actual chrome, so you get an impression of depth through it to the nickel. Jo

Mine were off white too, and on a reasonably recent kit. Watch the fairing, it's easy to split the joint with handling . And - if you do tape the decals to the window, put them in a ziplock bag (unless you live in the Sahara)🙃

I had some 1965/66 Ford Arcadian Blue mixed for a 1966 GT40, and the paint code that the paint shop recognised was "F". Refreshing after all the six to eight figure codes...

Use a light coat of metal etch primer to key the paint. I use a rattle can from Dulux (Australia) but any hardware store should have it. Get the one for Brass, Zinc etc.

I've also seen it done on 1/43rds with a section from a plastic shopping bag (save them now!) and a hairdryer to shape it, followed by a coat of matt car-cover colour.

Sorry! I know some of the guys at Wingnut Wings, they are really straight up and down people.

If I recall correctly WNW are owned by Peter Jackson, who while not a Native American speaker does at least speak New Zealand English like he was born here (he was, by the way). The operation is run from Wellington by other New Zealand speakers. Bear in mind that they are in a competitive market, and while they may want to let everyone know what they're doing next week, being beaten to the market by another player is a very good reason to stay schtum.