Spiny

Nice work on what is a very distinctive car. That fame is a bit of a double edged sword for a modeller - plenty of reference photos, but also being so well known it will also get lots of comparisons to the real thing. I think judging by the photos here and the WIP thread it's fair to say this will stand those comparisons very well. Looking forward to the next one.

Looks very good, just think what you'll be able to achieve when you can see what you're doing! Like the others I do like the paint scheme. Not a particular fan of the sedanca style on any car, but I can't argue with the execution - it's some very good cutting and shaping work to make it work this well. Hope the op goes well and you're back at the bench before too long.

Noticing that it's Level 5, I think you're going to have a very busy day. I presume you have a way of locking all family members out of your modelling room? 😉

Something tells me the puppy will eat even more into your modelling time! Just so long as it doesn't eat into your modelling (same goes for the kitten I imagine).

Looking good alread. Personally I'd use the wheels in the box over the ones on the box cover given the choice, but it's your build so you should do it your way. I have to disagree with you about this being the best looking Mercedes though, my favourite would be the C111.

Definitely the sort of sticker which would lead to me giving the car a wide berth. This one from about 8 years ago would seem better to me: Mind you, the best one I saw was about 30 years ago in an old yellow Datsun: "Passion wagon: Don't laugh, your daughter may be inside!"

Good luck with the op, hope all goes well. No need to rush the build - it will still be waiting for you when you get back. Incidentally, where I've had a similar headlight issue to yours in terms of a black centre (usually due to a mounting post in my case), I've found the best solution is to paint the back end of the post in white which usually does a decent job of hiding it. I was going to show an example, but I can't remember which cars I did it on now and can't tell from looking at them (so it must work! ). For yours you may have been able to fit a white disc over the end of the 'tunnel' but your method seems to have worked well enough.

Difficult one for me to choose, but at the moment I'd probably go for (in date order) the Safari Datsun 240Z as just well built by @Windy37, the Alitalia Fiat 131 and the 555 Impreza (not the ones with the non-sponsorship swooshes which just looked odd to me).

Simple solution - get rid of the cat (yes, I am a dog person!) It's a good looking model, especially the interior and engine - why are the best bits of any model always the bits which are hard to see? I know from the build you put a lot of work into those, and it shows and was well worth it, even if they aren't easily visible at first glance. In terms of the photography, I start from the same place as Jeroen with ISO100 and f8 aperture. These are the lowest ISO (least noise on the photo) and smallest aperture/highest f-stop my camera has - those settings also mean a longer exposure time is needed as less light gets to the sensor and the sensor is at its least sensitive, but if you have a tripod it's worth it. With my camera you can set it to show the exposure in relation to the camera's 'ideal' metering which will give you a decent idea of how it's meant to look, then adjust the exposure accordingly. You'll probably want to overexpose a little compared to the recommendation for white cars and underexpose for black cars, but it gives you a start. But the results you're getting with the aperture-priority setting are nothing to be sniffed at and, to be honest, unless I'm taking photos of completed models it's very rare I use the manual setting on my camera anyway.

No, this one was Amazon's Black Friday sale and took about two weeks to get here. Absolutely - my credit card company told me that my reward points were about to expire and I had to get them spent before January. What else was I meant to do with them?

Well rescued. It's never easy trying to make a previously built model into a good end result, but going by your description of its monster-trucking you've done excellent work restoring this to something more realistic looking.

I'd second the one Fnick (too many nicks!) has suggested above as I have an identical no-name version but without the loupe. Very clear and not too uncomfortable, although it has reached the loosening up stage and I have just had to superglue in the tightening screws a bit. The vast majority of the time you only need one lens, but for the really detailed work the double lens is very useful. And it only cost about £15 so not a problem when it breaks. Trouble is, now Nick has shown that microscope style thingy I'm tempted by that for when this headset goes.

I didn't want to add to the stash (honest!), but was forced into this purchase:

I had a hard enough time stopping my colleague from laughing when a client turned up in one, even more when a tall bloke got out of the back seat...

Hate to be the downer, but I always dread the phrase "Inspired by real events" (i.e. we accidentally bought the rights to an average season so will jazz it up a bit). It'll probably end up with Michelle Mouton winning the championship... Got to agree that 1995 would have been a much better choice - maybe in ten years' time it'll be made.