Spiny

A fair bit of nice metal over the weekend what with a trip over to Spa (including lots of Datsuns and Peugeot 205s, plus a number of old Ferrari's, Triumphs and quite a few race cars). Quite a few pictures sitting on the camera at the moment, but in the meantime here's a few off the phone... Triumph Toledo Wedge TVR Escort RS1600

Got to agree, that is absolutely lovely in all respects.

I think it shows the difference seeing it side by side with the before - if it was on its own I doubt it would be so noticeable. But I'm glad you noticed - makes the effort worthwhile. I used to go with the Micromesh sheets from 4000, then 6000, 8000 and finally 12,000 grit but found with those had a bad habit of burning through in places after the first two. For this one, I got some Micromesh pads which make it much easier to sand up to a line (I was very concerned I would burn through those creases otherwise), and also started at 6000 before going through 8000 to 12,000. I've also gone quite heavy with the clear to give me something to sand down, which is a good job as I must have spent an hour on the main body with the 6000 plus another half hour with the 8000. My wrist isn't used to that much sanding, but at least I'm not facing a respray

Looking really good now. It's those last little details which take the time, but you've got a good looking model there. I can fully sympathise with you on the body - it's always one of the bits I dread until I've mated it to the chassis but that body spread is something we can't avoid (and not just because we're mostly at least middle aged here ) - I even had to pull the body of the Trabant slightly and that's as boxy as they come. But you got it on without damaging anything which is always a result whatever the car.

Not unheard of with Revell's models using the metal pins to hold the wheel on. I had exactly the same problem with my Mustang... and exactly the same solution. My take on it was that I'm not an 8-year old kid playing with toy cars anymore, and it's only going to sit on the shelf now. In my opinion you did the right thing there.

There's nothing like a multi-coloured part to really put the brakes on things, and last weekend I had two - the belt assembly on the front of the engine which made it onto the model last week, and what I think is the steering column and assorted bottles which didn't. (I have a couple more reverse action tweezers coming soon which should mean that's less of an issue in future). But, that's all painted and on now, so here's another pic of the engine bay: After that, it was on to the front suspension. A bit more photoetch in the shape of the brake discs, but the only bit here which was even mildly tricky was holding the struts in place while I fitted the sub-frame over. All sorted now, and this is where I stand at the moment (progress wasn't helped by being distracted by that sudoku on the newspaper making up my work area!) What with waiting for paint to dry, most of my modelling time this weekend was spent micromeshing. The spoilers and bonnet are complete now, but the body is only at 8000 grit stage with the 12000 grit still to come. I got some of the micromesh pads having used the sheets previously, and they do allow much more control - already the paint is looking quite good here and the only place with a burn though it is on the edge of the rear wheel arch which is a) very small, and b) will be covered by the overfender anyway. So a big thumbs up for the micromesh pads. I won't put up the body as it stands (who wants yet another white body pic?), so instead here's the bonnet with one half "before" any work, and the other half "after" the 12,000 grit to show the difference. I think I need to get better at my spraying - would save a lot of sanding!

Can't be far off being finished by the looks of it. Hard to believe you've built the chassis up from nothing - I'd have thought it was a complete kit looking at progress to date if you hadn't said anything.

Can't help with Noddy, but I can help with the car This one was for sale at Le Mans last year.

Looks good, a great save of the paint and you wouldn't guess you'd had issues. I must admit though when I opened a thread called "rusty Mercedes" I was expecting a turn-of-the-millennium E-Class

Thank you, although the credit for the engine must go to Tamiya. This is as it comes straight out of the box and all I did was add a bit of paint and glue as in the instructions. Have to admit I'd be lost without the magnifying lenses though - I think my age is catching up with my eyes this last year

The good thing about Bank Holiday weekends is that you get the chance to make a bit of noticeable progress (in amongst all the other things you're required to do). Happily, I was able to take this opportunity this time, even though most of the pieces were quite small so the amount of progress visible is somewhat less that the amount of work done. First up was to add the panel washes to the body. I used dark grey for the panel lines, which has come out much more stronger than it did on the Corvette a while back (although the photo makes it look worse than it is). I'm hoping that it will fade a bit with polishing and waxing, but I can live with it as it is. The scuttle grille was done with a black wash and barely looks any different to the dark grey. Meanwhile, in the engine bay, a first for me as I applied the first of the kits photoetched parts. It's the first time I've used photoetch, and I must admit that I was expecting the process to be much harder than it was - definitely happy with the result, and the air funnels also seem to have fixed more strongly than expected. As proof of how strongly they have attached, I (accidentally!) dropped the engine on the floor and it all stayed together - no food for the carpet monster today. The other side of the engine saw the exhausts painted and added along with the belt system (usual long-winded painting job on that) and the fan. The instructions want it done in matt white, but I've gone with semi-gloss as I felt that looked a bit more like plastic. Still not 100% sure I did the right thing there, but the engine is complete now, and has all gone together extremely smoothly in line with Tamiya's reputation. The final job was to get that engine into the body. For some reason, the instructions want the interior floor painting semi-gloss black, but I've gone with matt black to better represent carpet. I think this is the first car I've built with a single skin floor, so the floor does imitate the underside a bit - as this is the kit for a custom version of the Skyline I wonder if this is meant to represent a car with the carpet stripped out? Anyway, the engine slotted in just as nicely as it built up. So far it's lookign like just as good a kit as its reputation suggests.

Nice set of photos, looks like a good day. I do like that Bristol as a car, and that last b/w shot of the Ferrari is beautiful. As it happens, I was at Donington last week for the first time - it's definitely one of those tracks which the TV camera flattens out. Very pretty track - hope you had a good day.

Absolutely superb, as were the previous two you posted. I have to say that I much prefer the way you've built it to the picture on the box.

Superb work, particularly for the window surrounds. When you say tin foil, is that just normal kitchen foil or something a little thinner?

I can feel your pain on those manifolds - it looks a right pain to get those in there. Pretty certain I couldn't have maintained that quality of build in the face of that.