onethritysecond

I have been painting the interior this week and have been having a bit of trouble getting proper coverage with the Humbrol matt scarlet that I used for the interior parts, as can be seen in the following pictures. I was using a hairy stick and had to put so many coats on to get coverage that it ended up cracking in places. Being the interior though it won’t really show! Coopers had an interior handle to open the door but regular minis had a pull cord, that I have added here from guitar string and the sleeving off fine electrical wire. The kit also came with transfers for the seat belts, w

This week I spent some time making a side entry (or I suppose that should be side exit?) distributor and wiring up the plug leads. High resolution photos are not good for the ego – what looks fine to the naked eye suddenly has all sorts of glue residue and parts that need touching up! Plug caps look too big too. Engine has had a matt coat applied and pipe stubs have been added to the rocker cover and air filter box for the engine breather hose. I may have to cut the downpipe off to be able to fit the engine in the bay. Rear seat has been downgraded by

It would have been used on all models across the range when it was a current colour, so quite likely also used on the Mk3 Cortina as well as the Mk1 & 2 Escort. Not so sure about on the Mk1 Cortina though, the usual mid blue in the early/mid 60s was Aqua blue, which is a far bit darker or there was a much lighter blue (not sure of the name) - I had a 63 Anglia in Aqua blue (and it is still one of my favourite car colours) and my grandad had a 67 Anglia in the light blue - mighthave been fjord blue? Chris

Don't know about later cars but on the early 850 engines the air filter is behind the dashpot, like here (from aronline.com)

Thanks! The Scirroco is a fairly basic 70s AMT kit re-released a year or so ago and is indeed 1/25th scale. Apart from making a RHD dash and putting hinges on the bonnet it is built out of the box, painted VW silver of some sort that I was originally going to use on the Golf but went with Mars Red instead. Most people seem to consider 1/25th close enough to 1/24th to not matter but I really notice it, epecially when I was considering swapping parts between it and the 1/24th Revell Golf GTi (can't remember what or why now) and side by side the difference is pretty obvious. AMT also did the

The paint is actually proper 70s Ford Olympic Blue (although I kept calling it Bermuda blue in the work in progress thread) that I bought from Halfords - there are many 70s colours still available as they are strong colours suitable for general hobby projects, not just cars! Halfords aerosols leave quite a good finish out of the can too, just needing minimal polishing. Chris

Thanks for all the kind words guys! Chris

Just to say that I have managed to get some mirrors and have now put this model in the ready for inspection, thanks for watching! Chris

Few bits of small progress on the mini this week. Finally, after much fiddling and re-positioning, got the single carb and air filter to fit into the engine bay – but only just! The engine was painted Humbrol 80 in the end and weathered a bit as the real car was a film studio hack so wouldn’t have been the best looked after of vehicles. The engine will just fit in with the engine bay already assembled but that is before the radiator has gone in so it’s going to be tight. I also managed to accidentally drill right through the air filt

@TimLucas kindly supplied me some mirrors after I accidentally threw mine away in a tidy up (yes, I know) so can now publish the finished conversion of the Revell Mk 2 rally Escort into a 1.1 base model. This took a lot of work and involved scratch building most of the engine - you can see what was involved in the build thread I have noticed after taking the pictures that the bonnet isn't on quite tidy in some of them but I had already packed it away and couldn't face getting it out again - it does sit properly normally! Last few pictures show it sitting with some VW

First thing to say is that I was (unfortunately) correct in thinking that you shouldn’t attach the inner wings and firewall/bulkhead before fitting the engine! I am going to have real trouble fitting the engine now assembly is under way, to the extent that I might cut the firewall out again. I think having the inner wings attached is probably ok but I wouldn’t even count on that! I have altered the track to the correct 50mm for standard minis. Black is ‘Army Painter’ matt black primer, which is not as good as Citadel Chaos Black (never seems to fully dry for one thing) but it all I

Arriving late to this party but absolutely great work - I am all for these great old Airfix kits getting made, have done most of them (including the Dauphine) at one time or other and will do so again when I get time. Chris

Actually there is (or at least was) a resin bodyshell of a Hindustani Ambassador available in 1/32nd for slot racing, have one in my stash! Sorry if that means you have to make one now! Chris

Hi Trevor, I'm going to go with the 80 I think. Hydrolastic came in in 1964 on the saloons (but never on the estates and vans I think) so is bang on for Jeanie's mini being a 64 on a B plate. Having said that, I hadn't noticed whether it had hydrolastic or not! Chris

Rather than doing a ‘blow by blow’ of how to put together a Revell mini (I’m sure you are can handle that) I will be keeping this just to what is involved in either improving the detail on the mini or what is necessary to convert it to a mk1 Austin Super. I started by assembling the engine block – there is inevitably a join right in the middle of the sump fins so these have to be re-cut. Next is to decide on the engine colour: BMC A series engines of this era were usually painted green but what shade? Internet show almost as many different colours us