johnlambert

It looks really good, black suits the car very well.

Thanks for the compliment. Yes, the DS is generally considered an attractive car, but it's also quite a divisive one. You are not the only person I've met who feels the way you do, and I don't hold your opinion against you. I was talking with someone either yesterday or today who said that there aren't any bad cars (which I might have pushed back against a little under different circumstances) just some cars aren't to your taste. Yes, the 1968 Robert Opron facelift was so effective that it looks like the car should have been that way from the start.

I've been at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC the last two days. I'll post photos soon, but on the way there I spotted a Maserati Indy with the registration 1NDY, which was a nice bonus.

I'm not keen on the Lancia Stratos, but I love Jack's videos. I've also met him and he's a lovely guy. He organised a small meet for his channel a couple of years ago. Then, when I bumped into him at Rustival I last year, he remembered and greeted me like a friend, which was really touching.

Kits are stored wherever they fit. I thrive on chaos. 🤣

The Honda S2000 is one of my favourite cars, so I agree with you.

@szeregowy @SnøMotion @ceeb555 My braincell is fighting a losing battle after one day at the NEC Classic Motor Show. I'll definitely be going to Telford on Sunday and I'll do my best to fit in with plans to meet up. I don't want to promise getting there for an early time.

We shall see how effective it was once it's removed.

Does anyone know why Fuji thought that this kit needed pistons and a crankshaft? But I'm enjoying the progress on this build. I've got the 356A Carrera kit. I'll get there one day...

Here's some more progress on the 2CV. I did a bit of pre-shading on the canvas roof. Masking up. Spraying the white again as it wasn't strong enough. Satin black for the chassis. Roof painted, I've tried to go lightly where the highlights were, which seems quite effective at emphasising the contours. Mask off. I've gone for a mix of LP1 and LP2 for the gloss dark grey that the instructions suggest.

The joy (or pain) of two-tone schemes is the amount of masking you must do. The dashboard echoes the exterior with its black and white colour. The DS was probably one of the first cars to feature a moulded plastic dashboard, and I love the swooping shapes used. Masking the roof to paint the trim chrome, including the "chip cones" or "Trumpets of Jericho" that house the rear indicators. Painting some satin black on the underside. Painting the chrome. The rear pillars will need to be painted mostly light grey, but there's a bit of chrome trim that runs down the trailing edge of the pillar.

@ceeb555 I've bought my Sunday ticket, so that's locked in now.

The company line from Rolls-Royce was that they would adopt disc brakes just as soon as they were proven as smooth and refined as their highly developed drums. Reading between the lines, cost probably figured largely in their calculations. The company adopted a similar public stance on alternators, independent rear suspension and goodness knows what else. To be fair to R-R, the drums were very well designed and the brake friction material was probably the best that could be had (fragile as porcelain and needing careful bedding in, but very good at resisting fade). The proud boast was that Rolls-Royce drum brakes do not fade, which might have been the truth but wasn't the whole truth. Much of the problem was the mechanical brake servo, which worked by a friction clutch off the transmission, didn't work at all below about 20mph (at such speeds only the rear brakes worked), didn't work very effectively in reverse and the brake servo could fade under hard use. The Silver Shadow had four-wheel disc brakes, using high-pressure hydraulics licensed from Citroen. I think there were also conventional, split-circuit hydraulics and the mechanical emergency/hand brake; so that it would take the failure of four separate systems before the Shadow and its derivatives would be rendered completely without brakes.

Fortunately, there are a few bigger-scale options. Three or four 1:24-scale kits. This is my build of the Tamiya 1:24 2CV. There's also Revell, Heller and another Japanese brand does an earlier suicide-door 2CV.

That's a great inspiration pic. Thanks.