johnlambert

I thought about that as an excuse to not mess with the paint, but I've gone too far to get away with that now.

Wow, that looks really good. I think I need to get that!

It's great seeing all the builds going on, but it's hard to keep up with every one. I wasn't happy with the paint match between the bonnet and the tops of the front wings, so the paint has been sanded back ready for another coat. This means that I need to buy more paint. It's a bit of a setback, but at least there is plenty of time and I'd like to do as good a job as possible. The interior as it was yesterday, the red seat centres looked too bright. The engine as it was yesterday. Collection of painted parts today. The seats have been dry-brushed with a little matt black to bring out some of the texture, then sprayed with matt varnish. For the door cards I've painted some detail and added a little brown wash to the panel line and a couple of other areas. Wheel centres are painted, I'll give them a clear top coat and then a light wash to bring out the detail. Close-up of the engine. So far I'm quite pleased with how this build is going, it doesn't seem like a bad kit. While I don't want to rush, I'd quite like to finish and pick up a 1:32 Matchbox car kit.

I'm quite surprised at how quickly my build is progressing, but it might slow down soon. I've also got plans to seek out a Matchbox 1:32 car kit to build next, maybe a Citroen Traction or Rolls-Royce Phantom.

That's looking very good indeed, a fine model of a magnificent car.

Thanks, that's a really handy photo.

Painting continues, most of which isn't very interesting at the moment. I'm quite pleased with the way the dashboard is going. The instructions would have you paint the dials silver in a black panel, but I'm sure VW used a metallic surround for black gauges. The instrument panel is Valejo matt aluminium, the dials and radio are picked out with a black enamel wash. It looks better in real life than in the photo. It looks like there are some switches and warning lights to try and pick out.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who put those bags to use storing small model parts. Nice work on this build.

Time to resume work on the Jaguars. One of the tail lamps had gone missing so I used some Araldite and blutac to cast a pair of tail lamps from the one pair I had. They are a bit crude and blobby but could have been a lot worse. Another challenge is trying to attach the body and chassis. There is no mechanical fixing to clip the two parts together and there don't seem to be many points where the two halves actually touch to apply any sort of adhesive. Fingers crossed that it holds together. Tail lamps in place, I don't think they'll win any awards but they're better than nothing. Headlamp bezels are glued in place. This feels like a kit that is fighting all the way to the end, so I'd really like to get at least one of them finished soon. At the moment I think the green one is nearly there. It won't win any awards but it'll do.

Thanks for all the comments. A little more progress has been made. Test fitting the engine with the radiator in place, I think it's OK, the testing probably needs the axle in place too. But I might be helped by the fact that the gearbox mount snapped off. Bonnet in place, I'm trying to decide if there's a mismatch in the colour between the bonnet and the wing. Another view of the painted body. The engine with the broken mount, I've cut off the starter motor from the gearbox and drilled out the spark plugs for wires (if I go down that route). The starter was re-attached to the block, not sure if this is right but I hope it's better than the original kit part. What feels like actual progress, the interior is starting to come together. And a bit more paint. Some black on the dashboard and the air intake/battery. The instructions would have you paint these parts red, which doesn't feel right to me. The interior panels are described in the paint callout as "leather" the closest I'd got was this matt brown, which I quite like although I'm not sure how it will go with the red parts of the interior. But this is a 1970s design, so I guess some odd colours are to be expected. It has to be said that it's nice to do an interior that isn't just shades of black.

The SS100 was the first Matchbox kit I built (over 30 years ago, I think), so I'm looking forward to seeing this come together.

Fords of that era used wipers that were powered by inlet manifold vacuum, which meant that wiper speed was inversely proportional to throttle opening. This meant that if you were going quickly, or trying to accelerate, the wipers would slow right down. When you lifted off the accelerator, the wipers would go like the clappers.

Thanks for the warm welcome. A quick mock-up suggests that I've got lucky and the engine just fits the bay. Also, this is the first look at the painted shell, which I'll leave a couple of days before polishing and detail painting. To fix the sink marks in the cam cover and exhaust silencer, and to fill the gaps in the seat backs I added some filler. I've thrown around some black paint on the underside, steering wheel and centre console, this is Halfords matt black from a spray can which to me looks more satin. The floor mat is in Halfords ultra matt cammo paint. I masked off the pan where the rear seat will go, so that it's a clean surface on which to glue the seat. Other interior and engine parts have been given a coat of Tamiya surface primer. Finally, for now, I drilled out the tip of the exhaust pipe. At the moment most of this build feels like it is waiting for paint to dry, but it should come together quite quickly (hope that's not tempting fate) once all the painting is done.

I'm a bit late to the party because my mental health has (for some reason) put me off posting, although it hasn't put me off actual modelling. I've seen that @Six97s is also doing a build of this kit. Although I'm not a massive Volkswagen fan I've got a soft spot for the Scirocco, particularly in later Mk1 form. This kit looks like it is an early Mk1 example, which is something I didn't even know existed until I started looking into the history of the real car (at some point Volkswagen facelifted the Scirocco with wraparound front indicators and more of a front air dam). This is the kit as it arrived last year. A closer look at the parts, the kit was part started, but all of that work needed undoing. Laying the parts out for inspection. The engine was glued together very badly but I managed to get most of it apart. Tyres, decals and axles. Parts still on the sprue. This is the majority of the racing parts, which won't be used in this build. Shiny bits. It's great that AMT provided two-part seats, less so that someone glued them together like this! First stage was to assemble all the body panels as it seemed better to get all these together and fitted neatly before painting. There were a few sink marks that needed filling and some faint seam lines to remove. I also decided to remove the US-specification side marker lights from the body moulding. Some Halfords filler primer was used to help tidy up the corners although the crease in the wings is now not quite as sharp as it probably should be. I debated going with a metallic blue of green but that wouldn't be right for this age of Scirocco, so I decided to stick with red, hence the red primer. The colour call outs also recommend "brick red" for the interior carpet and parcel shelf, so I'll leave those in the primer finish. Primer, incidentally, is Halfords red plastic primer. The part of any car build that I find most difficult is getting a decent paint finish, so that needs to be my focus before I get distracted by too much of the engine or interior build.

That's a nice build, I've often wondered how the Airfix VW kit goes together.

That's gorgeous, not sure about the whitewall tyres but I wouldn't say no. The DB4 is definitely a dream drive for me.

I wouldn't say no to a Ferrari 365 GTC4, I've even heard a Daytona owner say that the GTC is actually the better car! I certainly think it is quite handsome. However I'd say that some of the very early Ferraris, where bodywork was very much done to the tastes and specifications of the original owner, can look very odd indeed. I must admit that after the 360 I struggle to tell one "baby" Ferrari from another.

That's seriously impressive work on the suspension and steering!

I've not seen a basic, chrome bumper MGB kit, but it looks like it's that kit with extras. Funnily enough my motivation for getting the kit was the same. Although I kind of fancy doing a replica of the racing MGBs I've seen at the Oulton Park Gold Cup. So I can see myself buying more MGB kits, so I can have a roadster,, GT (probably V8), CGT Sebring and a racing MGB roadster.

I've got the rubber bumper and rally versions of the MGB. You're correct that the half tonneau cover comes with the sprue for the impact bumpers. The rally MGB comes with a set of Minilite wheels and an extra clear sprue that incorporates the lenses for a set of spotlamps and a hard-top. It looks like all MGB kits come with a representation of the raised convertible hood, moulded as part of the main clear sprue.

That really is a little beauty. So far I've steered away from Porsche as a subject, not because I dislike it but because I'd end up in a rabbit warren of wanting 356s, 911s, 904s, 917s and who knows what else? I wish I could make some suggestion for improvement or an original compliment on the quality of the build, but I can't see anything that could be improved and all the compliments have been made (and are well deserved). Thanks for sharing this with us.

I'm going to need more Aoshima MGBs at this rate too!

It also comes with some nice, etched "V8" emblems. But I thnik it will be a big challenge painting the alloys with the black and silver finish. OK, seems like I need that in my life.

I treated myself yesterday. Technically it doesn't break my rule about not buying any more kits, because it is to convert one of my existing Aoshima MGBs. I ordered it with a set of resin V8 alloys, so at some point I hope I'll have a half-convincing MGB GT V8 on my shelf.

I had an email saying that mine were on the way, but they've not turned up yet.