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johnlambert

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Posts posted by johnlambert

  1. On 27/03/2024 at 12:19, Six97s said:

    According to this it was built with a de Dion axle from a Lancia Lambda Series VIl.  The diff was swapped later for a "power lock" unit from a 1922 (?) American truck, but still using the Lancia housing, so it seems you just have to find reference pics of that, without worrying about the origins of the internals.

     

    The 1922 date seems questionable.  I'm not aware of any limited slip designs that early...  the Dana Powr Lok (probably what's being referred to) didn't appear until the mid '50s.

    I'm fairly certain that the Lancia Lambda never had a de Dion back axle, although that remarkable car was one of the first to use independent front suspension. The Lancia Aurellia was the first Lancia to use de Dion rear suspension, and that was only from the fourth series in 1954. Possibly, given the improvised nature of the car, the differential was from a Lambda but the rest of the rear suspension was some sort of home-brew?

  2. That's a beautifully finished model, I can't say anything against your build. I've never seen one of these built before, so it is interesting to see what it looks like. I have to say that it doesn't quite look right. Some of that may be because K&R have produced the model as the XJ13 was originally, where I'm more familiar with the rebuilt example. Jaguar (or Abbey Panels) made a change to the front wheel arches when the car was rebuilt. I prefer the look as it is now, even if it isn't original. Maybe it's as simple as the wheels needing more depth, I'm sure the centres should be more inset relative to the rims.

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  3. You described the engine, twice, as a "V8".  I can assure you that it is nothing of the sort, being a straight, or inline eight as shown in the images of the sprues.

     

    Apart from one racing car, hastily concocted to meet rules designed to keep them away, the first Mercedes-Benz car to use a V8 engine was (unless I am very much mistaken) the 600 of 1963.  This 6,330cc M100 engine also found its way into the 300SEL 6.3 and made the "6.3" designation (or variants thereof) something of a distinguishing mark for high performance Mercedes models for years.  Even when it no longer had any link to the actual engine size.

  4. I built the Gunze Jaguar XK-E last year.  I'm currently having problems with photo hosting so I can't share pictures.  The shape looked pretty good to me, I'm not 100% certain about the angle of the windscreen but it's not offensively wrong.  The soft, black plastic interior is a bit weird, I used a sharp blade to clean it up but didn't try and add any paint to it.  I think I used superglue gel to stick it and even added some wire to represent the trim on the door cards.

     

    The greatest challenge with the kit was cleaning up some mould lines and fitting the body halves together then hiding the join.  Although it's a very simple kit and doesn't have the best locating tabs (although the parts actually fit together pretty well), it builds up nicely and you can add some of the missing body and interior trim if you are inclined (I added the chrome strips along the bonnet and around the rear number plate, as well as the aforementioned door trim and a rear-view mirror).

  5. On 08/05/2023 at 21:54, cmatthewbacon said:

    Ah, but which one? 😜 68, 31, 76 or 56?

     

    Or 45 or 101:

    alfa-pit-tent-1.jpg

     

    Or "the other 76":

    jolly-club-alfa.jpg

     

    Or this one (which is the one _I_ want....)

     

    elegant-alfa.jpg

     

    I think this is an Alfaholicsrestomod, and it's gorgeous...

     

    best,

    M.

     

     

    Any, or all of the above for me, please.

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  6. I found that this kit isn't quite as fool-proof (or me-proof, which is about the same thing) as Tamiya's best efforts.  My discovery was that if a part didn't go together, it was because I'd messed up a previous step.

     

    As for the design of the chassis, I think it precedes from the design of the Renault 4CV, on which the first Alpines were based.  This used a backbone chassis, forked at one end to carry the engine and transmission.  This, in turn, followed the pattern of various other rear-engined cars (see Tatra, Mercedes-Benz and the KdF Volkswagen) introduced before the war.  I believe Renault even got Dr Porsche to check their designs for the 4CV while he was being held as a prisoner of war (but that might be a myth that's been debunked).

    • Like 4
  7. On 04/05/2023 at 21:41, Anteater said:

    Undecided if I'll convert it to right hand drive. The dash would be quite straightforward, if I don't go overboard on it. The pressed panels around the speedo are the only real complicator. Excuse the primer overspray. 

     

    spacer.png

     

    ANTEATER

    It looks like you could almost scribe carefully around the speedo panel and glovebox lid until the parts can be removed.  Then they look like they could be swapped over and fit into each other's holes.  I hope that makes sense?

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  8. This popped up in my social media.  It seemed relevant and, let's face it, what's not to like about the cars (if not the political circumstances surrounding them)?

     

     

    Although it is a myth, it's worth repeating the tale of the Silver Arrows, the racing regulations specified a maximum dry weight for the car (minus driver and tyres) of 750kg.  The logic being that the more powerful an engine was, the heavier it would be.  As history would prove, this was a flawed assumption; but the legend is that the Mercedes W25, when first submitted for scrutineering was wearing a beautifully polished coat of white paint (as Germany's national racing colour) but was just a couple of kg over the weight limit.  To get the car race legal the team worked all night to strip every last bit of paint and when presented to the scrutineers, it was deemed fit to race.  I can't remember where I read the refutation of this myth, but (as others have said) it has been debunked.

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  9. On 20/04/2023 at 20:56, Spiny said:

    Like you I'd love to see some more everyday cars available in additioin to all the Golfs. I know that there are quite a few of the standard Japanese cars around (e.g. Prius, Yaris, Jazz) but there doesn't seem much of the everyday European cars around like your Fiestas, Focuses or even icons like the 205 unless you count rally cars.

     

    Mind you, that could be a good thing as I have enough trouble resisting what is on the market at the moment...

    Agreed, two of my most recent kit purchases were an E30 BMW 3-series (not an M3) and an Audi 90, slightly premium but pretty much ordinary saloon cars that I remember from my youth.

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  10. For a moment I thought you were doing "Barbie's dream Testarossa" when I saw the pink primer ;)

     

    22 hours ago, Spiny said:

    What I find really amazing is just how differnt the car looks without any black grilles on, it never occurred to me until I saw this just how much all that black grillage gives shape and character to the Testarossa.

    Agreed, it looks really odd without the black bits.

     

    But this is shaping up to be a cracking model, I'm enjoying the build.

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    • Haha 1
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