johnlambert

Finally managed to spot something when I had a camera handy. I know it's a Ford pick-up but I can't tell you much more than that. It's glorious though, isn't it!

I've found the same thing with some of my spraying, no idea where they come from.

More messing around with the Prelude's front seats; a coat of plastic filler primer, sanding down, a bit of filler and when the weather cools down I'll give them a spray of paint. Starting to assemble the engine bay, the instructions call for the radiator cap to be painted silver but every picture I've seen shows a yellow warning label that I've replicated with a blob of yellow paint. Engine is just placed in at the moment. I'd like to add leads from the battery to the ECU on the left-hand front wing and the pipe from the radiator filler to the expansion bottle.

Yes, the wheel arches are the most noticeable difference, I'd not noticed the bumpers. The kit includes twin SU or triple Webber carburettors. I'm not sure if the front seats are different and doesn't the road-going Mk.II kit come with some sort of carpet?

I like the looks of the Gr.5 Capri and it looks like you're off to a great start with your model.

Thanks, I was really pleased with myself for figuring out the water bottle trick, although I'm sure lots of other people had the same idea. I don't think there's a Talbot Tagora but it's the sort of weird subject that they are likely to do. Just don't go looking for BMWs as I think BMW got all lawyer-y for some reason and the company had to stop doing its nice looking (E21?) BMWs. There is, however, a "broken down car" model that certainly looks like an early BMW 3-series...

Yet another eBay purchase arrived today. I'm still on the lookout for the road-going version of the Mk.II. @keefr22 maybe Jaguar, Fiat, Alfa, etc. are worried that I'll sue them for making cars so tempting I can't resist spending all my money on models of them? 🤣

That's come up really nicely. I keep thinking we need to have some sort of virtual Mini get-together since there are so many Mini build threads on here.

Great stuff, I admire your creativity. I model (well, mes around with) N gauge model railways and there is a shortage of appropriate "bread and butter" 1970s, 80s and 90s cars. A German company RailNScale does 3D printed cars that help to fill the gap, I think they design them in 1:160 continental N-scale and then scale them up to 1:144 or 1:87 where required to suit British N or HO-scale use (and technically N or HO is gauge not scale but let's not get into that). I've done a few now, and they come up quite nicely especially if you pay more for a finer print. Here is a Renault 5. Airbrush painted with Tamiya flat yellow, which I find more satisfying on small scale models. Windscreen is cut from a plastic water bottle and held in with Glue N Glaze, other windows are just Glue N Glaze. You might just spot a Ford Escort Mk.III in the background. Apologies for the thread hijack.

Bumper crop of "spots" yesterday and today. I think people are exercising their classics in the good weather. Sadly none where I've been able to get photos. Yesterday there was a Morris Eight open tourer in yellow; 1930s Series I or Series II, not the Series E. This morning there was a green 1960s Mini Moke, looking cute on its 10-inch wheels with a canvas tilt to keep the sun off. This afternoon there was a real oddity, a Renault Fregate (mid/large Renault saloon from 1950 to 1960). I'm not sure if it was entirely standard as it was sitting on Suzuki Jimny wheels but with an ordinary ride height and the engine sounded a bit diesel-y. It seemed like the sort of thing you'd see and hear on the streets of Havana; 1950s American looks (even though it's French) with more modern running gear to keep it going.

It seems like a self-defeating philosophy to me; ask too much and Tamiya doesn't bother and the manufacturer get's nothing; ask a bit less and it's worth Tamiya doing a run and the manufacturer gets something. Now it's probably chicken feed in terms of car company budget but I've always thought that getting 50% of something is better than getting 100% of nothing.

I just found some of his kits by searching eBay. I've never built a resin kit but there are some mighty tempting models available.

Tail lamps un-masked. I need to clean up the reversing lamps but on the whole it's not too bad I think. And work continues on the seats. Masked and painted although there is still some sanding and filling to do. This might be the worst. Part of the modification is to add styrene sheet to represent the clasp for the seat belt buckle on the inner edge of the seat.

Yes, it probably does share a lot with the standard Fiat 500 (I'd like one of those but haven't found one yet). The body is tiny and the wheel arch extensions are separate parts. As for the engine compartment lid, it hinges at the bottom edge. I think it was the larger Fiat 600 derived Abarths that had the distinctive propped open lid. Although some people have built Abarth 595/695 replicas with the lid propped open. This is a replica that I photographed back in September 2015 I prefer this colour scheme to the standard grey of the Tamiya kit but I'd have to mask and paint the white stripe.

I like Honda cars and bikes, so this was off to a good start with me. You've achieved a great paint finish on a complex shape. The detail painting looks spot on (although I'm not that familiar with the real thing). It would be nice to see a photo of your friend's bike for comparison.

Flawless paint, impeccable detailing and the diorama setting is just perfect. I wish there were something I could suggest as an improvement for next time, but I can't. The only regret is that it isn't a Volvo 240 estate, as that's what I consider to be the iconic Volvo.

@Redstaff I've seen the Lego Audi Quattro and it is very tempting. I've built a few of the older Speed Champions Lego kits, my favourite is probably the Ferrari F40.

Another one added to the stash. I didn't even know that Tamiya did a Fiat Abarth until I found this on eBay. It came from Belgium but postage was reasonable and didn't take too long. The body shell is really tiny; it makes the Mini look big, just like the real thing.

I think I'm making progress and beginning to understand where I'm going wrong with the lacquer/clearcoat. Part of the problem was moving the spray can too quickly past the the model. Annoyingly I'm out of clear lacquer, so I'll be visiting Halfords in the coming week.

Not much progress today, a little more work on the tail lamps. Masking up is a little annoying as the reversing lights are in the middle of an expanse of red plastic. Paint applied with a brush, I hope there isn't too much bleed under the masking tape. At least there is chrome trim between the rear indicators and the tail/brake lamps, which should help cover a multitude of sins.

No, you only get the parts for automatic transmission. I don't think I've seen a kit that gives you the option of manual or automatic where the real car came with a choice of gearbox (but I haven't seen that many kits).

Apologies for dragging up an old thread, but I enjoyed seeing the build process and quite fancy getting this kit as something a bit different. The finished result is really beautiful, especially on the display stand you built.

Hi Mike, yet that's the one. If it's due a re-issue I probably won't bother with the auction, or at least not bid very high. Thanks for sharing that link.

It sometimes feels as though the universe doesn't want me to get any bodywork done; I have to spray outside if I'm using spray cans and waiting for the right conditions just seems impossible. I managed to get one lacquer coat on the Prelude this afternoon before it started to drizzle. I also got out the semi-gloss black and a fine brush to touch in the white bits on the decals. Instrument panel. Test fitting with the dashboard top. Engine; I also re-touched the cam cover where I'd been a bit heavy-handed with the silver paint. A better view of the air-box. So glad I went back over these. Dashboard assembly completed. Interior tub mocked up, I just need the correct grey paint to finish the front seats (paint on order).

I haven't done much on the Alpine recently, so I decided to do a little more today. There isn't much that I need to do except for the rather big job of painting the body. It suddenly occurred to me that I don't want any blue plastic visible through the windows, so I'll need to paint the inside of the roof and window frames. Reference picture here - not mine It looks like the roof lining is white and the pillars are satin black, except for the chrome frames of the quarterlights. This means I'll need to prime and paint the inside of the body and I'm tempted to fabricate some sun visors from styrene sheet. Before any of that, I want to remove the raised lettering from inside the roof (why couldn't it have been moulded somewhere that it would never have been seen? Scraping away with a sharp blade helped remove the worst of it. After sanding down, you can still see the letters but you can't feel them. I also had a look at the interior tub. Glued with PVA just in case it has to come out again, but the mating surfaces were cleaned up first. Dashboard dry-fitted. I thought I might have some good weather for spraying but by the time I'd got everything ready it started to drizzle