Neil

At 3:50 to 3:55 there appears to be a 'hole' in the windshield which the driver could of caused by striking from inside? I think seatbelts were optional on the Miura (?) and the driver certainly did not wear them in the opening clip to the film . Then again, that is cinematic licence ....

An initial shot of both Miura kit body shell's, the Italeri one is in Yellow plastic, the Red plastic is Hasegawa's offering. The images of the two pics below, of both kits, show one of the most obvious differences regarding just one detail, which is the size of the window opening in the door. The Italeri window is simply too short and stubby, compared to the Hasegawa kit which is far more acceptable. Unfortunately one of the downsides of the Hasegawa kit is that some parts are moulded with that awful Chrome finish that manufacturers apply to some parts. Fortunately this is easily removed by soaking the parts in a dilute solution of bleach for an hour or two, that horrible Chrome finish dissolves away easily. Before and after pics are below (the Eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that I removed the headlights from the Chrome sprue before soaking them in bleach, not really an issue if these retain the Chrome finish on their internal surfaces, as the headlights did have this). Soaking in dilute bleach. (The Black plastic is beginning to show through on the wheels after only a few minutes). Chrome removed. As mentioned in the first post, the SV had wider rear wheel arches which will need reducing in width. This pic shows the inner face of the kit arches has been keyed-up and several coats of Superglue applied to thicken the surface and provide strength before reducing their exterior contours. There 'should' (I hope!!) be enough thickness of kit plastic to do this, without breaking through the inner face. The thin 'lip' on the exterior surface of the wheel arch will be replaced with thin plastic strip.

Loved the film 'The Italian Job' since I was a kid, and the the intro to the film doesn't get much better than a Lamborghini Miura sweeping through tight mountain roads, unfortunately on it's way to an untimely end .... For my money, the Miura is easily one of the prettiest cars ever built, and I have wanted to build a model of one for a while now, specifically the one used in the opening shots of 'The Italian Job'. The one featured in 'The Italian Job' is an Orange P400 (1968 model), the later variants being the 'S' and 'SV' editions. In my unbuilt kit collection, I have the 1/24 Italeri Miura P400 and also the 1/24 Hasegawa Miura P400SV, so logic would say that the one to build is the Italeri offering. However, that kit is not great in all honesty, with shape and profile issues, serious lack of detail, mouldings which are not very 'clean' and various other shortcomings. The Hasegawa kit in comparison is way ahead in detail, finesse, and general 'crispness' of mouldings. It is in another league basically. Obviously there is one BIG problem if I want to build the Miura from 'The Italian Job', the Hasegawa kit is a later P400SV and not an earlier P400 as featured in the film. So, I will be backdating the Hasegawa SV kit into an earlier P400. Not impossible, but some bits and pieces could be a little awkward. There were various differences and improvements incorporated into the later SV cars, some of which may or may not be relevant to my build/conversion of the kit. The SV had a dry-sump engine, wider rear wheels, wider rear track (which made an increase in width of the rear wheel arches necessary; I will need to 'slim-down' the rear wheel arches and bodywork!), the lower front grille below the headlights was different as were the front lower lights and indicators, the 'eyelashes' surrounding the headlamps were deleted, the rear light lenses and indicators were changed ...... I think you get the idea. Now, just a few things I have noticed about the Miura in the opening scene from the film ...... in some shots it has a front number plate, sometimes it doesn't (unless it is masked by shadow), every rear shot there is a rear number plate on the car, there are no external rear-view mirrors fitted to the doors, the interior has White Leather seats, headrests, interior roof lining and flip-down Sun visors (confirmed by the fact that this actual car was put up for sale not that long ago, quite well documented). Not 100% sure, but I 'think' I can see the word 'Miura' (in Black?) in the rear right hand side of the car on the 'boot-lid' but not sure I can see the word 'Lamborghini' on the left hand side. Before anybody says anything, the car pushed over the mountainside by the bulldozer is NOT the car used in the motion sequences .... Right, so cue Matt Monro ...... Model pics to follow ....

Thanks for all the new comments, very much appreciated. Was chatting to a friend of mine (Mike H) about this model a couple of days ago, neither of us can quite believe it is over 9 years ago when I posted these pics in this thread. (Must be around 20 years ago when I actually built the B-17 model). Shocking really when you think about it!!

Several weeks ago now, spotted while shopping in Gorleston, near Gt Yarmouth. Saw this Lamborghini Murcielago being driven into a pub, so turned round and parked my Mercedes next to it and had a bit of an interesting chat with the owner. Don't see many cars like this in Gorleston. The rear shot of it with my Merc parked next to it really shows how low the Lambo is compared to a normal road car, shows how wide it is too.

Airfix do 'Quick Build' McLaren P1. May not quite be what you are after though ? https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjPnb-30-DQAhVTOMAKHd_YBBcQFgglMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.airfix.com%2Fuk-en%2Fairfix-quick-build-mclaren-p1.html&usg=AFQjCNEtduQfCt5vtP7v12ueRl8SFbg9Hw

At prices like that I should cast a set or two and chuck them on Ebay ......!!!!

I put all the business related stuff into storage, about 5 years ago. I did post a reply to this kind of enquiry a while back, in the link below (I think it is post No.12 in the link replies). http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235001364-paragon-conversions-designs/?hl=paragon

Hi all Is there any model paint manufacturer that produces the rather gorgeous McLaren Volcano Orange? Looked at places such as Zero Paints but they do not list it, browsed a few others and I cannot find any source for it. It's this Orange below. Any help would be much appreciated.

That was a pleasantly refreshing change to post something purely on a personal level, for enjoying a bit of stress-free model making, for the sake of it and nothing more, and not from any kind of 'business' aspect. Making something in 1/144 was certainly a bit of a departure, wanted to make that particular 'plane for a while actually!

I still own everything related to the Paragon Designs business, it was all packed away in dozens of boxes and locked in storage, I was offered the opportunity to do other things professionally/workwise, which I still am doing. I have had numerous requests and enquiries regarding selling Paragon stuff, and to be honest I have toyed with the idea many, many times (purely on a strictly low-volume basis, just as a paid hobby, for the want of a better phrase, or even just simply to 'keep my hand in' so to speak). It could even be quite fun to make the odd batch of sets here and there purely as a part-time thing, but other things always get in the way and time is the limiting factor. I too have seen some of the online auction bids for various things, and they really do make me laugh at times, never ceases to amaze me at prices people pay for stuff. Who knows, maybe I will issue stuff again in future, you never know ......!! To answer one more question, none of the patterns/masters etc were ever sold, simply because I never felt the need to sell them. That simple really!

Use a dilute solution of household bleach to strip chrome, works fine. Link below: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9408-suzuki-rgv-xr89/ Once stripped, repaint with Alclad or similar, much better than the finish on kit chrome plating.

Pretty much what mbdesignart said, it can vary depending on circumstances. I am at present a carbon fibre laminator, and we manufacture stuff mainly for motorsport customers (including F1, Le Mans type etc etc) and alot of stuff for high-end, limited production volume road cars, amongst other things. The final finish on the carbon part is often specified by the customer, for un-laquered carbon parts the surface finish on the part will depend on the quality of the surface on the mould it is taken out of when finished. In this instance the finish will often be a smooth semi-gloss or satin (ish) kind of finish. Quite often (although not exclusively) parts on many race cars can be like this, because a high gloss, high shine finish on the carbon is deemed not essential for racing purposes (obviously there are exceptions to this). Sometimes for items that may be used on high-end road cars for example, the customer may specify a perfect, smooth, glossy shiny finish, in which case the parts are often laquered to achieve this. More often than not, road cars have a high quality finish overall. They have to look the part .... Sometimes a very glossy, shiny, smooth finish is specified by the customer, but without laquering. This can be achieved by CNC maching blocks of high-grade aluminium to produce the mould shape, and then it is laboriously polished by hand to achieve an almost mirror-finish on the surface of the mould. When the carbon part is pulled out of the mould, it's surface finish is ultra-smooth and very glossy, the carbon looks laquered, but it is not. As stated above, if possible, check photo's for reference as to the finish on the real car/bike you may be building. There are lots of variations on the overall finishes, some can even look quite dull and 'flat' even!

Had a good look for the pics, cannot find them though I am afraid. In my defence, it must be about 10 yrs ago when I built the CLK DTM kit, so probably no surprise I cannot find them I guess! I will keep looking for them though. From memory, I am sure there is not a great deal inside the rear boot area of the CLK DTM W208, I am reasonably sure that it was pretty much empty, for the want of a better phrase. I know it probably is not of much use to say it, but I think it was similar (...ish) to the interior of the W202, like this link below: http://s586.photobucket.com/user/RIGO-ROD/media/mercedes%20w202%20Dtm/car_photo_386326_25.jpg.html I'm still lurking, making the occasional post now and then. Workwise I am doing other things at the moment, though.

Do you mean external bodywork pics of the rear of the car (boot area), or interior pics of the boot area (inside the bodywork) in the compartment beneath the rear wing? I built the CLK DTM Original-Teile several years back (the W208 style) and found several pics to help with the build. I will try and dig them out, if I still have them.

Does look rather nice, doesn't it !!

I did an In Progress build of NT225/0, in 1/48 here on BM (long while ago now). May be of some use .... http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1803-mosquito-fb-xviii-molins/

A little bit of progress with the chain. Realised that the chain components needed to be held in some way while assembling them, so found a small piece of tooling block to use as a jig. Marked through the continuous side etchings with a sharp point, which would eventually be used to mount the tiny chain rollers. The holes marked into the tooling block were drilled the same diameter as the rollers, to a shallow depth with a pin vice, but allowing the rollers to protrude above the block surface slightly. Rollers placed in position, on a dry-run. For assembly, a few rollers at a time were placed into the block, one of the continuous side etchings was placed over them in the correct position, the small outer side-plates were then placed over the ends of the roller spigots which protruded through the side etchings, and fixed with a tiny drop of superglue, as on the left side of the pic. One complete side etching with side-plates fitted. Just need to flip the assembly over, lay on the other continuous side etching with the small external plates to complete the whole chain assembly. Once finished, there should be enough 'spring' in the chain to allow the sprockets to be meshed between the chain rollers when they are installed. When the superglue has fully cured, the chain assembly will be gently cleaned up/tidied up a little and any excess glue will be removed and the small roller spigots which protrude more than some of the others will be carefully and delicately rubbed down with fine abrasive paper. Have to hold my hand up and admit that I did lose one or two of the rollers, and tiny side-plates, while assembling the chain, but fortunately this is no big deal because there are plenty of spares allowed for on the etched fret. (Good job too!).

Progress could be little slow on this initially, quite a bit of my time could be taken up with other things in the not too distant future (non-modelling related) but here is a quick close up of the etched chain and other components for starters. Hopefully I would like to tackle the chain first because it is potentially one of the more fiddly and intricate parts of the build, and may well try my patience to a degree. Some etched chains are designed to actually operate, but not this one, fortunately, as that would probably be a little too extreme for what I need on this model, to be honest. It should just 'look' as if it will operate. The chain consists of two one-piece continuous side etchings, with separate 'rollers' sandwiched between them and individual side-plates fitted to the outer faces. For a size comparison, I have included a ruler in the pic to give a sense of scale; for example the tiny chain rollers are no more than 0.75mm in width (not including the thin 'spigots' on either side, that locate through the side plates) which the sprockets will, hopefully, mesh neatly between. I think there are something like 112 of these individual miniature chain rollers to install. They are either side of the section of ruler, on the right hand side of the pic ...... . As stated previously, there could be copious amounts of swearing involved when assembling the chain.

Trouble is, I have kind of made a rod for my own back with that chain now, havn't I ? Just hope it works! Did a similar(ish) kind of thing with a chain in the Motorsport GB from several years back, on a Suzuki RGV XR89. Instead of tiny steel rollers, I punched out plastic discs with a Waldron set and glued them on the inside of the chain surfaces. End result was quite effective. Link is: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/9408-suzuki-rgv-xr89/ Hope to start sticking bits together on this kit in the next few days.

Grabbed a couple of detail sets to use on the model, from Hobby Design (first pic) and also from Top Studio, in the lower pic. These contain numerous things, not all of which will be used I hasten to add, such as oil cooler matrix, brake discs, front and rear sprockets, bolt heads, washers, footrest hangers, footrests, 'R' clips, fasteners, cable clips, exhaust can, fork brace, turned metal fork legs, battery box, braided hoses, exhaust springs, etched chain with separate side plates and rollers, clutch components, various brackets, fuel filler caps etc etc etc ...... Hobby Design set Top Studio set Certain things in both sets are, possibly not surprisingly, duplicated. For example both sets contain brake discs, although in my opinion the ones in the Top Studio set are much better; they consist of the disc rotors which are used in conjuction with the 'dished' central carrier of the Fujimi kit plastic item, which is possibly more achieveable than the Hobby Design set which supplies flat etched central carriers (in Steel) which somehow have to be 'dished' without distorting them and hopefully keeping them absolutely square and undamaged. Seems a little ambitious. The holes in the brake rotor faces are much better defined in the Top Studio set too. Will be interesting to see if the etched chain in the Hobby Design set works out, wanted to try and make one of these for a while, now is the chance to do so. I have visions of those tiny etched side plates, and the chain rollers, pinging across the room and me swearing an awful lot ......

Nope, never had one in those colours, hated the look of them. Not sure if Owen ever had a GSX-R, he was always into Kawasaki's, Eddie Lawson replica's and such. Could of been Clive though, because you knew him long before I did, he may of had one before I knew him, he did get a Yamaha R6 (?) though around the same time that I owned my 750WN.

Must of been somebody else, not me, I never had a Purple/Black one. They looked bloody awful. Only ever had Blue/White ones.

When they first came out, there was nothing like owning a GSX-R, probably a bit like owning one of the Kawasaki H1 or H2's during the 70's. Similar kind of reputation or mystique for the 80's 'biker. My first 750 was the 'G' model I think it was, with the short swingarm, allegedly 'box' section sand-cast frame sections (when box section really should mean four-sided and not three-sided ...... ) and those flexy 'plasticine' wheels which, when you put your palms against the brake-disc rotors and grabbed the alloy wheel spokes and squeezed, would bend noticeably. Made for interesting handling, but so lightweight it was blisteringly quick for it's time. Would try and throw you off at the slightest provocation though. Ah, memories ...... .

For years I have wanted to build one Suzuki's all time classics, the ubiquitous GSX-R750, I even started scratch building one years ago, but never got around to completing it. I have owned one or two of these bikes, the road versions that is, although my very first one was an ex-proddy racer, put back into road legal trim for street use. Basically the previous owner only used to ride it at weekends ...... ahem . I was so pleased that Fujimi released a 1/12 kit of this bike, but on the flip side a bit disappointed at the particular machine they chose, which is the 1986 Suzuka 8-Hour endurance bike of Tsujimoto/Schwantz. From a personal perspective, and being extremely biased, any early GSX-R750 (road or race) really MUST be in a Blue and White scheme. Can you tell that every GSX-R that I have owned was Blue and White ......? Anyway, here's the box-art of the kit ...... Not a particularly inspiring choice, hate to say. I would guess that Fujimi chose this 'bike because of potential home-market sales, which if true, would be understandable I guess. Only a guess on my part though. However, from a personal perspective all may not be entirely lost. What would be so much more appealing in model form would be one of the '86 SERT Kenwood GSX-R750's, which look so much better. Essentially the frame, engine, wheels, swingarm would be pretty much the same as the Fujimi kit, although things such as fairing, seat unit, fuel tank, front forks, calipers, footrests, gear lever/brake lever, headlights and such, may (or may not) need modifying or changing in some way. From all of the pics of the '86 SERT GSX-R750's that I have so far found, there is not, as such, a 'standard' equipment fit on these 'bikes during that year. Things appeared to vary according to circuit raced, type of race, rider preference etc etc (and, who knows, sponsors 'pockets' maybe ...... as with most racing?). There seems to be numerous variations of equipment fit: front calipers appeared to vary between Nissin/Lockheed/Brembo, front forks changed spec, calipers mounted differently, headlights used/not used according to race type, different exhausts ......? Lots of permutations! Anyway, here's a few pics of the Kenwood GSX-R's (how a GSX-R 'should' look!) Now, don't they just look so much nicer? Basically, if I do go for one of the SERT GSX-R's, there will be quite a bit of modifications to the kit fairing, seat unit, fuel tank, forks etc etc, more or less as per the full sized versions.