keefr22

I've heard it's to reduce weight - ie lose the weight of the clearcoat. Alternatively years ago I read that NASCAR crew chiefs would polish the car to an inch of its life, indeed to reduce drag.

One thing I think, for 'earlier' paints before manufacturers used basecoat & 2K, then modellers shouldn't use 2K clearcoat - it's miles too shiny for period paint. As mentioned already car paints are a good choice for 'correct' colours. And if you put enough paint on they can actually be wet sanded and polished out to give a nice finish without clear. If you airbrush, car touch up paints can also be bought in 30 & 60ml bottles off ebay & similar. Some of these also come as gloss and could possibly be polished out without needing clearcoat, but I've not tried those yet. And of course there's Gravity Spain, Zero, Splash and Streetblisters that do manufacturer colour matched paints, but they all need clearcoat. As to whites, off topic, I once read that Boeing lists 49 different 'shades' of white that are specified by its airline customers! My missus currently has a Focus in 'Frozen White' which is by far the whitest white I've seen on a full size car. One thing I wouldn't use on a model is 'appliance white' - which I think just makes a model look like a washing machine....!! Keith Edit - re primer I use Mr finishing surfacer - for a white topcoat I have a bottle of white that I've mixed a very small amount of black in to give a very light grey, as I've never been much good spraying white over a white primer - I just can't see where I've sprayed the finish coat over the primer, and a very light grey makes it easier for the white to cover in less coats. For red I use the old Ferrari trick of using pink primer. Yellow I use white, anything else I use grey surfacer.

That's the best bit Steve Keith

The one we had was a K. reg Azura 'limited edition' so it was a run out model before the introduction of the Mondeo. So I've got my dates muddled up and father in law can't have gone from the 2 litre 'Tina to the Sierra.... Can't remember what he had between the two though. He replaced the Sierra with a 'Mk1' Mondeo and we later had that off him - I really liked that car! K

My father in law had a lovely 2.0 litre MkV 'Tina that was really nice to drive. He replaced it with the aforementioned 1.6 Sierra (he worked for Ford so got a new car every 3 years when the MOT came due) We had a 1600 Escort Ghia at the time but with 2 kids the missus thought a bigger car would be handy so 'persuaded' me to buy the Sierra. It was gutless, wandered everywhere in the slightest crosswind, wallowed on its far too soft suspension and if there had been any NVH engineering it must have been done by the YTS trainee in their lunchbreak!! Oh, and the fuel consumption was appalling! Does that show that I really didn't like the thing!! Keith

Very nice, really like the colour! Keith

So much nicer car than the hatefull Sierra that replaced it (well a 1600 Sierra was hateful anyway!! ) Keith

Happy belated birthday Chris, hope you had a good one! You've got 32 Tiger Moths? Bit excessive isn't it....??!! OK, I've got me (bit warm with it on indoors though, so I'm out the ) Keith

And the wheels, I think this was the only release with steels and hubcaps. It was a great price, any Tamiya Mini kit is generally fetching at least twice that in the UK, and the Austin generally more as it seems to be the rarest! Keith

Bet you wouldn't have had a problem in the Caterham....!! Keith

Every model you finish Jörgen takes its place as my favourite Bengalensis build - and you've done it again with this one! Simply gorgeous model of a lovely looking race car with your trademark superb finish and detailing! Top work once again, and I really enjoyed watching it all come together in your w.i.p. thread! Keith

Looking well tidy now Mike! K

I like that G...!! K

Fingers crossed - started decalling it yesterday! K

That looks really good - nice work! Keith