roymattblack

Just wondering - do you use Halfords plastic primer before putting on Halfords colour? The crazing/orange peel effect might be caused by not using their plastic primer. Halfords paints, even though acrylics, are far too hot to go straight onto polystyrene.

It's a great kit. I've built two - one was a conversion to a different car. I'm sure you'll build a great model.

The recent colour looks very much like the Ferrari green from years ago which is almost identical to Ford Modena green. Halfords rattle can.

According to the book 'The making of Star Trek' by Whitfield and Roddenberry, the model was painted with grey auto primer. It looks far lighter on TV due to the very intense lighting needed at the time. Interestingly, the model was also designed to be the other way up - saucer at the bottom. Roddenberry turned it over and that was it...

I've scratch-built a few 1/8 D Type Jaguars so I've got plenty of engine reference pics if you need any...

That looks really good. A great colour and a nice 'old' shine to the paint - just as cars were back then. I might chase this one down myself.

A great build there. The only thing I would alter would be to make the truck end - particularly the inside, MUCH dirtier. My best friends dad used to be a coal delivery chap (coalman) and his lorry was virtually black inside at the back, and in the cab where the driver and second delivery guy sat. Coal dust is FILTHY and gets everywhere. Lovely build though. It's a reminder of times gone by.

You can still get Klear. It's now called Johnsons Pledge...

TBH, I personally feel that most F1 cars for a good many recent years are just too boring. Take away the team livery and you can hardly tell one car from another. At least the 'old' F1 cars all looked different. I suspect it's just a lack of interest which makes model creation not worth the expense.

You've hummed the Prisoner theme in your first post, but are you making that version - KAR 120 C...? The kit is pretty good but to be really faithful to the Prisoner car, it should have Lotus Elan wheels, which the kit doesn't have. Not really a big deal as only Prisoner aficionado's (like me) would notice. When I built mine, I found a resin figure in the correct scale and turned him into Number 6. To get the face, I made a decal of Pat McGoohan and put it on the figure. It turned out 'reasonable'... Have fun. Looking forward to seeing your model with Rover next to it... (A plastic ping-pong ball painted creamy white is almost the right scale)

Anyone know where I can get the large Eagle decal upgrade sheet? I've had a search but it seems to be unavailable. I have the kit that I'm tempted to start but I really would like the extra decals...

Great stuff. It's really nice to see someone else fixing the incorrect front chassis frame (among other things) That looks like a really great result. Any interior pics?

The wheels need orange centres - presumably you'll do that though. And yes, the seat dimples should be a bronze/metal finish. They were indeed hollow metal rings. It's looking really good so far. I bet it turns out great.

Gorgeous. I used to build a lot of 1/43 kits but ageing eyeballs now limit me to big stuff. Great work.

The next ask was to fix the floor in place on the body and also attach the firewall. Long experience with building a good few of these kits has taught me how imperative it is to get the firewall down really tight on the inner floor panel and the body floor. The mating areas need to be totally flat, flash and mould-line free or the front upper windscreen scuttle section just WON'T meet the body floor at the bottom, which means adding filler. This will then cause big gaps under the front of the doors and a bonnet that doesn't sit properly at the lower edges. I made up new footwell end panels as the kit parts are missing the cross-brace pattern as well as the whole angled plate on each side. Once all these parts were firmly glued in, it was all lashed together with masking tape to keep the joins tight until they were dry. After that, the doors were taped in place to get the position of the rear body which was attached with plenty of epoxy glue and an added strengthening panel at the rear of the floor, the width of the car.

For a light cover - experiment by chopping bits out of a plastic drinks bottle. There are umpteen compound curves to be found. I've made light covers this way many times...

Good old simple PVA - nothing fancy. Just stay with it for a little while and dab the tumble sheets into place with a stiff dry brush until they finally take up the shape. About 5 minutes. I'm a fuss-pot and I cut my bits of fabric to shape before I use them.

My sentiments entirely. If you can just slap it together out of the box, that's fine. To me, half the fun is MAKING it work!

A great result there. I too went potty with this kit many years ago but mine remained 'Street'. Yours is fantastic.

Tumble dryer sheets are great. Here's a fuel tank in another E Type build I did some time ago...

The back end of my old Citroen. Basically all done with rattle cans.

The next part - at the same time really - was to make the transmission tunnel more accurate for the car I'm modelling. Basically just bits of plastic tube, curved sheet plastic and the whole caboodle covered with tumble dryer sheets stuck down with glue. Once painted, tumble dryer sheets make an amazing 'fake' fibre-glass. Some strips of plastic fixed to the floor to represent the strengthening panels and box section across then, painted matt black. More detailing needed on the floors still needed.

Many thanks for the kind (optimistic) comments chaps. First task - cut the front scuttle away from the coupe roof. For the body, the only kit parts I need is the floor pan, boot floor, door skins and scuttle. The bonnet and rear end I'll make myself. Resin cast tail, vac-form front. To get the positioning of my own roadster tail, the scuttle part and door skins need taping to the floor pan. That way, my body rear should be in the correct place. At this point, the interior floor also needs hacking about as the trans tunnel is completely wrong for the race car. The lower boot floor has had the bumper fixings cut off and a thin layer of plastic sheet added to create the weld ridge around the body. Away we go...

I built the white K3 in 1/43 a good few years ago. I'm not sure if it's the same kit though as it's hard to tell by the pics although SMTS does ring a bell. I modelled the doors as open, and the kit had about 100 miniscule etch parts. In all, the kit had nearly 200 pieces. My eyeballs can't manage these tiny 1/43 cars now. Credit to you. A lovely display pair you have there.

Those little old Merit kits are a real challenge and you're working wonders on this one. Just love the guy who is about to get in the car...