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I’ve finally beaten this into some sort of submission, it’s the Magnifier nee Trumpeter US Sports Car issue. It has several well-known detail short comings, mainly in the chassis, engine, suspension areas but having built it I can see why the designers did it this way, for despite my detailing those areas are pretty much invisible on the completed model. The consensus is that the body shape is pretty much spot on but the separate panels don’t fit together very well, this was my experience too. So despite spending quite a bit of time during assembly to try and get a snug fit they still refuse to fit very well. My builds all reflect drivers or cars that I’ve seen race and although I never saw the Ford race in anger I did see Mario drive several times during the Seventies and Eighties so his number 6 car from Le Mans 1966 lets me include the model in the collection. Mario’s car was chassis number 1031 and was one of three cars prepared by Holman Moody for Fords push to win Le Mans. These cars differed in details from the three prepared by Shelby Racing and certainly different to the car in the kit which is a mish mash of MKII & MKIIB cars along with a good pinch of Trumpeter imagination. The colour scheme is also a change to all those Ken Miles and Bruce Mclaren finished models. Unfortunately, the car retired after 6 hours with a blown engine cutting short Mario’s first visit to La Sarthe. Anyway, here’s a couple of pictures of the real thing and one of Mario as a young gun, 26 years old fresh to Le Mans after success in USAC stock cars. The model is finished in an approximation of Ford Night Mist Blue using Halfords rattle can Nissan Indigo Blue, in retrospect it’s a bit light. The dayglo yellow race markings are again Halfords rattle can and do glow in the dark! The markings and paint masks are from Indycal and were fine but the roundels aren’t pure white and show grey printing lines in them under close examination. I used parts from a 3D printed 427 engine but again, the extra detail isn’t really visible. The spare wheel is from Renaissance with a homemade bungee cord! Now onto Gunnar Nilsson's Lotus 78. Dave

So, my GT40 Mk11 which, for me, was a lesson in airbrushing and 2k application. Ms Borez says it can live in the living room which is saying something really. Pics. There's a few mistakes here and there ( the highlighted window bolts look a bit crap for one, just ordered some clip on magnifiers for my glasses so I can actually see what I'm doing next time ) but I'm generally pleased with the results. Build thread Thanks for looking

So, as my C9 is coming close to being finished I've started to also build a Gulf Ford GT40 MK11 which, for me, is a lesson in how to try and paint a car properly. Model number 3 for me this one. The GT40 is also one of my all time favourite cars. I actually saw an original Gulf Mk1 on the back of a transport when I was boarding a cross channel ferry the other year ( on its way to the Le Mans Classic ) and spoke to the owner for a while. Absolutely beautiful car. I just wanted to drive the thing off into the sunset. Slight pangs of jealousy as I trundled off in the old Toyota. Anyway, as some of you may know I was having airbrushing issue and sacked my £20 starter airbrush ( the splatter monster ) and invested in something decent. So this is basically my first outing with a new AB and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. I also learned the art of keeping the damn car covered up as it's drying. In fact just keeping it covered most of the time. Anyway here she is. FTR there won't be any scratch-building or engine detailing with this Fujimi model as it basically doesn't have an engine to detail. I thought about an after market resin engine but I'm not up for that quite yet. Primer stage ( Zero Paints grey Primer ) Colouring stage ( colour matched Zero Paints Gulf Blue ) To be honest I think this blue is a little dark considering it's supposed to be colour matched. I guess the Mark 1 and the Porsche 917K are slightly darker ( the GT Heritage definitely is ) but the MK11 is a lot lighter to my eyes. On the fence about this really. Still though she looks nice. And what a difference this AB is making, the paint just goes on lovely. And under cover after a light coat of 2K before applying the decals. After first 2K coat And this afternoon I've been applying the decals. Kitchen lights and dodgy camera phone making it look a little shiny here, the car isn't that reflective in reality. And that's where I'm at, about a million times happier than I was with my C9 finish. The other major step for me is learning how to accurately mask the window so I can paint the black surrounding lines. My hand is just not steady enough to paint them freehand and I bought a template for the C9 so this is something I'm going to have to work out. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be most grateful? Thanks for looking in