noelsmith

I have had a go with both Enamels and Acrylics. Regardless of what type of paint is used provided I prepare the surface properly I have had no problems with either. Normally I will rub any plastic surface with some worn Scotchbrite. This will dull the surface to give the paint a 'key'. Wash this with diluted detergent washing up liquid, to get rid of any residue from the Scotchbrite rubbing and anyd mould release oils that may still be present. Allow this to dry and then give it a coat of matt white or grey primer. Once this has dried, either paint should stay put without any problems. However, if you intend to use matt enamel as the primer, and acrylic as the top coat, be absolutely sure that the primer coat has dried thoroughly, or the acrylic could start to crack. Hope this helps.

Does U.M.M have a U.K Distributor? It looks to be a nice bit of tooling, judging by the comments from users posting to this thread.

Glad to see that the IPMS USA forum is now open similar to the IPMS UK forum at last. I exchanged a few emaiils some time ago with one of your committee members at the time to suggest this when your forum was IPMS USA members only access. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the gentleman to whom I corresponded at the time, who said to me that he would take the matter up with his colleagues on IPMS USA committee. Whether my suggestion at the time inflenced this decision or not I don't know, but anyway it is a really good thing now to be able to exchange ideas and share information with like minded modellers via the IPMS USA forum as well as the UK one. It certainly will be a good selling point for IPMS USA. I have been a member of IPMS UK since 1974 and have seen quite a few changes in the society over the years, having been a branch (chapter) secretary and served on our National Committee in the mid 70's. Just as a matter of interest one of the founder members the IPMS concept in 1963 , Peter Eves is still an active member of the society after all these years and was at the IPMS Scale Model World Show Nov 2010. Best wishes to all in IPMS USA Noel Smith

Hi Tom Try contacting the editot of IPMS UK Mag John Tapsell He is well into military stuff this side of the pond. His email is john.tapsell@ntworld.com Hope this helps.

Hi Wildcat I was unaware that Martin Swire had passed away. We exchanged some emails a couple of years ago about his superb Wills Finecast Bugatti T59 that was featured on the Scale Motorcars website. A sad loss to the car modelling fraternity. Regarding the Heller Bentley featured in these posts. If it is UR6571 it is based on the same car as the big 1/12 scale Airfix one. This was the short chassis variant known as the 'Pau Car'. It was owned by Neil Corner when Aifix made their kit and maybe he still had it when Heller made theirs. The car was sold on to Anthony Bamford the boss of JCB who has a private collection of classics. I understand that it is now Stateside and now in the Ralph Lauren collection.

Hi Guys Tamiya have made a superb job of the Aston kit and Chris has made an excellent model from it, so all credit to him. Being an English modeller I must admit I was a bit diappointed that the kit was only supplied with left hand drive. It is a British car after all! Maybe one day I will win the British or Euro lottery and buy myself a 1 to 1 scale. AM....Dream on!!!! I think many car kit manufacturers miss a trick by not offering right hand and left hand drive options in their kits. Engine bays are so stuffed these days that you cannot see the steering column under the hood so it would be feasable. Is there an after market manufacturer out there reading this?

Hi Guys Bluebird modellers may be interested in this. A long, long time ago over here in England, there was a company named Merit who manufactured some small ranges of kits. Over the years a few of their moulds have found their way into eastern european manufacture, such as the Black Falcon Pirate ship and a couple of car kits, an Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta and Talbot Lago GP cars. They had a range of 1/25th scale racing cars from the 1950's and I believe that they made a limited range of aircraft kits. I know that they made an injection moulded kit of Campbell's Bluebird Water Speed Record Boat that was released in the early sixties. Not sure of the scale though. Possibly 1/24th or 1/32nd. I remember seeing it in a hobby store back in the sixties, but never since. The company incidentally was located in a town named Potters Bar North of London and Revell's UK manufacturing unit was in the same street at the time!. I'm surprised that Revell did not get this kit as they have bought lots of moulds over the years from various now defunct kit manufacturers. Merit may still survive as a company making childrens board games. I know that all the car kit moulds except the Alfa and Talbot were sold to a company in Italy. Maybe the Bluebird moulds went that way too? Or maybe gathering dust and rust at Merit's factory or scrapped years ago. Who knows? The kit is now extremely rare, and very expensive when they crop up for sale.