Aston Martins, pre-war.

A decision I made many years ago made me go for a Frazer Nash rather than an Aston. I have been a pre-war Aston enthusiast for appoaching 40 years. The 'Nash is long gone, just little Astons remain, until of course Martin does his TT Replica.

The first image shows those in progress at the moment. The chassis and body on the left are actually a rebuild of the first 'Ulster' I made a few years back. One of the good, or bad things about Matchbox plastic is its' reluctance to be stuck by polystyrene adhesive. I strip paint from polystyrene using old/used brake fluid, proper vegetarian stuff, not the silicon. It also makes a good effort at dissolving/de-stabilising polystyrene adhesive, thus when I stripped the paint off, the body pretty well became dismantled. The centre and right hand cars are new builds, the centre one to be in stripped form, the left hand will have road attire.

The Matchbox Aston is one of a small number of cars for which I have gone to the effort of making a special chassis. The front axle is lightly sprung and carried the front mudguards/wings on road equipped cars.

The Matchbox model is of an Ulster, though can be adapted to represent works racers which were not actually Ulsters. The Ulster is an official copy of a works racer.

The model in the pictures is the last car I completed. A Le Mans car from 1934 driven by A C Bertelli and is one of my 'part way' stages in improving the model.

The general shpe is fine except for the radiator which is too narrow and the curved sides to the bonnet which just didn't exist. Modifications include moving and slightly modifying the fuel fillers, removing the external radiator stoneguard, fitting valences to the mudguards, replacing the 'Brooklands' silencer with a correct Aston Martin example and fittinga correct pattern mesh screen made from nickel silver sheet, with correct flyscreen attached. A few other mods besides...

It is hoped that the latest models will have etched wheels with the correct spoke pattern held on by the correct pattern spinners/knock-on nuts. They seem to be taking an age....

Peter