MGC GTS

This is one of George Turners kits for which I have been waiting for years. Martin of course was working on one when this came out. Most things are pretty well spot on, though some detailing seems a little oversize. I'll have to measure up sometime.
All the mouldings were good clean examples, minimal pinholes and whilst the castings were scrubbed before painting, I doubt they needed it. The screen frames were done with bare metal foil which I think was a waste of time.













The livery is actually wrong for this particular car. Too many replica cars around, this it seems is a combination of 1968/1969 liveries. The chassis is the resin one which came with the kit, the wheels modified Scalextric to take the Scaley GT40 tyres. I was pursuaded to build a car for magnet use on my newish Scaley track, what a waste, no fun at all.















I have two more of these kits to build, one will be an accurate model of this car, the other will be an out and out racer, modelled after the present V8 MGB's which take part in the MGB/C/V8 Championship.

Peter.

BRM V16 and Talbot Lago

Induced by Peters fabulous wheels (thank you very much, Peter!), that came to me as an Pre-Easter surprise, I had to start with the BRM V16 and the Talbot Lago - immidiately! Bodys are MacPinches´, Chassis: Penelope Pitlane, tyres: Ortmann.









The Talbot is Pierre Leveghs car from the 1950 Silverstone race, the BRM is Froilan Gonzalez´car from 1954 (note: the red mirror housings), Silverstone, too. Had to change the body in the front, so I had to weld a new radiator grille. Added also tire valves and the "BRM"-engraving to the wheel nuts.



Taffy

Wheel consolidation.

After what might be described as 'the disaster' of the last wheel fret, this item is now being re-drawn with several deletions and several additions.

With the project originally started to provide wheels for 'older' cars, this will continue to be the bias, with an emphasis on pre-war cars.

The new drawing includes for the first time wheels for beaded edge rims, primarily for a couple of future projects. These are modifications of the earlier 21" parts made, but not as yet used.

A wheel for the T59 Bugatti has also been drawn up. Not 100% correct, this cross laced wheel omits the cros laced spokes which still leaves a very crowded wheel.

One of the problems with the last fret was the K3 MG wheels, a total of three problems contributing to their failure. The problems have been corrected and variations to the type made to provide correct sets for ERA 'E' Type, both early and late versions.

All cross laced experiments have been deleted. I am advised that stainless steel as used for the etches is not reliable as regards finished dimensions, etching companies recommending drawing to plus 30% of finished size. Results have shown this to be good advice as for the drawn 0.008" wheel spoke (0.006 desired size) some results have been up to 0.010" with others on the same fret down to 0.004", resulting in burning when heat treated. Cross laced wheels need spokes to be narrow, and consistant.

Jaguar XK and HRG wheels are continued with the additional 16" Aston Martin DB2/3 wheel.

The 16" wheels for (primarily) Vanwall, Maserati 300S/250F and Maserati 4CL/CLT are being complemented with a 17" version, though the associated machined parts are in limbo.

With the earlier VERY limited vintage type steering wheels so popular, modified, smaller versions are being made for PVT cars. Spring spoke and wire spoke Bluemels, early and late Alfa and Mercedes GP are probably the limit as my computer is finding the file size more than it can cope with.

Peter.