Matt's late-running MG Magnette

[splash]

Nice

[Migrant]

Looking very good Matt.

[mattbacon]

Thanks, guys.... here's a belated update, after a long weekend spent with old friends rather than at the modelling bench!



There's not much tread on the tyres anyway, and what with sanding the seam lines, they were looking a bit bare. So I decided to try taking a leaf out of Mike's book, and making a decal. I found a tread pattern on a site that sells tyres for classic cars, and after a fair bit of Photoshoppery to get a strip of tread, this is what it looks like on, over Vallejo German Grey.




This is not JUST obsessive attention to making the model look like the car in Al's print for the diorama... I found that if you run the exhaust straight through as the kit has it, there really isn't enough room behind the back wheel, and it stops the wheel fitting correctly. So, after attempting to reshape the kit part with hot water (brittle plastic + hot water = disaster!) I decided to redo it properly, with solder for the pipe, and wrapped medical tape for the insulation. This is still flexible enough to be fitted exactly around the mudguard/fender when it's installed, as on the real thing.





Definitely on the home straight now. As you can see, I've lowered the windscreen by the simple expedient of cutting the side supports off and mounting them separately. I think the tyre effect looks pretty good under a coat of matt varnish, though I say so myself ;-P



...and these are the bits that remain. Surely even I can get them on before Sunday?

bestest,
M.

[MerlinJones]

And this is that little 1/32 kit, right?

[JamesPerrin]

So your making a bid for god like modelling genius eh Matt?

Some poor sod who hand carved the tread into tires for a model will be kicking himself if they see this. A brilliant idea and definitely going in the book. Could you possibly post the tread images so we can all copy your example?

[MerlinJones]

"Making a bid"?

MAKING A BID!?!

HERETIC! BLASPHEMY!

(Are there any...um...any women in the crowd?)

[Dirkpitt289]

Sharp looking car

[Migrant]

Great work Matt, and the tyres look brilliant.

[flakmonkey]

Exceptional job Matt, the tread decals are just the ticket and would also work nicely on something like a WW2 diamond tread aircraft tyre. The exhaust is really nicely done as well.

[mattbacon]

Thanks, gentlemen... back to the bench now!

Here's the tyre tread file:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11658127/tyre%20tread%2030s.png

I would recommend that you scale it to get it the right height (ie width of the tyre) and then trim or duplicate sections as necessary to get the right length for the diameter of your wheel. Just scaling the whole thing to the requisite size will mess up the proportions of the pattern.

bestest,
M.

[malepo]

WOW great idea with the tires!

[mattbacon]

Thanks, all... here we go, done:









...and for the diorama:


bestest,
M.

[JamesPerrin]

Brilliant job Matt. You displayed the full range of resourcefulness in adding some really nice details to an already GEM of a kit. Look forward to seeing the full dio.

[Jagewa]

Top hole, nice work on the tire tread decal.

Bravo.

Cheers
Jim

[JohnRatzenberger]

Excellant !!