Some years later, with Matchbox sadly gone, Revell re-released the kit under it's own label. I just had to have one.
The Revell release, compared to my memories of the old Matchbox kit, was something of a disappointment. The colourful plastic and chrome were replaced by dull grey and the nice, clear high quality Matchbox instructions had gone in favour of Revells interpretation of kit construction printed on their usual recycled toilet paper. Never mind though, because, hoarder that I am, I still had the Matchbox originals stashed away.
On to construction then. Somewhere between Matchbox and Revell I think the moulds must have been dropped on the floor. While the main chassis went together quite nicely, the bodywork just wouldn't play and refused to close up despite vigorous fettling and the removal of, quite frankly, worrying amounts of material. My solution, dig out the old Matchbox car wreck and disassemble it for parts. I used bits of the bodywork and, as they were chromed, ready assembled and had better quality tyres than the Revell offering, the wheels, as well as a few other selected bits and pieces. So what I ended up with is a true hybrid vehicle - Half Matchbox and half Revell (Matchell/Revbox).
To further enhance the kit I added instrument wiring, from copper wire, to the rear of the panel, a coolant pipe from electrical wire, painted blue as per references, and spark plug leads from rolled and heated Evergreen rod. I also drilled out the ends of the exhausts given that they are so highly visible on the finished model.
To be fair to Revell, the decals were excellent and went down with no problems, with a little Decalfix, over a base of Humbrol aluminium
Metalcote and a spray of floor varnish. The decals were then sealed with more varnish.
Finally, I posed the finished kit, complete with removed covers on a base made simply from a photoframe fitted with a sheet of fine wet and dry paper to represent tarmac and, after a bit of a hiatus, my 1938 Donnington Grand Prix winning Auto Union Type D lives again, albeit in transplant form.
