I have made a blue thing. It's better in daylight, but this 'ere nail varnish makes for a good metalflake effect for the full 70s OTT look.
Bits of a Bug. This is definitely one of those early 70s Airfix 1/32 car kits, on a par with the K3 Magnette or Prince Henry, with fine details, and quite a few of them. Fortunately it's also moulded in Airfix's new dark grey plastic, which is reasonably hard but not brittle, so separating those small details is a lot less fraught than with the older kits. Even the engine is pretty reasonable for the scale (never mind that it's mostly going to be unseen).
I may be deviating from the instructions (they aren't that clear!). But looking at pictures of the real thing, the mouldings are pretty seamless, without obvious filled joint lines like you find on a Lotus Esprit or Ferrari 288GTO between the fibreglass sections, though there is a step along the sides. So I've decided to assemble the three main body parts, fill and clean up before painting. Although the rear panel has the boot door in it, only that part is black and opens... the rest merges smoothly into the body sides, and the wheel arches are also seamlessly blended into the body. And yes, I did check with a mockup that it was possible to get the chassis in AFTER building the body this way...
Did I mention the instructions weren't clear? Well, in this case they are just plain wrong. Thanks to a Youtube snippet of a Bug restoration I figured out how the steering box and linkage work. The hole in the steering box faces backwards, not forwards (makes sense, it's where the column fits into it), and the 8 link goes on the pin that's now on the outside. Then the other rod and L lever from the axle all join up quite neatly...
Orange-ness sooon...
best,
M.
