Mark, The Master Modeller

Mine isn't perfect, but the front wing isn't properly secured yet. There are replacement hinges for the bonnet coming in Pack 10 and the front wings get properly secured. It should all be fine after Pack 10 is completed, but do let us know if you still have problems.

$25 is an absolute steal!

Stage 5 gives us the fuel pump and details. Push teh 4 fittings onto he fuel pump. These all had a fair amount of flash on them that needed removing with a sharp blade. Push the small pipe fitting on to the fuel pump part A.The pin not he fitting points directly backwards, as per my photo. Fit the assembly to the fuel pump body. Push the fuel pump part B onto the fuel pump body. Fit pipe one as shown. Fit pipe 2 as shown. Fit the joint (short pipe) between the fuel pump body and pipe 2. Fit the gold coloured fitting to the fuel pump assembly. Finally, fit the fuel pump assembly to the engine block to complete the stage.

Stage gives us more of the engine block, and what they call the central gearbox. This is the gear drive for the cam shaft Fit the two parts of the upper block together with a couple of screws. Fit the first part of the camshaft gearbox to the upper block. This is also secured with screws from the inside. Push the oil pressure valve into the central gearbox. Fit the upper part of the camshaft gearbox to the block. This is a push fit. Take the second part of the upper block and fix this to the assembly. It's secured from the back by these two screws. Take the lower black assembly completed in stage 3 and fit it to the upper block As usual, it is secured from the inside with 2 screws. This completes the stage.

Stage 3 gives us the stage of the engine block and the steering column. Fix the oil pan to the left lower block. It's fixed with 2 screws. Put the oil pump in position. The just rests here, but will be trapped by the right hand side of the block in the next step. Screw the right hand lower block to the left hand side. This holds the oil pump securely. Place the oil pan bracket over part A of the oil pan. Now place part B of the oil pan over the securing lug. This is secured with a single screw through the side. Take the steering wheel and put the ignition advance/retard control in place. Turn the steering wheel over and screw the bush in place. The advance/retard lever should like up with one of the cross holes. Push the steering bearing into the panel. The bearing is inserted in the side opposite the mounting lugs. Slide the steering column part A in through the bearing. Screw the steering wheel bush to the column. The steering wheel will probably need to come off again, so no need to grind the screws really tight. Slide the rubber bellow onto the middle steering column. There is a ridge on the column to hold it in the correct position. Join the two parts of the column at the universal joint with a couple of screws. Finally, add the third part of the column, again, fixing it with a couple of screws. to complete the stage.

I’d call that a roaring success! Fantastic job with the painting a weathering too.

Stage 2 gives us the radiator grille and the dashboard. I left the parts in the plastic tray as it lays them out very neatly! Fix the grille to the frame withe 2 tiny black screws. Fix teh two hinges to the frame with a couple of larger black screws. Fix the bracket 2F inside the nose cone. This holds the radiator grille return spring. Fix the grille assembly to the nose cone with the two hinge supports. Finally, the spring is fitted. This is easily done with some fine tweezers, but unfortunately I forgot to take the photo! Now we move on to the dashboard. This is a very simple affair when compared to more modern cars. Just a rev counter, water temp and oil pressure gauges. Start by pushing the fuel low indicator and the cold start injector into their holes in the dash. Now fit the rev counter. This just pushes in, and needs a firm press. Make sure you get it with the legend horizontal. No need to fit the other two smaller gauges as they are replaced later in the build. This complete the stage.

As some of you may know, I enjoy a bit of model engineering alongside scale modelling. I'll post some photos and videos of my engines now and again and hope it doesn't bore you too much. This is a Stuart 10V. One of the smaller engines that Stuart Models (formerly Stuart Turner) make. I originally bought this engine as a machined kit around 1980 as I didn't have any metal working machines at the time. This model was assembled and worked very nicely. It was run on air and steam occasionally, but mostly stood on a shelf on display, until it got put into storage in 2005 when I went abroad for work, and it never got unpacked! Recently I bought it out and decided it needed to run again. It was very stiff, mainly gummed up with oil. I did think it may need completely stripping and cleaning, but a few strategic squirts of 3 in 1 oil and she freed up. I've decided that I like the patina of age she has, so I'm going to leave her exactly as she is. I'll just give her a light brush over with a soapy toothbrush to remove some of the grime and dust. She's around 45 years old, so deserves to look her age! And she still runs a treat. This is with an air brush compressor with the air hose just pushed agains the valve chest as the steam union has gone walkabout. IMG_5710.mov

Time to start this beautiful car. I do have a spot spot for early F1 racing cars, and also wire wheels, so this is ringing all the bells for me! As you may remember, I built one for Agora and posted some sneaky preview photos a while ago. So this is my second model, and I rarely build the same model twice! But my display cabinet was simply begging me to build it!! I'm afraid the lighting isn't quite up to my usual standard, but I'm not building this in my usual modelling den. Let's start with stage 1 which gives us the nose cone, steering wheel, some details and a screwdriver. The first task is to fit the Mercedes logo to the nose cone. It's fixed with a screw from the back. The radiator support is fitted inside the nose cone. The air intake frame sits on the air intake. It's not a tight fit. This is then fitted inside the nose cane with 2 screws. The air intake frame is now held securely. This completes the stage.

Thanks! The car is looking stunning, but it is taking a little bit of tinkering to get a good fit! The last stage is nearly finished!

Stage 100 gives us the final details such as the wipers, license plate, remaining logos, etc. We will fit the bonnet (front body) first. Turn the bonnet upside down and flick up the hinges. However, don't tape the wires like this, tape them to the outside of the bonnet. Learn from my mistakes!!! Put the bonnet in place on the car, turn the whole model upside down and screw the hinges to the front chassis. Here's a close-up of the hinge screwed in place. You may find that the bonnet doesn't close properly. Don't panic, there's a simple fix. Remove the bonnet, and then remove the radiator. It's only held in by two screws. Refer back to Pack 9, stage 70 for details. You will also need to pull the two radiator pipes away from the radiator. See stage 71 for details. Once the radiator is out of the way, remove the paint from the two mounting posts. A small file or sanding stick is ideal, or you could even use an emery board for finger nails. This will lower the radiator a little so the bonnet can close properly. Here's a close up of one of the posts. Now replace the radiator and bonnet and it should close nicely. If not, it may be the Tank tube support that is standing a little too high. Refer to Pack 9 stages 68 & 69. Sand the top of the tank tube support so that it is flat. This can be polished with a nail buffing stick to get a nice shiny finish. The observant amongst you may notice that the tank cap is missing! I didn't notice until after the photo was taken 🤦‍♂️ The front body/bonnet should close nicely now. Now you may find that the doors don't close securely or line up with the bonnet. Again, this can be fixed. Remove the door; you will need to unplug the switch cables from sockets 14 & 15. Pull on the plug itself as you may pull the cable out if you pull on the cable. Take a 4mm drill bit and use this to remove any burred from the hinge mounting holes in the body. Remove the paint from the hinge. Be as thorough as you can and pay attention to removing the paint from around the bottom of the locating pins. Also remove the paint from the edge of the hinge where it lands against the door. The thickness of the paint may stop the door closing properly. The doors should close properly now and be aligned with the bonnet. However, I couldn't get the bottom of the doors to line up with the bonnet perfectly. The door holds closed, but doesn't close with a definite click. However, if the doors don't hold closed properly, it is likely that the spring plate of the hinge isn't tight enough. Refer to Pack 1 stage 5. You will need to disassemble the door to fix this. Here's an example of the plate that isn't properly tightened. Note that there is a gap between to plate and the door, and the screws aren't down tight. You will need to remove the door panels. These just prise off, but they can be a bit tight, so be careful not to damage them. Then remove the door frame which is held with screws. Now you can remove any burrs around the holes with a large drill bit. Apply a little lubricant to the holes, then replace the hinge and spring plate. The spring plate must go down tight when the hinge is in the door closed position. Now the door should hold itself closed. Now the bonnet and doors fit nicely, we can continue with the rest of the stage. Next we connect the headlight wires. Turn the model over then feed the headlight wires under the wishbones. Then easy up the radiator pipes and push the connectors under them. Push the radiator pipes back down afterwards. Connect the wires to sockets 9 & 10. Take the bottom floor panel and align it so you can plug in the power connector. The power connector fits in socket 5. Fit the bottom floor plate by sliding the tabs at the rear under the rear sub-frame. Here are the tabs, aligned and the floor plate is ready to be pushed backwards into position. Note how the screw holes align when is it in the correct position. Now fit these two screws. Fit the two screw that go under the side skirts. Finally, fit the two screws at the front. Now is a good time to insert some batteries and test the electronics. You have to switch the power on under the car, and then insert the key in the centre console. You can't just leave the key inserted, it has to be inserted after the power is switched on. Brake/rear lights. Instrument lights. Headlights. Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of the interior light. I just couldn't get a decent angle on the camera. Next up is fitting the side skirts. These are a bit awkward to fit, but you can make it a bit easier by using a large drill bit to chamfer the location holes. You're just trying to make a small chamfer, so just give the drill but a couple of twists by hand. DON'T use a power tool!! This gives the pin a bit of a lead into the hole. Locate the side skirts and push them into place. I found it easier to locate the tabs at the top first, but this may have just been luck! The chassis plate is fitted next. However, there is an ejector pin just where the chassis plate is located, which needed filing smooth. Now stick the plate in place. You could touch up the scratch marks with satin black paint if you wished. However, they were very inconspicuous to the named eye. Stick the license plate to the support frame, noting that the pins go to the top. The just pushes into the holes in the bottom of the forward body. Remove the backing paper from the logo template and stick it to the side of the model. Align it carefully with the edges of the panel. Take one of the pieces of double sided tape and stick it to the model in the aperture of the template. I found that the back of the logo was a bit rough and needed filing smooth. Now stick it in place. The "B" logo should have the double sided tape stuck to the logo first, simple because it peels off the backing paper easier that way. Now stick the "B" logo to the car. Push the two logos down very firmly, then gently remove the template. There are two shims which helps the door switches operate more reliably. Stick the shim to the small disc of double sided tape. The photo shows just one shim and one adhesive tape disc. Then stick the shim to the door latch. Take the remaining sheet of double sided tape from stage 99 and apply it to the inside of the windscreen surround. The pieces of tape are all cut to size, and the instructions show where each piece is fitted. Remove the backing tape and push the windscreen in place. Note that it is held by both the tape and pins. Push the washer nozzles in place. These are fiddly little blighters! I used tweezers and a strategically placed finger to make sure that they didn't ping off into hyperspace! Push the windscreen wipers in place. They are handed, but they are obviously wrong if you get the left and right wiper blades mixed up! They are a bit fiddly and I needed to remove some flash from the locating pins. The last step is to apply the transfers to the back of the car. Helpful tip. Remove the front licence plate before tipping the car onto its nose, or you'll likely break it off! Apply the templates carefully. Try to get them right first time as they tear if you try to pull them off. See the left hand template! However, it's not the end of the world as these are only a temporary part. Take the transfers from stage 1 and trim them fairly close to the lettering. It doesn't need to be too close as the plastic sheet is removed later. Remove the backing paper and apply them to the model using the template as a guide. Make sure that the black of the logos is stuck directly to the car and not on the template. It doesn't matter if the clear plastic sheet overlaps the template. Rub the transfers down firmly. Use a cocktail stick or a pencil to burnish them down. Carefully peel off both the clear plastic sheet and the template. If necessary, you can place the clear sheet over the template again and rub the transfer down if the edges look like they haven't stuck firmly. This completes the car. I hope you've enjoyed following along with the build, and if you're building the car yourself, I hope it's been useful. Here's the finished car, and it looks absolutely fabulous. She's doing a ton while standing still!! Some more beauty shots will be taken soon!

Stage 99 gives us the windscreen and surround. Before preparing the windscreen, let's fit the hub caps. These just press on. Take the windscreen trim and the windscreen fixing tapes. These are the thinner tapes. Peel the double sided tapes off the backing sheet and apply them to the trim. The sheet has a complete spare set of tapes in case you mess up. Don't overlap the tapes. Trim them if necessary as a double thickness of tape may show up an an unevenness in the windscreen. The windscreen has protective film on both sides. One clear, one blue. Remove the clear side. Remove the protective backing paper from the double sided tape, then stick the windscreen in place with eh clear side sticking to the tape. Remove the blue protective film. Finally, place the "IN RODAGGIO" sticker on the passenger side of the windscreen. I believe this translates to "Running in." This completes the stage. Sorry, but I'm leaving you on a cliff hanger now. There is a lot of work in the final stage so it will be a few days before it's posted.

Stage 98 gives us the side skirts and tail pipes. We fit the tail pipes but the side skirts are left until later. Push the tail pipes into the holes in teh bottom of the rear body. They come in bags marked L & R so you can easily get them the right way round. Take the extension lead supplied in stage 97. The purpose of this is actually to reverse the connections. I guess the manufacturers got the wires to the Instrument panel LEDs the wrong way round! Carefully remove plug 7. This is best done with tweezers. Don't pull on the wires as you'll probably pull the wires out from the plug! Then fit the extension cable into socket 7 in the pub and fir the original plug into the socket on the extension cable. Now we have to run the wires for the rear lights and speaker from the back of the car to the PCB. Start by feeding the wires through the gap between the boot compartment and the wheel arch. This shows the cables coming out from the rear body. This is the left side of the car as it allows clearer photo. Back to the left side of the car, run the wires under the wishbone, but over the drive shaft. The wire should now go through the hole in the fire wall and into the central shaft. Finally, take the wires into the pub compartment and plug them in. Repeat with both rear lights and the speaker wires. The rear lights go into sockets 11 & 12, and the speaker goes into socket 4. This completes the stage.

Stage 97 gives us the bottom floor panel and battery compartment. First of all, take the Lamborghini logo from stage 7 and fit it to the bonnet. Take the battery compartment and fit it to the floor panel with 2 screws. The red wire is closest to the aperture for the switch. Fix the switch into its aperture with a couple of screws. The connects with the wires soldered to them go closest to the batter compartment. Take the battery compartment lid and push the chromed screw through the hole. Turn it over and push the clear plastic washer over the threads of the screw. This will hold the screw in position when you remove the lid. Finally, fit the battery compartment lid to complete the stage.

Stage 96 gives us the last wheel and the hub caps. The tyre pushes onto the rim easily. When it comes to fitting the wheels to the car note that there are two tabs on the hub, they are pointing straight up and down in the photo. There are matching slots in the wheel. Make sure that these are aligned when you fit the wheel. Put the wheel in place and secure it with the long screws supplied. The hub caps are fitted later. Repeat for all 4 wheels. The two Bertone logos are pushed into the holes into the left hand side of the body. This completes the stage, and please excuse the mess on my bench!

Lovely job. It'll look even better once it's been weathered.

In Pack 8 Black Edition the black parts are the doors. The other stages are identical. I won't go into the construction in any detail as Mark A has already covered that, but I'll show you the stage contents and the finished assemblies. Stage 59 gives us the upper and lower parts of the right door. These simply screw together and the finished stage looks like this. Stage 60 is the window and upper panel which is black in both the black and red editions. Stage 61 gives us some of the interior details. Once assembled, the black edition door looks like this. The inside of the door looks like this. Stage 62 gives us the remaining interior details. Here is the inside of the door with all the details fitted. This completes the right door for now. Stage 63 starts the left door. Here are the left door upper and lower parts screwed together. This completes the pack as far as the differences between the Black and Red Editions are concerned. In Pack 9 we will finish the left door, fit the doors and fit the nose. The car is gorgeous. It looks like it's doing 100mph while its stood on my shelf part finished!!

Nice! I do love a bit of SciFi. Please post some pics of your model.

Stage 95 gives us the rear wheel arches. We fit them and the rear body (which provides more 'entertainment' that it should do!) The rear wheel arches have a tab on the rear. This tab fits in a slot in the rear body. Remove and flash and mound lines from the tab and any excess paint from the slot. It's important that the tab can fit in the slot easily. Insert the tab in the slot, then manoeuvre the wheel arch into position. It fits against the side of the heart body like this. It's a bit of a game getting it to sit in the correct position, but it will go with a bit of persuasion and some robust adult language! The front screw hole tab will line up with the recess on the rear body when the wheel arch is correctly located. Then secure the wheel arch with 3 screws. Repeat on the other side. Now we come to fitting the rear body to the car. I'll give this to you exactly as it happened as I suspect that other people have had the same problem. Put a couple of pieces of masking tape ont eh rear body hinges to hold them flat. Otherwise they hang down and are difficult to get into the correct position. Put the rear body in position and secure it with masking tape. Fix the two hinges to the rear body with a screw in each. They locate with a screw and a pin, so it's easy to get teh screw in once the pin has located. You need a fairly thin screwdriver as you have to drive the screw at a slight angle because the rear body gets in the way. Turn the car back the right way up, and admire the beautiful body taking shape, apart from the horrendous panel gap! It's OK, we can fix this! There are two possible places where the fit can be poor and cause the excessive panel gap. The first is where the boot compartment is fitted into the rear body. However, I described how to remove the mould lines and burrs to make sure this fitted properly in stage 94 so that shouldn't be the problem. The second place for error is fitting the silencer support plate to the rear sub-frame in stages 29/30 (Pack 4). Remove the rear body, and the silencers. Check to see how the silencer support plate is fitting to the rear frame. On mine, you can see how the support plate mounting bracket is sitting proud of the rear frame. It's difficult to see as it's black agains black, but the tip of the screwdriver is resting on the support plate bracket. That should be flush, but it's sitting 2-3mm proud. Here's a winder angle shot so you can see the location more easily. I removed the support plate, and this burr and excess paint is stopping the support plate bracket sitting in its hole properly. So, I removed the purr, removed the excess paint, and test fitted it. I actually had to remove all the paint and chamfer the corners of the support plate. I also had to de-burr the screw posts and remove excess paint from the rear frame. DOn't worry about all the metal showing. Virtually all of this is where the two parts join so it's visible once assembled. You can easily touch in and visible silver with a little semi-gloss black paint after assembly in necessary. Also check that the support plate isn't fouling on the back of the differential. I had to file back the support plate a little to make sure I had some clearance. The brackets now fit flush. And the bottom also fits flush. Reassemble the silencer support frame along with the silencers. Refer to Pack 4, stages 29 & 30 for details on this assembly. Refit the rear body as before, and now we have a really nice fit. Check that the rear body opens nicely. This completes the stage.

The Agora model is far more detailed and refined. The engine is the only major assembly so far, but it's far better than the old EM version which is quite blocky. Wayne built the Eaglemoss version a while ago, so it's easy to compare the two. You'll soon see the difference when Agora give parts for the engine bay and front suspension. That was hideous on the old EM version.

Fitting the door limit switches is somewhat difficult. Here's a method that may make it a little easier. Take the limit switch and feed it through the larger hole in the frame, as per the instructions. Pull the wire through a bit a form a loop. Push this loop back through the smaller hole behind where the limit switch will sit. Put the limit switch in approximately the right position. The switch 'finger' points up and towards the front of the model. Now pull on the loop of wire directly away from the switch. This should seat the switch into its correct position. You need to be firm enough to pull the switch into position, but be careful not to break the wires. The switch should now be neatly seated in its proper position. Add the switch plate to hold it in position, then make sure that the finger operates as the door is closing. Finally, pull most of the loop of wire back.

Stage 94 gives us the rear body reinforcement and rear grille, and we continue to assemble the rear body. Put the speaker into position in the boot compartment with the wire fed through he square hole in the left side of the compartment. Secure the speaker with the speaker bracket and a couple of screws. Turn the compartment over and fit the rear body hinge. This hinge is non-functional so don't worry if it seems too flimsy to take the weight of the rear body. It will only go one way, with the hinge bar inclined towards the reversing light. Her's a view from another angle. Now we need to install the boot compartment in the rear body. This is fitted with two screws, one on either side. I noticed that the screw posts seemed to have a burr or moulding mark which would stop the boot compartment locating properly and may cause alignment problems with the rear body. These can easily be removed by using a 3mm drill to remove the burr and chamfer the edge of the hole. Turn the drill by hand. Do Not use a power tool as you could easily drill too deep and wreck the rear body. Put the boot compartment in place and secure it with a couple of screws. Be careful not to trap the speaker or LED wires. Fit the reinforcement structure with a couple of screws. Turn the rear body over and push the rear grille into place. It takes quite a firm push to get it to fully locate. Secure the wires inside etc rear body with a length of masking tape. This completes the stage.

Stage 93 gives us the boot compartment cover and speaker, but we assemble to boot compartment itself and fit the tail lights. Take the boot compartment and self adhesive foam from stage 92. Stick the foam over the speaker grill. Take the reversing light body and lens from stage 92 and push them together. The lens can go either way round. Push the reversing light into the two holes on the boot compartment. The lens faces away from the speaker grill. Screw the boot compartment profile to the compartment with a couple of screws. Take the tail light LEDs, lenses and bodies supplied earlier. Push the light body and reflectors into the recesses in the rear body. Secure them in place with a screw in each from the inside, then push the LED into position. The LEDs need a firm press with a tool such as a small screwdriver to get them to seat fully. Be careful of the wires! The LEDs should locate firmly, but can by glued with superglue if necessary. Finally, push the lenses in place. These need a good push to get them to local firmly. The lens should only protrude 2-3mm proud of the light body. If it's much more, then the lenses aren't fully inserted. This completes the stage.

Stage 92 gives us the rear boot compartment and rear light lenses, but we fit the rear licence plate and grill. We start by assembling the licence plate lights. These were supplied in stage 90. Remove any flash from the lenses then they just push on to the light bodies. The straight edge of the lens faces towards the light body. Be careful as they can be fitted the wrong way round. Push the lights onto the rear body and secure them with screws from inside the rear body. Take the 3 parts to the licence plate. Push the plate into the mounting bracket. Fit the trim. Again, it's a press fit. Next we need to fit the rear grille. This is fitted from the inside and is secured with 4 screws. It looks like this from the outside. Take the licence plate assembly and fit it to the rear body. It's secured with a couple of screws from the inside. This completes the stage.

Up to now the build of the black and red edition has been identical, apart from the front spoiler. Pack 7 finally gives us some more black parts. As before, I won't bore you by repeating all Mark A's assembly steps, but will just show the key stages that show off the Black Edition finish. Stage 49 gives us the left rear side panels. Fit the cover plate to the lower rear left side panel. Fit the cooling fan assembly to the lower left rear side panel assembly, then add the upper rear left side panel. Stage 50 gives us the rear right side panels. Assembly is virtually a repeat of stage 49. The assembled side panel looks like this.