Ring them Bells

This is another kit from my Feb 1st posting, in which I listed some of the stalled/abandoned kits that had lay untouched for years, in some cases. The Special Hobby 1/72 Bell X-1A was a fairly straightforward build, though like most kits from this stable it pays to do lots of dry-fitting before applying glue, because some of the locations are quite vague in the instructions. The biggest issue I had with it was the canopy, which was slightly too wide for the fuselage. In attempting to glue and clamp it in position stress-marks appeared on the top which aren't quite as visible to the naked eye as they are here, highlighted under the photo spotlights. So, not altogether successful but it's nice to be able to (finally) cross it off the list.

As a comparison, here's the Tamiya 1/72 Bell X-1 built some 8 years ago:

Japanese Midget

No, I'm not being politically incorrect, I'm referring to that classic of the Japanese auto industry, the 1957 Daihatsu Midget, kitted by ARII in their 1/32 'Owners' Series'. It's almost 40 years since I last built a car. The kit's quite basic and moulded in a bilious green plastic that's really brittle, but other than a lot of clean-up the build was quite straightforward.

Main paints are Gunze lacquers followed by several coats of Future, then polished with Tamiya's compounds. Bright shiny bits are done with Alclad chrome. ARII supply a canopy to go over the truck-bed but it's much too thick and slightly oversize so it was left off; besides I like the look of it 'open'. Overall it was a nice change of pace from aircraft and since I have a couple more kits from the same series I'll be doing more in the future.