Smoking Man’s Ride, part 4

Posted on by

Nearly done.

Click to expandify.

The finish isn’t great, the bonnet isn’t sitting right (shouldn’t be hard to fix) and there are a lot of details I’m not happy with but it’s acceptable for a rush job.

Can’t do much more tonight, I have to wait for that last coat of clear lacquer to dry properly so I have to take the bodyshell off or it’ll stick. Then, fix the bonnet, put in the windscreen, paint some trim, paint in indicators and tail lights, wire it up and light those cigarettes.

There is a top for this but it’s removable. I’ll finish it anyway. It’s only three bits. Then the first Smoking Man’s Ride, a Jaguar XK-120, is done.

Just in time for the latest antismoker insanity.

This one has no roof and no room for children, but antismokers will still believe that it’s smokier than a flat-cap bar on pension day in there.

“Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.”

Can’t remember who said it, but he was right.

 

About these ads

16 thoughts on “Smoking Man’s Ride, part 4”

  2. For God’s sake Man!

    This is fascinating.

    Keep up the day job but carry on. I can’t wait….

      • Asimov, not Aldiss. Good story, always wanted to be Odeen as a kid when I first read it, then I got older and thought about “relationships” with Selene at 1/6g ………

        • You’re right. For some reason I get the image from the cover of Aldiss’ ‘Eighty-Minute Hour’ when I think of that story.

    • The angle isn’t right either. ;) Although I do like ‘The Angel of the Fag’ as a concept. He’d be the one keeping people out of Eden by blowing SHS at anyone who approaches. They just mistranslated ‘flaming sword’. It was a Zippo.

      The angle was because a) there are no headrests and I can’t bend the fibres too much and b) made worse by the mistake of sticking them to the seats before drilling them. These will be rectified in the next one which is a Jaguar XJ220. Oh, Smoking Man isn’t going to have to put up with a mere Fiesta. The XJ has steering and actual working headlamp covers. It’s going to take some time.

    • On a “small layout” (that’s in OO-scale, anything under about 100 feet by 200 feet) British Racing Green would look almost black under ordinary lighting. Maybe this is the best colour for this model right now. But you’d have to ask Legiron how he is going to light the model…! lol

      • This one is 1/24th, near-enough O gauge. I thought I’d start out easy. I have, however, looked out a 1/72nd scale Cyberman and ordered a blue LED for his Cyberfag ;)

    • It was a rush job, I just used what I had to hand. I use actual car paints for the bodywork on 1/24th scale. Since I don’t spray often enough to make it worth buying an airbrush, I just call in at our local Autoparts and see what they have. This colour is actually sinful, it’s a Ford paint!

    • I’d need a Range Rover and some motorisation. So she can sit up, wipe her chin and light a smoke afterwards… I’d really have to go to 1/12th scale for that but if I can get anywhere at all near a good likeness, the Turner Prize is mine.

  7. That’s a decent metallic pigment green, Leg-iron. Comes in handy when an Englishman finds he is down to his very last few litres of BRG.

    • Long, long ago, when I was only starting out as a zit on the face of the world, no more than a blocked pore, my father had a car which was close to that colour. Fern green metallic, his was, this one is a modern Ford colour which is a little darker.

      His was a Mk 2 Cortina 1600E estate in wonderful condition. I wanted to keep it but I was only 11. Neither of us knew then what the damn thing would be worth now but he’s kicking himself every day for selling it. We could both have retired on the proceeds but as he says (and he’s right) “You would just have Hammerited the bloody thing anyway”.

Comments are closed.