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Bob Pearson

John Jameson writes . . .

This is Tamiya's 1/24th Scale Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI as raced in the 1996 International Touring Car Championship. I built the version piloted by A. Nannini. I have recently read that this car, as well as Nannini's Mercedes Benz CLK were modified for Nannini to drive.

After his very bad accident in Formula One he required a dual lever transmission to compete effectively. I built this kit box stock, except for the seatbelts, which again came from a Modelers set. The kit does have a removable hood and engine detail. The kit also comes with a transparent under tray piece that I left transparent to display the exhaust and rear end details. I struggled with hand painting the Alfa emblem on the velocity stack intake cover. In the end though it turned out quite nice.

The only problem I had with this kit was the front tie rod suspension piece. Once assembled I had too much toe out on the front end (The front wheels were pointed out too much). I kept fiddling and fiddling until the tie rod eventually snapped. In the end I kind of scratch built a tie rod from what was left. Perhaps I just should have forgone the moveable steering and just glued the front end in place. I also didn't follow through with making some antennae from heated sprue. I left it as is, however, as a reminder to myself to finish all the details before declaring it complete.

Overall I was pleased with the final product. Tamiya kits are so well engineered its almost 'add glue and shake', and out comes a fine build.

Will Riepl The F4-D is a Tamiya kit. Markings are of VMF (AW ) 531 in 1959. Kit is out of box The F3F-1 is out of box. The markings are of VF-7 from USS Wasp 1940. The PT -22 is a Hawk kit, out of box. Markings are kit decals

Peter Mitchell   The 109G-6 is the one I recently completed for the APMA '99 AGM. It is the Hobbycraft kit, with a bit of work done to it, the flaps were dropped and the canopy replaced with a spare Hasegawa one, amongst other things. It took 1st in the large scale aircraft division and was the committee's choice for "Model of the year" (I think they were mistaken this later decision). The Hurricane is the 1/72 Matchbox IIC kit, and was done last year as a "canvas" for the SEAC scheme.