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Black window mesh arrived today, I'd paid extra for 1st class post (nominally 24H) but the seller sent it 48H, not the 1st time they've done that

Anyway, I sat each body on the same SRB chassis & took a "seaside" shot for posterity: 

They are amazing Jonny

Yo, a very nice trio

Looks very good indeed!

Did a "final" batch of Rough Rider type bodies ...



Back row are polycarbonate, Penguin repros of vintage TMS shells for the vintage Rough Rider. Lining/panels are DIY machine cut vinyl, other stickers are from MciRacing. I kept the black/gold JPS one, but the red & orange ones went to a Japanese buyer ... kind of a coal to Newcastle or sand to the Arabs situation, I wonder how much the onward post & import fees were    






Bottom row are all re-re Buggy Champ sets without modification, the black one didn't get any edging tape, the other two barely needed it. I messaged a previous buyer about them thinking they'd just have the one, but they bought all three







 

I'm pretty sure I said I'd never paint another Scorcher in anything approaching boxart again... I also remember how disillusioned I got with a "cheap" vintage shell, selling it after undoing all the POs "repairs" and fresh paint...

This vintage shell was also cheap, very incomplete & had a long crack in the roof, plus chunks out of two of the wheelarches. It hadn't been badly fiddled with though, so I've got a lot further with this one. Colours are AA Van Yellow & VW Mars Red.

The re-release/2010 Scorcher body doesn't look much different in the photos, but is a much paler Fiat Golden Yellow with airbrushed magenta (1 part Tamiya X pink to 5 parts X Red). I also smoothed out/removed a lot of details, including the roof drip rails. That made it look suspiciously like a vacformed body so I replaced them with some Tamiya 1mm square strip. Wheelarches have been cut down & inner arches from Scorched Parts fitted.

I only have the one spare SRB chassis so I would imagine the vintage shell is going to win out

As a footnote, it's been a really poor year for spraying outside - I got some done in mid May but most days between then and mid august have been either wet, or dry and warm enough but too breezy. I have more than enough done to keep me going over the winter though, especially as there are still some projects left over that I painted in summer 2023...

Should have added I've been using Tamiya vinyl tapes for the edges (2mm goes round most of the scorcher corners very easily) & spraying a "sealer" on before the 2nd colour (more yellow on the vintage shell & airbrushed clear on the re-re) - it's not perfect but I don't feel I need to use line tape to hide anything.

I love the vintage body.

I thought I'd covered the significance of the colours on the re-re body & my choice of logos (and cutting them out) but apparently not ... yellow and dark(er) pink were very 70s colours, at least in terms of confectionery and junk food - rhubarb & custard sweets were of course much older, but there were also the "Fruit Salad" variety of onepeechews.

Debuting in 1977 in the UK as Mighty Munch, the monster paw shaped extruded & baked corn snacks didn't really capture the imagination of the public until they were rebranded as Monster Munch (with much advertising)  the following year. Pickled Onion (and other flavours) were always second best to me, my favourite was rosbif, with the pink monster on the yellow packet.


I scanned, resized and redrew the Monster Munch logo & separated it into four colours for vinyl cutting - white background, black outline, red and green inserts. I knew colour registration was going to be a problem, so nade four thinking I'd use the best two. However, I think the ones I like most are the ones that are a bit flawed.


I've also painted up both drivers - but one thing I haven't done is make correct # 537 decals for the vintage car, as the original decals (and the repro set I have) are the wrong way round, being black digits on a white oval.

Here are french modern monster munch