George Turner Models are based in Southend Essex, just down the road from my ‘beloved’ hometown of Billericay.
As you would have seen I do my best to support Essex based motorsport brands and events of all scales so it somewhat concerned me that none of his products had yet to grace the proverbial pages of this blog.
He certainly does a lot of models I could quite happily dissolve my wages into; his MGK3 is a work of art as are the pre-war Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Auto Union Grand Prix cars he makes. Infact, looking through his website now I would say if I were to win the lottery I would simply have one of each as all his cars are stunning. The MGC GT would certainly make a nice birthday present for my Dad.
Anyway, I digress. Christmas was approaching and one of George’s kits was screaming at me to be built: The Embiricos Bentley. I have a real thing for art-deco era cars. Pre-War Mercedes like the 500K and Bugattis such as the Aerolithe coupe I think are the prettiest cars ever built. So to be able to build something of that era and design style would be a true honour for me. My Dad was kind enough to get it for me for Christmas.
The body shell is of course resin and is a very fine cast. Obviously some preparation is needed but the cast is certainly a much higher quality than a couple of other shells I have done in the past. The resin you see in the windows is paper thin and can easily be removed with a scalpel, some trim may be required on the window frames but this example was fantastic and the shell pretty much cleaned itself of excess. When working with any resin kit you’ll also have to wash the shell in warm water to get rid of the release agent. Some may say to use washing up liquid but I’ve never found that necessary.
George also provides a resin chassis that is made to fit that specific body shell. It’s a nice touch as quite a few UK based slot body companies recommend using a universal type chassis such as PCS or Penelope Pitlane. Don’t get me wrong those chassis work great but having an actual ‘made to fit’ chassis under the car just looks really nice.
The motor mount and the securing plate for the front axle go together really nicely with absolutely no modification required and the running gear that is sold alongside the main kit dropped in without any issues at all.
Speaking of the running gear provided have a look at these wheels! They are beautiful! A choice of two style of knock off hub is also provided but for some reason I put those on at the very end. We can look at those later.
Now, the car is actually a model of the Bentley driven by Hay and Hunter at LeMans in 1950 and should have been silver with a red interior. (Yes the car was built in 1939, it had 125,000 miles on it before the race began) The original car is beautiful but being such a fan of art-deco design though I would go my own way with it a little.
The colour I chose was a Ford colour called Aquamarine Frost with a pearl overcoat and then a glitter over coat over the top. In kind of looks like a petrol blue/green/silver with the pearl and the glitter effect means it really shines under the light.
I think it suits it. I know that not building to ‘box art’ will annoy some people but it’s the direction I wanted to go with this particular kit.
Mr Turner does of course provide a interior and a vacuum formed set of windows. If you are new to slot cars or kit building do not, I repeat do not, use super glue on polycarbonate. It frosts over and looks terrible! I’ve always opted for UHU as it seems to not react with it at all. I’ve used UHU for sticking bits of RC shell together too if that’s more your thing.
The interior comprises of the dashboard, tops of the seats, driver and steering wheel on a flat base. I went for cream seats, a wooden dash with ivory dials and the drivers suit and helmet are in white. I paint the actual base of the interior black for the perception of depth.
Once that’s done it’s simply time to bolt it all together and add the detail to the body!
My camera didn’t want to pick it up but I managed to get a very fine brush and painted in the brass buckles on the leather bonnet straps. I just couldn’t have done it with the cheap old brushes I normally use. I must get some more quality brushes as they really do make a difference in your work!
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