I'm guessing that Fujimi are most likely to do any more McLaren sports car kits, I'll have to keep my eyes open. My next purchase will probably be the Hasegawa Jaguar XJR-8 and/or Tamiya XJR-9, they both appear to come complete with Silk Cut decals!

I think you're right, it does look a little high, hard to tell if it's scale or not. I'll keep an eye out for the Silk Cut decals here and if they're the right price I'll send them to the UK via a friend next time they travel home, I'm sure they can post them to you then.

Ok cheers George, that's very good of you. Much appreciated. No worries if you can't find any though, my back up plan was to do the car in the matt black test car colours.

Yeah I heard that he has quit. Oh well, getting paid a six figure salary to drive some of the best cars in the world in exotic locations isn't for everybody... How about this for a line up though!

Now that's a tv program I would watch! I've pretty much done all I can with this build whilst at sea. I've got a chopper over to Holland in the morning ( weather permitting ), then I'll be catching a flight back to Newcastle in the afternoon ( logistics department organisation permitting ). Ideally I would like to go straight upstairs to the man cave with some beers, and then stay in there for the forseeable future, but there's always things to do when I first get back. I'm going up to Scotland for a long weekend also, so I will try to get the chassis and frame painted and take it with me so I can start to apply the carbon fibre decals. That's the plan anyway, might not happen though...

I decided to assemble the front nose before painting. This will make it quite difficult to paint inside and add the photo etch grills, but I had to hold the parts together whilst the glue set in order to align them perfectly, and really didn't want to do this with finished paint work. The windscreens are masked and ready to go, I'll probably paint them at the same time as the chassis to get them out the way. I'm looking forward to painting the airbox as well, that should look cool on top of the engine once it's done.

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Cheers Simon, the airbox isn't painted on that engine pick yet mind, just a test fit!

I didn't manage to get any modelling done on my break away unfortunately, and as soon as I got home I found out that I must attend a four day first aid course in Aberdeen... So here I am in the premier inn. I've brought a few bits of kit with me though, I've painted some bits ready to apply some of the carbon fibre decals. I'll crack on with that and post a few pics.

The Tamiya photo etch set arrived in the post. You get the seat belts with it as well which I didn't realise so that was a bonus . I've bought some micro mesh as well, never used it but I here it works really well. I treated myself to a parts holder for my airbrush booth whilst I was on, that should come in handy.

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You have to improvise Simon, my spray booth is still far from hi-tech!

I've finally been able to make some progress on this build. The Studio 27 decals seem to be going down well with a bit of micro set/sol. The dull fire proof metal effect decals are down on the firewall and that is glued in place inside to create the divide between the cabin and engine bay. Any areas on the chassis that will still be visible on the final build also get carbon fibre effect decals, as well as the top of the dash board. The different carbon fibre parts are also a different sized weave which is quite cool.

The engine bay is starting to come to life now, but still a lot more detail to add.

Cheers Simon, thanks. A little trick I've learnt for applying the decals is to prick a load of tiny holes in them with a pin before you wet them on the card. It seems to work quite well.

I had a bit of a late one last night and got a bit more done. The suspension on these cars is really cool, I think that's what is referred to as wishbone suspension. The engine is now fixed in place in the back of the car. I would have liked red brake calipers to be honest but I'm keeping this one true to the original for a change. I used a little bit of black wash for the disc holes. I've seen instances where people have drilled these out, but I'm not that hardcore in 1/24 scale I'm afraid!

Cheers mate, thanks.