I had a lot to do, so I was up with the larks (pigeons).

After a few more tweaks to the model, I decided that it wasn't worth doing any more until I'd seen a scan of the shape as a whole, so Counsel and I popped off to S-CAN, just up the road near Attleborough.

This was really worth doing because it highlighted everything that was wrong about the body and illustrated the tricks that my brain had been playing on me in making things look more stylish than they really were. The fin was discreetly removed.

There are serious problems here. The radiator grille is too small; there's a horrible hunch-back effect on the rear slope of the cabin.....

... further emphasised in this view and, I'm not over-happy with the swage line on the door.

It's reminiscent of a pre-war tin toy at the moment.

In an attempt to deal with all these problems, I downloaded a trial version of Fusion 360, a CAD programme of the sort that I'd steered well clear of in the past, purely because I thought I could do things more quickly, though less accurately, with pencil and paper. Nevertheless, I felt that I needed to learn a few new tricks to get with the programme, so to speak. I watched the tutorials and still couldn't make head nor tail of anything so ordered from Amazon, a paperback copy of the manual. I needed a book that I could hold in my hand, flick through the pages this way and that, without losing my place - something I find impossible on a screen. I managed to produce the whatchamacallit pictured above.

Then I was tempted (with the buck in mind) to download 'Slice' - an add-on to Fusion that produced the rather nice shape above. There's no avoiding it, I'll still have to go back to the model and make some serious changes and re-scan. As a complete beginner, I couldn't find a way - and the manual was a bit shy on this count - of manipulating the actual profile in some sort of freehand mode. I'll have to ask the question of someone who knows about these things - it might make life easier. The alternative is to play with a screenshot in Photoshop (something I can do) and use that for reference in the re-modelling.

Awkward was busy with his Mini gearbox; the straight cut gears going in over the weekend. There was a slight hold up as one of the tiny rollers from a roller bearing decided to depart the fix and was nowhere to be found, despite minute inspection of the kitchen floor and a magnet passed over the contents of the dustpan.

My new-found interest in 3D scanning prompted me to redouble my efforts to find a suitable candidate for the Hillman's radiator cap. This charming - possibly art-nouveau - bronze toad on the pommel of a cane my father gave me, may be just the thing.

I could engineer him so that he's climbing up over the back of the cap.

Looks like I could be on a roll here....