Yup, been thinking a lot about that... especially after seeing how much that aftermarket top and mechanism added to my Coloniale.

It seems that my 'process' involves a lot of image surfing, often taking me to walk-arounds of restorations of real vehicles. This really helps me get a 'feel' for the vehicles. And its crazy to see some guy strip down and disassemble a truck into it's component parts, sitting on the shop floor... all that is missing are the 50 foot sprues! These guys are often trying to solve similar problems to me, only 35 times bigger!

Then I fill up my 'inspiration' folder with reference images that I keep at hand during the build. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to find a book dedicated to a vehicle, which I'll track down if not crazy expensive.

Another great source for vehicle builders, but not always available, are the original User and Maintenance manuals. You might find one of these in some remote corner of the web. Sometimes, the drawings are really good, often the photos are too dark. Even if it is just to identify what a part is, and what it was used for!

Looking at the grille in the kit, the vertical slats are too close together for me to separate or hollow out from behind like the Coloniale, so if anything I might just score a bit for more definition, but its really tight, so likely just a pin wash to give it more depth.

Getting the right material for the folded roof will be a challenge too. The lens cleaner cloth I used for the Tilly will be too thick I think.

Cheers, and Thanks for the link!