Ian Fleming was born in England in 1908 and attended Eton College, the Royal Military College-Sandhurst, and universities in Munich & Geneva. However, he was a poor student, preferring a lifestyle of hedonistic debauchery. In 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and worked in the Naval Intelligence Division where he liaised with other departments and suggested audacious plans. He formed a Commando Unit whose job was to go in with combat troops to previously targeted headquarters and seize enemy documents. So they were also trained in unarmed combat, safe-cracking and lock-picking. He was part of the Committee that directed T-Force to secure and guard documents, persons, equipment and targets of interest for the British military. These were the Units that sought-out German nuclear laboratories, gas research centres, jet and rocket technology and scientists, and fast U-boats.

Post-war, Fleming worked for a newspaper and preferred to live in Jamaica, where he resumed his hedonistic lifestyle. In 1952, he wrote his first spy novel, Casino Royale, featuring a spy named James Bond. The name came from an American bird-watcher and, in Fleming’s opinion, “the brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was the dullest I’d ever heard.” Fleming said that he “wanted his Bond character to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened.”

Then the Hollywood movie industry got hold of the James Bond concept and produced 27 films, with Bond portrayed by 5 different actors. He is supposed to be an MI-6 agent, one of at least seven with a licence to kill (hence his number ‘007’). So, is he a spy, a detective, or an assassin? The James Bond/spy isn’t really a master-spy. He always uses his own name, often he is baled-out by the fortunate intervention of a stranger (usually female and beautiful, to boot), his actions are very overt (so much so that in each film he is captured by the bad guy), and he has a high reliance on the timely application of technology. Perhaps he is the obvious buffoon (a British “Maxwell Smart – secret agent 86”?), tasked with drawing the enemy’s attention away from the real covert spies?

Each Bond film is characterised by a far-fetched plot about a hedonistic man with expensive tastes, who is tasked (by his boss, known only as M) with investigating a critical threatening incident, which leads him to a nefarious high-tech villain. He resolves the situation with the aid of his skills, some luck (while being distracted by participating in a lot of gratuitous sex (with beautiful ‘Bond girls’) and violence), and complex, yet very capable gadgets, courtesy of MI-6’s Q-Branch (which is headed by Q). Chief amongst them are his modes of transport.

In his third film, ‘Goldfinger’, 007 was issued an Aston Martin DB5 sports car. Its non-standard features include a revolving numberplate (nowadays, it’d be digital or CGI), GPS, radar scanner, tray of weapons, phone (nowadays, he carries a multi-function mobile phone), fax (nowadays, he d have a laptop), small fridge, passenger’s ejection seat, bullet-proof glass and rear armoured shield (which, if the glass is bulletproof, is unnecessary, IMHO), smoke generator, oil slick dispenser, caltrop dispenser, two retractable forward-firing (light?) machine guns (later they were mini-guns), extendable tire slashers (NOT mentioned by Q) and extendable bumper rams (ditto). The DB-5 made appearances (both cameo and starring roles) in more ‘Bond’ films.

Many, many years ago, I acquired this kit (on a whim) at a Swap n’ Sell, and built it many years ago (so I’m running on memory – which stinks) for a Club Display entitled ‘Silver’. So, this is a ‘throw-together’ build. I recall that this kit came in a lid-and-tray box, that contained sprues in grey, clear and chrome-plated plastic. It included vinyl tires and three metal pins. Oh – it also had two figures – Bondy and Odd-job (he with the killer hat), all with separate arms (including a long-arm and a side-arm). Please understand that I’m nowhere near a car-builder.

Not being a car builder, I examined the instructions, with a view to slavishly following them (Yeah – GASP!!) There were several working features that I intended to incorporate, but haste (and stray glue) beat me. The instructions wanted me to cut-out a panel engraved on the inside of the roof, but since I couldn’t see a logical reason to do that, I didn’t. I started the build when I cut-out the engraved panel over the boot/trunk, for the retractable bullet-proof plate.

Some painting was done before the building started (inside parts, underside, etc), in accordance with the instructions. The front wheels turn, thanks to their mounting on metal pins. Just don't tap them in too deep. A snap-on rod connects each front wheel assembly so that they are posable, but a little stray glue says ‘No they aren’t’. Rats – my first mistake!!!

I treated the interior as I would an aircraft cockpit, and painted the elements before assembly. The required decals required close trimming of the carrier film, to fit into their allocated positions. How come Bondy doesn’t have seat belts? The cops would/should have pulled him over. I made another mistake with the spare wheel housing. It is supposed to turn so that it will raise and lower the bullet-proof shield. Double rats!!!

The instructions call for the car to be painted silver, where-as Aston Martin stipulate silver birch. I went with the instructions, because I had silver paint. Clear red and orange were required for the inside of the tail lights. The underside was flat black.

There were a few small decals for the outside – more, but smaller than those inside.

The final bits required were all optional bits. They were cemented-in so that they wouldn't fall out. These were the extended tire slashes (vs the retracted ones), the extended bumpers (vs the retracted ones), and front indicators dropped to allow the machine guns to be extend (vs in-place to conceal them). In all cases, I went for the bling (or the bang), to get more bang for my buck(s). But she was completed, and in plenty of time for the Club Display.

Two (other?) failures of mine, was that I didn’t thin the lip of the scoop on top of the hood/bonnet, or drill-out the exhaust pipes. And, if I had time, the inclination, and the prior knowledge, I might have lowered the headlights, and had the mini-guns poking out of their housings. Incidentally, my favourite car chased in the ‘Bond’ series was his escape (successful – thanks to luck, and assistance from a group of locals) in “For Your Eyes Only”, in-which he drove the Citron 2CV owned by Melina Havelock.  Ian Fleming also wrote about another gadget-laden car - Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.

Just the instructions and internet ‘research’.