niteowl7710

Two additional upcoming SnapCar projects. A "Customized" Nissan Z - appears to have a different grille and wheels and Honda Civic EK9

Aoshima SnapCar (1/24) line continues with the upcoming (this month) release of 4 different colored Evo IIIs. Three "regular" and one with a Initial D branding. Coming November is the release of a NiSMO Nissan Z in three colors.

With respect Luc I'm not basing my opinions on the pictures, I've seen it live in person at the IPMS Nats in Virginia several weeks ago. I'm telling you there's no full detail glue kit derivative of this kit because it would require an entirely new chassis, interior and body. Those big giant lug holes on the firewall/scuttle panel is how the interior snaps on from underneath, and the hood snaps onto the body.

It doesn't and there isn't...not in that way. It would take so much retooling to put an engine into it, or for that matter to put a full chassis under it that it would cheaper and easier to start with a whole new tool. Which if they were going to do that, they would have just released a glue kit and been done with it. They flooded their own market with Mustangs with all the kits they released between 2006 and 2013 and each one sold progressively worse. It's why it took so long to get a C8 Corvette, why there was never any update to the Camaro or Challenger tools. All of them became dead stock on shelves for years after they were taken out of the catalog.

Actually one of the blockbuster announcements at the show is that Aoshima has obtained a Ferrari license and plans to use it in their 1/32 Snap Kit line starting with a 512BBi. No idea if that will ever translate into 1/24, or how many total 1/32 kits the license is supposed to entail at this point.

More Aoshima... B-Wave Tuner versions of their 180SX, coming in two versions as the previous ones have/are going to... Also hiding behind those that nobody has so far taken specific photos of are two HKS themed Boxer Twins. One Toyota 86, one Subaru BRZ

Iron Mask sir...no pack carrying equines involved. 🤣😂

One thing that isn't necessarily debuting at this show, but fits this topic is that Academy is doing a kit of the new Hyundai Sante Fe.

Some photos of Sean's box art builds of both Comets that were on display in Akron over the weekend.

I too got a visit from the Hobby Design/Alpha Model fairy. Decals are for the W Racing Team (Team WRT) BMW M4 GT3s driven by Rossi (and teammates) at the 2024 24hr of Spa and 24hr of Le Mans.

It's this coming weekend...I must have gotten the date wrong, or it was changed a week since the early flyers were made. Either way - stay tuned to this space.

Hot Wheels changed the name and so they obliged. No other changes were made to make it match the actual 1/64 (which has a blown engine through the hood - and you'll notice that's not on the box art).

From seeing it in person and comparing to those instructions, I believe that's a very educated "guess".

I overheard it mentioned that pretty much everything was still in the original tooling and only the original body was sacrificed at the AWB alter, but whether that means that every single custom part winds up in the kit is up to the folks at Round2.

Yes with an engine that has not previously been released, but was tooled with the kit back when PL made it.

Round2 with Steve was once again at this year's Plastic Undercover Show in Akron showing their upcoming wares. Onto things that have been added to the display. Wheels added back to the '51 Chevy Reissue of the Polar Lights '04 GTO Reissue of the Indy Drag Combo (and yes the wagon is curbside like the original) 15 or so newly recreated parts including custom rear roof, dashboard, steering column and most of the lowered front suspension. Riding the Ford Vicky chassis and whatnot, but with a new body, glass, and front lights. Slew of improvements to the original MPC kit's body particularly in the front and rear treatments. Mirrors have separate mirror faces and are pinned. Lower side trim is separate if you don't want to make the movie specific vehicle. Lastly the '63 Lemans Convertible which not surprisingly is made up of quite a bit of the original kit that had been tossed into a corner (so to speak) when the original was turned into an AWB. So new body here, along with the associated improvements you've come to expect with these remasters.

I worked with a guy about 25 years ago that had a square body truck he was so overly proud of for some reason that spent it's entire existence we worked together painted primer gray with what I can only assume was a shop broom. It almost looked like one of those swirled textured ceilings...

SJR wouldn't allow anyone within 500 nautical miles of their tooling, but their 70s era kits that they tooled themselves (Olds 432, Monte Carlo, Roadrunner) are 1/25. The logic was Monogram reset the standard to 1/24 from the 80s forward, so the current 202x cars are also 1/24, but the original 60s/70s NASCAR kits are 1/25 and so theirs are too. If you're interested in that era of NASCAR, but haven't gotten any of their kits, you've been snobbish for no reason.

Given Tamiya's extensive track record of doing two kits per tool, and there already being two kits from said tool, I wouldn't expect there to be any further versions of their 240Z unless the grandson takes the company in a more aggressive direction now that the old man has passed away.

The IPMS is dying the same way the hobby as a whole is...which is to say it isn't. I'm no sycophant of the group, they make me shake my head sometimes, but that doesn't negate the fact that membership of the National organization has been steadily increasing since 2020. I know of several local chapters that have formed since then as well, while we've (as car modelers) have just been bleeding show after show after show. (NNL Toledo, GSL, NNL West and countless local shows) in the same time period. Given that there are 26 other classes (at IPMS Nationals) to put car models in - outside of the two box stock classes that 3D/resin/et al can't enter - it smacks of trophy hunting and or complacent modeling to say one can't build a competitive model for xyz competition unless I have a special place to put it that "caters" to how "I" build.

More goodies...

There are no instructions, box stock requires they be on display with the entry. Also if you read the rules for Box Stock - the ones from GSL are still up on their website for example - you can't use aftermarket parts. Well that whole thing is aftermarket. Recycling a manufacturer's name doesn't somehow make it a commerical model kit. I've yet to come across the IPMS show that would allow an aftermarket armor or aircraft be entered into Box Stock either as the IPMS (especially on the National level) are really hung up on the idea that Box Stock is single media and really a throwback class to showase older kits that wouldn't stand up to modern day tooling.

Not to pile on the kid, but there were several models attached to the wrong companies, a dash of things already released (ergo not upcoming) and a splash of things in the Japanese kit section that are straight re-stock reissues that are in fact not new nor upcoming since they're just resupply. He's a really decent modeler, but his video appears to be a slide show based on the Cyber Modeler list referenced earlier in this thread and those folks wouldn't know their hind ends from a hole in the ground when it comes to accurate information, particularly about import kits.

This argument about "checkbook modeling" has been in the hobby for entire time I've been old enough to be aware of it - so 35+ years (out of the 40 I've been building models). Back then it was resin, p/e, turned metal and pre-wired distributors. Just because you can buy something doesn't mean you can actually use it effectively. Making a model into a blingatron shrine to the aftermarket means nothing if it's not executed properly. Very little 3D modeling is done to be model-specific, and even what is still isn't exactly plug and play.

The only shows that I know that have/had a dedicated "Scratchbuilt" category/categories were GSL (with the If I had Designed It class) and IPMS Nationals. Some Regional and Invitational IPMS contests have or have had Scratchbuilt classes included if the previous contests demonstrated enough entries to justify them.