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This just arrived via japan today. A great surprise to find at the front door. Curbside kit with some great detail. All the black on the body looks like it’s painted. Paint masked are supplied. The color separating lines are in the panels. Makes lining up the template easier. A weird car. I wish they raced it in the old Gurney colors of White , Orange, Red. The roof is a satin chrome

Work In Progress Thanks to everyone who stopped by! Glad that GSL picked the Tamiya VW Beetle for the Common Kit. I've entered that category three times. I suspect there will be more entries than ever because everyone loves Bugs! I'm calling this FROZEN IN TIME, a tribute model of the 1960 Beetle my parents had before I was born. I'm into weathering my builds, this is extreme without having any rust. But I took some pictures before I ruined it. LOL There are some things I'm not happy with, but oh well, IT'S FINISHED! I detailed the engine, though the lid will be closed all the time except at shows. Question to everyone who built this, the front hood is a tight fit and challenge to get opened? I reworked the engine lid hinge, no toothpick required to stay open.

And it looks like Tamiya is gonna give us two new kits for 2019, a pre order listing has showed up for a 1/24th scale plastic model kit for the TS050, a release date of April is being shown, far as I know, this kit has not been officially announced yet. https://www.hobbyeasy.com/en/data/433adivnnzmc86pfvihm.html Will update this post when more info and or photo's become available.

Hi All, Today i finally finished the Sauber C9. I started this kit about 10 months ago, but took a long break, due to life getting very busy. Anyway, i have linked my WIP thread, if anyone wants to see some of my progress though this build. Going into this build, i wanted it to be the most detailed kit i had ever done, and i think i have completed what i set out to do. I am very pleased with the final outcome of the build. Thanks for looking Nathan

Hi All, 2 weeks ago, I was at a local Hobby swap meet. I came across this little beauty and swooped on it. The kit was 30AUD which is about the asking price for a basic Brand new tamiya kit. I was stoked to get such a rare, complete kit for such a price. This, and the Mazda 787B, are my all time favorite race cars. There is something about the boxy late 80's - 90's styling that i really love. When i got home i went online and bought the Hobby Design PE kit too. The kit is complete, with all parts still inside their plastic bags. Looking at the instructions, you can tell the age of this kit, as the white paper has gone yellow, as have the decals unfortunately. I am hoping that they can still be used. The carrier film has a slight yellow tone to it too. I havent had much luck in finding this livery online, the only one i have found is 50USD. I have some Microscale Liquid decal film, which is meant to restore old decals, so ill give that a shot first, before i go and buy some new decals. I am planning on detailing this kit as much as possible, and will be building it to the #61 car which finished 2nd in the 1989 race (I prefer the bright orange accents, over the yellow which was on the winning #63 car). Thanks for looking, I'll hopefully have some build updates soon Nathan

Here is mine, finally got it finished up, now I know I use this a line alot, but It really could of turned out a lot better, had to do the paint over because mass debris in the clear coat, and it just went down hill from there, had some fit issues but that was my doing, this kit really has some very tight tolerances when it comes to some of the body pieces. Had wet sand and polish a small area of the windscreen to remove some glue I got on it because carelessness on my part. It is what is , I am still happy with it. Paint, Ford Liquid Blue from Scalefinishes.

Officially starting this project today (Jan. 14). Been planning to build this anyway, but the GSL Common Kit is Tamiya's excellent kit of the 1966 Beetle, so that has lit the fire under me. Other than the typical masking to airbrush several colors challenge, the ski rack and back-dating some details is going to be fun. I'm also going to weather it, with the cool ice. Another first for me, will be using Splash paint. I got the Best Model Car Parts 1957 Beetle conversion last year, but the rules state no resin bodies, so that will be for their first Bug. But I can use the engine lid and wheels. Early VW wheels have no slots, the Hasegawa Bus wheels are also slotted, but I can use the hubcaps and skinny tires. There is another detail that has haunted me, when I get the package, will comment then. An interesting detail is the mirror location, the primary picture is on the dash, but other pictures are the normal location. Only one exterior mirror, which will be the right one located on the left side. The front turn signals are too big, considering making out of clear sprue. The taillights need to be smaller, might make out of red sprue. It looks like the steering wheel needs to be modified to not be deep dish. I just learned the windows were increased in size after 1960, but that will guarantee doom, just opening the vent window should be enough to distract the rivet counters. Now I'm committed (for a mental institution?). Primary reference picture.

For 'Mein Frau', who loves orange cars and was brought-up close to Stuttgart: Tamiya Orange with 'a few drops of' Tamiya 'Flesh, followed by a single coat of 'Pearl Clear' and two coats of TS13 'Clear', all cut & polished with Tamiya compounds. Thanks for taking the time to look, as ever all questions, comments and abuse welcomed. Cheers from NZ Ian.

Sorry if there's too many pics here, but I love this build! It was mosly completed over the last half of last year, it took up a lot of my free time over Christmas, but alas it couldn't be completed before year end. It got fully finished a few weeks ago, I didn't like the photos, I was going to get more pics with a contrasting background, but can't be bothered for now I'm posting these! there is a WIP post too if your interested. A great kit, well engineered (as many people commented on my topic in the WIP section) goes together really well. I probably should have glued the side/skits on prior to painting, but I was too focused on the wheel areas which you can't see anyway... you live & learn

Hi!. This is my version of a well - known Tamiya kit. Local ( Finnish ) plates, pegasus wheels and tyres and some minor modifications. Tamiya spray paint layers in following order: - pink primer - gun metal - clear red - clear - clear green - clear - pearl - clear x 2 As usual, all comment and questions are more than welcomed. Into the pics we go:

I started this a few weeks ago and finally got around to posting. It’s mostly done at this point except the interior. I had that painted and didn’t like it so it went for a soak. It’s now just primer white waiting for color.

I'm starting this kit too, in an effort to get through the stash. It's going to be made with a P/E set. Sprue shots to follow.

started with an tamiya RC30 kit, heavily used my parts box and scratch built all the rest. engine was cut into pieces to make slimmer (V4 --> V2) and cylinder angle was reduced from 90 to (almost) 52 degrees. also cylinders were made taller. frame was modified for engine mounting points. rims where cut apart to add different spokes. tank was sectioned to become slimmer. rear cowling was cut apart to make new rear and seat, which was then covered with a piece of leather. front fender is a modified GPZ rear fender. exhaust headers made from RC30, muffler and rear shock are scratch built. many other bits are also scratch built like handlebars, mirrors, clocks (7 different pieces), and so on, and so on. custom printed decals. only parts used as shown in the assembly guide: swingarm-axle and spark plug connectors. rear wheel nut was also not modified, but was used in the scratch built rear shock absorber. 3 1/2 months of work with roughly estimated 300+ hours overall.

I’m happy with the way this turned out. It was a very nice build, as almost all Tamiya kits are. My only complaint would be the spoiler has a little off kilter to it, but hardly noticeable with my eyesight. The Studio27 decals were very easy to work with.

Hi folks, it looks like Tamiya will release a kit of the Ford FT 2016 next year aswell: https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1181905-tamiya-24346-ford-gt So far we have a simple Revell snap kit of that car and there will be a detailed kit of the LM race version by Revell rather soon. So I guess a more detailed (yet probably only curbside) kit by Tamiya will add to the variety...

Starting a few today. The bath is the first step.

The 2018 Nissan 370 Zed Heritage Ed from Tamiya, its pretty much a reissue of the 370Z kit from 2009 with some new parts/wheels and decals. Since its been a while, lets look at the entire kit, yes, both RHD and LHD are included.

My latest completed build at TandemCTelevision on YT. The idea was a pit scene of a race used Honda RA272, maybe after it's Mexico GP win.

So, yesterday I'm working on laying down the first color coats on the lindberg Dodge 330, for the "Bring out your dead" group build.... 3rd and final coat goes on smooth as butter and then poof the top of my brand new Tamiya paint stand falls off sending the body roof down into the floor! You all can imagine the scene I'm sure... The wife is at work, the dogs are asleep and it's been dead silent except the mild hum of my compressor for nearly 3hrs.... NIRVANA!! And then Murphy barges in and wrecks it. Anyone ever had this happen? I'm about to go back to pipe nipples...

This one is finished! Thanks everyone who followed along. And a few before putting it into the case for good:

Added my first engine detail and seatbelts. Other than that, I followed the Tamiya directions.

It’s a neat little curbside kit, and I enjoyed building it. I will definitely build more of these curbside Tamiyas in the future – they are quick and fun builds.

With Skyline done, time to start on another pretty box... Tamiya 1/24 Alpine Renault A442B Turbo #2 24H LeMans (D. Pironi/J.P. Jaussaud) this time - original 1979 release in a shelf-worn box! This one will be strictly box-stock - only parts that come in the box will be used. Building this for a box-stock contest on a Russian website.

This one took about 15yrs to finally get off the bench. At the time I started it most of my gear was packed away, so the engine and rear suspension were painted by hand with Tamiya acrylics, ugh, that stuff does not like to be brushed on.

This build will hopefully take less than 10 years. Can’t promise though. ? Anyway….so after building that…lets call it “challenging” ABC Dino kit, I decided I needed to build something that actually fit right, didn’t have to be re-worked, and had plenty of reference material to build properly. So, old, well-fitting and nicely designed, trouble free Tamiya kit seemed like a good start, right? Wanted something simple. Picked up this R32 kit on eBay the other day - always liked these Skylines, my brother had one back in the 90’s, and I currently am seriously considering bringing one to Texas. So this felt like a good choice: The kit itself requires no introduction, it did however arrive slightly damaged, with roof squished in, and radiator support bracket snapped. Had to repair both pillars and the bracket before proceeding – turned out just fine, luckily was a clean break: Body was primed with Tamiya grey, artifacts sanded off, ready for color coat: I picked Bayside Blue for the color, had the paint from Zero Paints sitting in the box for 10 years. Stunning color. Cleared with Dupont Chromaclear. Polished with Tamiya coarse, 3M finish, and Treatment model wax for shine. Had a few tiny specs land on the clear, but luckily was able to polish those out: Then long and tedious process of cleaning up all the parts – remove parting lines, fill the sink holes, cut the burrs – you know the drill. Bunch of black and aluminum/metal parts painted: Started with the engine. It’s a nicely designed powerplant, lacking detail by modern standards, but still good. I wish they would give the lettering in the middle of the cam cover as a decal, but they didn’t, had to paint it and well… I’m not very good at detail work anymore, came out ok I guess, filled in couple of letters there. Will spare you progress shots, but here are few pix of the engine before I stuffed it into the front subframe carrier – added some minor details like fuel rail, coil pack harness, couple of vacuum hoses, some hose clamps, etc. Surprisingly good level of engraving on some parts, but then its Tamiya after all. Engine is mounted on the subframe carrier: Next, I started working on the chassis. After studying several underside pictures, I painted it with some primer showing through in the mid-section, cause most cars I saw had that portion rustproofed or some such, and it was this grey-yellowish color, so I thought that was a good way to replicate that finish. Turned out great. Decided to add some heat shielding before installing the engine and suspension: Installed front subframe and other suspension bits in the front: Same with the rear suspension/fuel tank/exhaust : Overall, I think it looks great, will still add few bits here and there, but I’m trying not to get carried away, as this was planned as a “box-stock” kinda build…. Finally, couple of the shots of the engine bay as it sits right now. A bit bare, but there are still a few additions that I plan to fill up the empty spots. There are few little bits that I have already added there – drilled out front shock mounts and added strut stocks sticking through, battery cables, etc. So this is where I am at the moment.