Jhedir6

Looking really nice Ismael. I like your attention to correcting the little things that race fans will notice and appreciate. Thank you. David

This was just released by Revell this week. I just ordered mine from Germany so wont see it till after Christmas but it looks pretty good. Much like the Mercedes AMG GT lots of engine detail and really nice body/interior. Here's a link to a Youtube unboxing video. It's in German but you can see the contents and level of detail. Hopefully no warped parts this time.... PS this is not my video. I was looking to see if Tom from Scale Modeling Channel had done one yet and found this one. The guy's a bit long winded at the start with the box art so jump ahead to 4:15 mark to see the contents. David

Luis is right, IPA works great too, however, DO NOT USE IPA on Resin......it will turn it into a gooey paste. I almost ruined a HRM Cobra Daytona body that way. Purple Power or Castrol Super Clean (just Super Clean now) is great too. Pending on the brand of paint CSC works better than IPA and the other way around for other brands. I've never had CSC damage plastic, ever, I've left bodies in it for months and eventually it removes the paint, even paint that's been on for years and years. IPA the same on plastic, again DONT use it on resin. This is a LMM Panoz LMP that for some reason I've never been able to get a good paint job on, something always goes wrong. It's have about 4 different paint jobs, with different brands and it always gets messed up, this kit is my own personal Eleanor.....anyways, its been stripped....not striped.... in CSC and has never been damaged. Sorry no shots of the paint before hand, but as you can see the resin's still abit dirty, but all the paint was safely removed. I know other guys use brake fluid or Wesley's but I havent and cant recommend or knock either of them. Also CSC will easily remove chrome from plated parts if you want , and again, will not harm the plastic, IPA does too. I have two large rectangular tubs from the dollar store, one for IPA, one for CSC and just let parts soak in the tubs. Every so often I just strain the fluid into another container to remove the paint flakes and continue to use. My current batch of CSC is pretty close to a year old and still works, tho the newer it is, the stronger. I find IPA doesnt last quite as long, tho the longevity is still good. David

Nice Joseph, Any plans on doing the BFG T/A's in larger sizes, 17" 18" rims etc? Working on a 1/24 scale of my 1:1 F150 and it's got 18" BFG's , would like to source something similar for the build.

I've actually managed to straighten it some so mocked up the kit sits level. I have to tape the chassis and body together to do this, and I'm hoping the tape will help correct the warp some. Still not very happy with Revell tho, these are QC issues that really shouldnt be happening now a days. If it wasnt as common as it seems to be I could understand that sometimes bad parts get threw QC, but seems many of their new kits have these issues. Just for me, this year, 2x Porsche 918 Spyder, one from original purchase and the replacement from Revell warped as well. Corvette C7R, warped chassis, Ferrari 458, warped chassis, and now this Mercedes AMG, again a warped chassis. My chrome tree was also bent up pretty good but it didnt effect any of the parts. And I remember a thread where a lot of people were complaining about the Ramcharger with similar issues. I think all these warped parts are from parts trees either being pulled from the molds too soon or not allowing the plastic to cure enough before packaging them. QC issues that Revell really needs to look at. I've never had a Tamiya kit with warped parts, only issue I ever had from with a Tamiya kit was a missing tire bag. Aoshima kits, never a warped tree. Hopefully this is an issue Revell will address in the New Year.

Arrived today. Five days from Germany to Canada, that's extremely fast. Nice kit, really nice detail. But again, I got another warped chassis.

Got my kit in today. Very nicely detailed and engineered kit. Some good points, some bad, as with all kits. But alas.....again I got a brand new Revell kit with a warped chassis. That's 4 this year now. I've already put in a request for a new chassis but because its Revell Germany kit it could be 3-4 months before I see a replacement. I really hope someone here as an in with someone at Revell and can ask them to start yanking some chains and get these quality control issues fixed. This chassis is warped because it was put in the bag too soon and packaged before it was completely cured. My chrome tree has a pretty bad warp to it as well but it doesnt appear to have twisted any of the parts, just the chassis so far. Oh well, another $40 bucks I can toss on the shelf...

Nice Jonathan, very nice. That blue looks phenomenal. Gonna look so good with the pearl and clear on it. Looking forward to more. David

I concur. Looking forward to more. What colour are you doing the wheels? David

It definitely looks more aggressive with the BBS rims and the side skirts from the 2010. I'll be follow this, as Ive not picked one of these up yet. Was waiting to see a nice build up of one, so I too, will be watching. Hood needs a bigger cowl induction bump, or maybe a graph from a Corvette? Looking forward to more. David

Thanks Jonathan, totally forgot I read that on that list. I'll have to ask Plamoz for some test shots of the rims so I can pick a set out, not really sold on the kit wheels, would like to see their offering so I know which ones I'd like to get. Plamoz looks like they plan on being a top provider of aftermarket goodies in the future. They brought a lot of really nice items to the market in their first year, and year two looks to be big.

Just bought one myself after seeing the video too. Looks like a really nicely engineered kit. I didnt see that Plamoz was doing wheels for this. That's great news, they have such nice products. Now I have to go search and find the post I missed on the wheels for this kit. David

Nice work Ismael. Liking all the changes and additions you're doing. My guess for that tank would be an overflow/fill for the oil system. With the big airbox over the engine they'd need somewhere to add oil that is easily accessible during a race. Or I could be completely wrong, I figure I got a 50/50 shot at it. Looking forward to more updates. David

Its the newest release from Tamiya. Looks good Jonathan. How's the engineering? And yes, what colour are you going with. Gravity has 2 colours for this one, I really like the blue. Awaiting further progress. David

Oh good. Remember too, pending on what you ordered, it may have been in transit. Mate is the NA distributor and he may have been waiting for product from Europe to come in. I dont know that he bottles anything here.

Are you planning on making these available for purchase? If so, any idea on the price point you're looking at? Also, when might they be available? I saw some Cobra style Halibrands on Shapeways for the 1/12 Shelby I was looking at picking up, but these are nice too. The Shapeways ones are for the tires from the Foose Camaro tho, and may not fit the stock Shelby tires. David

Johnathan, Get a hold of Mate at Gravity Colors and let him know. I just had the same issue with my Polo paints and masks purchase. Bought them at Halloween during their sale. After about almost 2/12 weeks I hadnt received the purchase yet, which is very unusual, 10-12 days max normally to Canada from Florida, I emailed Mate. It turns out that for some reason the tracking number from USPS didnt update with GC's site like it normally does and the package was lost somewhere in USPS system. Mate immediately redid the order and shipped it out the next day. I had it in 8days. So yo should definitely get a hold of him and let him know. He's got fantastic customer service. He said he's had a more than a few packages lost lately. Let him know, I'm pretty sure he's about ready to lose it with USPS, David

Yeah, mine wouldnt go yesterday when I started this, and then right after I lost the entire site for about 2hrs. Everything seems to be fine now.

Starting this one right away as I've been looking forward to it for quite some time. I wont post a lot of pics of the raw parts as I did a mini review and unboxing already and you can see those pics here. So to start, Belkits 2013 Volkswagon Polo WRC being updated to the 2015 Red Bull Polo using Gravity Colors paint and Racing Toro masks, available from Gravity Colors. I got a little done last night, and will post up some pics later on. David

Anyone else having posting issues this morning? Trying to put a new thread up under On The Work bench and I keep getting a 404 error message. Anyone else? David This is also a test to see if other sections are affected.

This is my review of Belkits Volkswagen Polo WRC kit along with Hobby Designs detail up set, Gravity Colors paints and Racing Toro masking/decal set. First off, Belkits Polo WRC. Right out the box its a very beautifully packaged kit. Each parts tree and sub-assembly part pack are shrink wrapped separately. Interior/roll cage: More interior and some exterior parts: Suspension: Chassis and interior pan: Body: Clear parts: Chrome bits: Photo etch tires and seatbelt material: Stock decal sheet. Instruction booklet: All the parts look clean, no visible flash at first glance. More than enough detail to make a very nice looking model OOB. At this time the only complaints I have on the kit are, first, no engine detail. Would have been really nice to have had an engine in the kit. Maybe Scale Productions will do one like they did for the Escort Mk. I. Secondly, the interior tub in the rear, like the Fiesta kit, there's no detail panel for the inside of the rear hatch. Not a big issue, but would have completed the interior in my opinion. Neither are big problems, just would of liked to have seen these details included. Cost..I picked up the Belkit and the Hobby Design detail up kit from MSHobbies Onto the Hobby Design detail up set. Inside the sleeve: Instructions: Resin brake components: Photo etched and seat belt/spare tire tie down material. HD's usual fair, very nice PE along with some nicely cast resin. Over all looks like a nice set. Only issues I have right now are, one, instructions, might be abit sparse, some HD sets in the past have instructions that are a little vague on where parts go, or if material needs to be removed off the stock piece. So far this set looks good, but I always think HD sets need better instructions. But I could be wrong on this one. Second, the seat belt/spare tire tie down material doesnt have lengths listed as to how long to make it. Now that I look, neither does the Belkits instructions. Some of the parts are redundant as there is PE in the base kit, but even if I don't use all the PE from the HD set on the Polo, they'll find a home elsewhere. Gravity Colors Paints. Gravity Paints.....all I can say is wow, I love this stuff. Colours look good, sharp and mixed perfectly, ready to spray. I love the way GC colours go down and will keep using them for a long time to come. You need five different colours for this build. Volkswagen Pure White, Volkswagen Atlantic Blue, Volkswagen Rising Blue, Red Bull F1 Yellow and OZ Gun Metal for the wheels. My only issue with GC paints at this time is, cost. Per volume, compared to other brands the cost is higher. But from what I've found is, they go on with better coverage in most cases, so you use less. In the end, it might be a wash on cost. The only other thing I'd like to see is some bigger sizes for things like primers, and standard colours, black, white, matte black, silver/aluminum. If GC brings some larger size bottles to market soon I think they'll increase their sales greatly. And finally the Racing Toro masking/decal set. Listed as RT-001 looks like its the first production item from these guys, and hopefully not the last. (not sure why, but the system keeps laying this photo down on its side, in Photobucket its right way up) Inside, nice verbal directions with color photos of the real car to aid in placement of the masks. Backside of instruction sheet with a copy of the maskings for clarity or, for when you mess one up and need to make a replacement. The masks themselves, die cut and numbered for placement. Decal sheet, three different driver pairs for four different rallies. Decals looks great with Cartograf like quality with minimal to no excess carrier film. Inside of the packaging sleeve with more reference photos of the real car for decal placement for the version you choose. And the backside of the packaging sleeve with more reference shots. These guys hit this out of the park. Quality is top notch. Directions looks sound and spot on from the quick over view I gave them. Decal quality looks to be impressive with bright crisp colours and no visible bleeding of the edges on the decals. The masks are die cut and ready to peel and place. They're numbered and go onto the kit in numerical order for ease of use. The only issue I see at this point, the masks are very very delicate and will require a lot of patience and meticulous preparation to get them placed right the first time. The directions will need to be followed to the letter and the build will require multiple trips to and from the paint both to apply and remove the masks. This is definitely not a beginners set. Now, should you not want to go the route of the masks from Racing Toro, Belkits has listed on their site future releases for the 2015 car (BEL010) and the 2016 car (BEL011). Not sure on release dates yet or if they'll provide paint masks or decals for the complex livery. But if you're liking this car and don't want to wait for Belkits releases, these aftermarket items are definitely worth the investment. I'll be starting my build of this kit on the weekend, so I'll post there any issues I come across there and will update the comments here as well. David

Got the Polo kit and the HD detail up set a couple weeks ago, but the Gravity Colors and Toro Decals and masks in today completing the base for the my build. Going to do a Review write up very shortly. David

I have a couple of these too. Awesome stands, and yes....glue the two halves together. I found out the hard way when I flipped a freshly cleared body upside down to get the bottom edges that the halves will separate, at the worst possible moment. Also, I tape the crossbars on the stand to the inside of the body(doors) just to be safe. David

Nicely done. Looks really good. Yellow isnt my favourite colour on this car, but your's looks extremely nice. Thanks for sharing. David

Small update. Been busy this week so no real work done, but I got some more parts from Shapeways in. Roof rack, which will be attached to the roll bars over the roof. As well as 4 "Recaro" seats. Probably not really Recaro design, but still look good. Still plan on ordering more parts from Shapeways. I figure at this point, why not. More over the weekend I hope, temp's are really suppose to drop this weekend here so good times for building. David