spencer1984

That's cool, nice job!

Thanks! I have another couple of these that I want to turn into the Banana Buggies.

Turned out great, nicely done!

Excellent work, and it's great to see one of these kits actually out of the box and built!

Looks great, nicely done!

Good looking pair, nice work!

Excellent job on this!

Beautiful work as always, nice job!

Nicely done!

Looks like it came right off the show circuit, awesome job on it!

They don't get any cleaner, incredible job on this!

Beautiful work on this!

Building the Chassis: I'll be doing this mostly box stock, just to see how good a job Aoshima did. The kit starts with the chassis, which went together flawlessly. Only minimal cleanup was needed, and the parts very nearly snapped together. I finished it with satin black, BMF, and a light weathering to reflect its short time on the road before Doc got to work. The green lenses were done by coloring the BMF with a Sharpie, then covering them with a thin layer of PVA glue. I also added tire lettering, courtesy of Fireball Modelworks. The rear tires used his WL-25 Goodyear Eagle GT lettering in 1/24 scale, and the fronts are 1/25 scale to better fit the smaller tires. Wheel vanes were touched with silver, leaving the cast dark gray in the recesses to add some depth. Next: Interior!

The Kit: First impressions were very good. A huge box held nearly a dozen parts trees in black, gray, dark gray, clear, and chrome. Details were sharp and well-defined, the wiring is all separate pieces, and the body is delicate and well-proportioned. The 16-page instruction booklet seems thorough, and the decals are so sharp you can actually read the gauges and time circuit readouts.

Backstory: In the mid-1990s, one of my earliest purchases from HobbyLink Japan was the Back to the Future II DeLorean. I think it may have been my first time building one of Aoshima's kits, and I loved it: great detail, unique assembly, and excellent casting quality. Much as I liked it, though, I didn't do a very good job. The only reference I had was a VHS copy of the movie, my supplies were limited, and my skills weren't nearly enough to overcome either of these. The only surviving picture, taken back when film cameras and scanners were the only option. About 15 years later, I wanted to take another crack at the Time Machine. I wanted to try to make the "First Appearance" version as it came out of Doc's truck - the only time in the series that it wore the OUTATIME license plate. Polar Lights' kit was available by this point, and Aoshima had reissued their kits several times including some with prefinished bodies. I thought that if I could combine these, I could get what I wanted. Modifying the PL chassis to fit the Aoshima kit was as far as I ever got. As often happens, I got the hardest part finished and then got distracted. Then in late 2023, Aoshima announced their all-new tooling of a "Part I" Time Machine. It was exactly what I had been planning to build, but with current manufacturing standards. I placed my preorder, it arrived in May, and as soon as I got my work bench clear I started in.

Thanks!

Nicely done!

Ha, well done!

That's great, nicely done!

Nicely done! I always liked the look of the MPC kits of this era, you've shown here how good they can be.

Cool subject, nicely done!

Cool!

Nicely done, it's great to see one of these built! I found one in a box of built/damaged kits a few months ago, so this will also be helpful for figuring out how it's supposed to look.

Nice clean work, it looks good!

This kit has abunch of weird little quirks, and is always a tough one the first time you build it. But you've done some fine work here, and if you give it a second go I can almost guarantee it won't be quite as frustrating.