Justin Porter

I do have a few kits that would be in Round 2's vault that I'd like to see re-released. #5 - MPC 1971 Roadrunner Superbird One of American racing's biggest "what-if" cars that if combined with current Round 2 decals, box art, and pad-printed tires would likely be a hit. #4 - AMT Watson Roadster An icon of Indianapolis and would make an excellent companion to the (admittedly slow selling) Indy Lotus reissue. #3 - AMT 1972 Corvette Street Machine A good candidate for the current "Kustom Kruisers" series, this kit was another whose Ertl era box art just didn't tell the story of the kit which had a neat back-half chassis with four link rear suspension and a well done LT1 small block. #2 - AMT Stock 1934 Ford 5 window coupe A terminally underrated kit that still represents an excellent rendition of a factory stock pre-war American car. The mind does race with the potential of a 2n1 reissue with period speed parts and wheels for a full TROG vibe, but that's hardly necessary. #1 - AMT NEW TOOL 1957 Chevy Bel Air Under no circumstances should the Trophy Series '57 or the MPC '57 find their way back into the Round 2 catalog so long as this gem exists.

Sure. I'll bite. I'm that element. My point of sale system tells me that if I want to put dollars in my register, then I don't want legacy reissues. Even primped and polished 3D scanned retools of legacy reissues are not what I want. I look at my best-sellers list and it's NOT 1960's tooling. Thus far into 2025 what has been moving out of my door in model car kits? Moebius' tow trucks. Revell's Stranger Things Blazer. Tamiya's Porsche 911GT3RS. The only two vintage reissues that I can genuinely say are selling in comparable numbers are the AMT Streaker Olds F-85 AWB funny car and the Revell '29 Model A Pickup. If someone wanted to revive the Johan name but wanted to put the name on Hasegawa-level quality MODERN kits of Johan's vintage subject matter, then I'd be all for it. But the last thing I need is more 1960's styrene backwash that disappoints FAR more modelers than it makes happy.

Those really REALLY do look amazing. I have to wonder if he could be tempted to fix the Fujimi 365GTB/4 Daytona five spokes? The tires aren't bad, but the spokes are missing the curve to the rim ESPECIALLY on the rear so they look more like undersized F40 wheels.

I get a lot more sales out of nicely engineered snap kits of robots to people under the age of 30 than I do out of sales of badly engineered glue kits of old muscle cars to people over the age of 30. I give credit to Round 2 that they're finding the kits their market segment wants and throwing in more features and restored components and improved decals and even fixing known problem children like the '65 GTO. But if we want to talk about bringing kids into the model car company, that's Aoshima's gig, not Round 2.

Round 2's limited budget and need to sell in reasonable volume meant that whatever evaluation they performed on a factory stock release of the MPC '71-'72 Plymouth Roadrunner led them to believe other projects were better investments at this point in time. I will say that the Mueller-era '71 Charger reissue has been a mild success in my shop BUT that's a highly detailed kit from AMT's best era and an MPC clone isn't likely to be comparable. I can genuinely point to the Mueller-era Plymouth Duster outselling the MPC Dodge Demon clone in my shop as indication that the Roadrunner would likely be a similar situation.

I'm glad you're excited by and satisfied with the Powell. I'm deeply, DEEPLY, unimpressed by it. Frankly, it doesn't quite seem to measure up to late 90's/early 00's cast resin kits like from Etzels, Modelhaus, Fisher, or Mini Exotics. It certainly in no way compares to 3D printed kits/transkits from sources like C1, Red Wheel, MiniRetro, or the several sources currently printing kits designed by Andrey Bezrodny. And frankly, thanks to Andrey, now I certainly have ZERO reason to be interested in Johan's plastic input as he's given us an AMX that isn't laughably terrible.

Not entirely sure! Hasegawa is a staple of my stocking across many genres - auto, air, and sci-fi. They hit a nice price point and their kits tend to be excellently detailed.

Another day and even more progress on the V12. The USCP detail set REALLY does the trick for dressing up the Fujimi engine. The trumpets were done in Alclad Chrome which really helps them stand out as the icing on this cake.

Progress continues on the V12 at the heart of this build. I painted the cam covers with Cobra Motors Satin Black and added a few of the engine's ancillary details. The alternator belt was a bit of a disappointment, being molded solid(!) so out came my scriber and I managed to carve it out. Finally, I added the carburetors from the USCP detail set, currently wearing a coat of Tamiya Titanium Silver with the delicate linkages picked out in Mr Color Silver and the throttle return springs picked out in gloss black.

I can't say anything about their candy paints as I haven't used them, but the Extreme Metal range is one of my favorites to use because of the consistency of results compared to Alclad. The only real downside I've found is that when you get a bottle that's off - generally because it's old stock that's separated too much on the shelf - there's no amount of shaking or stirring that's going to bring it back. If your local shop either doesn't turn over paint often, or doesn't mind the age of their stock that doesn't turn often, then it's not a good line of paint to chance.

With my California finally finished, I felt ready to tackle a build that I have been aspiring towards pretty much the whole time I have been a modeler. The idea of a superdetailed build of a 250 GTO has been in my dreams ever since I watched my Dad make an attempt at the Gunze Sangyo High Tech kit as a kid. Instead of the Gunze kit with its wonky white metal chassis and glaring rear bodywork issues, I'm using the Fujimi kit as my base. To it, I am adding 3D printed wire wheels and Dunlop tires from Jack Modelling, 3D printed carbs, coils, exhaust tips, and wired distributors from USCP, and a full photoetch detail fret from Renaissance. The start of the build involved sawing the intake and carbs off the Fujimi block to replace them with the USCP unit. I've selected AK Interactive Extreme Metal Matte Aluminum as the base paint for the engine and transmission. Away we go!

Finally have my Indycals decals so I am starting to apply the most critical piece of the puzzle - that JPS livery!

Funny thing is that I actually used a specific car as the reference for this build! As to snags, the headers have pretty vague instructions and worse fit, the brightwork all has nasty mold lines, the wheels and tires are hideous, the seats are a joke, the interior side panels equally so BUT if you install scale seats then the side panels won't fit properly, the chassis wants to sit too far forward inside the body once the firewall is attached, and the windshield frame fit is most courteously described as vague. That said, it's not insurmountable and it can be very satisfying to get something nice out of it.

Finished! At last my Italeri 1/24 Ferrari 250GT California Spyder is all finished up. Painted in Cobra Motors Grigio Thalasse with Wine Red stripes, and wearing seats from Yamamoto Model Parts, wheels and tires from Jack Modeling, steering wheel spokes from Highlight Model Studio, and assorted parts box photoetch to dress up what really was a decent if basic kit. I'm pretty pleased with the end results even if there's a fair number of flaws traceable to the kit's wonky Italeri heritage.

This one is all finished and over in Under Glass!