Justin Porter

It's a subject that's definitely due for a modern kit but it's kind of hard to imagine what company would willingly stump for the tooling. Possibly Hasegawa along the same lines as their Stratos? All the same, absolutely delightful interior work! Glad that this one is going to be finished.

It took a lot of wet sanding between 3200 to 12000 grit followed by polishing with Novus to get the paint to this stage but I am happy to say my SWB is out of the paint booth and I can get going on the home stretch to finishing this beautiful car.

So, for those of us keeping score at home, Round 2 can tool a Coronet chassis where the torsion bars end three miles away from the control arms and we're all happy BUT Revell must be excoriated if their Mustang's intake manifold is almost imperceptibly off in its valley pan contour. Which is not to say that's not a kind of silly goof on Revell's part. But there really is a determinable bias in reactions.

This really does look great complete with all the right little touches like the cream colored grille bars and painted wire wheels.

The question isn't at all as to whether or not older kits shouldn't be given appealing box art that presents the contents in a favorable light. Appealing advertising AND truth in advertising can and should cohabitate. Revell's SSP program and Round 2's current "Craftsman Plus" box callouts are perfect examples of this.

It's no use to attempt to deflect from THIS kit's faults by pointing that other kits also have faults. "Whatabout-isms" only distract from the matter at hand which is that Revell has released an archaic kit with known issues and with packaging that doesn't at all indicate that this is vintage tooling and the customer should not have modern expectations of it. The frustration is that Revell HAS in the past used branding, box style, and box art to successfully indicate older tooling reissues that exist primarily for nostalgia. The SSP program successfully re-issued primitive kits like the old Pontiac Club De Mer or Tom Daniels Surf Shark to positive approval without disappointing customers. Even as I stated earlier in this thread, the Monogram '55 Chevy Street Machine is back in a Revell box but with "Monogram" helpfully stamped on the front to indicate this is an old Monogram kit and shouldn't be compared to something like their modern '57 Ford Gasser or Moebius's Chevy II. If Revell didn't have a demonstrable history of clearly indicating legacy reissues, it would be much like how the world collectively shrugs its shoulders when yet another 70's vintage Esci tool resurfaces in an Italeri box because no one expects clarity from Italeri.

This really is a very ingenious build. It's a lot of fun to just take a few moments and drink in all the ideas, bow to stern.

False equivalence. The difference here being that some Revell Snap kits, like that Peterbilt 359, their Acura NSX, the final generation Caprice, or the Lamborghini Diablo Roadster, all still hold up relatively well in terms of accuracy, proportion, and detail. In fact, said Diablo Roadster kit is a BETTER Diablo than the glue kits available from Italeri or AMT and is only handily beaten by the considerably more modern Aoshima kits. This Camaro isn't in that same weight class and shouldn't be treated as such.

I understand Quantum wanting to wring whatever bucks they can out of whatever's in the tooling bank that they couldn't foist off on Atlantis. A clearly labeled "nostalgia reissue" program much like Airfix does for the "Airfix Classics" range would temper the expectations of uninformed or unaware builders. That the reissue of the '55 Bel Air Street Machine has nice friendly "Monogram" labeling on the box lid definitely calls attention that it's older tooling at the least to builders who recognize the Monogram name and associate it with the past. They didn't do anything wrong in reissuing this kit. They do deserve the blowback for not giving consumers a clearer concept as to whether or not this kit was worth their dollars on the shelf.

Glad to see poseable steering too. Now they just need to figure out that polycaps exist.

Walmart isn't concerned with "shelf space" when it comes to model kits because they're exclusively ordering in palletized self-sellers from Round 2. That leaves Hobby Lobby as the "big box" concern for Revell. I don't think one retailer in one country should serve as an impediment to better serving customers AND cutting their costs by using a single global packaging. Besides, if it works for the biggest name in the business worldwide - Tamiya -then it's good enough to emulate.

Count me as a retailer who would MUCH prefer if Revell switched to a flat box. I use free-standing aisle gondolas for stocking kits and import auto, armor, and air all sit nicely on their shelves while I feel like domestic kit builders aren't getting the same on shelf representation for the area as the others do.

This past Sunday at the Cleveland Model Show, I was finally able to address a big concern hanging over the project: the paint. The car I want to approximate - though not necessarily replicate - was painted an obscure Ferrari color named Rosso Bordeaux. Unfortunately, there wasn't a ready source for just that color. Thankfully, Mike of MCW Automotive Finishes took some time during the show to try and match against my reference photos and we settled on Royal Maroon from his lacquer line. This is the first color coat, sprayed straight from the jar and then backed up with a mist coat of Mr Leveling Thinner to level out the paint.

One more example of the absolute obsolescence of the "classic" domestic model kit box size. In the coming years that's certainly one of four things I would love the domestic kit manufacturers to finally agree should go the way of chromed headlights and non-replica custom options. Their Asian and European competitors certainly established ages ago that there's a better way to package model car kits.

I have them on preorder with my primary Hasegawa distributor. Can't say precisely WHEN they will be on my shelves - still haven't got the all new KPGC110 GTR yet - but I can say I'll be at least one stateside vendor with the new Mini on my shelf.

Given that Atlantis has been very forthcoming about explaining product delays regarding licensing issues, the answer to your question is "by paying them the agreed upon licensing fee for their corporate trademark."

Added the shocks to the suspension as the 250GT continues towards being a completed build.

Welcome from Elyria!

Welcome from Elyria.

Got the front inner fenders in place and that meant finally an opportunity for a true mock-up. After much deliberation, I decided that the Gunze Sangyo tires will be okay for the build particularly since the stance does look quite good. A little bit more sanding and on will go the next coat of primer.

Even dream projects using highly collectible kits aren't immune from bodywork. In this case Gunze Sangyo saw fit to bless the builder with a good host of fine but noticeable mold lines which were difficult to see before a coat of Tamiya Fine Gray Primer. On top of that, there's some genuinely awful sink marks around the rear license plate. Out came the Mr Dissolved Putty to fill in those!

Not lugs, bolts where the hub of the wheel attaches to the spokes on the centre-lock style Minilites as opposed to four lug Minilites. I am really enjoying seeing the Sebring fender MGC go together. The C1 transkits are really first rate and I had nothing but a positive experience building my BGT from them.

Just posted to Stevens International, Revell kit #4537. No additional information yet but this is certainly a bit of a surprise.

Chassis is all together. It's kind of a shame that the chassis is missing so much in terms of detail. The kit front suspension has no front sway bar, no steering linkage, no steering gearbox, just a representation of control arms, some spindles that exist solely to give the wheels somewhere to attach, and some admittedly very nice metal coil springs. The rear suspension comes off much better which is good since the stance of the car means it'll be much more visible. I masked off the floorboards and airbrushed the frame and suspension with semi-gloss black, then picked out the differential in C28 Steel and the control arms in C8 Silver. I chose to leave the brake rotors bare metal, with the calipers picked out in Vallejo Metal Color Gold. The Fujimi 250GTO Avon tires really do look so much nicer than the kit tires as shown in the mock-up, BUT they're at least a scale inch larger in diameter than the Gunze Sangyo wheels so I'm either going to have to wrap the rims in sheet styrene to bulk them up OR wave the white flag and use the Gunze tires. What a predicament!

So got a bit of time at the bench and decided to tackle this kit's signature: those gorgeous photoetch wire wheels. Fortunately, they're not nearly so tricky as could be expected. The combination of my AK Photoetch Scissors, a good fine sanding stick, and Bob Smith purple cap CA meant that they genuinely went together well!