Justin Porter

http://images32.fotki.com/v1088/photos/5/504634/4411891/DSCF6440-vi.jpg Found this picture of a build-up online and you can see the rear suspension with its SN-95 Mustang rear axle and stamped lower trailing arms. It's a novel design and certainly a counterpoint to radius rods and coilovers, but the SN-95 Mustangs also have fairly obvious stamped upper trailing arms and the kit has neither representation of these arms OR of a crossmember to which they would attach.

Some very cool releases there. Naturally the new Toyota 91C-V is awesome but I think I'm actually most excited by the 2000GT-X model Skyline given how sweet the GT-R version of that kit is.

I would imagine so as far as aftermarket updates to capture some of the variations in roof and window cutout. The box art cars show two different roofs and two different noses and while nothing has been shown as far as the finished plastic I wouldn't imagine that Salvinos is going to go to those lengths to capture such subtle things. More critically, I am hoping that it won't be long before we get some New England schemes in decal form for these kits. I know I'd be inclined to build Jon McKennedy's car.

Wait wait wait. So you're saying a domestic kit company is capitalizing on the value of its licensing to create new sales opportunities that are getting their products into the hands of new customers? Surely you jest!

For oval racing fans, these are probably some of the most exciting kits that Salvinos has announced in some time. Preorders were opened at two of my wholesale distributors today and I am seriously looking forward to putting these kits on my shop's shelves.

Kind of surprised that in the 00's the new-tool Revell Willys Gasser isn't listed. Lovely detail, excellent fit, and a fine PE grille all added up to a nice step forward from the finely detailed but tricky to build and long OOP classic Willys coupe kit.

I have a fair mix of casual and serious builders who buy Salvinos kits primarily due to the NASCAR connection. It helps in particular that aside from big names like the Hendricks drivers for the current generation car and the Darrel Waltrip, Richard Petty, and Bobby Allison vintage cars they also released a run of Tim Richmond cars. Since my shop is located in Ohio and not far from the short tracks where Tim first made a name for himself in supermodifieds, there's a big contingent of Tim Richmond fans who just want one of his cars.

A good R30 would be a pretty good piece particularly since it fulfills the race car AND the movie tie-in requirement since the R30 was the hero car of Seibu Keisatsu which was a hugely popular 80's cop show in Japan. There also even was a Paul Newman commemorative edition with dedicated badging!

There are a handful of them out there. I've personally built Hasegawa's 1/24th Honda RA272 and Protar's 1/24th Ferrari 126C2. Both are very nice, but pale in comparison to their 1/20th scale Tamiya and Fujimi counterparts respectively. Plus neither has the aftermarket support from companies like Top Studio, Model Factory Hiro, or E Jan the way that 1/20th scale does. For folks who build specifically Indycars, things are a bit more wonky because you have 1/24th (Monogram's Kurtis roadster and 80's March chassis, plus the adjunct CART series Reynards from Revell), 1/25th (scores of kits from MPC and AMT ranging from Watson roadsters to 80's Penske, March, and Lola chassis, plus the IMC Lotus 38), and finally the lone 1/20th scale offering from Tamiya of the Newman/Haas early 90's Lolas. This of course ignores the tons of resin offerings from producers like Etzels, Jorgenson, Sellers, and others that were typically 1/24th or 1/25th.

The kind of funny history of 1/20th scale F1 kits is pretty straight forward. The Tamiya F1 kits of the mid 70's were designed to be able to be built motorized with the Tyrrell P34 as the originator of the line. To facilitate this, Tamiya designed the Cosworth DFV to be large enough to house a small electric motor and it worked out to 1/20th scale. The remnants of this design compromise remain on the P34 as it has a battery hatch still in place on the bottom of the tub. As the Tamiya kits still managed to set the detail standard and were so highly popular, even after they ditched the motorized feature they continued with the 1/20th scale size. Their direct competitors (Fujimi, Hasegawa, Aoshima, Beemax, and Ebbro) have adopted the scale because of Tamiya's dominance in the genre and thus all of the aftermarket and so forth also being focused on 1/20th scale. Which brings us to the modern day where builders of F1 expect 1/20th scale and 1/24th and ESPECIALLY 1/25th scale are oddities.

I have a pretty strong contingent of open wheel modelers in my shop who have looked over, and unfortunately passed over, this kit on my shelf. At the current MSRP, it's the same price as Tamiya's Honda RA272 kit which makes it a tough sell when it's clear it's the "wrong" scale for open wheel cars (1/25th instead of 1/20th) and it's a significantly older kit even than some of Tamiya's older 70's vintage clunkers like their 312T3.

Test Shot pictures taken from the article at The Modelling News covering the release of the kit. @Oldcarfan27 you have no need to worry about "provisions for motorization" with this one.

Will these wires be coming available again in the near future?

Based on the pictures I've found, the chrome headers are dead wrong and the bulk of what's chrome in the kit was unpainted aluminum of one fashion or another. Indycals does a really great resin tire set for this kit, as well as a more comprehensive upgrade set that also includes a vac-formed windscreen with the correct profile (that isn't three miles thick) and a one piece nose cone that has the correct profile. I'd considered getting this set for my build but between this is more of a basic palette cleanser between higher detailed projects (wrapping up a customer build of a Tamiya 1/48th scale G4M1 Betty and a personal build of the Bronco 1/35th Landwasserschlepper) and knowing that even with the resin I still have the kit's pretty rudimentary engine to deal with AND it's 1/25th rather than 1/20th which makes it wonky to display with my other open wheel builds.

The Street Machine version of the El Camino was fantastic too! That EFI supercharger setup on the big block was an amazingly trick piece that always shocks me didn't find its way into a ton of Pro Touring builds. Likewise, for that matter, the "mini Viper" EFI setup on the 340 in the Street Machine version of the '71 Duster kit. Of course, reading all of the "I never knew that chassis existed" posts on the '57 Chevy Street Machine kit proves that for all of their tooling genius at the time, AMT/Ertl didn't know how to market what they had and that's a shame.

Good picture of someone's box stock build. You can see the four-link w/Panhard bar, the mini-tubs, and the 454 big block and modern automatic transmission combination in the box were quite good too. Just about everything underneath the body was separate tooling from the factory stock kit. Even the mostly stock interior still necessitated different side panels because of the unique floorpan with the tubs. The trunk contained a very nice "off the shelf at Summit" style fuel cell too.

The gorgeous modern Art Morrison style frame, mini-tubs, and detailed four link w/Panhard bar that all add up to make that kit a landmark among modern hot rod kits are the whole reason it's desirable. Backdating it would totally defeat the purpose. I'll thoroughly grant it could stand a change of wheel and tire package to something aside from those parts bin leftover C4 Corvette wheels, but if they're going that far then the wheel and tire package should be something appropriately modern along the same lines as the Revell "California Wheels" series instead.

All these posts about whether or not Round 2's going to run the old Styline parts along with the old-tool '57 and I'm just over here upset that they STILL haven't brought back the new-tool Street Machine kit.

They do seem to be plastic and I plan on sanding the seam smooth then painting them with AK Interactive Rubber Black like I do on armor and aircraft builds.

Well, the AMT kit that I was most looking forward to personally arrived at the shop and I have one set aside for myself. All opened up it's no awful surprises and should be a fairly quick build. The highlight is easily that the wheels are both prototypical and well molded. The low light is the "refer to box art" cop out in the instructions for decal placement. All in all, though, I'm not unhappy and glad they did take the time to throw Indy fans a bone.

While the Tamiya Mini is a fine kit, and the Fujimi is reasonably available, I have no doubt having the Hasegawa on hand will be fantastic. They've been on an absolute tear for quality kits lately with really great subject choice.

I'm not at all opposed to vintage kits getting reissued for the folks who want them but I think Airfix has the right idea. This kit, for instance, was originally tooled in 1965. Airfix recognizes that as a scale miniature it's obsolete product that would get positively savaged in popular opinion which only sours the discourse and alienates potential customers about brand new (and excellent) kits like their 1/48th Supermarine Walrus. Helpfully, they specifically cite ALL of their old tooling kits with the "Vintage Classics" logo and their website sequesters the "Vintage Classics" all into their own section for purchase.

These boxes and agreed, wasn't a particular fan of them myself either. Hasegawa generally is pretty good with their boxart though either with nice straightforward images of the subject or historical photographs of the subject in competition.

Truthfully, I'm with Alan here. For years, the biggest modeling company of them all - Tamiya - has had box art that could rarely be called inspired. Look at the Tamiya MkIV Supra, for instance. Three quarter view of the subject without a single embellishment. But it doesn't NEED flashy box art to sell because what's in the box - an accurate and easy to build full detail kit of a MkIV Toyota Supra Turbo - is desirable on its own merits. I freely admit I positively adore some of the classic Revell box art like the "Miss Deal" Studebaker or the Competition Porsche 356 for its energy and creativity but if the KIT is good, then it sells itself.

I do agree with you that it's a really impressive looking piece so far. Genuinely curious as to what would hold the current lead spot in your estimation? If I were to guess at the three front runners at least to my mind they would probably be the current Tamiya GT4, the AMT/Ertl '67 GT, and the Revell '99 Cobra with possibly the Monogram '64-'65 kit as an outlier.