Justin Porter

I do build primarily vintage sports cars and as such 1/24th is for me. 1/25th scale I call an aberration because only the US domestic manufacturers make use of it and only for domestic subject matter. That makes it an aberration along the lines of Revell's 1/28th scale WWI aircraft kits (when 1/32nd scale is the commonly accepted choice for "large" aircraft) or continuing to reissue the 1/32nd scale Aurora armor kits despite 1/35th scale being the commonly accepted scale for armor internationally. In fact, to my mind the only international examples of 1/25th scale being adopted lie in Trumpeter's abortive attempt to break into the American classic car kit market. Even Arii's lovely '58 Cadillacs were 1/24th rather than 1/25th. Within the sphere of American classic cars, 1/25th is just fine. But it's a scale that should be kept to JUST that subject matter.

There is nothing about the Revell Jaguar XJS kit that makes it a preferable option to builders interested in a Jaguar XJS in comparison to the Hasegawa kit. The Hasegawa kit has been offered in street, touring car, and cabriolet versions AND is full detail with a lovely representation of the Jaguar V12. Plus anyone building classic sports cars in this day and age WANTS 1/24th scale so that aftermarket parts - the bulk of which come from either Europe or Japan - actually fit properly. 1/25th scale is a US domestic aberration and I'm glad Revell under its new ownership is only regarding it as appropriate for US domestic targeted kits. If the new Land Rover or E-Type FHC had been 1/25th scale it would have made them functionally irrelevant to their target audience.

It looks superb. I really like seeing all the small changes made to match the model better to the subject.

Most kits of recent cars do pretty well provided they're worthwhile kits of popular subjects. I had a hard time keeping Revell's Mclaren 570S and BMW i8 on my shelves.

It's exciting that Tamiya is rolling out a McLaren given that the company is notoriously prickly when it comes to road car licensing. I agree with many people regarding the aesthetic deficiencies of the Senna, but its namesake is particularly revered in Tamiya's home market and the car is a technical marvel so it makes perfect sense as a subject.

Amazing to see one of the Simil'R kits put together and definitely to see such good results too. Great build!

Always interested in seeing one of these completed. So far so good!

Replace "Pony" with "Omni" or "Valiant" or "Vectra" or any number of other small cars that people have a personal connection to in their domestic market, then remember that in terms of Korean auto manufacturing the Pony is a significant car, Korea is a significant modeling market, and Academy is a Korean kit manufacturer. I have no doubt that Academy isn't at all concerned as to whether or not they sell a single one in the US market.

Huge fan of AK's Real Color line for general paint work. Their Xtreme Metal has proven to be quite good too even if I generally prefer Vallejo Metal Color just because I've grown so familiar with it.

This is a beautiful "best of the era" build for sure.

Various small instances where they molded subassemblies together to make them more robust like the front friction shocks. They managed to pack a lot of detail into a relatively tiny kit without making it a fussy mess. It's going to sound hyperbolic, but it's very much akin to the Tamiya Mini Coopers or Lotus Seven in 1/24th scale for how it's designed.

Always awesome to see one of these go together. They're really fantastic builds that don't get enough credit for how clever the tooling is.

Revell of Germany IS Revell especially in the now. You cannot throw out Revell of Germany simply because it doesn't prove your "modern sports cars by Revell don't sell" narrative particularly when these same kits ALSO end up in Revell US boxes and do quite well. As to the variant issue, would you care to hazard a guess as to exactly how visibly discernible the differences are between an Fw-190 A3, A4, A5, and A8 in 1/48th scale? I'll give you a hint, discernible enough to builders that Eduard felt it necessary to release kits in their Profipack line representing all of these variants, and each with 6 or more marking variations worth of decals inside. In all forms of building, you have casual builders for whom "looks like it" is enough and you have enthusiasts who want accurate representations of specific vehicles. Smart companies find ways to cater to both builders to nab as many sales as possible OR pick one or the other to cater exclusively to. Moebius caters exclusively to enthusiast builders who want detail and accuracy and they charge those builders accordingly so that they don't have to sell as many units.

I'd love to see the data that supports that Revell's BMW i8, McLaren 570s, Audi R8 and R8 Spyder, Mercedes SLS AMG and AMG GT, and Porsche 918 and Panamera haven't been highly successful kits on global market? I mean, that's a lot of all-new tool exotics (nearly 1 a year since 2010) for Revell to have done so clearly they're not failing in competing globally with Aoshima and Fujimi in that genre otherwise they would be course correcting.

A completely astonishing model for sure.

Finally got the time to take some nice pictures of the finished build. This is my Tamiya 1/20th scale Lotus 25. It's built box stock, using Tamiya TS-9 British Green over Stynelrez White Primer for the main color and a selection of Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Metal Color, and AK Real Color paints for detail. This was an absolute bucket list kit to build for me and I couldn't be happier with the results.

Very classic scheme and nice to see instead of going the more common Calsonic route.

With rare exception, local hobby shops buy our merchandise through distributors at a rate of only 30%-50% off of MSRP. My concern with MSRP isn't primarily because of final price to customer, but rather because of the immediate impact of steadily rising costs for the same product. No, I don't mark what's on my shelves at MSRP, and I even go beyond that offering storewide discounts to members of organizations like the NMRA or IPMS, but I can only cut my throat so much on domestic kits specifically because a big box like Hobby Lobby can buy manufacturer direct at a cost well below what I can get and then turn around and pimp their 40% coupons.

Believe me, when my distributor posts the incoming releases with their MSRP's I invariably wince when I see Round 2's latest "adjustments".

Doubtful. JR Salvinos and Moebius are going concerns and Revell isn't uninterested in new US full kits as evidenced by their planned '71 Ford Mustang kit. For that matter, two of Tamiya's most recent 1/24th scale kits have been US subjects, as well as ICM kitting their series of excellent Model T kits. I would not even be surprised if Round 2 - now that they're investing in developing entirely newly tooled components for kits such as the bodies in the the full bumper Camaro, Grumpy's Vega, or '63 Chevy II wagon - eventually made the commitment to tooling entirely new kits when their tooling vault runs dry. But, as I said, be prepared for higher prices and shorter productions runs outside of the most commonplace subject matter. We're already seeing this as a successful business model with Salvinos and Moebius, and it's the business model for the bulk of military kit companies especially in the aircraft genre.

A newly tooled kit has to be a global success rather than just a domestic success to justify tooling costs. Otherwise get comfortable with paying larger prices for shorter production runs from smaller niche manufacturers. A newly tooled 3 window '34 Ford coupe - particularly either licensed or at least patterned after the celebrated California Kid - is something that could reasonably be justified. More obscure street rod choices are seriously less likely when there are major global subjects - Pagoda roof Mercedes 280SL, Austin Healey 3000 MkII, Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 - that have no serviceable kit in 1/24th scale and would sell in far greater numbers.

That's a really fantastic job of capturing the look and feel of the period.

I did in fact use the kit decals and joy of joys they co-operated. The secret lay in getting my decal water from my wife's Keurig. lol

Not sure what happened there. Here you guys go.

Some additional pictures Meng has posted to their Facebook.