Justin Porter

Is the trim at least proud enough of the body sides that a few passes with a good scriber would sharpen it up to make it easier to foil or to mask and spray with the chrome of your choice? (lately Vallejo Metal Color for me)

Looks like after some fits and starts the Aoshima Zonda is happening. Here it is in test shot form at the ongoing 2021 Shizuoka show.

In my daily check-in for product arrivals at my distributors, I came across these two announcements from Gofer. #1108 "Ford 427 Competition Engine" and #1130 "Top Fuel Dragster Frame". They surely LOOK like Revell Parts Pack kits so I'm wondering is this a private label deal with Atlantis or what's the word?

The more I look at the side window opening on this body the more it seems bizarrely off and the more I question "How did this happen?" I mean, I can get things like scaled examples of compound curves being a little open to interpretation but this is literally the distance between two parallel lines divided by 25.

This looks really fantastic. The color, the wheel & tire package, and the stance all really set it off.

I'd have to agree on this. Restoring the tooling with an accurate wheel & tire combination and making it so that those sidepipes are just an optional extra would be something I'd welcome.

A lovely build of one of Tamiya's finest F1 kits.

Looks like such a great model of an interesting little car. Definitely like how it turned out!

Good image showing the top of a typical Vertex style magneto from that time period.

Looks absolutely lovely to me.

Atlantis just posted these test shots.

Quite the contrary. Tamiya is undeniably a much larger company than Revell and they have no issues whatsoever communicating to their much wider customer base the progress on upcoming products. Dedicating resources to getting potential customers excited about your products is kind of a thing companies that sell products are supposed to do.

Not entirely true. Some of their most recent tooling has actually been fairly well praised. Their all-new for '18 1/48th scale Bristol Beaufighter got a lot of accolades for being superior to Tamiya's. Their new-tool non-fillet tail P-51D in 1/32nd scale was also quite a success. This also doesn't take into account the sheer amount of ICM stuff you'll find in their boxes. There's been a lot of improvement from Revell as of late, but their unwillingness to demonstrate that to the world has been baffling. I will concede that they're still pretty much awful at 1/72nd scale armor. lol

I would refer directly to Salvinos and I'd also point that Revell is also competing with other manufacturers in the military kit space. Something like their upcoming all-new 1/48th scale SR-71 Blackbird hasn't shown much more than a confirmation of subject matter. No box art. No test shots. No CAD images. When you compare that to their competitors like HKM, Special Hobby, Eduard, Tamiya, and on down the list, it's a really antiquated approach. Yes, I agree that they're going to absolutely dunk on Round 2 between having a much better kit and likely at a lower MSRP, but Revell (and quite frankly the bulk of the domestic kit manufacturers) should do significantly better at embracing web media for promoting upcoming product.

Revell really should reconsider that policy given that their competitors have embraced CAD imagery for promoting upcoming products. Something my Dad taught me that rings true is "In the information age the worst thing you can do is let your information age." Making an announcement then going dead quiet just fuels doubt and leaves potential customers more willing to spend elsewhere.

This was a nice one to get off the shelf. It's the AMT 1966 Ford Fairlane 427 and it FOUGHT me. Originally I had painted it in Duplicolor Wimbledon White but I was never happy with the finish and it went back to the shelf for over a year and a half. In a fit of "get it done and off the shelf" I resprayed it this week with Tamiya TS7 Racing White, replaced the kit steel wheels (which I also found lacking) with Cragar S/S wheels from the Old Pro Nova, and finisher the build. The hood fit is atrocious in the kit as the pictures bear out, so the choice was made to add some detail to the engine (wiring, PE wire looms by Detail Master, fuel lines to the carbs made from fine solder) because it will almost never have the hood on it for display!

Closest thing there is to a "glitch" in the kit is that the alternator/drive pulley piece needs a little bit of sanding to sit properly in its bracket. Otherwise it's an absolute jewel to build.

I have the same car in my collection and it wasn't until a few days ago that it even occurred to me that I'd replicated it! The subconscious strikes again. lol

Another project wrapped up. This is my Tamiya 1/24th scale Lotus Europa. This particular build had a hiatus due to a massive self-inflicted paint issue with the original Model Air Arctic Blue paint job. After getting stripped down, I reshot it in Gunze Mr Metallic Dark Blue under Wet Look Clear. I'm still not 100% happy with the paint job but the car as a whole makes me glad to have on the shelf.

That is DEFINITELY a version of the 935K3 that trips my trigger. I still have to get one of the Lancia S4's.

Yeah, you've kind of missed the places in the thread where I have A: conceded that the newly tooled body was updated much more than anticipated bringing it more in line with a modern curbside kit and B: noted that the kit has been a huge volume seller at the shop I run. Thanks for the slam against modelers who are motivated by detail and accuracy though. Always good to see another builder firmly in the "I don't like the mean things you say about kits I like so you must be a killjoy rivet counter meanie pants" camp.

I don't think a single soul called it an all-new tool. It was always exactly what it is - a modified reissue that was some fresh parts and a more accurate body based upon the older '69 428 Cobra Jet tooling.

Should be quite the kit. The Fujimi kit still holds up but it is curbside and it is closing in on being 40 year old tooling.

You didn't just put lipstick on the pig, you gave it a full spa treatment. Very nicely done.

This was a fun little "refresher" build of another classic Tamiya sports car kit. The paint is Tamiya Pearl White under Testors Wet Look Clear while the interior is Vallejo Model Air 71.102 Red. The inspiration for the color scheme was a certain level of boredom with French Blue Alpines and a love of the later Alpina GTA Turbos which always seemed to be in that stark pearl white so common of 80's supercars. I'm super happy with the build because it really came to right from how I imagined it.