Justin Porter

Another critical step, and always one of my favorites, is masking and airbrushing the window trim with AK Xtreme Metal Chrome. The Corvette has minimal brightwork but it's still nice to bring it out.

Part of the fun of the interior of this build was replicating the shiny vinyl of the Corvette interior. I used the same GX215 Dark Metallic Blue for the seats, dash, console, and door cards as I did on the body, but topped with AK Real Color Satin Varnish. The rest of the interior is AK Real Color RC010 Pure Blue plus detailing with assorted Gunze and AK paints plus a couple of touches of Bare Metal Foil.

The heart of a big block Corvette is, of course, that 427ci big block and thankfully Revell gives us a good one. I only added ignition wiring courtesy of some 0.3mm solder (Revell even has the forward looms delicately molded onto the valve covers) and otherwise this is straight out of the box in a host of AK, Gunze, and Vallejo paints.

It's going to be VERY interesting to compare this head to head with the Platz NuNu kit of the same subject, given that they're both excellent companies.

Next step up on the Revell '67 Corvette was attending to the rear suspension. I recalled a great SAE article on detailing '67 Corvettes that said they had a red oxide floorpan. Some photo references backed this up but it was a darker shade than most red oxides I had on my shelf so out came some Mr Color Hull Red. I used that in tandem with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black and a bit of AK Tenebrous Grey to pick out the chassis, then a host of AK, Gunze, and Tamiya paints went into the kit stock rear suspension. I also took this time - since I was spraying Semi Gloss Black - to tackle the firewall complete with picking out the vacuum wiper motor and its plumbing.

Another one out of my backlog that I've decided to knock out. At some point, I had raided the coupe kit for its Minilites and its cross ram intake. Left with the stock components and most of a stock roadster, I decided to build a coupe but a coupe with the tri-power intake and sidepipes in the roadster kit. But first, some paint. After addressing MANY mold lines - my Trumpeter #9969 Seam Scraper is my new favorite tool for this task - I laid down and blocked out some Mr Surfacer 1200, followed by a base coat of Tamiya TS21 Gold and then two coats of Mr Metallic GX216 Dark Metallic Blue. Finally, a quick coat of Mr Super Clear UV Cut Gloss.

Because you're not the target audience. Revell is plenty aware of hardcore hot rod builders who will buy previous releases on the secondary market (shows, flea markets, clubs, eBay, etc) and then load them up with kitbashed and aftermarket parts to make highly detailed, highly personalized scale hot rods. Those builders make up a fraction of a fraction of the overall model car building hobby. Casual builders are the target, many of whom may not even be aware that Revell had previously released a '32 Tudor. The builders will be tempted by the comparatively high number of optional parts in this box relative to its shelf space competitors like the AMT Phantom Vickie AND it's significantly lower shelf price compared to that kit. There isn't a single newly tooled part in the Tudor's box and that's its ace in the hole for shelf price. Even as a singular fresh sprue, separately tooled so that it could be dropped in any of the Deuce kits, would have necessitated a bump in MSRP and a delay in release.

Really good looking build of one of the absolute F1 icons.

If anyone is likely to do the GT3 version of the C8 it will be NuNu since they're the company most actively pursuing kitting the GT3 grid. However, they've just announced the BMW M4 GT3 which especially with Valentino Rossi at the wheel makes for much better sales potential than the relatively tepid Corvette.

As far as Tamiya is concerned, they DID do a kit of the regular 240 Fairlady ZG. Now they are producing a kit that indirectly ties in with one of the most popular fictional racing franchises (a franchise that spans movies, TV shows, comics, and both arcade and home video games) in their home market. I have no doubt that their market research has shown that globally - and especially at home - this will sell FAR more units than a base model short nose Fairlady Z and particularly more than a USDM Datsun 240Z.

The maroon and brown do make for an attractive combination. This is quite a nice Packard.

This really does stand out! The build has a great balance of color and detail.

What a fun build. This was definitely a nice breezy curbside to build and I am really pleased with the results. I couldn't help but pose it with its "older brother" in my 250GT SWB for some pictures as well.

One Fiorano to call all done! Finished pictures in Under Glass.

So, this is where I get to talk about being an odd duck a bit because these headlights are the sort of modeling I like to do. Fujimi supplies these projector headlights as two chrome pieces, one clear piece, and one clear amber piece each. The instructions only say to assemble them as is. Not in a single picture of a 599GTB did that look correct to me. So, to Ebay I went to find pictures of 599GTB Fiorano headlights and sure enough the bulk of the headlight is finished in a matte gray. Out came my trusty 10/0 brush and some AK Rubber Black and I was able to get these looking MUCH more like the genuine article. I can't explain exactly WHY I enjoy modeling this way so much, but it is what I enjoy most.

As I stated earlier in the thread, MSRP is $54.99 according to my primary distributor for ICM. Perfectly in keeping with their other 1/24 releases as the Model T's MSRP is $46.99, the Renault "Paris Taxi" is $46.99, the Opel Admiral is $49.99, and the Benz Patent-Motowagen is either $73.99 or $27.99 depending on if you get the deluxe version with P/E spoked wheels and figures or the "Easy" version with plastic wheels. I would also point out that for other similar kits, Heller hangs a $49.99 MSRP on their BMW 328 and $46.99 on their Citroën B14 Normande, Italeri asks $54.99 on their Rolls Royce Phantom II and $48.99 for their Mercedes 504k, and Tamiya's MSRP for their Toyoda AA is $56.00 so ICM is not at all out of step with the current market for premium kits of pre-war subjects.

Exactly what replica stock building is all about. Positively lovely build!

The interior went together quite well on this build including using the supplied photoetch and metal transfers. A quick heads up, Fujimi metal transfers don't adhere nearly as well as Hasegawa's so a bit of Micro Crystal Clear was needed to get the dashboard emblems to hold tight. I used AK Real Colors Ochre for the main color, and Real Colors Gunmetal for the carbon fiber areas.

After a quick test fit to check stance (and to admire the photoetch brake rotor faces through the wheels) the main assembly of the Fiorano's body went together. One of my regulars at the shop was very kind to gift me his stash of Splash Paints as he's switching to Gravity, so I decided to give this Ruby Red a whirl instead of my original plan of Gunze Mr Metallic Bloody Red. After a couple of coats of Gunze UV Cut Ultra Gloss, I'm pretty happy and will look forward to polishing this finish out!

I'm expecting my shipment of the Tudors in today, and I feel something that's been underreported as well is that Revell has made a major decision to reduce MSRP's on many reissues. As such, and believe me I am ecstatic to say this, I'm able to put RMX4553 on my shelf with a shelf price of $22. This comes after being able to do similarly with the '64 Impala Lowrider reissue at a shelf price of $24. Clearly Revell's new German management is seeing the business value in being a value leader in the hobby.

Love the wear and the staining on this one, plus the base brings it that much more to life.

Thank you! The plan is to use Gunze Mr Metallic GX215 Bloody Red on this one so that it's a nice dark red and to pair it with a modern tan interior. Hopefully the result will be a nice modern counterpart to my 250GT SWB.

I can't speak to having any particular knowledge of what they'll reissue next, but I do know that I want them to reissue the new-tool '57 Chevy Bel Air Street Machine, possibly with better wheels than the C4 Corvette leftovers the kit was initially issued wearing. Aside from that, I think most of the Mueller era tooling is in pretty solid circulation right now.

After wrapping up the Morgan, I wanted a nice quick fun project. A quick scan over the shelves brought me to this lovely kit by Fujimi. While it's a fairly simple curbside, what's there is appealing plus Fujimi threw in a really nice P/E fret. I started with a bit of gloss black base in a few spots, then hit the exhaust with AK Extreme Metal Pale Burnt Metal and the control arms with AK Matte Aluminum. Tamiya NATO Black gave a good contrast to the Semi Gloss Black for separating the valances from the underbody panels. A couple extra bits of paint and picking out the panel bolts with some Gunze Silver on the end of a toothpick wrapped things up.

This really has lots of clever custom touches that make for a fun 911 to look at. Very nicely done!