Chuck Kourouklis

Point very well-taken, Sylvester. You're absolutely right, I was looking at it through too adult-colored a lens. And if Aoshima is actually shifting good numbers of them, I can only cheer that on.

Ooh! Only the second run for that '23? Entirely distinct from the Double-T? I think I'll have one, then.

Well comes to that, isn't Aoshima also doing R&D for Beemax? Leaning on those 1/32 snappers with plastic tires and fold-up interior panels just as they're designed might be problematic, especially now that Fujimi has come out with some 1/24 snap kits that give up practically nothing to the standard Japanese kit sans engine that's otherwise fully detailed. Their FJ is pretty brilliant.

Why not? You could hardly make that body shell any worse. Maybe have a picture of just the body to capture the way you received it before you try any repairs.

OOF. (uh yeah, I think the hating on Revell AG boxes is pretty well illustrated and justified here) "Service Information", upper right of the Revell.com home page, links to the people to contact about replacement parts - unfortunately, it looks like ALL of that is getting processed from Germany right now.

Other thing 'sides the drip rail giving the Revell body away instantly is the backward cant to the forward edges of the front wheel arches as they drop to rocker panel level. CF the Craftsman, more accurate all around, for a better contour there. Still 'n all, Revell kit is one of my faves, fancy that - perhaps because I was looking to make a Z-16 outta my Modelhaus re-pop all along, and Revell saved me trouble on so many levels.

Re rear DLO windows, not just a bit small, but a bit triangular rather than trapezoidal, too. I'd actually look to widen them a bit at the apex where they curve into the drip molding, then graft in some strip to make a harder, more angular molding where I widened the top. Nothing too radical.

Not really apropos of where this discussion has gone, but the very SN95 Mustang kits mentioned earlier were something rare from Tamiya: a mistake. The proportions on those were horrendous, as if the front end were scaled differently from the rear, differently again from the squashed greenhouse particularly in the Cobra. At least they didn't cock up the new GT like that. Or, apparently, this new Mustang GT4 body set.

My San Leandro pusher actually beat my RPP pals in Rohnert Park. Got the 'Stang and Chevelle from the former in January, the latter only just got the Mustang in, no Chevelle yet. No restock since for the the San Leandro guy either. In the aggregate it seems the 302 is just a bit more in the US brick-and-mortar pipeline right now than the Chevelle - possibly because part of the Chevelle's run was reserved for RevellAG boxing?

Yup. Love 'em. All I gotta do is put 'em up against a one-piece execution of the same 1:1 mirror to be reminded why.

OH yeah. These things are bringing Pocher money now, and I'd so love one for less than four figures. Remember some 40 years ago, seeing an Entex boxing at a Kay Bee store for $80, oh so frightfully expensive. If only we'd have known... Nice to follow along vicariously with a good build, though.

Don't know if I'd count on the quick-build, Snake. If the Lambo, Bugatti, and Mclaren are any indication, the kit doesn't have a conventional body shell but instead segments with lego-style attachments to a base platform:

x3!

You've proven it again, though - that wheel looks a scat-ton BETTER without the paint!

I've been thru a few of those iron-durometer tires, Bill. Bit of heat from a heat gun or hair dryer or hot water should loosen 'em up well enough to get the wheel in, and they should contract back into shape if the DA Jaguar or Pocher's similarly stiff Aventador tires are any indication. By my reckoning this also means that any tire lettering someone does is best left till after it's mounted on the wheel. As for livening up the wheels themselves, there's been one builder over on the DeAgostini forums who did manage to remove the paint and polish the metal. In that case, I'd think the wheel could weather maneuvering into the tire. If it's something more delicate like Molotow, that may need to be applied with the tire installed and some tricky masking. Major finish problem with this one is that anything metallic is finished in basically the same shade of silver paint. I expect to do a fair amount of refinishing...

This should be acknowledged for the Browning reference alone. (That, and of course your dead-correctness about Revell flat boxes.)

Wow. Dug the E46 and E92, gonna go deeper to see about that A4... Edit: there we go!

Yup. You 'n Bob, Bernard. We got the right general proportions so I'll deal, but I'm not looking forward to glaze-puttying, priming, block-sanding and rescribing the thing. I've seen Lee knockoffs with better molding.

Oh I'm sure you're not the only one. But at least the two-piece standard US box doesn't collapse practically under its own weight. And the standard US box hardly corners the market on warps.

'Fraid that's the way it's looking. No listing in the USA catalog section yet...

KOOL! (re new tool Land Rover, then Brat, then Dodge pickup!) And yeah, Accurate Miniatures stuff was molded in Korea, right? So I guess Academy didn't have too far to search.

Find it interesting that the AAR new-tool 'Cuda variant isn't listed in the Revell USA section, but whatevz. VERY interested to see how that Land Rover susses out, getting after that range of 1/16 Porsches soon as they're available here. It's actually the warbird offerings piqued my interest - a 1/24 stressed-skin Hellcat from Airfix? 1/24 Butcher Bird and razorback Mustang from Trumpeter?? whuuuuut...

GORGEOUS. Hadn't seen that one yet! And yup, current 8C is badly overdue in plastic. I found a drug store diecast to ease that craving a bit in the meantime.

VERY. I'll have one.

I'm old enough to remember shelves awash in the black version and the "Badman" reissues, but still 'n all, I can buy what you're saying, Mark & Casey. I'm still a bit flummoxed as to how a Badman can command a premium over one of the original PC83 kits, though.