Chuck Kourouklis

x3!

Excellent. Thanks, Sylvester! Wow - I thought I saw something similar with asymmetric drip moldings on the AMT annuals, a little too curvy on one side particularly. hmm. So I may like one of these after all 'cause even so, it gives a more accurate impression overall than the R/M '65. Just stuff some Monogram guts up in the Hase shell and call Uncle Bobs. Diggin' how there's an actual '66 on the original boxcover, too - and a Caprice instead of an Impala no less.

Yup, this. ^^ Don't get me wrong, where licensing is a thing, it's a legitimate THING. Still 'n all, I gotta wonder sometimes where that fact has been leveraged a bit to excuse marketing impulses begetting a new Aerovette kit(?!) or a cartoon-shellacked Rambler convertible snapper over the Cobra Daytona we've clamored about for decades.

Awwwwlll ova the Starion, R8, Starlet and LHD Z. Maybe the next-version R92 as well. Don't know if I can justify the livery variation on the AMG GT but I'll have another look when it's released. Went looking at the Hase "'66" Impala to see if it had any medicine for what ails the Revell - ummm, yeah... not sure about that greenhouse - although reshaping the drip moldings might help (and THIS kit is what James was talking about, btw). Certainly looks better at rocker panel level. Anybody remember if this is true 1/24, or might the scale be fudged a bit? As for the Buick, Alexis, it appears that for some reason - too sharp a "W" contour to the front grille in overhead plan view perhaps? - the outer headlights are way too proud relative to the inboard ones. Although the model gives the impression that if you could cut the outer headlights out and re-seat them a bit deeper, it might go a long way to improving the accuracy in that area.

Wow. NICE reporting on all that, Tim!

Welp, Rob, they just collected from me...

Kool! So I should see a charge now for the one I've had in PW since the late Pleistocene, then.

What Gary (not far from the purgatory of my youth, Fredericksburg) said. Thanks for having us along on this one, Chris.

Thought the mediocre Revell AG kit cured me of any excitement about ANY subsequent R8 model, but THAT is HOT. The question becomes, what can I get finished in the interim to make room...

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.)