galaxyg

Very impressive engine and detailing. It's a wonderful kit.

Great build of a very nice kit. I've built the similar LB Aventador and I'm considering this kit too, youd build helps convince me. Nice colour too.

Thanks. Try your local Toyota dealership, that's where I got mine from. The paint code is 5C7 - comes in two cans, a matt pale yellow base coat and the metallic top coat.

Very nice, great colour choice. I completed one too recently.

Background: Not my favourite Corvette (That'd be the C5), but the C8 is a great looking car on the whole, if a little heavy and awkward in the rear half. The more I look at it the more it grows on me. I've been waiting for some time for this kit to finally launch, and so I began the build on the day of purchase. I'd had the colour in mind for it for quite some time. Pros: It looks right. Very nice moulding - little cleanup, few mould lines, with pretty sharp details. Nice clean shiny glass and clear parts. Good wheels and tyres that are in proportion to the car and themselves - not that this fundamental item should be a "Pro" but given some of the past "wheels too small, tyres too tall" Revell kits, it is. It's all moulded in white so it's easy to choose any colour for the body without bleed-through, and there is no nasty chrome sprues either. There's a full and well detailed engine, and the wheels steer. There's a choice of both Right Hand Drive and Left Hand Drive dashboards. In the most part, aside from some of the engine - everything fits together not only perfectly but is engineered in such a way that when there are parts that look as if they could go either way around, tabs or notches have been moulded in to make correct assembly obvious. Other tabs and notches help with perfect location - in the headlight buckets for example, there's a solid "click" feeling when you have them in the correct position. The interior is as nicely detailed as the engine. Cons: The kit uses that slightly waxy looking plastic Revell always use so it's not as quite sharp as a Tamiya kit but still very good. The decal sheet is an interesting one: the European boxing of the kit (which I built) has an entirely different decal sheet to the US boxing of the kit and no matter which one you get, there are some decals you'll want that only the other version of the decal sheet has. In my case amongst other things, some brake caliper decals other than silver, and some decent USA number plates. Another problem with the kit is that the engine cover fouls the rear part of the roof when trying to open it and sadly very little of the mighty engine is visible once assembled, although that's not Revell's fault. Some of the illustrations in the instructions are a little vague on locating parts and the assembly order could be improved - such as putting the back bumper onto the body early. The engine assembly is vague in parts, some of the components just go up against each other with no clear mounting point. I also hate Revells flappy-ended European boxes, although that's not a fault of the kit itself. Verdict: It's very very good - certainly the best Revell kit I've built so far. There are a few small things that could trip up a less experienced builder like the weak rear bumper mounting and the sheer amount of force needed and resulting creaking to get the body over the chassis which is quite alarming if you'd not done that before. But very recommended. Build notes: Built over the course of 3 weeks in August 2024. I've made two changes to what was supplied in the box - I scratch built the side aero to match the C8 I use in Gran Turismo, and I swapped in a USA rear number plate from my spare decals pile. Despite being British, I've chosen to make the Left Hand Drive version of the C8 and use a USA plate as I usually prefer to make my cars according to their country of origin. I've chosen not to add the side windows as the car looks better as a spyder with the main roof off and windows down, and additionally I've not glued either the main roof, the smaller "behind" roof nor the engine cover's glass in place, and this all helps me get the roof-fouling engine cover open and shut for photography etc. The colour is a Toyota Tri-Coat called "Sulfur" (with an F) which is normally found on the new CH-R. The colour is interesting because of it's properties depending on angle and light - the photos show varying shades of orange, yellow and gold depending on the picture, and it's all of these and none of these just depending on how you catch it. Even the act of passing through a camera's lens changes it.

The instructions would have you attach the rear bumper near the end, and not knowing if installing it earlier would foul on something (and not having seen a completed WIP of this model elsewhere) I followed that. If I were building it again, I'd attach the bumper at the start before painting. Partly as I now know it's OK if fitted at this point, and partly because although decent sized tabs are moulded in, the amount of force to get the body over the chassis means that these tabs are probably not enough, and I've reinforced it - more gluey fingers and bits. A bit of spurted-out glue in the joint has made one of the outside body<>bumper panel lines here less than perfect, but it's not too bad. Say goodbye to the sunlight, engine. You'll be buried inside forever soon. After refitting the body & interior correctly / carefully this time, the ride height and everything sit more or less perfectly. So onto gluing the windscreen in place. Just a few details left - door mirrors and rear number plate, and so this WIP is done.

The scuttle panel glues to the dashboard but the connecting points are small and thin, so I've reinforced it. Worth noting at this point, the kit comes with both left hand drive and right hand drive dashboards. My preference is to put the wheel on the side of the country of origin of the car*, so I go with left hand drive. *which is why it pains me a little to build left hand drive Japanese rally cars. I've seen some C8s with these panels in various states of decoration, including Kevlar. It goes well with the overall colour scheme. The wipers necessarily need to attach before the windscreen becasue of the way the interior glues to the body. The windscreen slides under them later. Odd but seems to work despite convention. There's enough of a lip on the engine cover to make creating a mask easy. At this point I've glued the rear part of the roof in place which you can see underneath the front edge of the open rear engine cover. However opening and closing this engine cover does foul on this roof part, and by more than a little. If I want to be able to pose this both open and close, some force will be needed. In fact every time I try it, it forces the roof part off entire, with it's slightly unset glue. Without that give, the engine cover would not open very far at all. Engine in place and rear suspension assembled. Completed interior glued into the body. Odd but so be it. And now I can try the body on the chassis, and loosely, the rear bumper on the body. The body-on-chassis isn't instantly perfect at all. It doesn't naturally sit down very well at all either at the front or the back. There's a lot inside with the engine and interior, and the back end seems to be it's biggest issue. I can force it all with my hands and there's a lot of creaking going on when I do, but it springs back into a high-rider once I let go. I'm hoping there's a solution that presents itself later, otherwise I might have to wire the chassis on like I did with the Taka-Q Toyota Group C car, although wiring that one was a lot easier than this one would be. ***Update to the above*** I later took off the body and the interior, unglued it, reglued it, clamped the interior tight to the body and left to set again. The body now more or less fits onto the chassis as it should do. Hurrah. No photo yet.

Brakes assembled. Note how weedy and thin the brake callipers are. Underside Now the front suspension is done, I can do this. Interior carpets are as usual, spray painted sandpaper. Completed dashboard.

I've just got to building my brakes and I'm having Gold callipers and now I see on my decal sheets as above... I only have a choice of silver decals for them. Which will be so invisible as to be not worth the effort of putting them on. How strange the US kit doesn't have the centre console. It's not like there's any even remote cultural reason why not to have that in both. And yes, those floor mat decals in the Euro version certainly do look cheap.

Looking good. Nice that you get seat headrest decals in the US version of this kit, as the European boxing and decal sheet has none. As you also commented in my C8 build thread, who knows why Revell would do such a thing.

Thanks, I've been following your build too. There seems to be quite a few differences between the decal sheets from EU to US versions. The European kit has (predicably) a lot of European option number plates, but only one US plate for Hawaii of all places. Nothing normal like Illinois, Vermont, Wyoming, Florida, California or whatever.

I've now installed the headlight buckets and the clear lenses, all fit perfectly and positively into place with a little notch so you know you have it right. The pale grey V shaped line is a decal, and whilst fiddly to apply does the job nicely. I found this picture of a C8 whilst researching (and how good does it look in red?) and noticed this extra aero down the sides, so I've decided to add this to mine, starting with some plastic L shaped rod. Aftera lot of faffing, here we are. Underside is probably a little less aerodynamic as a result... How it looks in place, which will be a lot better once gloss black.

After polishing. Front and rear vents fitted - all fit perfectly and securely. Inset: Exhaust tips fitted. Side parts, also fit perfectly and securely. How the engine is so far. Aside from the manifolds, all fits well and has enough notches and peg size differences to make sure everything can only be assembled in the correct orientation. Nice. The manifolds - they're not going to fit easily and securely. There are no locating pegs, slot, holes or anything help either the join or the location.

Background: In my opinion, the best looking version of the best looking rally car ever, and from the best period in WRC history. Given the current state of rally cars appearance, I don't see this being challenged any time soon. Couple that with it being a cheap and easy to find kit, and with easy to find reference photos (some of which I'd taken myself of the very similar '98 version) and there was every reason for me to build this one. Pros: Everything. Usual high Tamiya quality of moulding. Lots and lots of detail. Fits together like a dream and not an especially complex build - no masking, nothing fiddly, only two large decals, only one colour really, blue. Cons: The front radiator is quite visible through the mesh and don't match the real car's cooling layout and level of detail. And that's it really. Verdict: An enjoyable and easy build, and an ideal entry point into rally car modelling. Build notes: Built over the course of about 3 weeks in July-August 2024. The biggest change to what was in the box is that I've changed it from the Tour De Corse version into the Rally Catalunya version - I find the RACC/Movistar decals look better with the base Impreza Livery, and I wanted to do something a little different. The door, bonnet and roof Catalunya decals were sourced from a spare Tamiya Corolla decal sheet, and the decal on the front windscreen sun shield is from a spare duplicate of the one on the rear windscreen, as the original sunscreen decal is Tour De Corse specific. In addition to this I've scratch built the correct radiator assembly behind the front mesh, added seatbelts with photoetch buckles, added various cables, wires, wiring harnesses and other details to the interior, and sanded off the bonnet pins and replaced them with photoetch versions. Bonus pics.

Loose assembly. Now clearcoated and I remembered to add the decals before doing so - Corvette emblem on the front, word on the back and a stingray shape on the engine cover. Despite using a DSLR this time, I still had to Photoshop the images to get the colour to match reality.

That's right. The yellow-gold colour paint is Toyota. The clear shiny coat over the top (which I have not yet posted photos of) is Mr Hobby.

Nothing that unusual, it's just rattle-can spray paint from my local Toyota dealership's parts department.

Thanks. Didn't know any of that but it's interesting for sure. The lacquer I've just applied is Mr Hobby super gloss, which has never reactivated any paint or destroyed any decals. It's great stuff and it'll looking good on this Corvette now too - photos to follow later when I've polished it.

Test fitting all the body parts. I had to sand a very tiny amount off the front of the separate roof part to get it to sit perfectly flat. Having first tested out the spraying sequence on the previously seen spoon, I'm ready to go for the bodywork. First: Halford's bodyshop primer in black, which worked better than grey primer on the spoon tests. Then spraying the engine bay area semi-gloss black. Here's the first of the two Toyota cans - some kind of matt yellow undercoat, I presume to provide a good solid opaque base for the yellow-gold on top. And what paint it is. Yellow is normally such a weak colour to cover anything, let alone black, and yet two coats have more or less done the job. And then Toyota Can 2 - the actual colour. It dries a very nice matt finish and it'd make a good interesting finish as it is, but I will be clearcoating and polishing this nonetheless. I've had to colour correct this image to make it appear more like reality, the camera made it more orange than it really is. The great thing about all this current hot summer weather is how fast all of these coats dry.

Whilst the C8 isn't my favourite Corvette - and I do have unbuilt kits of the beautiful C5 and the almost as beautiful C4, this one jumps to the top of my build list as I picked it up from a shop just today, after having waited quite some time for it to become available. I think it was only released recently. The design of this car is something that grew on me, and even now there are certainly angles from which it looks odd. The rear half is just a bit too fat for one thing. But it's a Corvette, and so worthy of my attention. This WIP will end up being a semi-review of the kit at the same time, although only where I find things that are noteworthy about it. There are a lot of parts and helpfully, all moulded in white. It's that same slightly waxy looking "off feeling" plastic that Revell always use so gives a bit of a "soft" feeling to the mouldings, though they're all very detailed. In fact there are so many sprues I've had to write over the moulded-in letter with a marker to make it easier to find which is which, and the reason I've had to do so is that the parts are not arranged in anything like the way the instructions flow. One sprue contains a dashboard, steering wheel and parts of the engine for example. Another contains engine parts and the front splitter, and the scuttle panel. My first thoughts are "can I use the supplied wheels?" - given Revell's past devotion to "wheels too small, tyres too tall" but noting the pain of changing the wheels to Tamiya or Aoshima fit, I was hoping so. And on this first look - they appear pretty good. The tyres are pretty good too. And the body is really really nice. I'm probably going to have to undercoat it before I can even see the seam lines. Here's the colour I've chosen. It's called "Sulphur" and I picked up the two cans needed from my local Toyota dealership. Normally it's featured on the Toyota pictured, which is more representative than my photo. It does look very gold right up until you put it next to something that is actually gold. Then it looks yellow-orange-gold. And why two cans? This paint comes with it's own special undercoat. More on that later. The beginnings of the engine, which like so many Revell kits, fit's together "more or less" perfectly. There's a few tiny gaps and things that sit only 99% flat.

Love that colour.

Thanks. Already on the bench is another rally car, a 1999 Subaru Impreza.

Background: A cracking looking WRC car, in a fantastic livery, from the best (in my opinion) era of rallying. And it's McRae. The only thing it really lacks is a championship, and a re-release from Tamiya to stop those prices spiralling further out of control. Pros: Usual high Tamiya quality of moulding. Lots and lots of detail - for example moulded parts of bits of the engine to sit under the bonnet vents, and a jack and wheel nut spanner in the interior. Driver co-driver figures included too. All fits together perfectly and easily except one thing, as below. Cons: The rear windows are a bit tricky. They fit perfectly into their holes, but there's nothing to hold them there. If you're averse to decalling and curved masking, there's a lot of the former (over 100 decals) over some tricky multi-direction surfaces, and some of the latter for that rear blue area. I'd also have preferred the Telefonica/Movistar decal over the roof-rear wing to be on-transparent and spray the blue myself. Verdict: Fantastic, albeit a lot of work, even for a rally car. Build notes: Built over the course of 6 weeks in June-August 2024. I added some seatbelts, a microphone each for the driver and co-driver, some photoetch bonnet and boot pins, the curving pipes behind the x-member behind the front grille, air valves in each wheel and two aerials made from flower-arranging wire. There's really nothing else it needs that you don't already get. The only change I made to the kit was to use the second door mirror on the co-driver's side. It's in the kit but this car at the Monte Carlo didn't have it. However I dislike asymmety, so on it went. 5 or 6 of the decals split into two or three pieces as they came from the backing sheet - certainly due to age. I managed to rescue them all (well, nearly) with some care and luck.

Background: I really like the livery on this car, perhaps more so than any other Group C, and that was reason enough to build it. It's a good looking Group C car too, even in other colours. Pros: Most of it fits together very well, and it's a good shape. Nice tyres. Detailed headlamps. It's a tidier assembling kit than either of the two other Hasegawa Group C racers I've built to this point. Cons: By far the biggest con are the decals - a large proportion of them are just a bit too large to comfortably fit into the spaces on the bodywork. I'd say the decals should have been reduced by about 10% in size before printing. The tyre decals are a bit flaky too, though that may be age. The kit lacks detail in the interior and especially in the rear part of the car where you can see inside past the gearbox and into the void beyond. The brakes have discs but no callipers. The body has no positive mounting to the chassis and just slides over the top of it - and back off again if you're not careful. Also the body on mine didn't sit level on the chassis, despite not fouling with anything. A few parts really need reinforcement to glue in place, in particular the rear part of the main body. Verdict: It's OK. Neither great nor terrible, it can be made into a very nice looking model without too much hassle. Except all the masking of course, that's quite some effort. Build notes: Built over the course of 5 weeks in June-July 2024. I had most of the Photo-Etch set so used that - it's by no means essential. The main "extra" to the kit was to fit some hidden mechanism of wiring the body to the chassis so it'd both stay in place and sit correctly at both front and back. And then with the Tamiya 88C-V I made back in 2017.

This is great - the build, the car and the livery. Engine looks fantastic.