fumi

The closest you can find are the DiOlex Production Lorinser. You will need to scratch build the center caps. DiOlex Production sells on eBay. Their quality is quite good.

In general Tamiya makes paint to sell their kits. It is hard to imagine them making paints that help sell others' kits, and by the same token no other Japanese kit manufacturer would list Tamiya paint code in their instruction.

Back in the 80's it was "close enough is good enough". Tamiya would have you paint every red car in TS-8 Italian Red. Along with the F-1 kit boom in the late 80's to the mid 90's, Tamiya started to formulate special paint to match the livery of their F-1 kits. They also made generic popular colours for Japanese cars like Mica Red and Gun Metal. Specialized colours to go with their regular car lineup started after 2000. Some of the more specific colours like the Pennzoil yellow, the Aston Martin racing green or the Toyota 86 orange were only offered as a no-number limited release.

If Shapeways does not charge for listing then I find it interesting that multiple vendors are discontinuing a vast amount of small parts in their catalog because they "cannot be printed affordably". If people really wanted that part they would have gladly paid for that few bucks increase. If they cannot afford it then they can simply not print it. The only reason I can think of is to avoid people whining about being gouged by the individual sellers, which seems quite plausible when you see modellers complaining about kit prices all the time.

Ghosn admitted that he got Nissan BoD to pass the motion to cover the FX contracts for non-Japanese directors "for the good of the company". He also admitted that Nissan Middle East paid his acquaintance around 1.6 billion yen for "legitimate services that was beneficial for the company", which mostly amounted to greasing up the dealings with government officials and business partners behind the scene. He also admitted that the Lehman Shock was something "no one could ever possibly foresee in their lifetime". For common folks like the many retirees here who got duped into buying the "very secure" Lehman Brothers mini bonds, the only choice would be to suck it up and see their retirement funds go down the drain. Yet if you are a high-flying executive, you can just ask the company to pay for your mistake, all for the sake of the company.

Based on what I read in Japanese and English media, this is part of what happened: 1. Ghosn admitted that he preferred to be paid in US dollars but Nissan would only pay him in Japanese yen, so he invested his salary in USD/JPY FX derivatives. His investment (or more fittingly, gamble) suffered huge losses in the financial crisis in 2008 and his bank asked him to put in additional collateral, or they would call his margin. 2. Ghosn had the Nissan board of director pass a resolution to authorize Nissan to enter into foreign exchange contracts "for the benefit of non-Japanese corporate officers and directors at no cost to the company." 3. Ghosn asked his acquaintance in Middle East for help. His acquaintance provided his bank a 3 billion yen "standby credit note". 4. There was an attempt to have Nissan head office to invest 3 billion yen to his acquaintance's company in Oman. This did not work out. 5. Nissan Middle East then paid his acquaintance's company 14.7 million US dollars (around 1.6 billion yen). Ghosn maintains this is for "critical services that substantially benefited Nissan."

If it is just a dimple I'd use GSI Mr Dissolved Putty. If it is really shallow I'd just dabble some Mr Surfacer 500 on it.

Beige is good. I am not particularly fond of colours that will potentially rub off to clothing in real life, so gold is out for me.

Polystyrene is 6 or PS. It is recyclable, just not profitable.

Those kits were planned at the tailend of the Mini-4WD boom, around 1993-94. Sale of the Mini-4WD funded all the interesting less profitable projects like the Caterhams, the annual 2 x F1 kits and the 60's classic cars. Once the Mini-4WD boom waned, there was no money to spare and the car line was drastically cut back. Word at the time was that the classic car kits sold far less than expected and the entire project was shelved, so Tamiya could concentrate their resources on the newly re-acquired Ferrari license. It was around that time that Mr. Kiya quit Tamiya and founded MMP, parent company of Ebbro. He was told there would be no more resources for the F1 kits and the classic sports car kits, 2 of his pet projects.

This is very well preventable, and no reason for it to happen in first place. All the entry points for the hacks were from the entertainment system. There is no need for the manufacturers to tie in the user electronics with the system electronics.

Ebbro's F1 kits are very nice. You can consider them as Tamiya+. Ebbro's owner worked for Tamiya for 30 years and was responsible for their F1 kits in the mid 80's to mid 90's and was project chief of the short-lived 1/43 diecast car line. When Tamiya scaled back their F1 line and changed their direction to simplified car kits, he left and started his own company to concentrate on subjects that interest him, mainly race cars and historic Japanese cars. In an interview he mentioned that when Mr. Tamiya heard about his desire and push to establish the 1/43 diecast project, he said that "if he wants to do this project so badly, he can always do it out of his own pocket". When he quit to start his own company, Tamiya gave him an extra large retirement package that footed Ebbro's first 3 diecast models.

The Fujimi Pantera is readily available.

Here you go. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=207460082655029&ref=content_filter

Easiest way is to use the contact form on the left of the web page. The fields are name, e-mail address, title and content of your inquiry. Mizorogi-san can speak English and takes PayPal. You can also find him on Facebook, his page is "Sports Cars Modeling".

They should have done that at least with modern subjects long ago. It was a major issue with their "tuner" line, instead of making them compatible with other kits of Japanese/European subjects, they had to make them in a scale that is noticeably dwarfed and aftermarket wheels from Aoshima and Fujimi wouldn't fit. Regarding Snake's idea, I think Aoshima and Hasegawa are doing it right: curbside with an open hood and some rudimentary under hood detail, and leave the engine to the aftermarket. I don't know how well it would work in a market where people proclaim they will not buy anything not full detailed, though.

Not a Urraco but if you are interested in an Espada, there is one SMP24 resin kit left in Sports Cars Modeling's web store right now: http://mizorogiscm.shop-pro.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=2315812&csid=0&sort=n It is expensive, and it is worth every yen. The Urraco is slated to be reissued some time in the future. The next kit in line will be the 308 GT4.

Depends on what shipping service is chosen. If I ship to the US by e-Express (under 2 kg) or Speedpost the packages are fully trackable. If I ship by registered or air parcel then it is not trackable once it leaves Hong Kong. As for why registered is untrackable, you can thank USPS for that.

My personal experience is that packages sent to me from the US by First Class International will take around 10 days to leave the US from the time USPS received the package, and delivered to me within 3 days after it arrived Hong Kong. Packages I send to the US by e-Express will take 3 days to leave Hong Kong after I posted it, and moves around within the USPS system for up to a month before the recipient receives it. While your package is sent from Taiwan, I would expect similar delivery time for you as Winit is using Chunghwa Post as its forwarding agent.

It appears the seller is using a cargo forwarder which groups packages together and ship once a week. It is Christmas season now, expect longer shipping time than usual. Given that Chunghwa Post picked up the package on Dec 10, you will probably receive it the week after Christmas.

There were no major sheet metal changes throughout the production run, so most likely Aoshima is preparing for flared fender versions.

I second for Tamiya. The size goes from 0.2 mm to 3 mm, and the new ones up to 1.2 mm has a thinker shank that make them less likely to break. I am linking to Hobby Search as the Tamiya online catalog is difficult to use, but you can get them anywhere. https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=107&cat=paint&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=tamiya+drill+bit

I think the model companies are smart enough to obey the laws of the countries they intend to sell their goods to and comply to the requirement to omit the tobacco markings, so you and I can get the kits sans the decal. Do I care? As long as I can get the kits and the missing decals from the aftermarket, I don't. It's a fact of life, and I respect that some countries take a strong view against any form of tobacco advertisement. Even when I never took a smoke as a result of all the car races I watched or the model kits I built with factory tobacco markings throughout my childhood.

Tobacco advertising is illegal in many places, and the swastika is illegal in Germany. Those decals simply cannot be placed in the kits Alcohol advertising is still legal.

You expect them to shoot themselves?