Matt Bacon

Well, you could probably leave out the roll cage... they aren’t fitted in most you’d find on the road today. best, M.

Great model of a fantastic car. It looks really neat and classy. Is that the Tamiya metallic blue paint? This month’s Octane magazine has a side by side drive article of the new and old A110s... it amazing how small the original is! Renault’s heritage collection have had to fix the seats directly down to the floor to give today’s drivers any headroom at all! best, M.

Simplified kit, but badass in it's own special way... Pocket rocket... Monogram classic... in every way Hands down my best build of the year, from my best kit of the year... I don't think there's a better looking car on the planet. Now, this one, I'd love to own... I blame Tim Boyd... Something a bit different for the RAF's 100th anniversary... For my friends, who once owned one that looked very, very like this... Nice big kit to end the year, more or less... best, M.

That looks just stunning, Dann, and it's been fabulous watching the build. It's particularly impressive that you've managed to do it in a way that means you can open it up as well. If I can get mine looking 1/10h as good, I'll be a happy man! best, M.

Thanks very much, everyone. It's made its way safely to France, where my friends appreciated it a lot! I could have done with a bit more time on the figures, but I ran out of road to get it delivered. It's not a bad kit at all, and the polythene interior parts aren't too much of a pain to deal with if you have the right sort of glue ("Zap Goo" in my case). The windscreen is a pain, and I had to substantially shorten the sides of the top black piece for it to all fit together properly. The wipers are spares lifted from a couple of Aoshima MGBs, which all have three, for reasons that escape me... The fit of the front inner fenders to the tub is pretty imprecise and really needs to be done using the body shell as a jig to make sure they'll sit nicely underneath when it comes time to assemble everything, which of course I didn't, so that's a lesson for the next one... best, M.

Well, you'd also better save up some cash for those kits that you suddenly realise you want (no, make that NEED) after reading it! best, M.

Thanks, folks... much appreciated! Both the coupe and cabrio kits seem to be reasonably widely available now. Interestingly, this one is now sitting in an AMT "Deluxe" display case for 1/25 cars (it has fake chrome treadplate for a base), and although there's not a LOT of spare room, it fits as snugly as if the case was made for it. So if you're someone who only builds 1/25 because you don't have room for "Big Boyz" then this is a compact entry point to trying your hand at 1/16... best, M.

Thinking about it, given the difficultly I had getting the interior into the coupe version and the significant flexing I had to do in the process, I'd be seriously worried about breaking the cabrio body shell, given that you have to remove the beams in the doors to get them to open and cut away that large "spider" of runner across the top... It seems that the sills below the door are all that there is until the interior and floor pan are in place... best, M,

Thanks so much, all... and @Ace-Garageguy if you think it looks like the real thing, Bill, thgen that's good enough for me! I'm a bit puzzled by the tail high stance, as well. It's engineered in, though, so it's a conscious choice by the designers, not just built in by me by accident! The thing about the snap fit-ness of this kit is that you know when the parts are fully in place, because only then do you get the "click" of "easy-click". Fixing it wouldn't be a problem for a determined modeller who knew it was there to start with, but it's more than a matter of shortening some shocks... The drive-shafts, swing arms and torsion bar, brake disks and wheel carriers are engineered as a single [] unit, with columns that connect to the floor pan next to the brake disks (not drums even though they should be, as Bill points out). The driveshaft section is pinned between the upper and lower engine pieces, which also fix under the floor plan, so the geometry is set by the driveshaft section's position in the engine, the height of the columns at the outer ends, and the fixed ends of the swing arms attached to the pan by the torsion bar, which also clicks into place. So, to bring the wheels up a bit, I think you'd need to: cut the swing arms off the torsion bar, and pin them so they can swing; shorten the fatter part of the pillars at the wheel carriers so that they socket more deeply into the floor pan, reducing their overall height by 2-3 mm, flex (probably) or cut and refit the drive shafts at the engine to angle them up a bit, and, if it looks bad or bothers you on the "because God can see" principle, adjust the camber of the wheels which will now be tilted outboard at the bottom... I wonder if they measured up on an unladen car with all the fuel and fluids drained or something... best, M.

Revell's large-scale (but still not exactly BIG) Porsche in "easy-snap" (clip together) form: From this angle, you really can see that it's the half-way house between a Beetle and a 911, can't you? It's less detailed than a Fujimi EM series kit, but then it's cheaper than trying to find one of those particular hen's teeth. It's a bit simplified, especially in easy-snap Coupe form (the 356C cabrio is a "full detail" regular kit). And it ticks me off that Revell haven't included the two, maybe three small supplementary sprues that carry the engine and front bay detail and some crucial bits to get the doors to open in the coupe kit as well as the cabrio. They;d make up maybe 5% of the total quantity of plastic and they're already tooled, so why not? So I had to build a few significant bits for the engine, but I'm quite pleased with the result. The snap system doesn't force too many compromises (the interior is really quite good, even though you can't see much of it!), the decals are excellent and include everything down to the markings on the window glass. There are stickers, and I used the "GB" marking from that sheet because, well, it IS a sticker in real life. Paint is Tamiya TS Gloss Aluminium over TS 101, which is a new dense white base/sealer coat to cover coloured plastic (in this case red) and stop the colour bleeding through.As long as you make sure snap pins a cleaned of paint and give the holes and slots a clean out as well, everything goes together well, with one exception. It's a swine to get get the interior into the body: see the WIP thread for how I ended up doing it: In summary, a nice kit that makes up into an impressive little/large model, but if you really want to go to town you're going to need both the Coupe and Cabrio kits and some scratch building... best, M.

Looks great... love the engine detailing. That flat box in the centre of the firewall between the battery and fusebox is where the magnet is hidden on mine... I remember now! best, M.

Thanks for posting these, Erik... it makes me a tad annoyed at Revell... as far as I can see, including two (maybe 3) of the smallest supplementary sprues in the coupe would give you everything you need to build that kit full detail with everything opening as well... it's a real pity they didn't! Looking forward to the side by side build! best, M.

This is the simpler version of Gunze's kit, without a ton of etch and details. Built for some friends of mine who had the real thing, at least until the first pair of twins came along... Darn that blinking rear view mirror! It held on all the way to photo time, it seems, and now it's packed up and sent to France, so I'll have to fix it next time I visit! best, M.

Welcome aboard, William! You might think about investing in this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1613253958/ Excellent reference and history, and very clear on what the good kits of "xxx" are, and which ones are best avoided! best, M.

If it helps, you can find my build here: The fit is stellar, and very precise, so make sure you don’t get a thick paint layer in places like the shut lines. Follow the instructions EXACTLY, and it all goes together beautifully, with openable doors and clamshell. The hardest part I found was getting the silver decal stripes into the intake tunnels on the clam... I’ll be following along, and any specific questions, just ask... best, M.

Great start, and recovery from the paint debacle! I think it’s a great kit. I found that the bonnet/hood doesn’t close very well over the engine by itself, so on mine I stuck a piece of steel can onto the bonnet, and put a small but powerful magnet (bought off eBay) into, I think, the battery or some other box at the top of the firewall in front of the windscreen. It pulls the bonnet down nicely, but you can still open it if you want... best, M

Thanks very much, all... I think we're on the home straight now: If there's one key piece of advice I'd want you to take away from this model if you're building the same kit, this is it: getting the interior tub in using the snap fittings is a complete s*d. First, don't bother putting in the windscreen when they tell you to in the instructions; it will fall out repeatedly as you flex the body to get the interior in. Secondly, cut off the front mounting sockets from the tub and just use the back pair. Finally, what you are trying to do is first, get the top of the dash into the windscreen aperture; secondly, get the doors into the spaces in the side wall of the tub, and thirdly make sure the rear shelf in the tub is inside the back window. With the body and tub upside-down, I'd bring the tub in from the front (into the tapering body), backwards and angled into and downwards towards the back, flexing the body sides outwards to get the doors in place and making sure the rear end sits inside the window, then push the front into the body, with a small screwdriver or similar to ease the top of the dash into the window space (it should be be a millimeter or so above the body edge, and the gap is hidden by the windscreen frame). Then, wiggle it forwards a bit to get the rear mountings into the right place.The tub will snick into place quite firmly without the socket/pillar arrangement coming into play, and the chassis/floor will keep it there. Finally, after a quick clean of the insides of all the windows in case bits of paint have been knocked off during the (quite aggressive) snapping process, you can put the front window in. best, M.

I just dug out my kit, a Revell Germany issue. The instructions still show the BMW grille. There look to have been two tiny modifications to the parts: 98, the grille surface in black, has a couple of extra fins in the middle, and the main front body shell has had a piece removed in the centre of the aperture. You can see exactly where it was on the mould. All that's needed to build it as intended is a slim, slightly Y-shaped plastic rod pillar in the middle of the hole, and cutting away the raised detail on the middle of part 98. A two minute job... The windows on mine are tinted pretty dark, so it'll be time for some window tint film, I think for the gold... best, M.

And, as we heard on the main BBC News this evening (which goes to show which generation is running the BBC News these days...) they also more or less invented "Indy" records and made Manchester the music powerhouse it's been for the last 40 years: everyone from Joy Division to Oasis owes them a debt... RIP, Pete, from me and everyone else who has ever fallen in love with some they shouldn't have fallen in love with... best, M.

That looks great, Dominik... very futuristic, still! I guess it's about the same vintage as the Revell Bugatti EB110, which I thought was a tough build but a pretty good kit! I've got one in the stash, though when I build mine it'll be with the BMW "kidney" grille, which apparently had to come off the kit and the real thing at the last minute... Nice to see one built up! All the best, M.

...though at €110 for the full set of "ameliorations", I think I might just buy the decal sheet, live with the vinyl seats, and either not fit or scratch build a "roll cage" (it's not exactly a complex shape to bend out of some wire or plastic rod)... best, M.

Dashboard is done now. The instruments are chromed discs that pop into place, with decals over the top, and finished with Citadel 'ardcoat varnish: Clearly there's a version on the way with some kind of console under the dash. There's no sign of it in the regular cabrios I can find online, but it looks like the Dutch Rijkspolizei had a radio down there, which probably also explains why the glovebox door is a separate part. So, that's the interior tub completed. The doors are built around the framing in the bodyshell, so I hope popping the interior in will be straightforward! best, M.

They must be VERY good engine rebuilders if they can turn a flathead into a boxer... ;-`p best, M.

I choose to believe that the crate is labelled "Machine Tool Parts", but in fact contains contraband surplus weaponry being smuggled to an obscure South American republic. Invisible in the shadows over the road is a ginger-quiffed, button-nosed boy reporter in plus fours and his small white dog, observing proceedings and taking careful notes... ;-P best, M.

I wonder whether the roll cage is made that way to make sure it doesn't break when you put the chassis inside the body with some flexing... EDIT: looking here https://blog.hobbydb.com/2016/05/13/renault-r8-gordini/, it seems that the original kit didn't have a roll cage. I guess the tyre "runner" was the smallest and cheapest tool to modify to provide the roll cage, which is clearly a feature of the AMT issued version as well as the new Heller box... There are various glues like EvoStick Serious Glue or Zap "Goo" which will stick vinyl to polystyrene with a reasonably tough join. best, M.