Matt Bacon

It's bigger. That's almost literally the only difference, in that the parts breakdown, and what they offer, are pretty much the same... bestest, M.

Because they are? (though I'd be prepared to include the words "mass produced" in that sentence). YMMV, clearly, looking at the dreadful heap in your avatar ;-P bestest, M.

I t pops up on eBay in the old box pretty regularly... but it's also been reissued by Heller now: http://www.heller.fr/fr/maquettes/maquettes-voitures-classique/477-172-hispano-suiza-k6--3279510807042.html ...so you should be able to find it easily. bestest, M.

Set the cold tap running. Hold the end of the screen just above the spout of a boiling kettle for a few seconds (by holding the other end), take it out of the steam, switch grip to hold it firmly near the hot end, where the screen is the right shape, and then gently push the "point" of the window outwards. It should just flex out. If it resists, put it back in the steam for a few more seconds. When you've bent it so the point is that 1/16th inch wider, keep hold and stick the whole lot in the running cold water to set it. Do it carefully. More sophisticated techniques include clamping it firmly with a Wolf grip at the point where the windscreen's OK and holding it in the steam (that gives a really solid "fix" to the portion you don't want to bend), or using a tile with a smooth flat surface, dipping the rogue end of the windscreen in just off-the-boil water for 10-20 seconds, pressing the main screen onto the tile and "rolling" the point outwards. Basically, you want to make sure that the main bulk of the screen isn't moving anywhere, and the "unbending" of the softened plastic starts exactly where you want it, without flexing the middle of the screen backwards. I had to do exactly the same to the rear U-shaped window in my Dino 246. You can repeat the process until you get it unwound exactly as far as you need... bestest, M.

Great job, Bruce. It's certainly a sturdy looking beast, isn't it? Like a "cut'n'shut" with the front end of a Rolls-Royce and the back end of a Mercedes 500K... Are those front wings/fenders well-located, or are they like the ones on the Delahaye, which were a nightmare to fix in place? I do like this series of Heller kits, too... I'd like the Talbot Lago Record and Hispano-Suiza, myself. All the best, Matt

Why? ;-P bestest, M.

Thanks, guys! I don't think this one ever really existed. The kit apart from the body is the same as the Garlits Wynns Jammer and Hemi-sphere kits, and can obviously used with various body styles. To me, this body shape looks a little like the Pink Panther car in terms of styling... bestest, M.

Well, it seems that you don't see many of these built... now I know why! ...and I think the "Mini-Me" box is a great idea: This one fought me all the way to the end. The biggest problem is that the chassis frame is weak, badly fitting and flexible, and the majority of things that mount onto it have very small, vague, attachment points. Still, it was a present from my "Secret Santa" on another forum, intended to take me out of my comfort zone. Which it did. Now, where did I leave that Cobra 427 S/C...? bestest, M

Concept looks great, Bill... though it'll be a real labour of love to rework that plastic/balsa/putty hybrid. But I guess that's "sympathetic restoration" rather than a "replica" ;-P Was your name Saoutchik in a previous life? Some of the best looking automobiles ever created, IMHO... you're in great company! bestest, M.

So that's the Huracan, Huayra, and something from McLaren? Maybe a 675LT or a a P1? bestest, M.

Sure does... On the cabrios, it's easy enough to leave off the firewall until you've assembled the upper and lower body halves and dealt with the seam, and then slide the interior in from the front, followed by the firewall, adding the seats, dashboard etc from the top. Obviously, that's not an option with the coupe. I've seen people assemble the body, reinforce and finish the seams, cut out the floor pan from behind the rocker panels to build the inside, then flex the painted body (hence the reinforcement) to pop the glass, floor and interior back in, just like any regular kit. I might do that, but I also can't really see the issue with just assembling the interior and body normally and masking the windows with BMF or frisket film... Still I have several kits, including a parts car or two, to practice on! bestest, M.

OK, we need to be clear here: The Revell 1/25 XK-E convertible is basically fine. A little bit hard to get together so that the bonnet closes, and the soft-top cover is way too tall, but there's plenty of detail around the engine. The Aurora then Monogram 1/24 Coupe is a bit of a caricature of the real thing, in terms of body shape. The waistline is too curved, the "hips" are exaggerated, the nose curves down too much, the "mouth" is too "pursed", the bonnet bulge is too big and the wrong shape, the roofline is too high and squished front to back, and the headlights are too upright. This coupe kit was never, as far as I know, released as a Revell kit. The Monogram, then Revell 1/8th Coupe is the best and most accurately shaped E-type kit out there. There still a lot of detail work that it will benefit from hugely, but what you get in the box is a great starting point. bestest, M.

It's the best 1/24 E-Type coupe that there is. But since the competition is the dreadful Monogram version (ex-Aurora) there isn't a lot of choice... It's typical Heller: reasonably well detailed, slightly hard to get to fit together. The parts breakdown is pretty much exactly the same as the Revell 1/25 XK-E, so although it will benefit from detailing, there's a fair amount to work with already. The accuracy is pretty good. There's been much discussion of the shape in another thread. My view, after comparing it with accurate 1/24 plans, is the the shape of the "glass-house" is very slightly off. The windscreen, contrary to what you may read elsewhere, is correct, but... the line of the roof edge at the top of the drivers door isn't quite right. On the kit, it rises steadily to the front at the A-pillar, almost flattening out by that point. On the real car, the roofline curves gently down again from a "peak" about half way along the door. That changes the look surprisingly significantly. IMHO, a bit of gentle paring away and sanding on the top edge of the door, and reinstating the gutter, will work wonders... Enjoy it -- it is the most beautiful car ever made, after all, and absent the long-awaited Tamiya new-tool, it's your best chance to put one in your cabinet... bestest, M.

The factory-assembled LaFerrari runs $300. I guess you can buy the kit for about $60? So, there's $240 of paint, decals (the carbon, no doubt) and labour. Even assuming that Tamiya gets the decals and paint for free as the manufacturer, that's what? 30 hours of work at minimum wage. I reckon it would probably take me 40-50 hours to build one. So they must have some very skilled, fast, and extremely cheap assembly line workers in their "factory"... bestest, M.

That's not actually Revell's problem. They always have the tire profile bang on. Their issue is the size of the wheels, which don't include the bead rim. But the ratio of tire width to wall height is always correct on their recent kits -- they just need to get the rim size big enough. As an aside, the recently released Hobby Design Pirelli 20" Corsas are WAAAYY too low-profile. The compliance of the sidewall is part of what makes tyres work with the suspension set-up of the car. If you are a crazy tooner whose car will never be driven anywhere except off the trailer, then rubber bands are OK. but anything less than 30% isn't going to work on a driveable supercar... bestest, M

Yep... those are some of the best photos of a "No Photos" sign I've seen ;-P bestest, M.

None of which helps if the guy who designs your wheels is labouring under a misapprehension. The scaling of Revell AG's supercar wheels and tyres is spot on -- if you don't know that a 20" wheel is not 20" across the bit you can see... it's 21" bestest, M.

Revell's argument was that they wanted to go for a car that more people were likely to see around the place. Personally I wouldn't be surprised to discover that perhaps the kind folks that licensed them to do a LaFerrari and a 918 were quite happy not to see a model of their main rival on the same shelves. Equally, as the first Mclaren licensed product, maybe McLaren wanted their VERY latest product kitted... and especially from that angle, it's also a very pure expression of Mclaren's design essence. bestest, M.

To be fair to Revell, these are early prototypes. They might be going to introduce that paint into their range, and certainly even Hiroboy isn't selling it yet. The guy who built the model probably went with what there was... bestest, M.

Classic German fast car colour (they aren't ALWAYS silver), and certainly the ones that Top Gear and Evo magazines had to review were yellow... bestest, M.

There seems to be every likelihood that the Pocher model is the same as this: https://www.eaglemoss.com/de-de/modelle-modellbau/ihr-modellbausatz-mercedes-300sl/ The partwork has been cancelled, so it may be that eaglemoss found a way to recoup some of their investment in model design and tooling, and Pocher got a steal on an almost ready to go kit of a classic car in their natural scale. You can have a closer look around the model on the link above. The seams you've spotted are there, but pretty unobtrusive. You can also see a proud builder with his chassis on the video! However, if this is what's happened, you can understand why the seams are there -- each part or small group of parts was intended to go with a magazine, in a store, so none of them can be too large. You certainly wouldn't be getting a one piece bodyshell with roof attached! Pocher may be able to adapt the tooling for a kit that ships in a box, or even assemble, fill and prime the relevant existing pieces into a one piece shell before packing it. EDIT: if you look here: www.007db5.com/pdf/2.2_ROOF.pdf` You can see what they did with the DB5, which also has a separate roof section. bestest, M.

http://www.pocher.com/model-kits/mercedes-benz-300-sl-gullwing.html Skip will be needing a second mortgage... and Harry might come closer up to date with his Big Boys... It looks fabulous. $799, it seems. But it probably takes as long to build as any 40 regular kits. bestest, M.

Because Ebbro are more conservative about how many they'll sell, so they're amortising the initial cost across fewer kits? Plus, it's the number of parts that costs money when tooling a kit, not how big they are, and it's certainly a complex and well-detailed kit... bestest, M.

Take couple of different Vallejo or Citadel "flesh" tones. Paint the whole thing with the lighter one, then "drag" brush (use a brush with long bristles, load it up, wipe most of the paint off on a paper towel, but not as dry as you'd get it for drybrushing) the darker colour. Overpaint with Vallejo "Woodgrain" (reddish) for darker woods, Tamiya Clear orange for lighter woods. Add extra variation while applying this top coat, based on what your references show. bestest, M.

I think Tom explained it further up the thread: different magazines, with different size circulations, will go through different handling procedures on their way to you, even if their final destination is always your mailbox... bestest, M.