niteowl7710

Well I paid for the set I pre-ordered, so it was in stock on Thursday. The mesh for the grill is the same ole same ole "screen door" mesh that seems to come in everyones kits that has to be trimmed to fit. The metal transfers are 4 pieces if you don't count the 3 that make up the mirrors. I guess value is in the eye if the beholder, $19 is certainly cheaper than the $174 Acu Stion wants for their multi-media detail up kit.

It was only ever run the one time in 2000 (I think) prior to the full parts kit under Round2. Molded in white this time around rather than that grayish plastic Ertl used.

I bought mine for $12 at NNL East when it was freshly reissued in 2012.

The Studio 27 Detail Up set came out yesterday.

The Round2 release includes a bunch of custom parts that were tooled in 2000, but never released before the "demise" under Racing Champions.

Lesson learned, you can't put automotive paint on a model without applying primer.

If you look around there is also an LHD U.S. Spec RX-7 of the same generation , it has a black car on the box art. The Efini was a JDM only trim. I believe the RX-7s were tooled in '91, and the 350Z Track was tooled in 2005, representing a '03. The Track was the second version of the kit, there's a "rare" kit made in '03 that's just a plain jane 350Z, then there's the NiSMO 350Z kit as well.

For anyone who's interested Studio 27 has announced a little more budget friendly photo etch/detail up set - compared to the monster one from Acu Scion - for release possibly as early as this week - it says "Late April" - and we're running out of April. It's said to contain the following (excuse the odd wording for the machine translation from Japanese to English) TAMIYA 1/24 300SL corresponding [iTEM 24338] [Part Contents] - Lightweight drum brake top - Front grille mesh - Wiper arm - Wiper blade - Radiator mesh - Pedals - Rear wing wing end plate - Front wing flap - Pedals - Metering - Switches - Mirror surface - Oil cap - Plug cap - Emblem - License plate - Door fittings - Seat belt - Seat belt harness ★ seat belt for the ribbon is also included ★ $19.96 based on current exchange rates - http://www.hlj.com/product/S27FP24176/Aut

So the punchline here is traffic was stopped right? I mean COE or not, 12-24" is so close that even without a "conventional" hood you would cease to see the vehicle in front of you.

No you haven't, or you're simply bad at estimating distances because at a foot away the car would completely disappear from the truck driver's view behind the visual "over hang" of the hood and you'd have no way to determine where the car was until it changed lanes or you ran it over.

Kevin brings up a good point that I think some people who've never judged (or skip the contest experience entirely) might over look. We're not really looking at EVERY build in a category with a fine tooth comb, you can usually walk up a Class and within 30 seconds "discount" 2/3rds of the entrants based on paint finish, overall fit and finish, and completely ignorance of basic technique (or technic). Then you hone in on 3-7 (depending on class entry size) that you really start going over and reading the descriptions and build cards. Cause frankly I don't care how much time and effort you put into something if you laid a proverbial egg on the contest table. In those cases I hope that the builder is pleased with their work, but no amount of checkbook modeling, customized binders with nearly real time coverage of the build, and fancy display is going to make me even take a second glance at it. We're not giving out awards based on "Best Attempt at Inaccurately Scratch Building a Part" or "Most Man Hours Spent Misapplying Photo Etch".

We had the same type of weather conditions in Northern Indiana, especially in February. Blizzard conditions, whiteouts, et al. I drove back and forth between Pittsburgh & Chicago 3x a week, and got caught in several storms. Got stuck in the results of a number of multi-vehicle accidents on the Indiana Toll Road. But none of them involved me in any way. Do I have a CB? Yeah. Do I ever turn it on? Rarely. Didn't have it on most of the time this winter, but you know why I didn't plow into the back of people? CAUSE I TRAVEL A SAFE SPEED FOR THE ROAD CONDITIONS!! It's not rocket science, it's following distance and road speed, and no CB cowboy Super Trucker is going to help me drive my truck by telling me that traffic is stopping. If it's stopping, then I'll be stopping with plenty of room to spare because I'm not doing 70MPH in a whiteout. Or here's another salient idea, pull off the road entirely and wait it out. I haven't gotten tangibly close to 2 million safe miles by tailgating, speeding, or running while the chain laws are up and there's a blizzard on the mountain. In the above accident the variable speed limit signs (Think NJ Turnpike to anyone out East) were posted at 45MPH, which was probably still too fast given the actual weather/road conditions. But watching the videos it's clearly visible that a number of drivers, especially that FedEx set of doubles that was hauling the mail (so to speak) were going well in excess of that and wouldn't have had a hope of stopping in time on dry pavement.

He was referring to Bill's suggestion Tamiya continue along a series of classic European sports cars including the Ferrari SWB.

The question is how did you ship it? I'm guessing el cheapo SAL in which case 10 days-3 weeks is the expected. My last HLJ SAL was 11 days, but I just received a SAL shipment from Hobby Search (HLJ's competitor) and it took 22 days.

It's basically the "new" (for the 90s) tool '67 Impala kit with some very period "Street Machine" parts. Billet wheels, billet steering wheel, Corvette style intake, "custom" hood.

Various Integra Type Rs and Civic Type Rs are all over eBay for decent prices, plus your usual suspects (HobbyLink Japan, Hobby Search) have them in stock pretty much all the time for $9-16 depending on which kit your getting.

Alright some searching around by Jonathan found builds of the Sport Option Land Cruiser built with LHD parts, so they're in there as well. I have the factory stock one, so it's not if, they're there.

The stock Land Cruiser kit does indeed come with all the LHD parts. I've never seen the inside of the "Sports Option" kit to know for sure on that one. These kits were made back in 1991, when HLJ and associated vendors didn't exist so showing parts for the LHD construction option wasn't a priority as (just as now really) most LHS didn't stock a lot of Tamiya kits. Especially the "run of the mill" stuff like the Land Cruiser.

1936 Toyota AA, the first production automobile for the company. I see a pattern developing here -- S600 the first mass produced Honda, now this car. Parts of this kit will probably be "blown up" from the 1/35 Toyota "Phaeton" AB military kit they did a few years back, as the main difference between the two is the AA is a steel roofed car vs. the open top of the AB. Also now available for HLJ pre-order -- http://www.hlj.com/product/TAM24339/Aut

When Lindberg was making it, it had a Little Red Wagon (which they also made) inside the case on the box art.

I meant for the enterprising cottage guy who maybe goes in with a few people to buy a commercial grade machine. If you own the equipment then you're pro-rating a cost based on printer media and over all machine cost to recoup your initial investment per piece of finished material, be it body, hood, wheels, etc. But as the owner of the machine you wouldn't be considering it on a per hour basis the way Shapeways would bill you for "renting" 18 hours of printer time. I think for a venture in 3D printing to be successful ala a "big name" resin caster (caveat once the tech gets there) is going to require a team of people, one or more is going to have to have a background in 3D design.

Those aren't AMT's cases anyways. Ollie's had a monstrous pile of them in Lindberg branded J. Lloyd boxes that they couldn't seem to give away for $3.99

The "cost" of printing it wouldn't be effected by time, as they are a "Set it and Forget It" operation. Once the item is set to print, no further babysitting of the thing is needed unless the printing media would need refilled. You might want more than a 1 per 24 operational basis, but the print on demand aspect along with never having the mold wear out would mean guys who specialize in this medium (over resin) would never have to shelf a subject when sales slowed or the magic "50 bodies per mold" number was hit.

Tower says "Late June"...

Did a rather tossed together in-box video review of the kit this afternoon. Watch me review it as I open it and see it for the first time. Just click the link down below in the signature line to head over to my YouTube page extravaganza.