niteowl7710

Well I wouldn't expect to be able to build a stock Mini Cooper out of it. What I meant was the new parts were the Rally equipment rather than a entirely new tool, or a shared tool, not that it was the same kit with new parts tossed in. I still see people insist the Revell AG Mini Cooper (as well as the 2CV) is just a re-run of the Tamiya tooling. The LHD stuff looks to be "missing", and I imagine the decal stuff to build your choice of Austin vs. Morris are history as well.

I get the financial reasoning behind this, open the gates, draw up new decals, and print money. However the BUT here (and it's big and I can not lie) is that this kit is going on the shelves while the new Tri-5s are active in the catalog. Glancing in the LHS this weekend showed this kit parked right in between both '55s, both '56s, and both of the glue '57s (like most places the Snap-Tites are split separately). If you've built any of those other kits, and you don't know the provenance of this Ed Roth kit and grab it cause the decals look cool....MAN is that going to be a giant sack of disappointment for the casual builder who's not into the minutiae of kit history.

So they're switching to the "International" Skill Level chart that Revell AG has been using? Interesting...

Just for further clarity, this is a variant of last year's new Mini Cooper tooling with the '64 Rally parts added. So for anyone who got one of those in either Revell AG or Revell USA boxing you know what to expect.

I don't believe the U.S. has Custom Duties on plastic models. I know we don't pay them on stuff coming in from Asian Countries (Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, etc).

Gas went up because it was Memorial Day. It's a travel holiday, and the beginning of the infamous "Summer Driving Season". Not to mention when a lot of places have to switch over to those stupid "summer blend" gasoline formulations.

Even in my most cynical moments of conspiracy theory fun, I fail to see why an empty boat exploding in Japan would cause the price of gas to go up. The article says the thing unloaded last week, so there's no loss of product, and I doubt there's a shortage of tankers in the Pacific since Japan has to import pretty much all it's oil.

That P1, it's only the fastest car that Motor Trend has ever tested, clocking in excess of 140MPH in the quarter mile. The electric motor is just a small part of the puzzle. Its hardly a Hybrid in the "evil" Prius sort of way.

That's funny since those words were uttered BY Frank in the 4th post of this thread. So you either possessing selective memory, or trying to back peddle now that you've stepped in it with someone you know off the forum. As for why I brought up the LX roof again is because there was a challenge to the idea that Revell isn't this error proned gaffe factory across the entire spectrum of their business. That roof being one of their most recent one of note. You'd think after the chrome fiasco SOMEONE who has an eye for detail would be put in place to make sure nothing embarrassing, like further instruction sheet errors would occur, particularly with the wheels not included but decals provided for in that bloody LX. Now if you'd quit pouting and tossing around terms like "usual cast of characters" - because you're one of those characters on the Revell "D-FENCE" side of things, and accusing the mods of not doing their jobs that'd be peachy!

Was it actually mailed on the 20th? Because with all the "Mail from Home - Schedule a Free Pickup" that the USPS does the day the manifest (aka tracking number) is created and the day it was actually mailed out can be vastly different. I bought something off eBay last month that the seller created the shipment online with the USPS, but didn't actually mail it out for FOUR days afterwards.

Seems you made it into a major disaster. If the mist coats were dry, and the wet coats were probably well on their way considering how quickly Tamiya paint dries, it would have been a heck of a lot easier to pick the body up, let it dry, and then assess the damage, and then sand out the damage to the paint, and spot fix it as necessary. You really didn't need to strip the ENTIRE body and accidentally break the bumper while you were doing it. I see way too many people run to the dunk tank with any paint issue, when an auto body guy goofs up a paint job they don't disassemble the entire vehicle and send it out to be stripped to bare metal...things like what happened to Harry, THAT'S a disaster.

The 1912 Roadster is first and it's tentatively scheduled for July.

Well yes, but from pictures I have of my parent's Corolla the mirror on the U.S. Spec car isn't just one of those fender mirrors moved onto the door.

You'd need a LHD dash, as well as a LHD cowl & windshield wipers. Then you need to lose those fender mirrors and source in the export style door mirror for the driver's door. My parents had one of these Corollas and it's back before a passenger side door mirror was mandatory.

Revell has in the past 12 months released a Mustang with a chopped roof, a Cuda with proportional problems, had a run of bad chrome in EVERYTHING that came out of China, famously included 5 spoke Pony wheels on the instructions AND the DECALS FOR THEM, in the '90 LX kit that doesn't include said wheels. Made you buy a gasser kit to get a HT roof for the '62 Corvette, a NASCAR '57 Ford to get the missing Paxton Supercharger parts out of the 1st '57 Ford. How does the Benny Hill theme song not play in the background in Illinois on a continuous loop? Then at NNL East proceeded to tell people that "no one" complained to them about any of that, because message forums don't matter to them. Then in possibly the most laugh worthy thing ever heard told someone here they could have made the Meng F-350 kit better than Meng did for half the price. Excuse me while I BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! If they could have, why didn't they? Yeah that's what I thought. Get them F-350s while you can they're disappearing faster than people can stock them even at the LHS mark-ups. See that boat over there floating away in the breeze, once again like the concept of any of Moebius' car projects, or new Class 8 Tractors, Revell missed that one too.

My son is 15 months old, and today he came over while I was looking at the instructions to the Meng F-350, and he started pointing at the diagrams going "Waaaz zat? Waaaz ZAT?!?!" Hope that curiosity lasts long enough to indoctrinate a new generation. My Dad got me into building, but then never really built much of anything (with me or solo) afterwards.

Well if you look over yonder that cloud of smoke would be the Fujimi versions of these kits getting blown away. I'm still waiting on the Aoshima "Factory" Detail-Up Set before I dig into this one, that's got a June Restock as it stands right now (although Hobby Search has it in stock). EDIT - I got a Payment Request from HLJ for it this afternoon - so FUTURE orders are a June Restock. I'm also not sure how available the Studio 27 decals will be for it going forwards, as they tend to be limited runs with maybe one or two reprints then onto the next project. But looking at everything last night, if you can snag the kit, the Detail-Up Set (P/E, Seat belt material, and some other odds and ends) and the C/F decal set I think it would be a force to be reckoned with right out of the box. If you can find it State-Side, and it's the Export version of the Presentation/Pre-Season Testing kit (I don't believe the actual livery version will be like this) it's supposed to have the Detail-Up Set as part of the kit as a "bonus" for the higher prices we pay here at the LHS. I think it's still cheaper to buy separately through HLJ, but if you see one, that's why they're going to run like $70+ domestically. I know some people were a little annoyed they put so much effort into a racing kit, but if the subject appeals to you, AND you want/need a full engine detail version of a Long Tail this may tick all of the quality and "WOW" factory boxes to make Tamiya take a serious turn to look over their shoulders. A lot of people like to toss that "Tamiya-like" term around, and I suspect most of them have never actually built more than a handful (if any) Tamiya kits - they just know the reputation and parrot it, but this kit IS Tamiya-like. They went through SEVEN test shots before putting this kit out, and it shows.

Doing my part to keep my local FedEx Office in business today... DSC01604 (1280x933) by niteowl7710, on Flickr Detail-Up sets for the Aoshima Subaru BRZ, Aventador, Tamiya Nissan GT-R Z-Tune, and Studio 27 Carbon Fiber decals for the Aoshima McLaren F1 GTR Longtail. DSC01605 (1280x676) by niteowl7710, on Flickr A couple of models too...been so busy with the kids this morning since the FedEx guy was about two hours later than normal, that I haven't even had a chance to look through any of these yet. DSC01606 (1280x857) by niteowl7710, on Flickr

This is more like - What Did I Get Last Week Vintage Japanese HellaStock IMG_20140512_140723_609 by niteowl7710, on Flickr IMG_20140512_140952_578 by niteowl7710, on Flickr IMG_20140515_125916_051 by niteowl7710, on Flickr There's a whole saga involved with this MG. It was listed as new and unstarted, so imagine my surprise to get it and all of the interior parts were in separate clear lunch baggies all painted up and ready to go with the seats glued into the interior, and the dashboard completely missing. Now granted the REST of the kit was new and unstarted. So after much back and forth and the opening a case on eBay the seller tracked down the missing dashboard, and then refunded about 75% of the purchase price. I just wanted the dashboard, as the interior work while needing some touch-up (like the seat back seams removed) is actually a respectable effort and beyond adding in some additional work I might well leave that part as it came. DSC01593 (1280x829) by niteowl7710, on Flickr

No, it's just a poor attempt at a light bar, and a push bumper chucked into the '10 SS Showroom Replicas kit with some generic decals. There are a few dozen of these Camaros in-service in the States, but they chose to do a random generic kit rather than any specific one.

I'm not sure what the actual rain totals have been for us here in the Pittsburgh Metro, but it has been a case where every week the 10 day forecast had 7 out of every 10 days with a 50% or better chance of rain. There's only 3 in this next 10 day stretch...my yard is a jungle, and I need to get my Spring painting done before the "Triple H" of Summer shows up.

Incidentally, anyone wanting the first of the GTR Longtails with actual livery on it, be aware you'll need an aftermarket set of decals (Studio 27, or Shunko). Aoshima has stated the markings for Lark will not be on the sheet in the kit because of evil Tobacco product and all of that.

You'll have to talk to Tamiya, or maybe Fujimi about that. It was known going into this show that Tamiya had nothing but some reissues in Automotive as their cash going into the summer was in Armour, the new Ducati, and R/C stuff. Fujimi on the other hand doesn't even have a presense at the Shizuoka show, and as of yet haven't tipped their hand into the future beyond a bunch of spot reissues for June.

IMG_20140508_132242_787 by niteowl7710, on Flickr