av405

Thanks, Carl. Ha! Good point. Thank you.

PM sent.

Thank you, Sean.

Unfortunately I have not done that as it just adds another layer of work. Yes, I'm lazy in that regard...

As someone else mentioned before, I use WIP threads to "keep notes." For me, WIP threads are as much about sharing information as they are for storing information for myself. I do realize that there is always a danger that the forum may crash or some/all of my threads may be lost. But I enjoy WIP threads and I know I would not enjoy keeping more traditional notes.

Thank you, Gary! I too am a Ford guy, but I've grown to appreciate these Chevy trucks more and more.

Gary, check out my recent Tahoe build as I did the exact same thing:

A couple of different updates for this month: I recently bought the full box of AK Interactive Real Paint Acrylic Paint Markers. This was after I bought a single pen from that line to test out and absolutely loving it. I used RAL-8012 Rotbraun-Red Brown to give the seats some additional detail. I had to give the seats two passes for even coverage. Even though the center fabric looks lighter than it would in real life, I do like that the seats now have some contrast. As you may remember from a few posts ago, I painted the hood with Tamiya Bright Red first as a proof of concept. When I painted the hood, I left a dimple in the plastic on the top driver's side corner. I was lazy at the time, but I regretted not dealing with it. I filled the dimple with Tamiya putty and then sanded the whole hood down for an even surface: I then blended the area in with Tamiya pink primer and re-sanded the hood with 1000 grit: Yesterday, I finally got a chance to paint the body and bumpers. I followed my usual routine of 3 increasingly heavier passes of Tamiya paint at 10 minute intervals followed up by Mr. Super Clear UV Cut. Again, all 6 passes of paint and clear were done concurrently at 10 minute intervals. Unfortunately I had some bubbles on the bed, so I will sand those down in a week and repaint them.

I agree. You put into words what I couldn't the first time I opened up my kit. I like it, but the "squareness" is what threw me off from the get-go.

Same here. Especially with the recent re-issues of the GM counterpart (the GMC Sonoma a few years ago and the upcoming Xtreme kit).

Is this a new tool?

I see what you did there.

I like it. I strongly believe that MPC's truck body is much more accurate than Revell's, so that really took it up a notch.

Thanks. I actually like the 3D printed design more as the mount is separate and more clearly discernible. The kit mounts kind of join up against the mirrors, making more of one solid piece. But I can understand this as it was probably meant to make the piece more structurally sound. The 3D printed mirrors are flimsy and the mounts can definitely be snapped off if not handled with care. You described the headlight differences much better than I could have. I did the exact same thing on my 1996 C-3500 build, but I think the effect looks better on that truck than on this one. The clear lenses on the C-3500 kit have a vertical line running down the middle and for some reason, the BMF looks less subdued on those lenses than on this kit's version:

PM sent.

Thank you! I was happy with how close of a match the Tamiya red is. Sorry for the late reply, this build kind of got past me this last month. Thanks for the compliment! I share your sentiments about these kits. So many great things about them, some "meh" things, and some areas where I'm not sure if anything was actually changed from the original kits (for better or for worse). Oh well. As I've mentioned before, I"m still enjoying building this kit. Here's what I got done this past week. First of all, I wet sanded all off the primed pieces with a 3000 grit Tamiya sanding sponge to get a smooth finish: DJ, you asked me about the mirrors. I know I said I wanted to build this kit box stock, but the mirrors were something that I knew I had to replace to fit my liking. I bought these off of cults3D: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/chevy-90s-truck-door-mirror Here the are after printing and some clean up: And here they are after being painted with Tamiya Gloss Black. I placed some bare metal foil to simulate the actual mirrors: Next up, I finished the front grill. I stripped the chrome off, primed it, and painted it with Tamiya Gloss Black. I painted the headlight turn signals with Tamiya Clear Orange and foiled the backside of the top headlight housing to give the headlights what I believe is a more accurate look. I've always believed that there are some subtle differences between the top and bottom stack of lights on this generation of trucks. The foil method isn't perfect and maybe I regret doing it now, but at least it gives both stacks some contrast. The red Chevy bowtie is where I ran into another issue. The kit's decal sheet comes with red bowties, but they were too transparent for the black grill. All detail was lost and you could barely make it out. So I used a red bowtie from my Ray's Decals Chevy truck detail kit and it was perfect:

This is your best bet: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/124-sports-car-series/toyota-celica-supra-kit/

What Mark said.

I ordered from him on Tuesday and got a reply back within 2 days. I would send him a follow up email. Maybe yours just slipped through the cracks.

Thank you, Caleb. I'm happy to hear that.

People should get to say what they want regarding interest in upcoming kits. But let's face it, "my wallet is safe" posts have almost become a meme since they pop up on every single one of these threads.

Thanks, Carl!

Iceman doesn't make/offer any grills for the Revell Blazer.

Got it, thank you! I may still grab one.

Great work, I'm glad it helped! On an unrelated note, there is something I want to address that I didn't before on this thread. The kit comes with what I have seen described as "front bumper filler trim," which is basically a black plastic strip that runs along the bottom of the front bumper. On the kit, it is a part of the one-piece chassis. This is a piece that the PPV did not have. Or at the very least, it was an option to not have. LASD Tahoes definitely did not have it, and this facilitated the mounting of the front push bar: In order to remove this piece, I would have had to carefully remove the entire chunk of plastic and re-shape it. However, this piece of plastic also covers up the 2 screw holes used to mount the chassis to the interior tub and body. This is where I took a shortcut and simply skipped the process. As a result, I had to cut the mounting tabs from the front push bar and simply glue the push bar to the front bumper. This is the portion of the build that I am least satisfied with as the push bar is pretty much just floating now, but it is what it is: I'm sharing this simply to be transparent.