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Thank God chip Foose did not find a way to claim this one as his own too... The kit is a rather simple affair that could realistically be built in a weekend. And amazingly enough with great results. As far as I know the Aluma Coupe was never intended to be a roadster. I have a really nice book on Hot Rods by Boyd and there is a whole chapter in there dedicated to this car. In it there is actually a picture of the car broken down on the side of the highway, because Boyd insisted to drive it to some show. It had a full belly pan and to get to the engine you had to remove the seat. I've built this kit quite few times and don't remember having any fitment issues with any of the panels. I remember this kit having probably the best wheels in an American kit and the disc brakes been designed very clever, not even needing any glue to attach. I still have one built up in my case.

Thank you. Wherever it’s going, it’s getting there really really slow. LOL. I wish I had more time to mess with it.

slowly starting to correct and prep different parts... The engine/transmission assembly got all the holes for the assembly screws filled in with JB Weld steel putty. While other holes were grinned open, like the hole for the lines for the transmission control unit. This is the transmission control unit. In comes preassembled and pre-painted in the kit. But it's lacking detail and some of the shapes are plain wrong. So it will be redone. This little gold addition is the actual gear actuator. The part is wrong in some regards and the detail on it is rather vague. So this will have to be redone too. These next pieces are rather puzzling to me in the way they are made. It is basically the air filters housings. On the real car there are basically two funnels - upper and lower - bolted together with the air filters sandwiched in the middle. What Pocher decided to do is to mold the upper in two halves, which then attach to a silver part with the filter molded into it and then attach the lower to it. This would create a very unrealistic and plain wrong look, as everything on the real car is carbon fiber. They even got the screws wrong as they just molded one on each corner, when the 1:1 actually has eight of them. Considering the scale and size of the parts this makes no sense and is absolutely unacceptable, especially at this price level. On top of it the two upper parts have super thick locating tubes that are visible once assembled. I glued the halves and then grinded off the locating tubes for a more accurate smooth look, which would definitely be visible once the model is finished. The halves also have a super nice carbon fiber printed on them. Which is ruined by the seem between the two parts and even more so by the silver "frame" which should be actually one part with them. What you see on this picture is actually one solid piece on the real car made entirely out of carbon fiber. More to come. Thanks for looking and stay tuned...

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I totally understand. It is really cool what you did to the Lambo so far. I really like the effect on the muffler. How did you achieve that?

This is one bad a$$ project. Gives me bad ideas. Which is such a bad thing in a very good way. 🤪

Thank you. I already sourced all the screws. And changed the sizes for a lot of them. In the kit the same size screws are used on the control arms for the spacers, the shock mount and the sway bar links Not the case on the real car. So I got M1.4 for the spacers and M1.6 for the shocks. The ones in the kit are M1.5 all around. I'm still gathering some necessary tools. For example my torx screws arrived like a week or so ago, while the micro torx screwdrivers did not come in until yesterday. I also finally pulled the trigger on an AM Arrowmax electric drill, but I received it with a nice set of carving bits instead of the drill bits it was supposed to come in with. The garage is still a mess too. Not that this would make a difference with the current temperatures and humidity. I would love to see your Aventador project. You should make a thread about it.

So I got the two copies of issue 226 from Spotlight hobbies yesterday. Read the issue cover to cover today. Spotlight hobbies included some cool decal sheet with their branding with the order. I had never ordered anything from them, but was nothing short of impressed with their service, prices and lightning fast delivery. Really col issue. I truly enjoyed it.

Thank you Michael. Yeah. You got a point. These are aimed more toward the diecast collector that would like to "put something together" then the typical model builder. You are absolutely right. Building models (or any other hobby) can be used as a time-out-from-reality in a therapy like fashion. Or it can be a frustration laden anger trip. And sometimes the line between the two is very thin. To me personally it's the former. At least so far. LOL

Now that’s a beauty. I love what you’re doing with the motor. Great color too.

In this scale in many ways things are "easier" (for lack of better word) for manufacturers. Or at least it should be. I mean they made these beautifully molded and finished suspension pieces and then completely butchered them with the stupid screws. Anyway, I don't want to be whiny. After all that's what I enjoy the most about building models - the challenge and pushing myself further. But about price point, I also collect 1:18 die cast models and I just received the latest Pagani Huayra from AlmostReal. $400 delivered to my door. If they can deliver that level of detail and craftsmanship in 1:18 scale for this price, then Pocher have absolutely no excuse at their price point.

To be honest, apparently some things never change. Sure, the overall quality has improved. Just like on anything else. I mean, considering we are comparing with the Pochers from 35 years ago. Before I pulled the trigger I watched some videos and read some forums (all two I could find, LOL). And I have to say that I expected more from this kit. Yes, there are some very nicely finished pieces and a good amount of detail. But not for a seasoned modeler familiar with the real car. A lot of detail is very vaguely molded on some parts, non existent on others and plain wrong on third. Some things are just done in a very lazy way. If you build this out of the box, it would make a cool conversation piece in a way a large LEGO set would. The instruction manual is a weird situation. You go online and download it for free. If you chose so you can print it like I did. It is very vague at times and in some instances it is plain wrong. In the box comes a really nice poster of the car on which it's hard to tell if it's the model or the real thing. On it it says that you can contact the company if you want them to send you a paper copy of the instructions. Well, why don't you just included? To top it off, the paper copy is supposedly fixed and improved to address some of the issues in the online manual. Now that makes even less sense as it should be easier to correct the online instructions and update them. I am waist deep in this now, so I may as well do it right. So I guess I will just have to modify almost everything in this kit. I just found out last night that the whole rear frame is very wrong in many places. And can't really see a reason for it. This is unacceptable on $1300 kit in 2025. But yet again, it's Pocher and in many ways nothing has changed from their MO in the early '90s.

This is totally my kind of hot rod. The more unusual, the better. I will be following for sure.

Thank you, Alan. I was on another thread asking where to get issue 226 of the magazine and someone suggested Spotlight Hobbies. So I went on there to order it and I saw they actually offer chrome plating service. So there is a very good chance this whole intake piece together with some other parts to be sent to them after I'm done modifying the pieces.

Thank you. I just ordered it from them. Two copies shipped to my house for the same money Model Round up asked for just one copy shipped.