mrm

Definitely existed, even if only one was made and definitely NOT from the '80, but much earlier. It is one of series of cars from that era which started at the end of the sixties and put the start of the "wedge shape" designs that followed. I wish someone made all of these iconic cars in nice kits our days. Bertone's LANCIA STRATOS HF ZERO (1968), the Bizzarrini Manta from 1968, Alfa Romeo's Carabo from 1968, Pininfarina's 1969 Ferrari 512S Berlinetta Speciale and MODULO (1970), Giugiaro's Maseratti Boomerang, Holden Hurricane... These are the concepts that shaped the look of the sports car for decades.

Looking really good. As I said before, you can't go wrong with red on a Vette.

Let me repeat this for the millionth time. You can not put a hot lacquer over enamel. I really don't understand the persistence of people trying to make their own life miserable. This has absolutely nothing to do with brands or cost. The only clear coat you can put over Testor's enamels is either a clear coat specially designed for that or 2K Clear. Anything with lacquer solvents is a recipe for disaster. On top of that I see on the first picture two different Tamiya primers, which are definitely not a cheap option. And if you have access to them, you should have access to Tamiya paint. Which is designed to work with the primers in the picture and will handle most clear coats. Especially considering the color choice, since Tamiya offers quite few oranges and reds including their TS49 Bright red, which was designed to replicate 1997 Ferrari F1 color and is borderline orange.

I have the sandable primer too and I knew that this one was supposed to be final sealer. I had never used it before, but because of few different discussions on paint I decided to try it out. I would normally use 2k primer under hot car paint. Especially if there is any putty or joints that can ghost later on. But this is such a clean body that I figured I didn’t need the extra complication of 2k primer. It worked great in the end. I clear coated the body today too. It’s just curing right now. More pictures coming tomorrow. You should definitely get one of this kits. It would be a nice change of pace.

It doesn’t get any more traditional Corvette than Torch Red. I hope you post the WIP for it.

I wish Revell’s kit came with that wing on your neighbor’s car. That orange tho is a bit much for me.

Very nice. I think it came out great. The color definitely suits it. The roof is meant to be left off removable as the real car is a targa. The most annoying part of the us decal sheet is the omission of the headlight decals. That is just wrong and should be addressed by Revell.

Very cool. I love it.

Lately I've run into a lot of discussions about paints and materials. So I thought I can use this quick build to share some of the stuff used on it. My favorite for interior color has been SEM pain for a long time. This is an automotive product not intended for models. It is a very weird paint, which mimics leather/vinyl perfectly. It will not attack plastic for the most part. I use it straight from the can most of the time, altho I have decanted it and sprayed it through my airbrush. It is a little thick but most of the time I don't thin it at all. Cleaning it from air brush is a pain tho. It will however attack most other paints and I have experienced it even attacking 2K clear. But on the bright side it can handle almost anything over it. It dries super fast and it is extremely durable, as it is intended for the interior of your real car. I wanted to keep this build within Box Stock regulations, so no flocking. In these instances my go-to is Krylon texture paint from Walmart. This is also not intended for models. It will stick to anything, but it does not attack plastic. I would not recommend attempting to shoot this through an airbrush unless you want to ruin your day. Spraying it straight from the can can be tricky, as it is made to paint flower pots and things of that nature, most often found in your back yard or living room. I personally never had an issue using it. When sprayed at first, it looks like a sloppy wet mess with no texture. But once dry it creates a pretty cool effect, which in some cases imitates German square carpet better than flocking. Also it handles CA glue like a champ with no discoloration or fogging. When it comes to primers, I use a wide variety of them. Sometimes even the aforementioned SEM paint. My most often used primer is Tamiya Grey, but this time I wanted to try something different. I was going to use automotive paint, so I wanted some thing a little more for the purpose. In the case of this model I am not using any putty, body filler or anything like that on the body, so this should be good straight from the can. It is a Duplicolor product available in some, but not all automotive stores. This particular Primer-Sealer is not intended to be sanded. I did however sand mine because I had some imperfections in it and I forgot a mold line that needed t o be corrected. When sanded it creates this oily almost sticky feel. After all my corrections were done I took the body with me to work and just left it on my dash board under the sun the whole day. Altho bone dry, the slightly sticky feeling was still there. It was cured and rock hard, but just had a weird feel to it. I sprayed one more coat to cover everything uniformly and did not sand it anymore. It was nice and silky smooth straight from the can and perfectly dry within the hour. For chrome I tried the Revel spray. Hands down best chrome effect I have ever seen out of a paint product. Yes, it's expensive at $30 per can, but worth it in my opinion. Now more about my model itself. I am not a huge fan of the real car's design. I think that it is an amazing car and the level of technology, quality and performance GM managed to offer for the price is just short of a miracle. However, they went absolutely unnecessarily over the top with the design, making it more of a Lambo-wanna-be than it's own thing. I wanted to take some of that "edge" from it and give it a little class. That's why I opted for the mostly beige interior wrapped in a color straight out of the Ferrari color book. I know it is not a color that first pops in anyone's mind when Ferrari is mentioned, but it has been in their options list for decades. Altho it looks blue, it is actually considered grey. It is called Grigio Alloy or Alloy Grey in english. I lot of Corvettes have some of the engine bay cover panels color coded, so I decided to do the same with this one. I've had a box of this color for close to ten years, mixed by an automotive paint shop, who were official PPG vendor. I have painted few models in 1/18 scale with this paint and still have enough to paint a dozen models or more. If you like it, you can see the code on the can and you ca use it. Any reputable paint shop should be able to mix you some. It creates a great effect once clear coated and contrary to common belief the "flake" in it is not too big for scale models. One of the biggest challenges this model presents are the clear parts and lights. Masking the rear window can be testing. The biggest issues are the lights. The rears are one piece clear. On the real car you have red lenses, white lenses and orange (depending on market location). Then they are all set in black surrounds. Size aside, the issue with the model lenses is that you can not see the lines on the clear piece. My approach is to apply Tamiya clear red over everything but the white portions on top of the lights first, hoping that it will give some contrast to all the creased lines. Not a very successful approach I may add. Off to clear we go! Stay tuned...

Looking good so far. These are very well wngineered kits that have almost zero fitting issues, so I don't understand why would they be considered difficult. In my opinion kits that are far less complicated but poorly engineered with iffy fitment and vague instructions are way harder to build with good results.

Looks great. I have never done a weathered rod. I think you did great. It definitely has character.

For jobs like this I use Liquid Mask. Any hobby shop dealing with RC cars should have it and it is available online. Amazon can probably have it at your door within 24 hrs.

Great job so far. The issue with the toe in on the front is actually caused by the upper control arms. When gluing the wheel wells first it is hard to see but they actually have hard time snapping into place on one side which causes them to pull the hubs and create either a toe in or toe out situation. Once popped in properly everything is squared off. I had the same issue as you and it took me some head scratching to figure it out. I have painted my body, but haven't taken pictures yet. What color are you going with?

Good work so far. One problem I encountered with glueing the wheel wells to the floor plate before assembly of the chassis was the axles. Their boots will not pass through the cutouts in the wells. What I did was to glue them to the engine, then cut them off right outside the boot. I glued the other end to the hub and threaded it through when assembling suspension. This way the axles met the boots on the sides of the engine and you can't tell they were ever cut. To do this tho, I put the engine in before I assembled the suspension.

So? I understand if in one boxing they include the floor mats and the carbon roof and in the other they include the stripes. Having different options for the license plates in two different markets also makes sense. But both sheets should have the essentials you need to complete the model, like the headlight decals, the headrest decals and the center console controls. And the last one is comprised of two decals that together are a quarter of the size of one of the four optional screens, which is an overkill. Essentially in the US kit you have enough decals for three kits, but none of them are complete, which is just dumb.