mrm

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.

I noticed the Z51 option also. But that has nothing to do with the issue. All of the C8 Vettes, no matter their trim level, have the same controls on the center console. Same buttons in the same location. Not just there, but on the doors etc. They all have the same headlights and both kits come with the same seats. If you look at your sheet, there are no decals for the headlights, no decals for the controls in the center console and no decals for the mesh portion of the clear part of the rear hood. Also no white decals with the yellow labels which we have all seen on cars, warning us about air bags. All of these are present on the Euro sheet.

No. They are for the same car. It even is printed on the sheet that it is for a C8 Coupe.

Yeah. Your point is...? And it is missing a lot, while it has spares galore for no reason. And it is a similar situation on the Euro decals. They have quite few pieces completely missing from this sheet, but no options or spares at all. Which means that it has nothing to do with costs or money. If anything, developing two completely different decal sheets is more expensive.

That thing is massive. Looks very well made.

I get that. But even if you don't care about accuracy or proportions and detail, still if there is an option that comes together easier and delivers better results, why would you cause yourself the frustration of the crude poorly fitting molds of the old thing. I truly enjoy "Gone With The Wind", the first James Bonds and some of the ridiculous black and white movies. But I'm not gonna watch them on a 50 year old TV set without remote or play them on a Beta Max tapes. I don't understand certain things in the hobby, no matter how hard I try to make sense of them. Like the same people who would vote for the 9812th variation of a '53 Ford pick up truck over a brand new model, just because the previous 9811 variations did not have the extra slot on a hubcap or whatever other minute detail, are the ones cheering on the reissues of old outdated kits which have numerous better alternatives with the argument of the joyfulness in building them over proportions.

That would not surprise me at all. The C4 was probably the worst built quality Vette ever. I almost died in mine.

Sweet model. There is something "noble" in a way of that color combo. I think it suits the model perfectly.

Mean looking machine! Black and yellow is a really hard to beat color combo.

Green is far from the first color that comes to mind when I think of a '57 Chevy, but this looks really, really cool. Your flames are perfectly executed also. Smooth as glass finish must have taken quite a bit of sanding to eliminate the separation line. It goes to proove that a rather straight forward build can look a real winner without bunch of details and mods. I love seeing models like this.

Great job, man. Body looks really smooth and everything flows as if factory. I am not a fan of the porthole however. It is beautifully executed, but it is like a Thunderbird trademark and it is out of place on a chevy in my personal opinion. It's like putting Buick portholes on a Mustang.

Considering how obsolete this kit is in comparison to the Revell '32 offerings, I really don't understand why would anyone want to cause them self the suffering of building this pile of disproportionate plastic blob.

Let me quote myself and eat my own words. And perhaps someone who's in the inner circles of the industry could explain this to me. Yes TB, I'm looking at you. LOL So The decal sheets between the Euro and US versions have waaaayyyyy more differences than I thought. And they are significant as both are missing some essential pieces. The Euro decals have a carbon roof decal, daylight running lights decals, all center console control decals, floor mat decals and engine hood "mesh" decals. At the same time, the Euro version is missing any headrest decals and does not offer any options other than the mindblowing number of license plates. The US decal sheet is the exact opposite. It has no carbon fiber decals, no headlight decals, no airbag warning labels, no decals for the center console controls at all and no floor mats. Meanwhile it has three (or sometimes more) color options for pretty much everything AND spares. Four different screen options for each display, which would give 16 different combinations, but no center console controls?! That just makes no sense! Three different engine cover options plus three different engine cover emblems, but no mesh decal for the clear hood piece? Four different stingray emblems for the rear hood, two different wheel center caps and three different headrest decals all with spares, but no headlight decals?! Is this a major brain fart on Revell's behalf or is there some kind of reasoning behind it?

I hear you. When the LEGO Titanic came out, I absolutely had to have it. It was the biggest LEGO set ever at the time and it is 5 feet long. $700 and limited to one purchase per person, because people were reselling them for double that. I got it and it took quite some time to build it. I had to convince my wife to buy a whole new console table in the living room to display it. On top of her being furious about the money I spend "on a stupid toy". LOL. I admire the woman for keeping up with my sheet sometimes. LOL

Pretty sharp build. I love the color.

Because of your comments I took a closer look at the two different decal sheets. And it makes less and less sense every time I look. So, the US decals have: *+ a choice of two different stripes - white and black *+ five different color choices for a center stripe for the steering wheel *+ Choice of three different colors of headrest emblems with a spare each + Choice of four different dash displays and four center screen displays + Choice of two different brake caliper markings with two spares each + Choice of no less than four different stingray emblems for the rear hatch +Choice of two different third brake lights with a spare each + Choice of two different center caps with a spare each + Choice of three different engine cover decals The items with * are not present on the Euro decal at all. Meanwhile, the Euro decal has: *+ Daylight running lights *+ Carbon fiber roof decals *+ Foot rest/ pedals decals *+ Engine cover "mesh" decals *+ Weird (and cheap) looking floor mats *+ all center console buttons decals *+ airbag warning decals All of these items are missing from the US decal sheet. At the same time the Euro decal has no spares and no multiple color options. No choice for screens, no choice for brakes, no choice for engine cover, no choice for center caps, no choice for emblems. But ten different license plate options!?! Meanwhile the US sheet has a bunch of choices for everything and spares, but it is missing essential pieces like the center console decals and the lights. The decal for the center piece between the seat shoulders is completely different between the two also. I really don't get it.