PowerPlant

It’s just the support vehicle and not actually part of the rally, but yea, I hear ya… these hypercars are fun to see, but if I had that kind of money, I definitely wouldn’t buy any of them ? I just uploaded a few vids from this year’s event, btw, I hope they work!

I just re-uploaded the videos. Any luck now?

For the second year in a row, the world’s most exclusive supercar club organized one of its meets in Croatia, spanning over the entire weekend. The highlights of the gathering must be the Bugatti La Voiture Noire, only one in existence so far, one of two produced Apollo (former Gumpert) Intensa Emoziones, and one of three ever made Pagani Zonda HP Barchettas, which was, sadly, crashed into a Ford Fiesta in rush hour traffic yesterday, so not present today ?‍♂️ Other notable cars at the gathering were the all new Lamborghini Countach, Koenigsegg Regera, Aston Martin Speedster and McLaren Elva. I was also pleased to see the Porsche Carrera GT (in red, of all!) and two 918’s, including one in white, with the Weissach package Martini livery, as well as the Ferrari 599 GTO, Mercedes McLaren SLR, and McLaren Senna, none of which I had seen in person before (and have or plan models of all). Of course, there was also a number of other Paganis, including various Zonda and Huayra models, a bunch of Bugattis, including the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse WRC edition, and Chiron Pur Sport, as well as a total of five examples of the all electric Croatian hypercar, the Rimac Nevera. There were also apparently the Bugatti Centodieci and Divo, as well as Ferrari Monza and LaFerrari driving around, but I did not catch them. Divo and LaFerrari I saw at last year’s meet, so wasn’t too bothered, but was a bit disappointed to miss the Centodieci and especially the Monza. Oh well, next year perhaps! Hope you enjoy the vids of millions of dollars on wheels rolling over fine Croatian gravel accessing the racing strip ? IMG_2042.MOV IMG_2043.MOV IMG_2044.MOV IMG_2047.MOV IMG_2098.MOV IMG_2100.MOV IMG_2102.MOV IMG_2099.MOV

Sorry, only just seeing this now! I can still play the videos, so not sure, to be honest.

His passing on Aug 12th seems to have gone under the radar, and I have just found out about it myself. While he will, unfortunately, mostly likely be best remembered in Hollywood for generic, action packed drivel such as Air Force One, he was, in fact, also responsible for one of the best, most atmospheric and tense war dramas ever shot on film, which is, of course, the German WW2 movie Das Boot. If you have not seen it, I highly reccommend this masterpiece of cinema.

The Ferrari California from this collection was originally owned by French actor Alain Delon.

I appreciate the reply and explanation ?

Why would it be unfair to compare? I don’t see how the size of the market is relevant here. If a house that was worth 10.000 bucks in 62 is now going for 500.000, there is no logical reason why a kit worth 2 bucks back then shouldn’t cost 30 bucks today. People say it’s the same kit, much like your house is also the same… sure, the products are the same, but one thing that has changed drastically and isn’t the same at all is the value of currency, which has depreciated because of inflation, which happens when… and this is where I have to stop because the next word in that sentence is a no-no here ?

Here we go again... Similar topics spring up quite often, and it seems like many people on here do not understand the concept of inflation. Simply put, one dollar in 1970 did not have the same absolute value as one dollar today - it was worth much more. Real cars back then cost a couple thousand dollars brand new! How much do they cost today? Prices then and now cannot be compared directly like that, without taking years of global inflation into consideration.

Not a trade as such, but stitchdup (Les Budge from Scotland) came through for me with a rare part, so I hereby wanted to publicly express my appreciation and say what a great guy he is! Thanks!

I use Imgur on occasion.

It’s only new on the US market, it has been around in Europe for what seems like forever now, but I gave up on it years ago, mostly because of the needle clogging issue you’ve come across. But I wasn’t a fan of applying glue through the needle method anyway. I found it difficult to control the amount applied. I much prefer brush on Tamiya cements personally.

Sad news. He died in a hotel room in Bogota. Might have had a bit too much of that Colombian sugar It is interesting to see them performing Led Zeppelin songs with Page and Jones, and shows how Hawkins and Grohl occassionally changed places behind the drums/mic. I am a big fan of the Foo Fighters’ earlier stuff, and I think their late 90’s album The Colour and the Shape (on which Hawkins joined the band) is one of the best rock albums in history, with Everlong as an absolute hit for the ages. Hopefully, the band will be able to continue.

Guys from USCP are still occasionally active on their Facebook group, they say commercial postal service has, expectedly, been suspended pretty much since day one of the war. All of their team/families and facilities are safe for now.

I just received a kit from Bill aka Ace-Garageguy, and even though he has yet to receive the package from my end of the deal, I can already safely say he is a great trader, courteous in communication and very meticulous with packing. Considering his reputation here, I’m sure he needs no validation from me, but for what it’s worth… trade away with utmost confidence with this gentleman! Thanks for the trade Bill!

Yes, the Italeri is a reissue of the Esci kit you posted. The biggest issue with the kit are tires and somewhat underwhelming engine bay, but that is easily solved, and also find most everything else fine.

Perhaps someone else can shed light on this because I am not familiar with the Otaki kit.

I’m not really familiar with the pictured kit, and I’ve certainly never seen one in person, so I really cannot comment or judge with conviction, and it’s an unfortunate angle, but something definitely looks way off about the body (looks a bit too narrow at first glance), and it does not necessarily fit into my “generally correct body proportions” criteria. Another Esci kit that does not qualify in my book is the Ferrari 250 SWB, which, despite a decent looking profile, has terribly misshaped nose, and it would take a top hollywood plastic surgeon to remedy that mess. These kits in question, however, are not up for rerelease, and the ones that are - the Volvo and 500 SLC (a 450 actually, since we’re nitpicking and discussing inaccuracies, but oh well) look decent enough to my eye, and I’ve held both in my hands. Sure, tires are wrong, interiors are bulky and squareish, engine bay on Merc underdetailed and somewhat incorrect, headlights do not fit well etc, etc… But with some time spent doing this hobby of ours, both can turn out quite nice in my opinion.

Interesting! Thanks for the explanation. I have used your method to rewatch pretty much the entire season 3 finale last night, I even dared go a little faster, and for a recap it worked perfectly, but I’m sure I couldn’t watch new episodes any faster than regular speed. To me it’s like music. Every piece has its specific tempo, speeding or slowing it down changes the song completely. I see filmed material the same way. Every frame and shot is of certain length to achieve a specific dramatic effect, and it has to be seen as such… even if it is seemingly drawn out and overlong, I prefer to see it the way the author thought it should be for whatever reason. Or maybe I’m just slow ??‍♂️

A friend of mine is doing a detailed build of the Lancia on a Croatian forum. He is quite a stickler for rally car details, and the kit lacks quite a bit of detail in the interior (especially for a larger scale kit of a domestic car), which I am not intricately familiar with, but there are all sorts of very obvious an inaccurate tooling solutions on the barren/visible interior floor. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing Italeri or anyone here, just saying that no kit is ever quite perfect (reissue or new tool) and sometimes corners are cut for various reasons that arise during the production process. That said, I would not enjoy this hobby as much as I do if all I had to do was shake the box and get a perfect result. I actually find it fun and challenging to improve, change and adapt certain aspects of most any kit I ever dig into to suit my preferences. And yes, the tires in the volvo and mercedes kits are atrocious, but if I like the subject matter in general, I don’t worry about that and just do my own thing anyway. Plenty of options out there to chose from. As long as the general appearance and the shape of the main body features are correct, everything else in my book is subject to that magic thing we call kitbashing and scratchbuilding. So, bring them on I say ?

I’ve noticed you mention several times you watch Netflix stuff at 1.5 speed. I haven’t explored this, but I assume you mean sped up slightly? How can you enjoy/ take everything in like that? Apologies if I misunderstood, but I am curious ?

At last! I saw ep 1 of s4 last night, and I was like… wait, what? Ben who? ? I was so involved with Helen’s fate and what will come out of it that I had completely forgotten about sideplots, especially regarding Wendy’s brother. I think I will definitely follow your example and at least skim through season 3 once again (I saw it well over 2 yrs ago) before I continue with season 4… but so far, looks deadly ?

Sorry if I offended anyone. And I myself am a fan of his dudeness so I respect your opinion man ? just trying to make a point that saying how nobody is interested in certain subject matter literally underneath a post in which someone expressed interest seems a bit redundant. I do understand the point that improving certain details/parts such as tires could have/ should have been done, but I’d rather see the kit reissued unchanged than not reissued at all… I can work around not-so-great, but find it impossible to work around nothing ??‍♂️ And btw, if you think new Italeri tooling is any better, you should take a look at their new 1:12 lancia delta inaccurato, pardon… integrale. Once again, my sincere apologies if my wording was crude, and kind regards.

I have removed neither of the two off the sprues yet, so it’s hard to tell for sure, but my highboy frame looks ok, while the channeled version one seems a bit twisted. Definite warpage is visible on chrome sprue with windscreen frame, which is well wonky, but I hope that will fix itself once it is lodged into the body.

Perhaps because there IS interest, despite the fact that it’s not your interest. And, as for crudeness, they are no worse than any old Jo-Han kit, but most anybody would like to see those reissued, and every so often we hear moping about those “precoius molds”… Oh, that’s right, they are American… ?