Zoom Zoom

Well, I wish they'd get it out quickly, I can't wait to sell my Miata to get that

It's the acetate "delaminating", I had that happen when I stripped an old promo using a different stripper that was supposedly safe on everything. I don't think they planned for acetate promos, though. It's probably savable; I'd give it a good coat of primer to stabilize the surface, and then begin the process of wet sanding. You will have to use more primer, but it should work out eventually.

"Internet Explorer" That's probably 99.995% of your problem. Seriously, it's worth downloading Firefox, much safer, much more stable browser.

Ditto. I was just going through mine this week and noticed the same thing

They aren't shrinkwrapped, they have two oval seals on the bottom of the box.

Friday I got the Motormax Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country wagon, tomorrow I get the Hasegawa Testa Rossa w/the optional wheels. Boy isn't that a combo. The LeBaron is interesting. If someone were to take it apart and fix a few errors (oversized mirrors, hood ornament, antenna, roof rack), repaint, narrow up the front door window frames so they match the rest of the car...sheesh, I think I'll just build the Ferrari

Maisto Infiniti FX

JHC, it only took about 3 mins. for the reply window to come up No word yet on a new GT-R, but you know it has to come out w/all the hoopla. I have heard from someone who visited Fujimi that they had something "big" to announce very soon. Could it be the GT-R 35? Saw a GT-R 34 Nismo today at a car show. Neat car

Painfully slow here, too. Not as bad right now, but it's slow all the time and ridiculously slow during peak hours. Maybe Model Cars is on Kalmbach's server? That one's painfully slow as well.

The jokes are almost too easy Ford just said "Tata" to Jaguar and Land Rover. Now what? Smart has the "Four Two" and "Four Four". Will Tata have a "For Now"? Will their be a "Bodacious Edition" sold in pairs? Or a dealership out there by the name of "Bodacious", can you hear the TV ads now? Cows are sacred in India. You may be saying "Tata" to leather interiors in your Jags and Land Rovers.

Stevens International (distributor) recently sent a note to dealers that they were dropping the entire line of Gunze paints because there's something in them that makes them illegal in the US. Don't think we'll be seeing Gunze/Mr Hobby paints much in the US unless Gunze adjusts the formulas. Tamiya's sprays were banned in the UK until they change a formula. The UK won't be seeing Tamiya sprays again until next year. I fear that over-regulation will one day make painting our models impossible.

It's kind of ironic, the wheelwells on this kit are greatly exaggerated for wider wheels, where Revell's are too narrow to fit any custom wheels w/o major surgery. Anyone bent on making a pro-street should like this chassis. There is no engraving on the underside of the hood, nor are there hood hinges, nor any firewall detail. That piece is completely smooth. The folks that license Ford products are pretty demanding for accurate looks when a kitmaker comes calling. Revell's GT500 and GT350H kits are now slated for late June. I certainly hope they're not tooling wheels to fit the tires they put in their GT. That would be tragic.

Thanks for the pics. Still could be fun for a custom; seems like most of the extra size isn't from being 1/24 vs. 1/25, but the extra real-estate on the lower body/rockers to make the car look like it sits low while wearing the ridiculously oversize tires that they tuck into the body. The GT500 has the same thing going on, but to a lesser extent because it's easier to tuck the wheels in a Mustang's taller body. This one looks like it won't be as easy to make a believable street car, and I still may get one for a pseudo street racer w/C6R theme. I'll just wait for a 40% off coupon week...

Okay, a few more photos. Model is the same size as a 1/24 Maisto GT. Therefore Maisto wheels fit it just fine. I tried it w/std. GT wheels, Concept CV wheels, and Infiniti FX wheels that look like the love children from Parnelli Jones and Saleen GT's. You can see the chassis has decent detail, and is tubbed for the wider tires. I didn't shoot the bling wheels from the kit, nor the clear parts. Note the boxart model has opening doors and the grille isn't inset. Obviously was a Jada diecast, it's got a lot of differences from the actual plastic kit in the box. Jada has really surprised me with this one. They beat Revell's Uptown kits handily, and thankfully avoided the silly scissor doors. Both Jada and Revell need to learn how to do effective boxart photos, especially when it comes to pictures of the actual model.

Kewl. I see Beetle, Mach III, and Chrysler Atlantic. And it all works harmoniously Would be interesting to see it with "drivable" rolling stock.

I built an earlier version of the kit, from before the "retool" where they gave no door panels. My kit has the F355 dash but 348 door panels. I fudged painting the 348 door panels to look good w/the dash. Things to be aware of on all of them: Do away (fill) w/the engraved molding on the body above the side glass. It's not supposed to be there, and ends at the rear quarter glass. So many build the model and paint it, it's offset and looks horrible. Just look at a photo of the real car and simplify that area. Spend time molding in the side scoops and rescribing the front door cut. I cut the engine cover off the model entirely, then removed the blanked-in cooling louvers (by Dremel/sanding), and did some rescribing of the cut line area. I then reattached it and then molded in the separate part of the rear spoiler. It's a royal PITA. Fujimi fixed this area on the Spyder, it's engine cover area/rear spoiler is much better. Maisto makes F355's, good source for door panels. The F355 Challenge car has pathetically undersized wheels/tires. If the model only looked as nice as the boxart.

I have no idea how the Ford GT is, the boxart model is a lot better than this one so I assume it's a properly-proportioned GT with oversize wheels. I have enough of the Polar Lights kits that I don't need another Ford GT. Someone else can buy that one and compare! The Shelby GT500 is 1/24, so it's slightly larger. The hood is wider than Revell's. I wouldn't worry over using these parts on a Revell kit, since Revell is doing a Shelby GT500. Would be a waste of time IMHO to take this kit for parts on a Revell GT, when Revell's about to offer their own GT500. This is a good kit for people who are 1/24 scale bigots (plenty of them from everywhere other than the US). I'm happy enough with this kit since I'd rather build a "tuned" or slightly non-stock GT500. I'm ultra busy w/work, I'll try to find time to compare Revell vs. this kit w/some photos later.

Ditto what Gregg said. If the decals have a glossy enough finish, they'll look fine on the model w/o being buried in clear. Most decals represent vinyl stickers on a 1:1 car, and the vinyl doesn't have the same level of gloss as the surrounding paint. Some builders also do some of the major sections of decals and then clearcoat, and then add the smaller sponsor decals on top of the clear. If you want that clean "buried in clear" look, you have to have decals that are thoroughly dried, well-trimmed around the edges, and be able to mist-coat your clear in the first few coats. You might try to find Gunze/Mr. Hobby B-501 clear gloss, they're spray cans of a very durable clear that seems pretty mild on decals, it's like a super-strong version of Future in a can. You can also topcoat decals/paint with a nice wide, soft brush (a square cut watercolor brush is best) and Future floor coating (everyone calls it wax, it's not wax, it's clear acrylic). I personally prefer airbrushing clear over decals in thin coats, as spray cans shoot out too much paint too fast for my nerves to handle. I've had good results polishing lightly over decals that aren't clearcoated. Obviously all the buffing to get the paint smooth was done before the decals were put in place. A light buffing of the decals is only needed to clean them up after application.

Polishes seem to work better than waxes, except in the case of Zymol, as most waxes, even The Treatment, have chemicals that can soften various finishes. Novus #2 didn't seem to affect the Future, and I think Tamiya compound worked on it as well. Always test small areas.

I have the Paasche VL (w/all three fine/medium/large needles/nozzles/tips) and the Iwata HP-CS Eclipse, and I far prefer the Iwata. It sprays bodies just fine, and will also do finer detail. There's no contest which brush is more precise or better made and the Iwata is much easier to clean, but I've also noticed that the Iwata prices have jumped dramatically. The one I got at Hobby Lobby for 40% off for $90 would now be about $117 plus tax w/the coupon. My last Badger Crescendo was about $42, and I prefer the Crescendo over the Paasche VL.

You didn't wait nearly long enough for the decals to thoroughly dry before clearcoating. You trapped residual moisture under the clear, thus causing the problem. There's not much you can do about it now. As for how long to wait, if you don't force dry the decals with a dehydrator, I'd let them sit at least several days to be sure. Many clearcoats can damage decals if you don't apply it very slowly/carefully.

It's not a miracle elixir, you have to put enough on there to really shine, and you have to polish it out. It goes on in thin layers, and metalflake has a lot of texture. Keep going, don't give up!

White plastic, came out of the box just as you see it. The glossy finish is amazing, makes Revell plastic seem like it's from milk jugs by comparison. I have no idea how it will react w/various paints. The models in this series are not from diecast tooling. They're all plastic, and well-detailed. They have the GT500, a Ford GT, Corvette C6 (body has an aero package), and Camaro Concept. People in our hobby aren't used to seeing an all-new plastic kit from a diecast manufacturer. If they were to improve their boxart and boxart builds, I'm sure they'd get a lot more respect. These are great models that can satisfy younger builders and have enough detail to inspire old ones like me I checked Maisto 1/24 Mustang CV concept wheels on this model, looks like they were tailor-made for it.

What is this? It's a molded-in-white plastic 1/24 Jada "Big Time Muscle" Shelby GT500. Got it at Hobby Lobby (kits are 30% off this week), after seeing Steve Lingrenn's Camaro from the same company and being impressed with that kit (aside from the ridiculously big wheels) I decided to take the plunge. Boxart itself is awful, the boxart model looks terrible especially in front, it's clearly their diecast model with plenty of detail differences from the plastic kit in the box. Body is pretty accurate. The hood looks a little "puffed up" because the shoulders are radiused rather than having a slight chamfer. The arc of the upper side window molding is a little flat. All lenses have chrome buckets, door handles are separate, interior side panels are separate and have a separate arm rest, so 2-toning is easier. Seat engraving is very nice, instruments/AC vents are a separate chrome piece that mounts through holes on the backside of the dash. Engine details are reasonable. Chassis is tubbed to allow for the ginormous wheels. Pegasus 23's fit the wheel openings nicely. I'm not worried over the wheels/tires, I want to make this a mild street machine and don't need stock wheels/tires. For that this kit looks about perfect. It's slightly larger than the Revell Mustang, but it's not big like all the Jada diecast, it's definitely 1/24 and not 1/22. Ford is picky about licensing and proper appearance. So far this and the Camaro are much better than expected. The Camaro has got the AMT kit beaten in interior accuracy/detail, and the body is clean and crisp and has the proper engraving that AMT missed. Don't let the cheesy boxart fool you, these kits are better than they appear. Can't wait to get Revell's GT500.

I have yet to figure out how people get in and out of these things.