Zoom Zoom

I've seen photos of the new Revell/Protar kit, everything is there, including engine.

The new Revell AG kit is the Protar kit. Now molded in white. So many people hate it, but it's packed w/detail and is fairly accurate for the particular car it was patterned after.

I've gotten pretty good at these things; but it took me awhile to come up w/my own answer. I tried looking away from the details like the lugnuts and engine wiring/plumbing, and at some of the basic parts. Eventually I realized the tires looked like kit pieces; the whitewall definitely looked like an insert (and inserted a bit too deep inside the tire), the backside of the tire looked simplified, the camber in the front looked odd...and the halo around the numbers made me think they were stickers/decals, in 1:1 scale that halo would likely be invisible. This was a good one...the engine and a lot of details really make it look real. This one was a lot harder for me than most of the previous ones.

Not entirely true. Tamiya raised the price in Japan by 500 yen, obviously that's not any cause of our weak dollar. I can still buy kits from Japan for only a few dollars more than before the dollar dropped vs. the yen; the increase in the yen's value over the dollar (about 5%) can nowhere near account for the 55% increase in the US retail vs. the 20% increase on their home turf. I can buy the same NISMO from Japan for about $27 (add shipping to that). Last year Tamiya upped the prices on many of their kits; the 350Z had been 1800 yen and jumped to 2500 yen, a nearly 40% rise in the price. I think they saw everything from Fujimi being priced in the 2200-3000 yen range and buyers didn't complain, so Tamiya raised prices. Raw materials prices are up all around due mostly to inflation caused by higher oil prices. If they want to remain in business and attempt a profit they probably realized it was time to get their prices in line w/their competition and let their premium image help to sell kits. Obviously I'm in agreement w/everyone that mentions subject matter being of utmost importance! Do the right subject that hits the right nerve and the price can seem trivial. On the other hand, hit the wrong nerve on the wrong subject and price it like it's the best (Trumpeter...*cough*) and you'll send buyers fleeing in droves. The value of a kit in the eye of the buyer starts with subject matter, then accuracy, then quality. While it's great to get high-quality kits, I don't buy models because of that, I buy them because they're a subject I want to build. If I find that accuracy/quality doesn't live up to the pricetag on something I'm on the fence about, I certainly won't buy it. I've gotten infinitely more picky about what I buy today vs. the past.

I want whatever the subject is to be realistically represented. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to have 200+ parts, because I have built a number of great kits that were well under 100 parts...some even under 50 (especially some aftermarket resin kits, but I love the old curbside Monogram European cars they did in the '60's and '70's). It's not the parts count, but their quality. Is the body proportioned correctly? Are the wheels/tires accurate, as well as the stance? Tamiya curbsides are generally great; simple kits that go together w/o too many hassles, and just enough detail to look accurate-too bad they're raising the prices to the stratosphere with them as of late; the new 07 NISMO 350Z is $45 retail vs. the previous 350Z Track Edition's $29 retail. Newer Fujimi kits are also getting close to Tamiya levels of quality and detail, in some cases better; I've built a ton of their Porsche 911 Enthusiast kits, and they're a handful...sloppy parts fit, worn out molds, very fiddly/finicky to get to look right w/o a lot of hassle. Yet their Porsche Cayman is a very simple kit, but sit it next to an Enthusiast 911 and you can't tell that one can be built beautifully in 12 hours vs. the other's 20-30 hours or more to get even remotely as good as a finish. Newer kits from Aoshima/Hasegawa are also generally of great quality and hardly any engineering/design goofs. Tamiya's Mercedes SLR is a good example of a modern kit w/some working features but simplified to some extent, with careful building I got all the opening panels to line up (most I've seen built the doors and hood don't quite fit), and the kit took between 20-25 hours to get it looking good (out of box). Just enough detail to keep me interested, not too much to get difficult or fiddly, and a bare minimum of assembly hassles. The Testors Dodge Charger; amazing how they got all the parts to fit so well! A few detail issues to deal with to make it look right, but they did pretty good. Revell's '49 Mercury, '32 Fords, Acura Integra...all great kits that look right, minimum of assembly hassles, and are popular w/a wide audience. Basically, I want a particular kit to look good right from the box (then I can detail it further if I want). Regardless of whether it's a high or low parts count. Revell seems to hit the sweet spot the most between accuracy, cost, complexity, and subject matter. Nice that they rebox much of the Revell AG stuff for American consumption. I was pretty impressed building their 612 Scaglietti, and even more impressed w/the Superamerica. I'll try to tackle the 599 GTB soon; I've chosen that over the Fujimi due to it's cheap price and full detail. Fujimi's body and a few details are crisper. I've got the Audi R10 and hopefully soon will have the R8 coupe. Looking forward to building both of them. I'd be a bit lost w/o Revell USA and Revell AG, especially since my taste in cars is about as eclectic as it can get.

Nothing really scares me, but any model that's like an explosion inside the box or is a real mess to deal with usually gets put into the deep recesses of my "procrastination" file to be obsessed over at a later date. At least I did dig out my Revell Porsche 914 from that stack a while back and tackled it with decent success. And when you do tackle one of these models, the satisfaction of finishing is much better, for me at least, than one that I put together with relative ease. The one that I want to build the most, but keep ignoring is my Profil24 Gulf McLaren F1; it's a beautiful model when finished, one of my favorite liveries and race cars of all time...but it's a bloody mess of a kit; will be a ton of sanding and finishing..was apparently their first kit, new ones are better but this one is just a mess...certainly not a model that I can build during the 24 hours of LeMans like my Profil24 Jag E Type Lightweight Low Drag Coupe #17 which "only" took about 18 hours start to finish.

That is correct; I was giving an example of how Revell changes a Revell AG kit to Revell USA kit; the Revell AG Superamerica was molded in a very odd combination of red and gray (red body, but some parts were gray like the hood, mirrors...very dumb IMHO), and the US version is molded all in pure white. To me that makes it better, regardless of price. The Revell AG Ferrari 599 is molded in red/gray and will likely also be pure white when reboxed for US consumption.

This year my modeler's ADD was afflicted with the following projects started, and likely not finished before the end of '07: Cobra 427; many have seen it in primer... now it's painted in raw aluminum w/polished stripes. Maybe done before '07 exits. Depression nearly set in when I got the WIX filters awesome 427 Cobra S/C for 25 bucks and realized my model will never be as detailed...I need to focus on it's uniqueness and just get it done now. Chrysler 300C SRT-8 sedan (stock conversion) Chrysler 300C SRT-8 Touring (the nose graft work went well...) Dodge Magnum combined w/Nissan Skyline GT R-34 front end Original AMT Astro I showcar Ferrari F430 Challenge-started in '06, still waiting for me to figure out air jacks Others itching for starting and completion: Porsche Cayman (2 or 3 variants, at least one of which will be a group build involving several friends) Modelmartin/Aardvark Firebird III Tamiya Ferrari FXX (group build w/several friends) Ducati 916 Vintage Mercedes SLR Ulenhaut coupe

Yup, definitely sinister It looks ready to make every Subaru in Vermont run and hide Be careful before Vermont makes Corvettes illegal

That's beautimus! Nice work

No problemo, everything you need is on our website already: ACME 2008 NNL Information

After careful consideration for 2 days, reading other thoughts, I think it's real. The camber/tire issues are easily explained by the fact that if this is real, it's in a static pose off the racetrack in a studio; the wheel camber is set for a circle track racer that's pulling high-G's in the corners. The way the tires are minimally scuffed doesn't look like something on a model either. My first thought was real, and the more I look the more I'm convinced it's real. That's my final answer, for one million dollars.

Thanks for all the comments Looking forward to seeing you all here next year, and at a few shows we go to in between!

Those are all killer!

I guess promo collectors must be more accepting of or immune to folk art, 'cause I buy/build/collect models, not folk art! And I'd say that goes for other model builders as well. It would be a lot better if Tom Mills would accurately portray his models without being so vague and not providing detailed photographs. To me it's typical of deceptive advertising, which is rampant on Feebay with so many questionable models sold w/some very vague photo reference. Tom Mills has sold a lot of models to people who are not happy w/the product. Remember when another resin caster of questionable quality...a Casimira Fleszar, or something like that, was advertising resin GM models in a magazine (like a Pontiac TranSport, Cadillac Allante, etc), and the magazine got so much hate mail over it they had to drop his ads and give a terrible review? That stuff looked no worse than TKM, which I believe was also advertising and didn't get booted...

I've seen a few builtup. I saw a nice black Lincoln MK VIII at the NNL East years ago by Vince Lobosco, IIRC. And I've seen a couple of movie cars, like an Eldorado CV and something else by Jason Stachura, also at the NNL East. Jackie Cheyenne has been working on remastering one of the '68 Mercury convertibles, and I've occasionally seen a builtup TKM on Ebay. It's almost addicting to see one builtup that looks nice, but you have to take a step back and realize what those builders had to do to make the models look remotely acceptable. It's not for the faint of heart. So far TKM has nothing that I would tackle before scratchbuilding it myself or kitbashing from other sources. Most of his cars look like bananas; they bow in the middle. Only a few that are loosely based on slush cast metal banks look at all normal. The TKM Lincoln Mk VII that I got in the early 80's looked like a bad soap carving. It could easily have turned me against any and all resin forever. The metal chassis could have easily cut off a finger it was so poorly trimmed. I was so gunshy about any resin until going to Toledo around 86 back when Don Holthaus only had two kits; a '61 Impala and the '62 Bel Air. I got the Bel Air, was so impressed w/it's quality, that I became a longtime customer and sent them a letter of gushing approval, and started building a lot of what they were bringing out back then. I haven't built a Modelhaus kit in years, I've been on more of an import/sports car/LeMans etc. kick and I built a ton of old American cars back in the 80's and 90's. But Modelhaus still rocks, and has a few new kits I want....someday. TKM...Total Krap Models...

The only one I ever got I threw away. They're awful. If you have an iron constitution and a strong will and lots of scratchbuilding experience, you might have decent luck getting one to look good. Don't be deceived by the subject matter, the execution is horrible, from proportions, details, casting, parts quality.

Dirk, incredible model Dirk is one of the top builders in the country, and his picture is found next to the word "humble" in the dictionary. Pictures don't do this model justice. Dirk won a Top Ten and the Augie Hiscano award at our show this past weekend. It was by far the model most deserving of the award. While not there physically, Augie was a part of our show that day, and had a hand in picking the winner. Dirk, I hope you don't mind me tooting your horn a little bit more, and showing these pictures: Accepting the Augie Hiscano Award for his Nova Top Ten Winner w/his Nova

Bobby, thanks for the pics! Do you mind if I link to your album in our ACME club forum? I have one club member particularly incensed that I didn't shoot the dioramas, especially his diorama...I simply ran out of time before the awards ceremony...and missed taking dioramas and part of the custom/slammer class. Great photos! Hope you had a great time at the show. BTW, Ken Mouton, who built the 1/12 Ferrari 375, drives the silver Civic SI you shot in the parking lot.

Thank you for sharing those! I didn't get a chance to photograph the dioramas or half the custom/slammer class before the awards ceremony, and I've already caught complete hell from one of our own angry club members whose diorama didn't end up in our photos

I didn't get any pics as it was in the garage and not easily photographed, but I found one photo on pelicanparts.com of the car at Rennsport last weekend, and it's the same car you built. http://www.pelicanparts.com/swapmeet_pics/...L/Page-2185.htm

Another great NNL in the history books! We had a blast as usual putting on the show. Thanks to all of our who attended, many who travel a great distance from all over the US to join us, it is you who really make the show what it is. Thanks again to all ACME members who do such a fine job of making this the best show possible for all of our guests and vendors who continually tell us how great they feel the show is. It's an honor to be an ACME member and part of a group who do so much for everyone else. That's what this hobby is all about. Here are the stats: 769 models built by 108 different modelers. Show coverage will be provided by Model Cars Magazine and Scale Auto. The winners: Top Ten Winners: Matt Barnett: 1/12 Hawaiian Tropic Porsche 935 Thomas Mathisen: 40 Willys Chris Sunter: 85 Fiero Pro Mod Dirk Joseph: 66 Nova Pro Touring Chuck Sears: Peachbowl Speedway Diorama Dave Thibodeau: Pirates of Caribbean Pontiac Stock Car Winston Mitchell: Python V-12 Larry Gabor: One man's junk, another man's treasure diorama Clay Kemp: NHRA Pontiac Grand Am LeMans web theme: Ken Mouton: 1/12 1954 Ferrari 375 1932: Rodney Jefferson: 32 Ford Tudor street rod 1957: Mike Dimytriw: 1957 Pontiac wagon & scamp trailer combo Best NASCAR sponsored by BSR: Mark Batson: Buddy Baker #88 Dodge Charger Daytona Best Junior: Jordan Rymer: 87 Monte Carlo pro street Ken Mosezar award of excellence (to ACME member): John Gum Augie Hiscano memorial award: Dirk Joseph: 66 Nova Pro Touring Best In Show: Mark Batson: Buddy Baker 1969 #88 Dodge Charger Daytona 367 photos of the event, including photos of the winners: http://public.fotki.com/ACME-IPMS/acme_sou...nnl-southern-n/

Wow, that's gorgeous. I just got to see the 1:1 a week ago today at Rennsport and I have to get the model too!

So nobody has noticed the detailing rag?

The problem is that you used ENAMEL primer. Testors enamel primers are not really good primers as they're not generally sandable (like "real" primer) and take a long time to dry. You get much better results using Testors white lacquer primer, or any of Tamiya's primers, or even Duplicolor or Plastikote sandable lacquer primers. The lacquer/sandable primers dry very rapidly.