Zoom Zoom

I haven't even seen it, but Gunze products often mimick Tamiya in usefulness, so it's probably pretty good stuff. Mr. Color Thinner and Tamiya lacquer thinner are identical (I assume; they smell identical and work exactly the same-both are excellent to thin out decanted Tamiya sprays for airbrushing). The Tamiya cement is nice, but I haven't found any when I've been to any shops, so my experience is only a few times borrowing a friend's bottle when doing a group build. It is nice stuff. Hobbylink's description of Mr. Cement S says it's very thin and watery. Ambroid Pro Weld, Tenax, Plastruct, and Model Master all have excellent liquid glues, Krazy Glue is available in a bottle w/a small brush, so I've been able to resist buying the Japanese glues so far and my models haven't suffered.

I think you can still find them through Accurate Miniatures. Killer wheels, great design concept and execution. Just way too small for most applications. Revell already included a lot of optional rims in their tuners. XS Tuning should have gone with 18" wheels as a bare minimum, and worked up from that. Starting at 17" gave them a fraction of the market, they only fit a narrow range of rather small Japanese kits or the already small 1/25 scale tuners that Revell insisted on making (when 1/24 would have been better for the subject matter). Forget putting them on anything American, or anything larger than a subcompact. Even on Z cars and Supras they look puny. They were supposed to do the same designs as 18" wheels after the 17's came out. No surprise that since the 17's didn't fly off the shelves, they had no budget left to do the 18's. Right at a time when the Japanese companies couldn't make enough 18's-20's in the right designs. XS Tuning made killer wheels, but they made a huge tactical error in sizing their first production run. I'll bet had they gone w/18's and 19's from the beginning, we wouldn't be wondering what happened to them.

The Nova HT is the one to get, it's a nice kit. The CV has a windshield frame that's way too tall, and a top boot that's overly thick.

Thanks for all the comments! They say the third time's the charm. I've made another pass at finishing the RS60. Thanks to a trade I made w/Darin Bastedo, my RS60 is now rolling on proper wheels, tires, and brakes. It's no longer a glorified kit car :wink: Just a few more visual tweaks (a light wash on the wheels, some sort of lap belt arrangement) and it'll be ready for competition in the model contest at Rennsport Reunion III at Daytona in November :sunglasse The wheels/tires/brakes are from a Fujimi Porsche 356A cabriolet. The wheels/tires/hubcaps that were on the RS60 will look just fine on the 356A, so that kit can still be built and not just for parts.

Now this is retro I can wrap my head around Actually it's S-Cargo; a play on the French word "Escargot" aka "snail" which is an accurate description of the design (and probably the performance as well); it's a modern interpretation of the Citroen 2CV delivery vans from the past. Very clever name for a very cool delivery trucklet. I really hoped that the Japanese model companies would have done a kit of it, but alas it never happened :cry:

It's a gorgeous kit builtup, but it's a glorified curbside. If you shine a light through the louvers you see something under there, but in reality you can't see anything from the built model and the engine cover doesn't open. You see a lot more from underneath. Therefore you are free to do whatever you like w/what there is of the engine; IIRC it's not a full engine. Miura SV painted w/ Cobra Colors Ferrari Grigio Alloy:

Wow, I'm really liking how the composition is coming together! I'd be in the same position doing the painting as it's a medium that I haven't worked in years. I totally understand the "arty" dilemma about the foreground vs. background and why the trees in the distance aren't rendered w/as much contrast now. I think they look fine as-is, and when the rest of the subjects are painted is when one stands back and determines where, if any, extra work can be done to punch up an area. At this point in a watercolor it's perfect. Get too much contrast back there and you can't go back. It's a one-time-only shot with watercolors. Thanks so much for showing the progress, it's fascinating to see it come together 8)

Looks pretty good for a model built in 8 hours! Quick builds can be pretty fun, and one can do amazing things if you plan ahead a bit; have all the tools/paints/etc. that you need right at hand.

Amazing 8) Can't wait to see that in November!

Nice model. I did mine right when Tamiya brought it out, but did mine in black to match the one I drooled all over at the Ferrari dealer at lunch. Hey, it was just down the street :wink: A red TR stopped next to me at a stoplight, that A pillar mirror was level w/the passenger side sport mirror on my somewhat less rare, but probably much rarer today '78 Pontiac Grand Am coupe

I've only bought/built one of their models-a 1970 AMX, but it was a great kit. Very nice casting, and very fast service. It's no longer in their lineup, the master belongs to someone now involved w/Missing Link Resin Casters so it may return through them.

There's a red one like it around here too. But this isn't a Tamiya kit :wink: Nice work on the Superamerica! I've built the Revell version which itself is pretty good (and has full engine/chassis detail). Nice that both kits have the rotating roof.

That's really cool; and yes-it does scream '80's

That Lindberg baby is a real Weird-Oh :shock:

Thanks for the comments 8) I'm using the same "old" photo lightbox that I bought from another modeler a number of years ago, but my pictures have improved dramatically w/my new Canon S3 IS that I got for Christmas. Much better image quality than my old Nikon Coolpix 950. I couldn't be happier w/the new camera, it's pretty easy to use and not as persnickety as a digital SLR.

Thanks for the builder's review! It's a nice kit, that's for sure. Yours is the first one I have seen finished. I have a Revell 599 and am pretty happy w/it, the Revell kit is better in some areas and the Fujimi in others (especially wheels, tires, brakes, headliner, headlight units). The Fujimi curbside kit will be easier for the casual builder to get a better looking model straight from the box (the plastic finish is amazing), the Revell kit needs a bit more TLC but it has a full engine, a much higher level of chassis detail, a better-designed dash that's easier to paint detail. I got the Revell kit because it was available first and for a lot less $ than the Fujimi kit, I paid under $20 for mine and it will probably end up in the Revell US lineup for less than that eventually, with the bonus of being molded in white. I'll get the Fujimi 599 if they do a proper set of the 20" BBS Challenge rims for it. I'm not a fan of the pentagram wheels that both Revell and Fujimi have included.

Greetings Robert I wondered if and when you'd find life outside of the HHMB. I read it sporadically but I stopped posting there a couple years ago, I tried to answer one of your Ferrari questions concerning 512 TR's a while back via email one time but never heard back. Anyway welcome aboard and don't hesitate to show off your models here!

I got the itch to fix a few things on these two previously-built models. I built the Cobra 289 nearly 20 years ago. It's painted w/Testors enamels, including the painted (and now yellowed) stripes. The paint just needed cleaning and polishing. I narrowed the track, getting the tires better planted inside the fenders, replaced my cheesy homemade sticker roundels w/homemade decals, repainted the roll bar, and had great luck freshening the chrome pieces-the worn areas were white plastic, I dabbed Spazstix mirror chrome on the worn areas w/a brush and amazingly it leveled out and the repaired areas are nearly invisible and look like the chrome around them. I'll have to remember that! This old AMT kit is still a good 'un, and probably will continue to be the only 289 kit out there since Accurate Miniatures seems to be unable to bring theirs out. When I build another I'll make sure to reduce the thickness of the headlight bezels by about 70%. The RS60 was built in the past 10 years and was at our NNL last year, but when I built it I used the sticker roundels that came w/the original Revell slot car body which this model is derived from. I wanted to upgrade it in anticipation of the Rennsport Reunion III model contest/show that we'll be helping to run at Daytona. I replaced the stickers w/decals. I also upgraded the headlights and revised my finishing of the headlight cover edges. I'm still going to find more accurate wheels, the chassis/interior on this model was donated from a Maisto 356 w/a lengthened wheelbase. Even though it's amazingly simple it remains one of my favorite models.

I don't want to seem too cynical :wink: but I don't think that's the problem; blueprints are/were someone's drawing and photographs tell you exactly how something looks (a good photographer knows how to put scale props into a photo for measurements). Regardless, I think what we see is someone's interpretation of what something looks like, and nobody critiqued/corrected the details properly somewhere along the line due to whatever reason (such as slowing down the project). Could be the kit designer drew it wrong, could be the first modelmaker/pattern maker got it wrong, could be the tooling department took some liberties and along the way that weren't fixed, whatever the case may be. I can easily see that the '70 Mustang headlight should have nothing above it visually but the chrome surround strip, yet the model has what looks to be nearly 1/16" of bezel above the lamp not including the grille's surround trim. That surround trim and the resulting chrome strip on the leading edge of the hood look roughly 1/16" too high (making the entire grille too tall by the same amount), the character line wrapping from the side of the body shouldn't go uphill to meet the surround trim above the two corner vents; they should be parallel to the ground and the character line above it should also be parallel to the ground-yet someone made it go uphill. Someone took artistic license with the design of the model, and it shows. Perhaps it was the same person who made the '69 Mustang grille too tall, and the resulting centering of the inner lamp is higher than the center of the main headlamp, giving that car the "droopy eyes" look that pretty much ruins it for me. I do remember when two companies made the same car, the '94 Mustang. AMT claimed to make their kit from factory blueprints (or "tapes") provided by Ford. Monogram made theirs their traditional way. To my eyes AMT did a much better job of making the car look "right". Both kits need a bit of tweaking, but AMT seemed to do a better job of making that car accurate looking, Monogram's has some issues. Historically AMT/MPC/Johan seemed to do a better job of proportion than Monogram. Monogram's Fox-era Mustangs have all had proportion issues, especially prior to the '99 Cobra. And let's not forget the pending AAR Barracuda from Revell/Monogram. The test shot looked awful. They blew it in regards to the B pillar and rear fender. If they don't fix those issues, they're going to get blasted again for a second time on that poor model. There is no excuse when it can be fixed! How it got to that point is beyond me, there must have been some pattern or model along the way, at least I would hope...or were they pinching pennies and skipping steps and hoping that it would be okay?? Back to the subject at hand (since this thread has been thoroughly hijacked from it's roots :wink: ); how many of Monogram's excellent '59 Cadillacs have been built with properly-painted headlight bezels? The kit was designed w/part of the body-color headlight bezel on the chrome tree instead of being part of the body. It would be tricky to mask/spray body color behind the headlight surround. But it can be done. The boxart illustration of the CV shows it painted, but the boxart model has them chrome. 99% of the ones I've seen built are also chrome. Bugs me to no end

Great deal on that kit as it has the sport seats and beautiful BBS RE wheels 8)

Agreed. In one of those "if I worked at the model company" moments I would like to think the model companies would be trying extra hard these days to sweat the details, because we are picky buyers and don't want to pay more than necessary to buy a kit or have to fix inaccuracies that are better left for the kit/tooling engineers vs. making us fix them. Especially when it's a detail that isn't compromised by a production/tooling issue, it's only because someone somewhere wasn't doing their homework. I'm not one of the apologists, I tell it like it is from my perspective as a model fanatic and product designer. I think it's crazy for a company to put out a model these days that doesn't look right.

Just in case it wasn't clear in my rant above, I have the earlier release of this kit from '97 (the one that's silver on the box) and love it. It is a great kit, so it is nice to see it back. There are some interesting kitbashing options between the HT and CV w/the different wheels and exhausts. I'll probably swap the coupe's rally wheels and exhaust for the CV's turbines and side pipes, and vice versa. Funny about the questionable fender contours, I'm used to seeing the CV and it's the HT fenders that look a bit odd to me. I never took the time to look at the models vs. photos in that regard.

I really look forward to seeing this; I enjoy the old school traditional artwork like this, as this is the kind of artwork I was schooled in as well. Digital is fine and I love artwork in general, but most people schooled today don't know how to do it the "analog" way :wink: Your composition looks great, this will be a treat to see! Perhaps you can take some pictures of it along the way? This is a great tribute to the owner of the cars! Are they all Citroens?

I say the lie continues even if it's painted correctly. Seeing visual proof here I'm disappointed how poorly Monogram rendered the headlight surrounds, corner vent cap and grille height/angle on the '70 regardless of how they finished the boxart models. They really missed the subtleties on this one, there's too much real estate around the headlamps and it looks awful compared to photos of the real car. While this isn't quite as bad as the Revell '69 Mustang fascia that is so bad that it makes my eyes bleed, now that I'm seeing model pics w/photos of the 1:1 '70, I'm particularly disappointed all over again. I guess the original AMT annual '69 and '70 Mustangs are the only way to go if one wants accurate lines, and thankfully Missing Link makes them in resin. I can fix improper ride height and a lot of things, but inaccurate fascias like these Mustangs would be nearly impossible to get right w/o a lot of very tricky resculpting. I really hate it when a model car has the wrong face :roll: Monogram models seem to be good basic kits, easy to build, certainly satisfied many builders when they came out but they often seemed to miss out on some of the subtle design details on many of their muscle cars :roll:

I would have bought this kit just for the 1/24 scale Minilites if they had looked better than JC Whitney wheelcovers :roll: I guess they couldn't look too much like Minilites or they'd have to pay a royalty? Is that how bad it has gotten? Oh well, I have an original issue '67 coupe and the Penske, didn't really need another one, but I'm disappointed nonetheless. Now if someone would come up w/properly-sized and rendered 2007 Parnelli Jones edition wheels for the Mustang...guess I'm just dreaming :cry: