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Well, it was over 25 years ago. I got some then as well.

My semi local shop, one of the best in the business and by far the best locally (Free Time Hobbies) just cut all their regular retail hours aside from one Saturday a month, because 90% of their business is internet sales and retail was distracting them too much. Even though their retail was up 3X, it wasn't nearly enough to offset the mammoth internet sales that require most of their time and attention. Enough that they want most Saturdays to themselves to spend with their families. This is today's reality. They have great retail prices, same as online.

Yep. Cut it out, don't dip in water. Or dip decal in water, apply to thin styrene sheet, let dry, trim. Either will give you scale thickness far more accurate than any separate piece that's injection molded as part of the kit. Much like some of the newer kits, especially Revell, that have entire instrument clusters on the decal sheet, you can trim the whole piece out and rather than dip in water, just glue it to the face of the cluster.

I do that too sometimes, depending which is closer...the tape or the glue When I print my own plates I cover each side with glossy clear packing tape for more strength. I rarely use kit-based plate bases since they're generally so completely out of scale. I did use the rear bracket on the Revell early Bronco, it's in a recessed area so it's thickness isn't quite so obvious, and the detailing above the plate is quite nice. I left the front one off, too thick and didn't want a tag up front.

Great job, looks fantastic. Glad the Plamoz wheels helped!

Regardless, if Revell had molded a bracket it would be wildly out of scale (like all front plate holders generally are if injection molded). Your second photo shows that you barely see anything but the plate itself, I'd rather have just the thickness of the decal-on-paper plate than a 1/16" thick, chrome plated monstrosity that Revell would include for that job or having it engraved in place. Look for some photoetch brackets & surround or scratchbuild if you want it to look as good as intended.

Honestly it's better this way. Just cut around the decal with scissors and glue carefully to the bumper...it will look infinitely better and properly scaled vs. an overly-thick injection molded bracket, which likely would be engineered with pins mating to oversize holes in the bumper itself, and also better than having the bracket engraved to the bumper itself therefore ruining the effect of a plate-free bumper that's common in so much of the country. The Japanese are bad enough about having ginormous molded license plate holes in fascias (vs. flashed over), and Revell GmbH that put huge, out-of-scale, completely incorrect Euro plate brackets on the face of their 918 Spyders, SLS, and others, really annoying.

Lookin' good, and nice job on the panel lines. And a word of warning. Don't let Chip Foose near this BMW....

The way the kit is designed, you can figure out Hasegawa is doing multiple variations. Race cars could be one reason; with the separate rear seat and all. It's almost a given the Turbo will be kitted, in fact the second rear bumper and the little divots in the body for body side molding that would be completely covered by separate flares, and even a separate taillight overlay can be used for the rectangular lamps in back. The clues are there just in what you get in the box for this first iteration. Their latest Honda 360/600 and the Suzuki Jimny kits don't have any sidewall detail either. It's like they got to the interior and gave up. For a 2002 w/black interior, it's not a big deal regardless. I've seen some nice ones built in Japan, just odd that they put so much detail on the body and chassis and then made the interior so spartan. I'm happy to have the kit, and have ideas for getting the interior up to snuff. I think my kit was about $32 delivered, no real complaints.

Great model, very creative!

Nice; hardly ever see these built. Mine had been painted around 20 years ago when the kit came out, sat in a box because paint job was bad. Finally finished it a couple years ago.

My first-run Moebius/Model King F100 had terrible warping (hood, body, bed, bed sides, chassis), in addition to a very grainy surface to all the exterior (since fixed by Moebius). I traded my kit to a friend, who obtained a replacement...which was just as warped. The reason it's an issue is the plastic pieces are still warm/pliable when they're packaged (also an issue with other manufacturers). Since Moebius kits tend to be packed pretty tight inside the boxes, it's a common issue. Some kits are fine, others are rendered nearly useless. I would assume at this point that enough complaints and replacement parts requested have forced Moebius to make sure the manufacturer handles the product with more care between molding and packaging. I had no warp issues w/my Ventura or Comet. In addition to warpage, I never replaced my F100 kit or got any of the other releases because of design issues with the roof and grille. The roof angle is wrong, there's not quite enough crown in the roof itself, it looks slightly squashed and tilted towards the front, and the headlight bezels are so oversize it affects the spacing of the grill openings. At this point if I built one I'd have to fix it, and honestly I've decided it's not worth the hassle for the subject...it's not exactly holy-grail territory and I've got plenty of other models that are. I have seen a bunch of really nice ones built, so the kits are popular. The Ventura was a personal grail, so I dealt with that kit's particular foibles as it was worth it to me, and I'd gladly build another.

Bob, miss you around here! Hope you come back and visit us for the show in November. This whole topic is interesting, since I'm into MX5's and formerly a "rotor-head" growing up w/a bunch of friends who enjoyed cheap, used rotary engine Mazdas in the late '70's to early '80's, so when I go to a local meetup I'm friends with and around more younger car enthusiasts than I see if I go to a traditional cruise night. A couple in particular remind me of this topic and how time flies; a kid showed up at our July "Miatas and Coffee" meetup in a '94 Miata (factory R package, no less). He's 16, it's his first car, it's 7 years older than he is (that's like me buying a 1953 car for my first car, which was actually a 2 year old 1976 car). Another friend was born in '95, he drives the all-original '93 FD RX-7 handed down/inherited from his grandfather. Teenagers today, if they have any interest at all in building models, will more than likely want stuff that was at least somewhat common as they were growing up...just like all of us. But we're talking cars from the '90's and 2000's now; they are now old cars. Not Gremlins, Pacers, Matadors, '57 Chevies or Datsun PU's. Those aren't just old, they're ancient history to anyone 30 and younger. I just built Revell's reissued 2 'n 1 RX7, finally available again with the "Cafe Racer" parts in the same box as the stock pieces. Their Miata kit gets reissued next month. The retail prices are quite a bit more palatable than Round2's. I'll bet in the eyes of today's youth that some of these Revell products are more interesting than all the "really antique" American cars that Round2 is regurgitating. Revell still has all those tuners that can be reissued from the same time period. Round2 is still laser-focused on selling people our age, not younger, the premium prices reflect that. AMT's new Camaro kit is spectacular, while Revell just spit out another kiddie-level 2018 Mustang...no detailed kit on any horizon. Maybe Round2 will help us out...at least they are doing some new tooling. I just got a Hasegawa BMW 2002 tii; with shipping from Japan it was about the same price as one of the Round2 reissues...I happily bought the all-new BMW kit for that sum; personally I remember "Pepper Shaker" '57 kits languishing on shelves for years. Less than zero interest for that thing.

I do know that the shipping method to the US adds time, I've only made one order but I was quite pleased with the items I received and I will be ordering more in the future; as usual with any aftermarket company, allow enough time to receive the parts, don't order them a day or a week before you need them.

I knew you'd like those wheels! Just be careful with them, those tire retaining ribs on the rims aren't really necessary and if you test-fit a tire it might be hard enough to remove that you break some spokes.

Click on thumbnail to open the photograph to its normal size. Click on the share link to the right above photo, click the first line, and it copies. It's painfully easy.

The kit tires. BUT...cut off the oversized diecast-like "paddles" around the rim intended to hold the tire in place. If you try to take a tire off, guess what happens to those thin resin spokes? Yet one more reason I dislike the "diecastification" of our plastic kits. You might also want to wrap some thin tape around the rim so that the tread area doesn't go hollow when installed. Maisto is supposed to have a 1/24 Grand Sport coming, but all photos show it w/the Z06 wheels.

Bodywork looks great; love the Grand Sport. Did you know that Plamoz makes the correct wheels for it? They're "Cup" wheels that they made for the C6, but they're appropriate for the C7 as well. Your model is coming along so well I think it's worth the expense. I've used Plamoz wheels, no problem ordering from them and great quality. Corvette Cup/Grand Sport wheels

I decant Tamiya matte and semigloss clear as needed to apply over glossy finishes that need to be toned down. So easy.

I'm still a Fotki fan and have always rather hated PB, even w/adblocker that site is and has been a mess. And tons of photos that lose their links. I never understood the love for PB, except from the aspect of "it's FREE". Now that they want $400 a year to link to 3rd party sites like this, I see it as PB's suicide mission. Which won't affect me, but honestly...it's like they want to fail, and tick off their long-time supporters. Always have a Plan B.

Thanks; love those stripes that were first shown by Mazda for the Global Cup car. Those front hood/fender stripe decals were the only ones I had issues with when applying, it's quite a compound curve up and over and I had to use the hot-water "tampo" trick to get them to settle in place. A friend's wife gets these very fine/soft makeup wedge sponges (I think from Ulta), she's got enough to give us model guys some to use, and they're worth their weight in gold. Hot tap water and that sponge made a difference that decal solvent wasn't going to make getting those decals settled (and quickly, too). Still had a few minor wrinkles, but too small to worry over.

Thanks for the comments!

This is my LeMans build this year (a group of friends gets together and builds during the race); decided to build whatever I wanted vs. an actual LeMans car. Prepped the model (painted, cleared, chassis built) prior to the race. At the end of the race it still lacked the roll bar, passenger seatbelt, front splitters, antenna, and a few graphics. Decals are by Studio 27, wheels are from my parts box, tires are Pegasus. I used some of the Hobby Design detail set for it as well. Very fun project of a phantom street/track day toy, and I also prepped parts for my next MX5, an RF conversion using the Plamoz detail RF conversion and the Club detail set.

That looks great! Sure wish Revell would give us the GS.

Looks good so far with what you've got. I have never tackled mine simply because I cannot get past the horrific shape issue(s) with the entire front end of the Fujimi LM. There is entirely too much crown to the front end, resulting in comically misshapen headlight buckets that make the whole car look like it's frowning. Once you see it, you cannot un-see it. When I got my kit I compared the kit body to photos of the real car, got seriously depressed, and back into the box it went. I have the first issue LM with the incredible box art. Shamefully what's inside cannot begin to live up to the box art. The amount of work to fix won't be easy to accomplish. I'd love to see someone try.