Zoom Zoom

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.

Wow, very nice attention to detail! Great work.

Have you even thought about asking Paul Fisher if he could replace the body for you?

IMHO at this point your resin body is junk. Replace it or move on. You compromised the material w/alcohol, there's no magic blue pill that's going to stiffen it back up to be useful.

For those with Dick Blick stores locally, they carry these sprays. Haven't tried them; I think they have some unique and changeable nozzles as well for different effects.

There are zero #16 Camaro decals in my early-run Fifty kit.

I think they intended to close on July 1st or 2nd, but their website people were on vacation for July 4th, so I believe they decided to let the website stay up until July 5th at some point when the web people were back. This information was public, so I'm sure that the mega-procrastinators really hit them good on those final days! I already knew they were pretty stressed when I placed my order, I could have ordered several kits and other extra stuff, but honestly looked at what I really needed in terms of restoration parts, and kept it at that. They wanted to retire fully last month...it'll be at least another year if not longer.

Got my final order from May 18th, 2016 on May 20th, 2017. Just a box of restoration parts from a list I made up while their website was down prior to re-opening on May 16, 2016. Unfortunately a convertible windshield frame I ordered was broken in the box, had to have happened when they packed it as the box was completely un-damaged. No problem, I contacted them on the 22nd with a photo of the unfortunate damage, and a perfect replacement arrived today. I'm going to miss them, great people, products and service. I imagine they'll be fulfilling orders for another year or more. I'm pretty sure they probably got a ton of extra orders just on the last week the website was up early last July when they made it clear that it was shutting down for good at that point.

They're even better for those of us that can visit the shop. Best hobby shop in Georgia!

Amazing; one of the coolest models ever! Love it!

Greetings; I like your screen name! Here's my red Miata on the infamous "Tail of the Dragon" :