Zoom Zoom

Round2 has done a couple modern subjects, the Charger and the Bronco. I'm seeing lots of videos of the new '25 Charger that'll be either an EV or internal combustion (new inline six). Seeing it outdoors in natural light, seeing the size/proportions of the car, I'd love to see Round2 continue w/the Charger, it's like they're fixing the issue of the 2005 Chargers, emphasizing the coupe first, which actually looks like a Charger. FWIW, there will be 4 doors as well, sharing the same roofline and rear hatch (yes, they're hatchbacks). The profile is vintage Charger. There may likely be police versions. Round2 would be wise to at least get the 3D files for all. Also Mustang GTD & Dark Horse. They could do well doing the outgoing high-end Challengers. Cloning the '69 Grand Prix with eyes towards '69/'70, '71/'72 and the crazy Superfly/Sweathogs version. Clone the '66 Skylark. Clone/improve the '65 Corvair convertible/coupe and separate the front bumper from the headlight bezels.

Tamiya rattle cans will do this, sometimes worse, if you shoot too close to the surface in too wet of a coat. Those tiny pinholes are likely trapped solvent bubbles that appeared after sanding.

To add to this, the tape impression is due most likely to having trapped solvents that have not fully dried out, especially if a quality masking tape was used, and hardware store tapes meant for home improvement work don't count, there are far better masking tapes out there for your models, like Tamiya's or yellow Frogtape for delicate surfaces which can be bought from big box stores like Home Depot. Thinking one will save a few bucks by using cheaper masking materials isn't worth it if you have to strip/repaint, often repeatedly, the same can be said for the paints themselves. I see builders all the time comment about tape residue when the fact is there was no residue left behind, but impressions of the tape's texture from uncured paint that was masked. I learned this on my own the hard way, now it never happens anymore, and I do a lot of masking. I also learned to not leave tape on any longer than necessary, trying to remove masking tape before the accent color itself has cured, often within 10 minutes or so after shooting the accent color. Also, don't put masked parts into a dehydrator, unmask the part before using the dehydrator. Using quality hobby lacquers is cost-effective due to quick drying/curing times, so there's less chance of masked areas getting damaged from uncured solvents below the surface. Patience is key, let stuff dry the appropriate amount of time before masking. Current project (ZoomOn Toyota bB OpenDeck), a lot of masking was involved, including multiple steps on the body for the main color, roof color, gloss black areas and matte black areas. It would have been a mess if I had tried brush painting the gloss & matte black areas...

That's a 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series. A completely different car than a 2011 Mercedes-AMG SLS.

I was looking at it w/another builder, he commented how cool it was because it's a radical body but done tastefully with the more understated silver color. Very cool model!

When we first offered early bird passes it was intended for people to get an early crack at vendors like they used to do at the Toledo NNL's. What happened almost immediately was that builders were buying the vast majority of passes because table space gets tight very quickly. Not sure if we ever surveyed buyers of the passes if they were paying the premium for vendor access, early access to show tables, or perhaps both. Last year we moved to a larger venue, we wondered if people would pass on the early bird deal because of more table space. Nope! Even with the major move our show grew instantly to fill up the new/bigger/better venue! Good problem to have...we have a blast putting on the show and it's quite rewarding to see how everyone has so much fun for the weekend.

You might try Atlantis, we were able to get a bunch of bagged 1/32 drag racers, not sure if they are still available. You'll get nothing from Revell or Round2 these days. ACME has done some huge make & take events at our local Savoy Auto Museum over the past year, hundreds of kids and models. We will likely have to cut back as the manufacturers have proven to be completely disinterested in these programs; even if you could get kits at wholesale prices they are not cheap. Maybe you can try to convince an online retailer to sell at a bigger discount for a bulk order.

Saturday January 4th. It will be the final NNL West. Sadly it's too close to other holiday travel for me, I've only been once and it was a fantastic show. NNL West 2025

I believe we'll have name tags where you register and around the hotel lobby where people will be hanging out on Friday evening. We'll be pre-registering in person on Friday at the venue next door to hotel at 4:30 PM.

If nothing else, there will be two of us next Saturday rattling his cage about these decals!

Nice job. I did mine in black w/red interior. Round2's decal vendor has been cutting corners and it's been a problem, they send proofs out with the proper base print layer of white but production runs were altered to not have white behind any of the emblems so they'll show up on any body color other than maybe white or silver. I've been told to call customer service because they've been getting replacements along the way that are corrected. Same issue I had w/my '65 & '68 GTO's, but it was far more obvious on my black '64 Chevelle.

Same here. He must have been using some sort of clear that yellowed over time, they looked perfect when first done but over the years they've yellowed some, especially in recessed areas where the clear is thicker. This was a second order, the first order never yellowed.

Awesome, I just called my friend and we'll be talking to STS next Friday/Saturday at the show. I can imagine doing custom work his timeline will keep getting stretched, he does really nice work. I've bought a bunch of their hang-tag decal sets at a couple of shows including ours last year.

I plan to be there ? Looking forward to seeing you!

Very cool build! I have a friend locally who is building one of these as well, he emailed me earlier this week asking if I had any idea about decals as he hasn't been able to source any and needs some to be custom-made. You mentioned getting custom decals, any information would be helpful, I already told him about STS Scale Model decals who will be vending at our ACME show next weekend. One of our 2025 themes next year is drag racing.

Do you know if the static display was one of the 3 actual running race cars or perhaps the Mazda static display 1:1 car used for promotional purposes? I guess 10 years ago it was either the running race car that's in Mazda's west coast collection, or the static display car (never had an engine, just a roller w/partial interior, a seat and steering rack, tube chassis). The static display car is at Downing Atlanta and the wind tunnel model I'm working on will be decorated like the static display car. The running 792P is likely going to a collector in Japan, but he'll donate it to the Mazda museum in Japan. He bought the Gatorade RX3 that Jim had and restored, I helped get some photos of it for Mike Quarterman who did a run of decals for it, I have two sets for future builds. One might go to Jim. 1:1 static model used for 1992 promotional materials. In the poster in a photo below this is this actual car. As the model sat in Jim's front-room-of-shop museum: After I got the body off the wind tunnel chassis, displayed with my poster that's been on the wall in two different houses. It's a full size poster, so that gives an idea of the size of the 1/4 scale model (body is fiberglass w/white gelcoat).

I have not been too close to it when it's running, the techs that work on it/around it wear ear protectors. I can say from the body shop (next room over from the main races shop) you can feel the car running at idle. When they rev it out it sounds absolutely wicked. There is a Mazdaspeed wizard that's been to the shop and has upgraded the electronics on it so it runs better than when the cars were campaigned originally, plus the electronics are much smaller/lighter. The other running 792 with Mazda corporate in CA also has those upgrades. I might be able to share the video I took while the 792 was running while I was in the body shop working on the models.

It could so easily become a drinking game ? I actually would be interested in this kit, especially in the Mazda white/blue color scheme that finished 8th. I'm currently restoring two 1/4 scale wind tunnel models for Jim Downing in his shop nearby, the '89 RX7 GTO that he drove, and the RX-792P that he has two 1:1 examples in the shop. One of the 792's is a running back up car assembled from parts (and is for sale w/a likely buyer from Japan) and the other is the rolling full-scale model that was used for auto shows and promotional materials, that one is 100% owned by Jim and he's keeping that, and the wind tunnel model will be decorated like it, and the RX7 will be decorated as well (it's in primer, the 792 was white gelcoat, never more than wind-tunnel workhorses). He also has (in the same orange/green color scheme as the 787B LeMans winner) the class-winning open cockpit 3-rotor LMP2 Kudzu he drove at LeMans in '96. I'm like a kid in a candy store every day I'm over there working ?

Knowing the history of their release schedule, I wonder if it'll be the 40th or 50th anniversary of the LeMans win when it's available? ??

Mike, as long as you understand your last line in your reply "More non-sense Thanks Google" was sarcastic and not needed to make your point about an inferior and outdated (and now defunct) paint line that was a labeling bait-and-switch vs. an actual quality product. I sadly have seen too many examples of builders burned by this stuff, and IIRC there was nothing on the jars to inform what type of paint it was, nor any instructions how to use it. This is what happens when marketing makes the rules vs. product engineers who understand the end users. The HOK paints I got from LMG and Black Gold back in the day were awesome when thinned with Mr. Hobby lacquer thinners, from metallics to candy colors. I still have a good bit of it. Anyone who thought the Walmart stuff was like LMG or Black Gold or ordering direct from HOK or airbrush suppliers and having actually sprayed it were in for a rude surprise, as seen above.

Told my buddy who has a Stevens account about it, he called his sales rep who confirmed it and they added it to their pre-order list at $47 retail. Looking forward to seeing more from the hobby show and Tamiya's own website.

So Mr. Google Expert, what have you done today to help other modelers? Forums everywhere were awash with horror stories like the OP's back when these paints were suddenly available at every Walmart. Most who used it reported problems, some from my own club, we all saw the results. It didn't act like any "normal" hobby paint, regardless of whether it was enamel or not. It probably ruined more builder's paint jobs than helped them get a better finish. I think one of my fellow club members actually got a decent paint job out of it. Instead of being a superior product as the brand name would allude to, it was a cheap paint sold at Walmart and even cheaper when on closeout. And as the OP has shown, 20 years later, this stuff helped ruin his project. A ton of this stuff was given away for free at our various club meetings. I've been preaching a lot lately about how awesome Tamiya's line of LP paints are for airbrushing. It mixes well, it sprays well, it dries fast, it polishes beautifully, and the jars are relatively inexpensive. They have a transparent orange that would have worked amazingly well on the OP's model. They have a nice variety of metallic finishes that can be used as a base for a candy color. They also mix well w/some of the aftermarket automotive colors from Splash and Gravity from my own experience. I'm surprised how many builders skip testing paints and colors before diving straight into painting a body. Candy colors require some practice.

Those were not real HOK paints and back in the day there was a lot of this nonsense going on with these products. I'd bought a few, saw other's results, threw it away. Sorry you had to learn about this the hard way.

ZoomOn doesn't offer just the short nose conversion. Hasegawa has had several variants of the short nose without spoiler. I think someone said that it fits the Tamiya kit well, but I don't know for sure. I have built the Hasegawa 240Z, the US LHD variant. It's curbside only.

They're a small 3 man collective operation of well-known people in the hobby. Currently they are moving two doors down from their current shop to even larger digs. I'll let them speak for themselves, I know they really only communicate on their FB page, but you can always try calling them. I've been to the shop twice and have always come out happy despite the thinner wallet and have known Jack Higgins for decades and we chatted for two hours while I was visiting on Dec. 23rd last year. I've seen the resin and printed kits they're offering, quite impressive. The Fury models are especially nice, beautiful castings. It takes time to build a business and do it properly and learn along the way. I'm visiting Ohio again next month and am going to be sharing vendor space w/them at their local swap meet on Sept. 14th and after that I'll be visiting the shop in the afternoon unless I have time to drop in Friday afternoon if I get to Dayton in time. My wallet will take a hit but I'm looking forward to it ? Check out TimKustom's visit to Atomic City last September: