Zoom Zoom

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:

They're a lot better than using foil and you can apply Tamiya flat black acrylic to the front/rear pieces and wipe off the excess to expose the inlayed chrome trim effect with relative ease. A panel line wash will give the right depth to the side pieces. I've seen examples built (including this kit for review) and it's a brilliant solution. I can't wait to start my build of this kit; I had already gotten the ZG kit previously and ZoomOn's short-nose street custom conversion for it. I might build them side-by-side. These Tamiya Z car kits are amazing. A good friend of mine - John Zweber - built the ZG as a mild street custom and displayed it at our ACME NNL last year, it was one of my personal favorites at the show and we had about 950 models on display.

Oh wow, that's unfortunate to say the least! I'll reach out to customer service. Thanks for replying. Other than the decal issue the cloned Craftsman kits I've built have been really great kits to work with.

Thanks man, I appreciate it! You're already building circles around me LOL. The GTO is painted Splash Paints Chevy Evening Orchid which is called Iris Mist on Pontiacs. I clear all my models w/Tamiya LP9 clear. Before full clear I mix LP9 clear with the Splash color, they mix just fine. The windshield tint is getting easier as I keep on building each successive model, it's a mix of Tamiya LP colors (transparent blue, orange and clear) for the base tint and to that I add pure blue and black LP for the darker tint strip, followed by LP9 clear. I have three airbrushes set up and ready to go when I do all that; one for color/tint, the other for clear, and a fine line one for doing the tint strip. The black Malibu I cut off the vent windows to make tint strip easier, and cut clear plastic sheet to make new vent windows. In the past year I learned how to get that tint to work (it goes on so smooth and dries fast), and now I'm learning as I go on making antennas. My next new thing to try is lighting, I think I'll get a couple of ZoomOn lighting kits and see what I can do with that.

I've long ago stopped trying to figure out issues like this with Revell. It's always "something" with them, it seems. I do think the decals for US-boxed issues are printed at a different facility than their Euro-boxed models. IIRC Revell USA only has two full-time employees. I'll be getting one of the US-boxed C8's one of these days. I've built 4 different AMT Craftsman kits in the past 16-18 mos. Great kits in general for cloned curbsides, they go together amazingly well. The decals however...what a disappointment. They give you multiple sets of exterior emblems/markings, the artwork is very well done. BUT...they don't bother to print a white or silver base layer underneath most of the emblems, unless said emblem has white as a part of the graphic. So if you've painted your model in any color other than white, silver, or pale yellow, they disappear when applied. It makes no sense whatsoever, unless I suppose to a bean-counter. I recently finished Revell's US boxed 007 Mach I; the Autolite decal for the battery has no white base under the red lettering, so it disappears applied to a black battery. The "OK" markings for the cylinder heads had no clear carrier film! Even though every number for every decal has the carrier film. Otherwise that entire sheet of decals was excellent; the ones mentioned will likely get updated for a second production run at some point. I understand that there might be slight issues with a first-run kit. But AMT seems like it is willfully cutting a step out of their emblem decals. It's like they think nobody will actually build the model, just collect it and look at the sheet but won't actually use the decals. At least this is the case on their '68 GTO, '65 GTO, and '65 Malibu SS all of which I have built, and I've built two of the '68 GTO's. Same issue in all of them over the last couple years. I'm glad the next two builds I will tackle are Tamiya kits ?

When I was packing up your Dad was near the black LX, we spoke for a bit as it had drawn me in because it was black like my former 1:1 and the Cobra R wheels were perfect on it, he is quite proud of your achievements. I won a first in curbside with my Iris Mist '65 GTO. I think that was the only award in that category, I had 4 models in curbside and I think I may have been the only one with models in that category. I thought my newly finished black '64 Malibu SS or my blue '68 GTO might have done better than the '65 GTO, would have been fun to find out what the judging team thought Doesn't really matter, I had fun building all of them. I had two in replica stock where you dominated, my two were the silver '72 Skyline GTR and the light pewter '71 Mach 1 that I forgot to take the hood off to show off the engine, but let's be honest...it was just OOB underhood and your models were just amazing with the underhood detailing. I kind of wish Andy had parked the '33 Ford PU next to the Cybertruck ? BTW we have a 60th anniversary Mustang theme for the ACME show on October 26th in Cartersville, GA. Hope you can make it, we have a blast putting on the show especially w/our new and much larger venue than before. We did have a bunch of flyers in Huntsville to promote it.

Congrats, didn't get to meet you on Saturday at the show but I was blown away by the models. I bought a brand-new black/gray interior LX 5.0 manual in March of '88. Your '82 was incredible as well as the Demon. Everyone was talking about the working dipstick on the '82 LOL. BTW I found out my friend Andy had that black '33 Ford PU out in the parking lot, he gave me a ride in it, that thing is awesome!

They look like bias ply tires that just have the BFG sidewall lettering.

Yes, it seems Fotki got fixed and has been flawless for me since last weekend.

It's been running very slowly for me lately (at least the last month), at least to access the site itself. Once I was in it speeded up so it was fast to open/share/upload photos. This AM it's like a whole new site, blazing fast, for the first time in recent memory. Maybe they had similar issues this site has had.

That's unfortunate! I wondered if the accelerated build and using enamel paint would work out, especially on this one since it requires a massive amount of masking. A group of my friends get together occasionally for 24 hour builds or weekend builds, we've discussed these Tamiya Porsche kits (Turbo & 934) and we've joked about how they seem like great subjects for such builds and the comment has been made several times that these are "The 24 Hours of Masking & Unmasking" projects. Everything else is a breeze by comparison. Lacquers & dehydrators are almost mandatory.

Nice work! Good thing you have a dehydrator since you'll be doing all that masking.

Good luck with the build! It's a good kit for such a build, though when I built mine I masked all the black rubber and trim places on the body so I could airbrush it (hand painting requires steadier hands than mine), that was the worst element of building this kit.

Nothing identical whatsoever. The Tamiya kit is curbside only, based on an earlier snap kit of a 911 Speedster. Revell's latest 911 kit is a narrow-body G50 non-Turbo, full detail and really nice, the tires being the only real negative. Tamiya, Monogram, and Fujimi have made 1/24th 911 wide body Turbo kits. Fujimi's are either Enthusiast kits with full detail, or curbside. Monogram's is full detail. All should be close enough to work w/3D printed bodywork which itself is a lot of fitment work regardless of the body you start with. You have lots of options.

When's the last time you physically saw a bottle on a shelf for sale? It was discontinued in January of 2022.