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You either find them on the internet, illustrate them yourself, or get someone to do the illustrations. There's no "magic pill" simple solution unless you can find those kind of line drawings of the particular cars you are interested on the 'net.

Hard to say. I would bet it won't lower their prices, but their sales will fall off a cliff. Honestly, they've been available for so long I doubt they sell in any serious numbers anymore regardless. I would think most people that had to have them already got theirs. The Gunze kit was overpriced when it was new and even though "high tech" it was weirdly over complex in some areas, but under-detailed in others. If the Academy kit comes in with the Revell-like detail, and they do it right, and they sell it at the expected $30 pricepoint that was mentioned, I'd say it's game over for the expensive resin kits. Then the aftermarket can offer detail-up kits for the Academy kit. Of course this all is just hot air until the Academy kit is on the streets, and then it has to prove its mettle with the buying public.

It's got more in it than alcohol, definitely not the same. If you airbrush the acrylics often, if you can find the Tamiya lacquer thinner, you will probably prefer it. Or Gunze Mr. Color Thinner...both are actually perfect for mixing with the aqueous acrylics and make them flow out of the airbrush like "normal" paint. Someone told me they had heard a Tamiya rep say that the lacquer thinner was developed not as an aid to people who decant their spray cans, but as a product that allowed their acrylics to flow more like lacquer or enamels. From my experience, that is exactly what it does. And it works very well with the decanted sprays (Tamiya and Testors lacquers) too. All I use the X20 thinner anymore for is making paint washes. For airbrushing I use Mr. Color thinner or Tamiya lacquer thinner... My local Hobbytown has the Tamiya lacquer thinner, and I see Mr. Color thinner at a lot of better hobby shops, both are available easily online. They seem identical...though you can get Mr. Color thinner w/a retarder as well, called "Mr. Leveling Thinner", which I believe would be best if you are shooting glossy acrylics. And sometimes in a pinch, regular store-grade lacquer thinner or acetone may work with the Tamiya acrylics as well...I've tried it, sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. A quick test in a cup will tell you. I have no problem at all cleaning my airbrush of Tamiya acrylic w/lacquer thinner or acetone.

I completely understand how you feel, especially in terms of that company and that model. It's still very disappointing to remember them telling us, to our faces, a whole bunch of fictional tales... Add to that the myriad of other subjects "run up the flagpole" by marketing long before engineering lifts a finger, well...I completely understand why you don't trust any of them. My excitement is always tempered by the realization that a lot of kits announced never hit the shelves for a variety of reasons.

I recently was in contact with Ed Sexton, I asked about the Cobra Daytona and he says the model is in good hands with the Academy team and the model is still in the design stage. As mentioned previously, the basic theme is essentially a Revell-like model in design/detail at a competitive price. Sounds good to me; hope to see it sometime next year.

When I see a model with something that I don't like, whatever it may be, from subject matter through a lack of craftsmanship, I just keep my trap shut

This one was painfully easy without the "help" or any need to research after pulling the trigger to vote

Clear your cache and cookies and try it again. The website works. Here is a site to use if you ever wonder if a website is working or not: Down or Not? Results for Time Machine Seems to be working most of the time at least...

We've come full circle. Just a black version of the silver car that starts this thread...I like the wheels better and black hides the poor character line that goes around the middle and not every one of their CG's has the third brake light... And IMHO there will never be a C6 Corvette retro that comes close to the original C2 nor the C6 it's based upon. Subjective...subjective...

My favorite Corvettes are 63-67. I love the C6 exterior. Low-rent interior design, materials and lousy seats are what kills the car for many serious enthusiasts. GM's finally seen the light, but the Corvette won't get a real interior until the C7. To me the C5 was the boring/plain/innocuous generation w/flabby overhangs, really cruddy interior, and styling cribbed from a 4 year old RX7. The C6 is what the C5 should have been all along. We're a generation behind, and the C6 is too familiar now to make people take a second look...it sure wasn't back in '04 when they first hit. I doubt the C7 will get a wrapper so "new" that you won't instantly think it's a Corvette. No matter how wild a car looks, the more often you see them on the road, the more watered down it looks. If Lamborghini and Ferrari produced their cars in the same quantities, familiarity would make more people apathetic about their styling. Corvettes shouldn't have to go 10-15 years before a new generation and a new look. I think it should remain an aspirational purchase; chopping $20K off the sticker would make it too common and not special enough. There is still cachet to the name, the C6 has the looks on the outside and the performance, but it's spoiled by a driver's compartment only suitable for a sub-$20K car.

It will be fine if they don't smack it over the head with the rickety old retro crutch I have complete faith the C7 will be a nice step up from the C6, and hopefully just as timeless/perfect in it's own skin. Thankfully Corvettes are a "push the styling envelope" kind of car.

AMEN! I'm going to be so sick and tired of '67/'68 Mustangs (and they were my favorite vintage Mustangs) after Ford milks the current style until 2015. Ten years of milking a 2 year design IMHO the 2010 2011 (gotta have that 5.0) should have been issued in '05, and we should have gotten an all-new look for 2010. The C6 Corvette design is timeless and perfect, aside from the low-rent interior. It looks like a Corvette without relying on the retro crutch. Much the same way a new Porsche looks new, but honors it's heritage. It thoroughly decimated the doughy-looking C5 that was so late to market it was like a '93 RX7 in looks brought out 6 years too late. There has yet to be any retro 'Vette C5/C6 that makes any improvement; they all have some compromise that is embarrassing IMHO. The C5 53 was cool for about 5 minutes, and now when I see one it looks laughable, a complete cartoon of a car. I bought the model, now I'm embarrassed by the fact I have it One reason I like the current Camaro so much is because it's not really retro. That bothers those "rearward" thinkers that believe it has to look *just* like the old car, which is just a lazy styling crutch for people who unfortunately for some reason lost any spark of looking to the future. Back in the '60's people had to have the latest and greatest. They didn't want a retro rehash from the '20's; that would have been seen as ridiculous. In the '70's all those nasty neo-classics that (poorly) mixed modern with "classic"...that was the '70's version of retro and thankfully it didn't last. I hated the Challenger when it was shown in concept form. I have to admit they're kind of cool on the street, but I still don't like the huge slab sides. But it serves a purpose, a full-size RWD V8 American coupe, comfortable for four adults, something that was abandoned years ago. To me, retro means "one hit wonder". I look forward to when the fad is over. I know that my opinion of it is not popular amongst a huge percentage of model car builders. I can live with that The car designers famous for retro have all moved on...

This is my first chance online to use the word "gobsmacked"

Le Barf:

If I'm wrong, I give up

Thanks! Stance is just how Monogram intended. After I finally got the radiator to fit together properly. Which was entirely my issue, not theirs

CRS is a wonderful thing You have better memory than I do. I did fix it. The only photo I have of the fix, though, is in the original form that I showed this model, aka "Donk for a day" for the B'ham NNL a few years ago. For some reason all the stock photos show the wrong A pillar chrome. Oh well...at least it's correct now

Thanks! Once I tried some of those Revell stripe decals, just as a test. They didn't go anywhere they were supposed to. These are painted. I wanted reasonably authentic taper to them front to rear, and no issues w/conforming over corners/edges. I'd rather mask/paint than deal with cantankerous decals. Here is the shot of the masking; I used BMF for the thin separation line down the center, Tamiya & Shuretape Gold for the rest, and even cut out round masks for where the roundels go:

I tend to agree. Give it better bumpers and widen the track so it looks like it's not perched on a compact car chassis...

This is one some of you love. I think it's disgusting. And it's even worse in person. Front/rear...okay. Sides...retch city. Proportions are awful.

Yep. Thanks. It's the regular Revell "Streetburner" issue, they're basically the same. The Revell AG version may have different decals. For Harry: Paint and weathering issue? I don't see any weathering. Must be the paint part??? Ya think?

Thanks! If you look at my original post, I mention what it's painted with . TS-58 Pearl Light Blue, decanted and shot through the airbrush. It's a great color, my photos make it look slightly more blue, in person it's a bit more silvery. I almost painted the Aston I'm working on in the same color, but another friend wanted to paint his like that so I decided to change the color a bit for mine. One of my friends locally has owned a real Cobra 289 since '75, CSX 2499, and had it restored about 15 years ago (it had a fiberglass body when he bought it, one of 3 that were converted in '69 for some reason, he had a new aluminum body made for it when restored), I've ridden in it a few times. It's a beast! It's light blue but has a bit of green in it, color is called "Princess Blue", and it has a red leather interior. I can't imagine how the 427 drives by comparison. The 289 is more than fast enough for the size it is! I've heard that about 40% of new Cobra kit cars are crashed in the first year by their owners. As with all lethal snakes, tread lightly Here he is at the GMP open house back in May:

Thanks! What did I mess up on the A-pillar? I looked at photos of real cars, so I think it's close... Seats were sprayed w/semigloss clear so they'd look like that very fine vinyl from GM. I remember it well in my Aunt's '73 Impala... Thanks! I'm pretty sure it's Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green, overcoated w/decanted Tamiya Semigloss Clear lacquer spray to make it look like vinyl.

Here is Revell's venerable Shelby Cobra 427 S/C kit that I built this past spring for a special paint and weathering issue of Fine Scale Modeler. This was built mostly OOB from the current issue, aside from Detail Master racing harnesses and a prewired distributor. Paint is Tamiya Pearl Light Blue, decanted and airbrushed, and I also masked/painted the stripes. Great model to work with, just a few issues fitting the radiator, more my fault than any other. For a kit that is a couple decades old, it still results in a very nice finished model. I have one painted in raw aluminum, but I have yet to have success w/the "polished" stripes, so it's still unfinished. This one at least got me my first finished Cobra 427. There's a local kit car Cobra in almost exactly this same color.

Looks neat! Is the chassis loose? The first couple of shots the reflections make it almost look like it's finished with Alclad or Spaz Stix chrome.