Zoom Zoom

Until it's dry.

It must have been a California. 458's won't be for sale here until sometime in June or July, and they've only been on sale in Europe for 2 or 3 months now. The few that are in the US were for specific shows or races; there's a red one making the dealership rounds now for special events, had one here for about a day and a half. The demo arrives late in June.

Pictures at Hobby Search show a very simplified kit...no window masks, interior tub w/integral side panels and seat bottoms. That's pretty lame Photos of the finished model look quite good, but over-simplifying very visible components like the interior tub, that's a step backwards. Hope Revell blows it away with theirs, at least in detail.

Recently decided to try Hobby Search; a Japanese online resource similar to Hobbylink but they have a better reputation for shipping faster (Hobbylink, at least in the past, would sit on an order up to a week before shipping, even when everything was in stock) and they've had a discount all along, and a 20% off discount recently to celebrate their new Paypal ability. Got notice this evening that it's in stock and ready to ship! Can't wait to see it in person...probably will get to see the real car late in June at the local dealership.

I almost never prime engines unless the plastic is not white and is painted in a light color; depending on the paint you are shooting it should cover fairly well. Testors lacquers are especially pigment-rich, and should cover nicely. What color are you painting? What paint are you using?

Got the Revell '66 Impala last night. Despite my reservations about body details/proportions that were in the photos, it really looks nice in person. I noticed the same thing w/the Nova; the little issues that weren't exactly like the real car or photos of the real vehicle really seem to disappear in person. Some may be beside themselves w/venom, I find myself pleasantly surprised. The one thing on the body I will try to rectify are the drip rails over the driver/passenger; they bow outwards slightly and can be easily fixed w/some block sanding and half round. Got notice tonight from Hobby Search that my preordered Fujimi Ferrari 458 Italia is in stock and ready to ship! YES!

You don't need an Alps for the roundels; print the numbers on white decal film using a standard laser printer (or even a copier), then trim. All anyone would really need is a crisp image of the font, or the font itself. Make plenty of them, and use the best two that you trim out. If you have clear decal film only you can print just the black numbers, layer them "Fred Cady style" over a white roundel that you might be able to trim out of parts-box white decals or plain roundels. BTW, sweet model

I've never heard of any so far, but I've heard that this kit is going to be reissued with Cartograf decals soon, so perhaps there will be detail sets forthcoming.

You are correct, there is a giant, gaping hole in the aftermarket for these kinds of tires. Forget Satco. Long gone, doubt they offered the vintage tires. Monogram TRX's don't seem to be what you are looking for, they're too modern and they're an odd size. Gunze Ferrari tires? Not even close. The ones in my 250 GTO don't have any tread and are too skinny. The tires in the Aoshima MGB's are decent radial skinnies; the skinny Michelins that you show at the bottom are done pretty nicely by Fujimi in their Enthusiast Series Porsche 356's. There's a fairly decent set of vintage radials in Fujimi's 250 GTO (incorrect for the GTO but nice nonetheless). The bigs 'n littles in the Hasegawa Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa look good, no sidewall lettering but they look authentic. Revell's standard PT Cruiser (not the convertible) had some pretty decent skinny radials, they're generic but would not be out of place on a vintage model. Ditto with Motormax/Fresh Cherries Gremlin; it comes with some vintage skinny radials that are decent enough. Sadly none of these are offered by the aftermarket. You'll either be scrounging for them in trades, digging for them at shows, or buying a few kits and perhaps casting extras for yourself.

I do believe you have solved it! The piece fits quite snugly, unlike a similar filler in the same basic spot used on Fujimi's Ferrari F355 coupes.

I was hoping that was the case, but it definitely required block sanding to level out, it's not a tiny web of material but just enough of a slight mismatch of the top/sides of the mold. It's easy to blocksand and no filler is required on this part of the body. I did use a little filler at the top edge of the trunklid where a small filler piece is added between the taillight panel and the edge of the spoiler. That one seems odd to me, haven't figured out why that ended up a separate part. If I study it long enough it might make sense...or I could build something else and not worry over it. Squish it in w/enough liquid cement and you'll probably not need any filler, it's a fairly tight fit.

Nope. Look where the fuel door is, it is molded on an upper horizontal surface, not a vertical side surface. Whether they engraved a line around it (as was done) or left it as a hole to receive a separate part, or recessed the area to accept a separate part, it would still create the exact same problem. The fuel door being on an upper surface is the reason the mold is split in the fashion we see, it has to be part of the upper part of the mold moves vertically, not the side parts that move horizontally. Looks to me like Tamiya did the best they could with this detail. I guess they could have made the mold asymmetrical so that the other side of the model had a more natural mold line, but you'd still be block sanding the driver's side and you still have mold lines to remove regardless, so again I think Tamiya did the best they could.

Ditto. I too wondered why the prominent mold line that wasn't as cleverly hidden as usual. The photo shown here made me realize why. If they had split the tool along the edge of the C pillar and along the trunk lid line, as usual, the downside would have been that the fuel door engraving would be compromised, it would have had to be very faintly engraved for the tool to pull back out to the side. As with every kit, compromises must be made. Most people would find it easier to blocksand the mold lines (and they are easy to access with normal tools) than to re-engrave or scribe an elliptical fuel door without damaging the body.

You are correct, there are those kinds of people, and if it bothers anyone that much, they are perfectly within their rights not to buy it. We all have our limits to what is or is not acceptable, and we all make those decisions personally.

Buick? Surely you jest. I think it was Pep Boys Someone noticed them missing from the 99 cent bargain blowout rack.

Hobbylinc has it for $50.09, Model Roundup has it for $49.90. There are probably better deals yet. They're backordered at Stevens Int'l. I ordered a Fujimi 458 Italia for 20% off (3040 yen vs. 3800 yen) from Hobby Search, just about $33 and another $10 or so to ship. Should ship in a week or so.

If the Mazda3 is such a goofy face, then this: is clearly a face. Even I'd take the goofy face car.

Unless you give this model an IPMS-style magnified penlight enema, everything looks fine. Everything behind the mesh is black, you aren't meant to see anything there. The screw boss is only seen if you try too hard to see it. When the hood is off and you look down on the model from behind, you will see daylight through the area where the radiator & support would be. If you look at the engine normally, from the front, nothing seems awry.

The orange model in your first post is nothing like the Colt wagon shown in resin. Just because it's a Japanese 3 door wagon doesn't mean it's at all the same. I'm pretty sure the model you are looking for information on is based on the old Entex/Bandai 1/20 scale Mazda R100. I've only ever seen one of the R100 kits ever, I bought it and gave it to one of my best friends who was a rotary fanatic. He still has the builtup model. Needless to say, finding the R100 kit is never going to be easy, as they didn't sell too many back when they were available.

I quickly grew accustomed to those previously-horrid Acuras, to the point they now look pretty normal...mostly (the ZDX is just...awful). I prefer the beak to the goofball grin. This is a good example of something that at first was off-putting to me, but became normalized through more exposure. I doubt the Mazda3 will ever be able to get to that point with me...it's just too over-the-top goofy.

I wouldn't have to be seen in public driving a kit of it A kit would be far easier to customize that goofball grin right off of it. I love pug dogs, but I don't think the front end of a car should look like a pug that just found an unattended plateful of cookies

I'm a lifelong Mazda fan, and even I can't stomach what they've done w/the front of the Mazda3, no matter what particular model it is. Usually styling like this eventually becomes okay with me with familiarity, but the more I see these cars, the less I like them. I applaud them for trying, but I'd be embarrassed to drive a Mazda3 (or the Mazda5 that gets the goofball "Nagare" styling down the side this time, not just the idiotic "smile"). Often I like cars that polarize people on the subject of styling, but the Mazda3 just kills any enthusiasm I have for the car simply because the front end styling makes me gag.

Neither! I'm single! I've finished one DBS, my second will be here in a couple days, and later today I'm starting the SLR 722

Looks like neither Revell or Fujimi are doing the base wheels, which I think are more interesting than the optional 20's which are nice but not particularly unique. Here's a combo I'm digging: Just needs black wheels to match the black roof & sills. The other 458 I build will be monochromatic. I used Aston Martin's configurator for my DBS model, but their configurator is lame compared to Ferrari's.

Yep; Fujimi's is obviously a curbside, while ROG's will be full-detail (well, I assume so...all previous Ferraris from them have been). ROG's will also be less expensive. I'll definitely have both. Fujimi has a couple more shots on their new online store website: Fujimi's Online Store The model looks spot-on compared to all the photos of the 1:1 I've seen. Probably won't see a 1:1 until sometime in June when the local dealership gets their demo in.