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Here’s my first build of 2022, a Mercedes G-Wagen. This is from the latest 2019 release by Italeri, but it’s the same old ESCI kit from the ‘80s. The box art doesn’t show the rear end of the truck, but this issue has the molded-in rear D pillar strobes from the Fire Brigade version, and barn doors instead of the single hatch. All of the parts are molded in black plastic, except for the body which is molded in white. I painted this kit in all Krylon, with “Brown Boots” satin brown over black primer for the body and cleared, with two coats of Pledge Floor Gloss on top of that. Interior is “Summer Wheat” matte and black primer. Wheels are Tamiya gloss aluminum, lightly sprayed over the bare black plastic. This kit builds up very nicely, similar in fit and construction to Japanese kits of the era. But unlike those Japanese kits, this one has some flash to deal with. Overall not bad, and is a fairly quick build with nice details. The decals are especially nice in this issue. I’m happy with how this one turned out!

After a l-o-n-g gestation period, finally finished the Esci Ferrari. Definitely not my best work but whilst 50% of that is down to my lack of skills, the other 50% is down to the poor quality of the kit itself. That said, if you want an 'affordable' 1:24 'Berlinetta' on your shelf as much as I did, then this is pretty much the only way to go unless you are lucky enough to stumble upon an Italeri or Gunze kit. Ok, enough yada, yada, yada on to the pics: Thanks for taking the time to look, criticise and/or comment. Not sure what my next car build will be, but the Revell 458 Italia is looking very, very tempting, but then so is the AMT/Ertl '67 Comet !! AFN Ian.

Day one: The usual box & contents shot - The Esci plastic dates back to the mid 1980's and is quite soft, massive mould seams running along the top of the wings, then along the roof gutters down the middle of the C-pillar across the top of the rear wings and through the middle of the tail-light bezels. What a PitA But not as much a pain as the integrally moulded bonnet that you need to cut from the body and that frankly awful thick lip on the bonnet scoop - that will be thinned right down. I built-up the engine & trans which sensibly goes together exactly the same way as a Revell or MPC car kit. Interior is multi-part as is the engine bay. I also assaulted the poor wee thing with a coat of Tamiya grey primer straight from the rattle-can ready for some serious seam-removal. More in a min... Ian.

Starting a new one. Something a little different. Old school Mercedes G-Wagen from ESCI. I really like these old ESCI kits for some reason. Unfortunately the EBay pricing is insane on most of these. But every now and then, you can find them for a steal. Which is what happened with this a couple of years ago! The kit itself was factory sealed. Upon opening, everything was there, as expected. The brown plastic seems to be a little more brittle than the black, as quite a few of the brown pieces had come off the sprues. No damage though. no warping or damage to the body or any other pieces. Decals haven't even yellowed yet, so we'll see how they work out.

Hello, welcome to my new gallery! It's my first finished model of 2015, the kit is a 1984 Ford Transit by Esci in 1:24. Quite rare, and nowadays very pricey. I was able to get mine from Kingkit in the UK for about 1/3rd of what they go for on Ebay, and though I had in mind how it should end up even before I had bought it, I had my doubts once I opened the box. But then, chances are slim that you'll see one of these on the next modelshow unlike a VW bus. I know of only five of these built, and this is the only one built like that. The kit itself is a curbside, the chassis detail is only very rudimentary, and if you'd intend to display the bottom, you'd have to do some serious scratchmods. The interior needs work, and the body is one of the best scale car bodies I have ever seen, and if you spent some time on details (the kit is 33 years old), you'd end up with a fairly correct, very rare model of a very popular* van. *These are still holding the record for the most popular getaway vehicles for bankjobs, no kidding. I decided to super detail the kit to a certain degree. Sometimes the changes were just cosmetic, sometimes, they were necessary. My changes are as follows: - added visible bolts to the chassis - chromed all surfaces under the turnsignals and rear lights - added 4 screws to each turnsignal - added screws and modified the grille - scratch built the lenses of the front lights - added lugs and valve stems to each wheel - scratch built mudflaps - scratch built the hubcaps - modified the doorhandles - added door buttons - drilled out the exhaust - added the seat piping - built the seat posts - built the rails for the drivers seat - sculpted the floor mats - modified the shifter - built the missing window posts - added screws to the numberpaltes - added headliner - added levers for light, turnsignals, and wipers - scratch built the wipers All in all I managed to add about 182 elements if I count correctly. Here's the link to the workshop section: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/99167-1984-ford-transit-by-esci/?page=1 This is the car I was using for reference: This is the interior during the construction... I built a fire extinguisher, a jerry can, a tool box, a clipboard with a pencil, a pack of cigarettes, and a bit of junk for the cab... The toolbox: And this is all of that with the van wrapped around it:

This retro-review covers ESCI's long out of production 1/24 scale Renault 5 Rally car. I love offbeat and unusual subjects and Renault's 5, known as the Le Car here in the states, hits both of those marks. It is only a quick shoot and post as I don't have a photo backdrop or decent lighting. I just thought there might be some others who enjoy weird little cars as much as I do. I actually have two of these kits, the Gitanes and the Calberson versions. For the purposes of this post, I am picturing the Calberson version as the only difference in the kits is the decal sheets and the colors the bodies are molded in. I bought these kits in Naples, Italy at the fleet-landing gift shop over twenty years ago and just came across them in storage last weekend at my Mother In Law's.(She Who Must Not Be Named) I also found an unbuilt ESCI Gelandewagen Paris-Dakar, which I plan to start as soon as I actually get room on the table, and a Volkswagen Golf Rally car, so all in all it was a good Thanksgiving for me! I seem to remember buying the ESCI Series 1 Ford Escort rally car, the Audi Quattro rally car and a Range Rover as well. Can you guess what subject I was into back then? Maybe I'll come across them someday. I don't have any history to relay on this kit, (maybe there are some ESCI experts out there?) but I'm pretty sure ESCI produced it in other variants as well. I seem to recall seeing a red and possibly a green one in US hobby shops back in the day.All ESCI kits I have seen are packaged in large format boxes about the size of the special edition kits AMT does. There is no printed production date on these two boxes, but the cool box art paintings are helpfully signed by the artists. The Gitane's artwork was done by someone named Giglioli in 1980, while the Calberson's artwork was done by R. Cappello in 1984. The body is very good proportionally, looking better than a lot of new-tool kits I have bought. All parts are crisply detailed, with very little flash and only faint parting lines. It should require little in the way of clean up. The Calberson kit's body parts are well molded in a bright yellow, the Gitanes car's body is in a blue close to Grabber blue. The body is molded in one piece except for the hood and rear hatch which are separate. The chassis, engine and interior bits are molded in black and are on one large sprue. The only real issue with this is that the sprue containing these parts is slightly too wide for the box, meaning the guy who packed the kits had to sort of bend it to get it in. Luckily it doesn't appear to have warped the parts themselves. The interior is platform style with decent detail on the separate side panels and dash. It includes two nice racing seats for the driver and navigator. The engine is pretty simple but should respond well to detailing. The way it is designed reminds me of AMT's Volkswagen Rabbit kit of the 70s. The wheels, roll-cage and rally lights are also black and are on a separate sprue. I really like these rally lights and may have to mold them so I can put some on other kits.The windows and all lenses are on a clear sprue. Of course this sprue was not wrapped, so the windshield is a bit scratched, but it should polish out.The taillights are molded on this sprue as well, so they will have to be painted transparent red. The tires are wide, low-profiles with only a faint pebbly finish on the tread. I didn't scale them out but they fit an AMT wheel, so I'm guessing 15 inch. They also have raised outline type lettering on both sides. One side has Goodyear, the other Dunlop. The tires are fitted to three-lug Campagnolo(?) mag-style rally wheels. The decals seem in very good shape for so old a kit I think they will still be usable. The ones on the Calberson car are printed by Cartograf and represent the car as raced at the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally, and the Gitane car's were by a company called "G.Decal, Italy" The sheets in both kits are nicely done and quite thorough. For the Calberson, the only thing not included is the red stripe around the bottom of the body which will have to be painted. I don't know where ESCI's molds ended up, but I would sure love to see some of their kits back on the shelves. This is my mini-review such as it is, the pictures are not great, but I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.