Italian Supercars by mail! Oddballs OOB!

[Faust]

There’s a certain kind of good feeling that comes from knowing that people enjoy what you do. For me, I get that when people comment on my builds or articles and appreciate the work I put into them. However, once in a while, some people go the extra mile. They recognize the weird and wonderful that make me and the Sprue Lagoon tick, and out of the kindness of their hearts send me kits that they think will make for good review material and additions to my eclectic stash.

One such event happened very recently, when I received some emails from a fan in Texas who clearly understood my brand of oddness. To fuel the styrene insanity, this fellow sent me a box of some of the weirdest car kits I’ve seen, of subjects I’d largely not even heard of. Were they up my alley? Heck yeah!

Check out this in-the-mail infusion of mostly Italian style and engineering, and some of the strangest, most “borrowed” kits I’ve run across yet. Even if supercars aren’t your thing, you’ll love this, trust me!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/may-2023-italian-supercar-score/

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Very, very rare kits. That Ferrari F 1 car is going to be killer! 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

The other cars are almost show cars. 

[bisc63]

Christmas in the summer!

[TonyK]

Yes, there are some oddballs but the Villeneuve kit is a huge bonus.

[Phildaupho]

I am looking really forward especially to your builds of the Lamborghinis and Maserati 

[Rob Hall]

I remember seeing those US Airfix kits in various stores as a kid around 1980.  Never got any of them, though.  

[peteski]

Interesting how closely the Maserati Boomerang resembles Lamborhini Marzal (just more angular).  I got curious and found some info about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maserati_Boomerang

It actually looks pretty darn slick (and those are weird looking wheels - very '70s SciFi look)!  I like it even better than the Marzal.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I have the Boomerang kit, and it bears as much similarity in line and proportion to the real one as these two do to each other.

I suspect the rest of the Airfix kits are just as bad. Cool kits to have anyway, but if you want reasonable representations of reality...

Sorry to rain on your parade, but all is not lost.

I have a link somewhere showing how a very skilled builder corrected the Boomerang body to actually look like the real car...and it's not insanely difficult.

If you're interested, I'll dig it up and post it here.  

The Silhouette and the Jalpa are really the same car with a few styling differences, mostly. Correcting the Airfix Silhouette should be similar in concept to doing the Maser, as the hard-edge styling is relatively easy to modify.

And good luck on the Lambobeemew.  ? 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[89AKurt]

What fun!   I built the Lamborghini Silhouette by (Gunze - Sangyo) Testors, it requires a bunch of work to look half decent.  I got the Boomerang kit via eBay a few years ago, still wrapped, I know it's lousy kit.  That "Lamborghini" looks like the BMW M1, which I have the ERTL/ESCI kit of.  So of course I think that was a great gift.

[Spottedlaurel]

Very kind of your benefactor!

The only other US Airfix kit I know is the racing version of the 280ZX. Scalemates suggests it's ex-Gunze Sangyo.

I had one a few years ago but sold it on - it wasn't particularly inspiring....

There's a little bit about one of them here:

How much of a link is there with the British Airfix company? Here they offered rebranded MPC kits under their own name as well those they'd developed themselves.