Xanavi 350Z

[Scale-Master]

I used this as one of my subjects in the decal application demos I did at the last TamiyaCon. Been working on it finishing in my free time ever since. Great fitting kit. Decals fit really well too and match the Tamiya lacquers dead on...

[Mr. Can Am Garage]

Love it!

I've got the Skyline and I'm considering this one if I can ever get the Skyline finished. Too many projects and nout enough hours in the day.

[Scale-Master]

I have a Xanavi Skyline almost done, at least the body. The Z is a little easier to paint and decal. I highly recommend these kits. The fit and engineering are awesome... - Mark

[MonoPed]

Excellent work - very clean build!

[SoCalMark]

That looks ready to race. Another great one

[Wildrice]

Very nice Z. I like the colors. Is it a curbside kit?

[Mal.au]

Mark

That might just be the coolist model that I have seen, it looks so clean

I may not be worthy of being in the forum

[camaroman]

beautiful build!! Is it a Tamiya kit?

I'll answer my own question. Of course it is or it would not have been at TamiyaCon..( it pays to read and not just look at the pics) :oops: :roll: :wink:

[Scale-Master]

Thanks guys.

Yes, it is a curbside and with a die-cast chassis pan too. At first I wasn't sure about that, but since it is a curbside, it doesn't matter as long as you aren't modifying it. And it won't be warped as a plastic one could be prone to.

The fit of all the parts of this kit is incredible. Even the clear parts are engineered to take the risk of glue damage almost to zero... - Mark

[Zoom Zoom]

Gorgeous model-turned out really nice.

I have one to build plus I bought the extra detailing parts. However I'm at a crossroads w/the kit and Tamiya in general. I really wanted to build this same car. To enjoy the experience and get better acquainted with complex decals, and hopefully enjoy a similarly impressive result. But now I can simply buy the kit from them ready to go-for only a few bucks more than the already-expensive kit, I find myself angry with them for taking a project I really wanted to build and cheapening it by offering it via mass-production. At this point I have no desire to build the car; if it does get built it will be in a completely unique paint scheme. I realize I may always have had a lot more fun doing it that way in the first place, but sometimes I'm too hard-headed for my own good.

Tamiya just isn't the same anymore, and I miss that. Not only are they barely producing any new kits anymore, they're making the finished product available to anyone for what I consider fire-sale prices. How they can get that kind of quality of build/finish for that price is amazing. But by doing this the whole aura and passion that was once Tamiya is history. The reward of finishing one of their kits is now worth a whole lot less.

[Scale-Master]

You may want to still build it Bob.

If you have the finished one handy it can be an aid when it comes to decalling. This is the second one of these Zs I did. Having the first one on hand sped up the decal time almost two fold, even though it was year between the builds.

Also the kit parts fit like a dream. I can understand the redundancy factor, but the kit also comes with the PitWork version decals too so you can have a variant, granted it is very similar.

Just the building of it, assembling the pieces, was enjoyable to me.

I too have one more mostly done with a completely different paint scheme and personality. I know you will enjoy the parts regardless of the livery you choose... - Mark

[jbwelda]

very nice build but i guess i just dont get the remarks above. how would tamiya releasing a diecast prebuilt (i guess is what youre referring to) decrease the enjoyment of building the kit?

anyway...

nice build mark, makes me want to go out and buy one! and more important, build one!

[bjscustommodels]

Im droooling now. Awesome Build, Excellent Quality

[Zoom Zoom]

It's not a prebuilt diecast, it's the identical model you can buy and build. It's just been built for you. For $60 they are amazing.

From my perspective I value my investment in building a lot higher than Tamiya does. I'd rather have bought the preassembled model vs. spending my own limited free time building the exact same thing I can pay Tamiya an extra $20 to have it fully built for me. In this case Tamiya is making it worth my while NOT to build it! At the rate I build, it will take several lifetimes to finish what I already own. If I'm going to spend 10-30 hours on a kit like this I want something more unique than something identical that's spit off an assembly line. The whole phenomenon is making me realize that everything I build has to be unique; I'm even less likely to build anything OOB anymore because I desire to have something more unique.

And the comments are in no way meant to belittle what Mark has done; his model is amazing and I'm sure it's a good step above the one you can simply buy from Tamiya. It's just my own personal rant w/Tamiya; they're not making the models that I came to expect from them, and when I do buy one from them they go and make it easy for anyone to own one already finished.