JamesP

IMAI decals were never great even new.

Love these IMAI Macross kits. I’m slowly building my way through them.

Thanks, the build thread is available on another forum. A quick Google search should bring it up 😉

Cheers. The body is good old Hu Gloss Black.

I really liked this kit once I got into it. Initially, I was unsure if the body could be built and fitted as one piece - it can and it does. As with all these Matchbox cars the detail is superb and stands up well today. The short windscreen which leaves a large gap is, unfortunately, a significant issue but erasing and replacing a section of framing improves the look as well as the accuracy. You could go the other way and do a chopped roof hotrod. In fact, people did hotrod this car and the coupe could be described as a Gaellic '36 Ford. I believe this is also the only Matchbox car with alternate parts for those who can't, erm, face the windscreen the Cabriolet version can be done. Lots of photos as I believe you should photo cars at "eye" level as well as from above. Bonnet fade for @cmatthewbacon😉

Well now having watched the Hornby episode it's clear why the instructions are bad - you never let the engineer write the documentation! Whether it's coding or model kits it's a bad idea as they are always biased by their knowledge and experience - I know my docs are terrible!

The kit featured in the latest episode of Hornby: A Model World.

Really nice paint job. What size did you print it at?

MotoBitz who made the wheels also do silver number plate decals - not sure they do them in 1/43. Alternatively spray the plate silver and then print the black background as a decal when with number left clear.

Wonderful work all the way down to the texture of the tarmac. The figures, did you scan some willing friends?

Feels like this is a Frog Trail Blazer that never was.

Conversely the MB does have enough meat to allow it to be reshaped. Maybe you can pick up one up as a donor kit.

The stance definitely looks realistic

Beautifully finished David!

It’s interesting to see some of the oldest model manufacturing technology married with the very latest.

Same as the other advice, file rod against a board, also I suggest you hold the rod in a pin vice it makes life a lot easier

This is a crying shame as it was one of the largest events in the country after SMW and also covered a much needed area "up north". I can only hope traders are willing to commit in plenty of time if you try to relaunch the event next year.

Great result using the stock MB kit. I always love to see an RAF Rescue helo. I completed mine last year after ~30years and made a lot of small changes to get it the right configuration as well as additional detail. These aircraft changed a lot in aerial fit etc during their long service life so depending on how much effort you want to put in pick a small set of related references as your truth. The ModelDecal sheet #95 is highly recommended

Surely there must be a plugin for the forum that would just write this thread automatically for us?

Well at least the RAM tape doesn't look 2" thick like most other F-35 kits. Staring at the video I think the tape outline is actually engraved which would make it easy to mask off. I think this is an excellent move by Airfix who are listening to their main target audience - sorry guys that's not us.

Nice attention to detail.

I think everyone down to your wife’s second cousin must have chipped in to get to this mate 😄 Are you going to be building it OOB or adding some extra detail - though I doubt there is much missing.

Some superb work there Matt. Of course the 1/32 cars are my favourites.

... anyway the fact Airfix were ready to announce the 1/24 Spitfire at the Duxford event was completely serendipitous, they would have been working on it for well over a year at that point.

Built this with my daughter when it got re-released all is good especially the decal sheet, but the tires were missing the concentric groove into which those orange circles slot once painted white. This meant the tire were a very loose fit on the wheels and they needed wrapping with some thin card.