Paul H

Simple is fine, when as Tamiya have done here, the proportions etc are spot on. A pain to paint all the detail though!! You have done a lovely job of this, and the photography is stunning. I like the 3D printed wheels too - do you have any pics of them when straight out of the printer? I've been thinking of getting one of that model as I've read good things about it.

Revell announced a new VW T2 bay window bus a while back, and I just saw this link on another forum which gives pretty much full details of what to expect. It is marketed as an easy click kit, but based on what I can see in the link, it appears to be a step up compared to most of that range, and much closer to a full detail kit. Yes, the engine is abit basic, but so is the one on their split window bus regular kit! https://www.die-leitplanke.de/herzlich-willkommen/bausatz-neuheiten/revell-vw-t-bus-m-1-24/ I wasn't expecting to like it, but am now very tempted to get one, and paint it up to match the one I chauffeured for the wedding of friends a while back, as a present for them since she has always wanted one, hence their choice of wedding car. Just a pity that it is wrong hand drive only...

The Aston & the Maser are the highlights of this ex Aurora series - it's the Jaguar E Type FHC and Ferrari 250GTO which need to be avoided. I think that there was a recent build thread on here for the DB4. I must admit that I'm also looking for an Aston DB in this scale, but with the intention of making it into a Lagonda Rapide (I want to scratch build a Towns Lagonda too), so either the Aurora Monogram DB4, or the Doyusha / Airfix DB5 would do. If there is one that you are bidding on, send me a PM & I won't bid against you, as you seem to get them built far quicker than I do!!

Agreed - it's surprising the difference that a wash makes to chrome parts like those. It's always great to see kits like this being built, as they are so often overlooked simply due to them being old tooling. I'm following your progress on this with great interest, as I have two - one an original Aurora one that is still sealed in its cellophane (not sure if I should open that though!!) and also a Monogram release that I bought later on and have since started but not got far on. Mainly as I (still) cannot decide whether to build it as is, or correct the windscreen.

That front subframe looks really accurate and realistic - I hope I can get mine to look even half as good when I get around to working on it again...

Agree, and for pure racing cars, the regs are of no consequence, as long as the relevant race organisers are happy to accept them. Incidentally though, I am guessing that Bamford's 250GTO replica is probably a modified genuine '60s Ferrari 250 GT, and thus under different regs, especially if done pre 1997. That those Ferraris also had a separate chassis also helps, since then body modifications don't cause any identity issues in the eyes of the DVLA. They will still need to pass the appropriate local regulations if they are to be registered for the road. From what I understand, it will probably be possible in many states in the USA (provided that they allow the import in the first place - not sure what the USA's low volume import regs are), may be possible in Australia & New Zealand under their modified vehicle systems, but very difficult in mainland Europe. Apparently many hot rodders in mainland Europe have been getting highly modified cars registered under the UK's systems (which are actually quite easy for a hot rod to pass, provided that the rules & requirements are incorporated into the build from the start), and then using the UK registration documents to then get the vehicle registered in their own countries. Whilst the UK's regs are not as accomodating as the USA, they are far more ameniable to modifying than any of our immediate neighbours.

Haven't seen that, as I've not been able to go to any shops that sell a decent selection of old car mags* since the start of lockdown... but sounds interesting! I do know that once IVA is done, then the clock is reset as far as the 8 point rules regarding modifying are concerned, so guess that it is therefore possible to then undo most of the annoying stuff afterwards. However, even '60s stuff can struggle with IVA, but as you say, they stand a much greater chance of passing. Emmissions may still be an issue though, but on that topic, about ten years ago amusingly my 1967 Volvo was put through the emissions test during the MOT for some reason, despite cars of that age being visual smoke test only. I guess the tester was on autopilot. Not that it mattered, as it still passed the 1992 pre catalytic converter emission levels, despite the intergalactic mileage & the twin SUs being pretty worn. *Along with C&S, The Automobile is my other favourite old car read. Whilst I really should subscribe, I rarely get the time to actually read them

Indeed, and I've been wondering the same about many of these 'continuation' cars and also various low volume production upgraded classic cars. The DVLA can be painful enough when trying to reregister cars of this era which are genuine but not on the system due to having been in storage, courtesy of a certain old car club seemingly signing off brand new recreations as being the same age as the real thing, for registration purposes. As a result there is no way they will allow the former except via the appropriate low volume type approval (BIVA / IVA), which a car of this era simply will not pass for a multitude of reasons. In the case of the latter, the rules for maintaining vehicle identity when modifying (& thus avoiding the need for BIVA etc) are very clear, and have been in place since 1997.

It's an old tooling, but hasn't been released for some time - dates to the late '70s / early '80s. Heller moulded lots of this series in that way, especially the open cars, whereas the closed ones usually had a conventional one piece body. Whilst it does require care, the result is that the doors are far more scale thickness, and there is also interior detail moulded to the inside of the bodyshell. The Alfa-Romeo 1750 Zagato and Bentley 4 1/2 litre are done exactly the same way.

Many thanks for the info! There is clearly a lot to like about this new kit, based on the many pics, the instruction manual & also the video review in another thread. I am glad to see that Revell managed to resist some of their usual inaccuracies, such as a double thickness floor, however there are still a few areas of crudeness in some detail, in ways which seem to be Revell's usual modus operandi (e.g. how the top wishbones are moulded into the top of the subframe), and which are still rather odd given the high level of detail elsewhere. For example, Heller moulds that area far more accurately, and their rear suspension is also far more prototypically correct. I can forgive those (the front suspension issue can be fixed by some careful scalpel work), but if only the screen and roof didn't look so wrong... As it is, I will be waiting to see how it builds up as no doubt there will be plenty of build threads, and in particular I will be very interested to see how you go about correcting the roof. In the meantime, I am tempted by it, but not to build box stock, instead as a donor for kitbashing with the Heller.

Matt, many thanks for the comparison, and it has rather confirmed what I suspected about the roof on the Revell kit. However, out of interest, how well (or not) does the Revell bonnet fit on the Heller body?

I must admit that I won't be getting one as the subject matter doesn't interest me as I find most modern super / hyper cars to be downright ugly & overstyled (a full detail 1990s McLaren F1 on the otherhand.... I still have my copy of the Autocar roadtest from the time) but based on what is shown in the video below, it does look like this is going to be a rather detailed and impressive model:

The only 7 series kit I've seen is the Revell Premium one, which is the previous model to the Bond one. Some of that series were reboxed Fujimi Enthusiast kits (e.g. some Porsches & Ferraris), but Revell tooled up a few of their own too (the 7 series, an 8 series & also aa Mercedes-Benz 560SEC). As far as I know, their 7 series wasn't reboxed by anyone else, but I think that the 8 was reboxed by Tamiya. The Bond film one is by far the best styled 7 in my opinion though - BMW really got the proportions right with that car, and they haven't got even close ever since. Ha at the Renault 11! Pretty sure there is a diecast one though! However, if on the more obsure stuff, there's that ancient Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud kit which varous companies have released & which must date from when the Cloud was new given how basic it is and how it is tooled. This could be used to represent the Silver Cloud from A View to a Kill, in which Patrick McNee's character met his end in, and was then float tested with Roger Moore inside.

Wasn't the white one at the start of For Your Eyes Only the same one from The Spy Who Loved Me, prior to it's car alarm being set off?

Good call on all those! Can't believe I forgot about the yellow 2CV, as For Your Eyes Only is probably my favourite of the Roger Moore films.

A recent build on here of the reboxed Doyusha 1:24 Aston Matin DB5 got me thinking about which Bond cars are available as model kits: The aforementioned Airfix / Doyusha DB5 A recent Fujimi Lotus Esprit S1 in both regular and submersible guise Tamiya's BMW Z3 (although with the wrong wheels) Tamiya also did the Aston Martin DBS specifically as the one from Casino Royale. For fans of the original David Niven / Peter Sellers Casino Royale, there is Heller's Bentley Le Mans tourer, also reboxed by Revell (incidently, the Bentley in the books was a different bodystyle). Revell's BMW Z8 For fans of OHMSS, there is the Air Trax resin DBS. AMT have recently released a '71 Mustang as the one from Diamonds Are Forever as a Bond tie-in AMT's Sunbeam Tiger could be tweaked into the earlier Alpine, to represent the car from Dr No. Wasn't there also a mooted but never launched Revell full detail Aston Martin DB5? However, the notable missing one seems to be the Aston Martin V8 Vantage from the The Living Daylights. As a child of the '80s, this was the first Bond film that I saw, and also saw Bond return to a Q Branch edition Aston Martin for the first time since Thunderball (the DBS in OHMSS didn't appear to have any of the special features and played only a very minor role). Oh well - I guess we can only dream...!!

Following this with great interest! Given the level of detail you are adding, are you also going to tweak the front end? The general headlight area isn't quite right - the shape of the bezels is wrong, but there is also too big a gap between the bumper and the light bezel. I haven't got this far on my one, so haven't yet identified the best way to rectify it - e.g whether the problem is only the bezels (& thus whether reshaping them will solve everything), or whether the bumper & headlights actually need to be moved closer together.

Given that the Lotus 7 & Europa have reappeared, I reckon there is hope for the Jag Mk2. There were quite a few other iconic cars that Tamiya kitted during that period which I am pretty sure have never been seen since (e.g. the Volvo estate BTCC racer & also the Alfa GTV), but the Jag has been re-released at least once already.

Is this the Wills Finecast kit? I've often been tempted by some of their subject matter but given the cost, have been wary of taking the plunge as I haven't found any info on how well they go together.

Indeed. To add to the above, I recall that at the time, RR Aero Engines' preferred buyer for the car divisions was BMW, due to the working relationship that already existed between the two companies, as by that stage the British owned RR & Bentley cars had quite a lot of BMW parts under the skin - in the case of the Silver Seraph, that included a BMW derived engine. However, the share holders chose to sell to VW instead (possibly a higher price offered??), hence the strange break up into the two companies as they exist now.

Having built one of these for my children (they were learning about the Titanic at school) when the kit was initially released, it can be made to look pretty smart with just some minor detail painting. From memory, all I did was pick out some of the detail moulded into the tan decks in the correct colours (mainly white), and also light grey to differentiate the covers on the lifeboats. Other than that, it was all left as moulded, and my daughters were very pleased with it - it even survived one of them taking it in to school (the other took in my copy of Ballard's book on the discovery). How long is the diorama stand? Given the size of the model itself, I'm guessing that it must be at least 600mm?

According to a thread elsewhere on here, there is an E Type OTS due for release next year. Hopefully this is indeed a version of this, rather than the old '60s era OTS tooling. Also listed are two Porsche 911s, a coupe and a Targa which are both described as being a 'G model' so strictly that means 1974 model year but is sometimes used to describe all the impact bumper cars up to '89. Not sure if these are another rebox of the Fujimi Enthusiast series kits that Revell have done before, or new toolings of their own? I wonder if these could be new variants of the 934 RSR kits that they released a few years ago?

Some interesting car releases there, and some are clearly Revell Germany reboxes of recent Revell USA releases. However, I'm guessing that the E Type OTS is a variant of their new tool FHC? Based on the sprue layouts of the FHC, an OTS version seems very likely (as opposed to it being a re-release of their '60s era tooling OTS), especially since Revell appear to have also wrongly given the FHC the lower height windscreen from the OTS... However, does anyone have any info on the Porsche 911 coupe and targa that are also listed? The G series is the '74 model year, and the first of the impact bumper models. However this is sometimes used to describe all 911s of that shape (which ran until '89). Revell have previously reboxed the Fujimi Enthusiast series '80s 911 coupe and targa kits as Revell Premium series (along with some of their own tooled kits), so wondering if this is another re-box of the Fujimi, or an entirely new tool of their own?

Great pair of Bs, and nice to see one built with the polyurethane bumpers too. Your respective colour choices suit each one very well The grille mentioned above was the first main visual change to the B, but I gather wasn't popular at the time, so was soon replaced by one which used the surround from the full chrome grille, but replaced the slats with black honeycimb mesh. Soon after that, came the polyurethane bumpers. The latter grille would be much easier to make, and also I reckon it suits the Rostyle wheels better when used with the chrome bumpers than the full chrome grille.

Those quirks are why I rather like their kits and to my (often strange) mind, there always seems to be a good reason why they did it the way they did. I've often thought of building one or two of the separate chassis cars without any bodywork as they seem to include sufficient detail along with the parts break down to allow this. However, I may also be slightly biased, having attempted to build their Alfa Romeo 1750 Zagato as a child (my lack of skill - nothing wrong with the kit), I then restarted this hobby with their Bugatti T50 and Mercedes-Benz 500K roadster, and so I was not familar with the usual way that most car kits are engineered.