Paul H

Now that Revell are doing a new tool E Type Series 1, hopefully that means there will finally be one that has got the nose 100% correct. Now if only someone would do some decent tooling '60s Astons...

Brilliant job there! I love the fact that it isn't too shiny, which wouldn't look right on one of these. The galvanised trim looks like the right sort of finish too. Oh, and thank you again for your write-up explaining how to correct the errors in the interior. TBH, I'm glad Revell released this body style. I agree that there are a lot of things that they missed (especially underneath), but I'll be fixing that on mine with a donor Italeri kit (which I was originally intending to convert into one of these). Given the sprue breakdown, I do wonder though if there is a 4 cyl 88" version in the pipeline (which will save me having to make my own) and even better should they make it a Series 2 or 2a.

That's beautifully built. I'm not supposed to be buying any kits at the moment, but the moment I saw this, I just couldn't resist going straight online to (successfully) find one for a fair price, and it is highly likely to jump to the front of the queue. I reckon this Duesenberg has the best coachwork of all the early 30s cars in this series (I've never been a fan of tourers which look like cut down 'D' back saloons or limousines). What did you do to create the effect of the door glass in its recesses in the tops of the doors? I'm guessing that's not out of the box detailing, and it really adds extra realism. Likewise. 1:24 wires are rarely 100% convincing, but these are so much better than many far more recent efforts (in fact, I think only Tamiya and Aoshima have done better with just injection molding), and certainly don't stand out for the wrong reasons.

That's a stunning model - amazing paint and great colour choice too! I'll be very happy if mine looks half as good... Many thanks for posting these. I still find it difficult to believe that this series was all tooled in the early '60s.

It's cheating to post up pics of a real car Fantastic attention to detail, and the street scene pics are really convincing - great work!

Good trick for the flux capacitor! I have the Aoshima version awaiting build so very interesting to see what the Polar Lights one is like, and will be following this with great interest! Oh, and it's a pity that no one does a 46 Ford convertible...

These are great little kits, and aside from the rear subframe breakdown, very prototypically correct. One thing to watch for is that the wheel location is not especially positive, so the wheels tend to be a bit wobbly. The next time I build one, I will be looking to see what I can do to tighten up the clearances in the wheel pin / polycap / polycap housing to centre the wheels better on their mounts & so fix this. The method I used with the roof was to paint it the main colour, and then essentially dry brush (but with a bit more paint - can't think of a better way to describe it...) the outside of the gutter in the colour for the lower body, with the roof upside down and running the brush off the outside edge of the gutter, so that no paint went into the gutter itself. I don't have the steadiest hand, but found that this created a neat finish when I built mine (no thread yet, but coming soon!). Another method would be to pain the gutter in the lower colour first, and then just run a strip of masking tape around the outside of the gutter, as that is much easier to mask off than doing it the other way around. Any overspray / paint that gets under the tape could be carefully flatted back for a clean edge.

So that's Go-Mango for the '69 Charger, but is that Sublime or Lime Light in the other can?

Thank you, and yes - a great film intro (until the tunnel)! I read much more recently that apparently his car had white headrests with the rest of the white trim was swapped out to black just for the filming. Now all I need to build is three fast cars and a few Mini Coopers. Thanks! It's strange that Hasegawa didn't do the regular P400 or P400S with the lashes, as that was one of the distinct features of the Miura's design, but I guess that it they would have been very delicate to mold. I think there may be a PE set available though.

I had attempted to build AMT's 1:25 Viper GTS kit as a child but royally messed it up. However I acquired this RT/10 in around 2007 from a friend who was moving abroad for work, and I had completed it by 2011, working on it alongside many of the other older builds I've posted up. The completed pics were taken earlier today, after a quick run over with a soft brush to remove all the dust from it sitting in my display cabinet. Paint was Halfords rattle can for the body, and brushed Humbrol enamels for the rest, except the interior which was brushed Tamiya acrylics. My friend had started it, building up most of the rolling chassis & he had fortunately also done an excellent job of painting the windscreen frame & screenprinting on the glass (which I hate doing) but the body & interior had not been started. I did little on the chassis except free up the front stub axles & rear driveshafts, and finish off some painting to the underside. The detail on this kit is very high - much is prototypically correct but fully hidden - e.g. there is a full side exhaust system even though it is sealed up in the sills... It did however pose some challenges, as for the body to sit correctly to the axle centres, the upper interior tub and rear inner arches were trying to occupy some of the same space. With some careful adjusting, tweaking (& hacking to the front of the inner arch & rear of the upper tub), everything fitted together. I think that I may have had to do some adjusting to get the front bumper & bonnet aligning too, but the rest of the parts all went together very nicely. There were no decals - everything was molded in, and I used a sharpie to pick out the badging, which worked well. For some reason this release of the kit came with tinted lenses for the front lights, which I am not hugely keen on. There is light unit detail behind, but the camera hasn't picked it up. Also, please forgive the right hand rear wheel looking wonky in some of pics - it does fit properly but I didn't spot until after the pics that it had come unglued from the driveshaft (these rotate with the rear wheels). In hindsight, I also need to do the edges of the rear light lenses in black sharpie to make them look more realistic but whilst they are only held in with clearfix, I'm wary of damaging the paint so am undecided whether I will fix this. I also need to add some clear orange over the silver for the front marker / running lights. I never got around to adding number plates, but if I do, the plan is to use the ones from the Chrylser UK's press fleet Vipers - either WOW 110T (with a dot between the 11) or A10 CYL. I also have Revell's snap kit Viper RT/10, which I'll build at some point and will probably be in the usual Viper red! It has a much lower parts count than the AMT and far less of the intricate detail, but it will be interesting to see how the two kits compare once built. Instruments were molded - no decals, so required careful painting. And a few from just before final assembly: Full exhaust system, but all hidden when the body is installed. This last pic shows how the interior parts are split between the body and the chassis - unlike many kits, there isn't the inaccurate and out of scale double floor:

Some updated pics with it now at the correct ride height - it's not much, but the wheel centres are now aligned with the middle of the sills, not the lower edge. I've done some tweaks to tidy up the lighting & background but haven't edited anything on the model itself.

Looks like a really fun project! Are you using the full detail Enthusiast series kit, or the diet / curbside version?

That looks fantastic and can't wait to see more!

This is another one that I completed ten years ago. The parts fit was typically Tamiya but the decals had gone a bit iffy with many breaking up when applied. Most I was able to realign, but the one for the tinted band at the top of the windscreen was totally unuseable. I think that this and the BTCC one have never been reissued so it must have been about fifteen years old at the time as the Turbo was very soon rebadged as the T5. And with the BTCC version that I built as a teenager - this is the oldest model kit that I still have, and I think I built it in either '95 or '96. Annoyingly these kits are now very difficult to get hold of, and I do hope that Tamiya will reissue them, as I'd love to build another BTCC one and also use the road car as a basis for a yellow T5R

Very cool! The patina looks great, and it's unusual to see one at the factory ride height, but all the better for it. Seeing your build certainly makes me prefer the panel van version more than the samba or camper versions that Revell have also released.

Still working through my old pics, I think this was the next one that I completed - Hasegawa's amazing Miura SV. No prizes for guessing the reason for this colour! The wheels were the kit chrome with several applications of a gold wash (just thinned humbrol enamel) to tone them down and bring out the detail. Whilst there are no opening panels, there is still a huge amount of detail to this kit e,g. the filler cap visible through the front vents: and the metal transfers included plenty for the interior too: and underside: The top of the engine is intended to be visible through the rear vents but once assembled, it's difficult see (or photograph), so here's a pic before the body was fitted:

Ditto!

I do like the look of these ICM kits. You have done a great job of this one and as others have said, the figures look especially good!

Oh, and looking at the pics, I need to change the reg plates to a pre suffix set rather than the Jan to Aug '67 ones.

Thank you all for your kind words - very appreciated! I've always liked the less stereotypical colours, especially on cars such as this. In hindsight, I would have liked to have built it with a dark blue interior, and the steel wheels and hubcaps as per the first Bs. Funny you should mention that... It's something I have been working on, as I have a '61 Sprite Mk2. I'll post up a WIP thread soon. TBH, I'm not a huge MG fan (my automotive loyalties lie with twin cam Rileys), however I do have a '65 Triumph roadster, although one of the three speed pedal variety... I'm 99% sure that the Rostyles were newly tooled for this current Aoshima release. In terms of other variants of this kit, there were some previous Aoshima releases of a race / rally version (can't remember which, but unlike the road cars, I have never seen these reboxed by anyone else), with the works hardtop and centrelock Minilite wheels. I think it's a great pity that they haven't included the hardtop with one of these. Someone has done a resin GT conversion, but they are scarce, and with a price tag to suit. Ah - mine is built as a very early one, hence the colour choice, and lack of reverse lamps so long before all the problems set in at BMC / BL. At least, that's my excuse for the even panel gaps! The wires are certainly up there with the ones in Tamiya's Jaguar Mk2 and Morgan. If looking for a set to use elsewhere, at 1:1 the MG ones are 14", and the Jag 15" but I think that for both models they are slightly oversize, as part of the scale effect to avoid them looking too small. It could have been designed in, but I suspect it is accidental, as it is quite a tight fit to get the chassis / floor to align to the lower ride height. I took the model out of the cabinet earlier this evening to look at this again & turns out it was actually set at the rubber bumper ride height . I've now tweaked it so it's no longer suffering from altitude sickness, and will try to take some daylight pics tomorrow for a proper comparison.

Following this with great interest! Heller chose such great subject matter for full detail kits in the '70s & '80s. The parts all look well molded - what is the fit like?

Ah - that's a neat trick! This was one of the things I was wondering how to do, as just silver on the bumper won't look right. Fresh galvanising is often quite harsh looking - if you think it is too much, some light weathering may tone it down, however it looks good to me!

That looks very convincing, and your build thread makes great reading too!

I think that sharpie would sort the front lights, but I would certainly appreciate any tips for how to make the rear lenses look right. The first 996s had more old fashioned style full amber & red tint lenses, which would have been much easier to do.

Is that the same finish on the front bumper as the rest of the trim? It looks like it has a suitably mottled galvanised finish, which works really well.