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Here's my entry into the Tamiya Group Build, it's the 1:24 Scale Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R V-Spec (24145) built with self modelled and printed exhaust back box, lowering kit, big brakes, wheels and tyres; front grilles by Aber; reg plates and carbon decal by ZoomOn and badges by Hobby Design. Paint is ProScale Nissan Midnight Purple with an SMS Pearl Magenta Rose tint coat over the top. WiP is available here... I had some issues with the paint, when I added the clear, as the tint coat was really 'spikey'. I set about polishing it to a greater degree than any of my other build and I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I just knocked out the lowering kit and wheels based on the R34 I built last year and it hasn't quite worked. The stance is pretty raked forward and the wheels could do to be a bit more flush. That said, I do like the way that makes it look so thuggish. If I was to build this again (and there's a good chance I will) I'd fill the front number plate mount so the intercooler logo is visible, adjust the ride height (to level it) and poke the wheels out 1mm. All those adjustments are actually ready to print. I'd also model proper headlights with clear lenses and include the sidelights. Anyway, on to the photos! Thanks for looking! Martin And a shot with some relatives...

Hi everyone, and here we go, another contribution to the GB community! My bench is getting pretty crowded now. I did not mean to start another new build but focus on my started ones and go for some KUTA with all the unfinished ones over here, but I guess it is just hard to say no to a Tamiya GB at this occasion, honouring Tamiya-san's legacy with all the lovely kits he and his company have provided us. This is not as originally communicated the same kit of the R33 that Martin is building but one series earlier, the 8th generation or simply Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R which I only noticed when looking closer. The subject: The Nissan Skyline 8th generation is a true beauty and for me, it very sharply marks the transition from the 80s to the 90s within the Skyline series. While the R31 still looks very edgy, the R32 was the first to adapt the curves you can find on many 90's cars, developing further with the R33 and subsequent variants. The R32 came with various engines starting with 1,8 L gasoline at 91 PS up to the top model with 2,6 L gasoline with remarkable 320 PS, fitting the top model GT-R. That particular model managed to beat the Porsche 959, a supercar of its time, on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The kit: Tamiya goodness. The kit, already some 25 years old, looks very good. Not overly complicated or extremely detailed but very nicely worked out individual parts and good overall engineering. I would expect a good fit as common with the wonderful Tamiya kits. The moulding is fine, so far I could only identify a few mould lines in the headlight/taillight sections of the body which seem to be common for car model kits in this scale, but nothing dramatic to report here. There are rubber tyres, a few decals for the instruments and license plates, but that's about it. The project: I am happy to have another opportunity to build another civil subject this year with plenty of tanks and warbirds on my bench right now. Being built from 1989-1994, I was originally considering to save this kit for the 90's group build (if that goes through), but fortunately I have more than just this idea for the 90's. I already opened the box a few weeks ago when I was interested to use the kit as a test mule to experiment on the use of the Vallejo colour shifter series. So this is what this model will mainly be, my first take on colour shift in this scale and an attempt to achieve a nice finish. I will build the kit mostly out of the box, although I consider buying some aftermarket wheels. The ones in the kit look nice, but are probably not the wheels of choice for someone spending a lot of money on an expensive paintjob. Some first photos of the material can be found below. When I opened the box, I sprayed the seats and the instrument panel in dark grey which I was using for something else at the moment. I trust that such limited efforts fall well below the 25% rule. Looking forward to this one shaping up and making my first experience on the colour shifters! Cheers Thomas

Welcome to my R33 Skyline build! Given the short notice, I've picked something fairly straightforward, in that it has no engine, that I already had in stock, including ZoomOn window masks and a bottle of ProScale Midnight Purple paint. On studying the instructions, I noticed the floor pan is almost identical to the Tamiya R34 GT-R (of which I've built two). This got me thinking... I'd already modelled a lowering/camber/big brake kit for the R34, so most of it will probably fit this. Turns out the front strut/hub assemblies look almost identical, but are in fact different in almost every dimension! Anyway, I was into it then, so I made the necessary modifications and not it should fit! Assuming there's room to lower it 1.5mm and add -3º of camber. I also had a set of wheels and tyres, modelled in 19in, that I thought would really suit. But then I decided 18in would look better, so I adjusted those, too! These are a Rays Volk Racing 21C with Toyo Proxes R888R tyres. I've made the rims 2in wider than stock with tyres of the original width, to give it plenty of stretch. Hopefully this will give me a really nice stance (similar to the R34 but with more camber). If the perspective on this render looks a bit off, it's because the tyre has a -3º taper toward the inside. This'll just help the car sit flat. The reason the R34 is photographed on a piece of foam is because I didn't taper the tyres and only the inside edge touches the ground! I also started having a play around with paint... This is ProScale Nissan Midnight Purple, over a black base, with a couple of light coats of SMS Pearl Rose Magenta tint coat over the top. Finished with lashings of ProScale 2K clear gloss. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I'm thinking of using Rays bronze for the wheels and, although the wheel in the photo is painted in ProScale Rays Wheel Bronze, I think it was over a white base. I'll run a test with a black base and some fairly matte clear to see how it looks against the purple. And that's is for now. I'm going to try and print the wheels, tyres, suspension and brakes over the weekend and make sure they fit! Thanks for looking! Martin

Finally I have come closer to my goal of building a Lancia LC2 that meets my requirements. I found a Tamiya Tamtech body on the well-known auction site! I was able to win it for a few euros (12.52). The mold is perfect, but unfortunately, it's just a shell with lots of holes for screwing on a standard chassis This mold is made of a transparent plastic that appears to be very impact-resistant. Unfortunately, the whole thing isn't completely transparent, but rather slightly milky. But it's significantly better than my previous attempt with the Italeri kit. I sealed all the holes and drilled new ones. Many parts need to be rebuilt, but that's much easier than modifying the Italeri model. I spent a lot of time modifying the decals for the new body. Homemade decals require many attempts to finally fit. I've already made most of the parts in 3D for the Italeri LC2, they're easy to adapt! Regards Andreas

I'm usually not an active car/vehicle modeller, but I often pop in this section to see what's going on. The car kits with their shiny finish are just too intimidating to me, it's so much easier to paint matte camouflage on an aircraft model 🙂 But occasionally, I just can't resist. I don't usually post my builds outside the Group Builds section, but this time I'm making an exception. Here's the Lancia I just finished in the Eighties GB. With more competent hands and a more patient mind, with a PE set and various wires and plumbing added to it, this kit could be built to a supermodel. I think it's rather nice as built out of the box, too. V-P

New super kit announced by Airfix, now up on their site. Available for pre-order.

Well, this is me popping my GB cherry! The title of this GB immediately took me to the late 80s and the fall of the Berlin Wall: giving my 18 year old self hope for a brighter future. If I remember correctly, it was a classic car show at the Oulton Park Circuit - I'm guessing in 1990 - where I first saw a Trabant and, to be honest, I haven't seen many more since. The kit I've chosen is the 1:24 scale Revell offering in 'Builders' Choice' guise but, ironically, I'll be ditching all the doves, peace signs and related text This is actually a pretty comprehensive kit, straight out of the box, with opening bonnet and boot and even seat belts! Even so, I can't just build it straight. So I'm going for a car whose owner made it past the wall and to either Spain or Belgium (not sure which yet: I like the Belgian reg plate better, but Spain makes more sense because I'll be ditching all the cold start/heating guff in the engine bay) and was inducted into the local modding scene. Initially, I'd considered doing a Mazda 13B rotary swap because, from what I understand, the 601 was supposed to be a rotary when it was launched but the engine development stalled. On closer inspection, this would be a massive undertaking, so I decided to tune what I have! I'll warn you now, it's going to be obnoxious! My plan is to lower it 4-5 inches with, maybe, -3º front and -5º rear camber on banded original wheels with a very stretched tyre, and the wheels will be wider front than rear, 'cos the rears don't really do anything. It's also going to get a turbo! This will sit where all the heater gubbins currently lives and my plan is an induction trumpet poking out of the leading edge of the bonnet and the exhaust exiting through a 'hater pipe' about two thirds of the way up. Basically straight into the driver's line of sight. I'm thinking I'll cut the grille out and use mesh, so you can see the intercooler sat behind it. Here's a photo of what's in the box along with a spare Sparco seat and steering wheel (left over from my MX5 build), a ZoomOn harness in black for the driver and the paint scheme: ProScale Dodge Ivory with a blue roof - like the estate that was in IWM North (and may still be?) The Ford Engine Blue is way too dark, but it was a by product of trying to find a suitable representation of Mazda Mariner Blue for the MX5, so I'll lighten it with a bit of the Ivory or some such. First thing I need to do is fire up Fusion360 and start modelling a turbo, induction trumpet, exhaust manifold, hater pipe, intercooler and plumbing and some blanking plates to fill holes in the engine cooling shroud left by the removal of the original induction and exhaust. Also some wheels and tyres and a lowering/camber system (design to be confirmed). Looking at that photo, I hope that seat will fit! Excited for my first GB! Thanks for looking Martin

The kit is from 1978, my boxing from 1979. It was a present of colleagues, when I left the firm in 1984. I wasn't very interested in this type of car as I prefer classic sports cars in an attractive design. So the kit rested in the stash. But at the moment I am reducing the stash and this is the opportunity to build the car. DaveCov has built this model in a former Heller groupbuild in classic black. I have studied his buildthread if there are any traps that I may avoid. So here are the sprues. I want to go with a colour scheme in green and dark green that I have seen some years ago at a meeting of vintage cars on an 11 CV. The interior will be in beige, medium brown and dark brown (from top to bottom).

Last time I posted a NASCAR build was (I think) 2017... I started this one around the same time, then lost interest in all NASCAR modelling until about two months ago when I found this and all my others during a stash clear-out. There isn't very much to say about the build, I'm sure most builders of American Stock Cars will agree the construction is entirely predictable and formulaic, the only differences being the body shells and paint/decals. That said the early 2000's cars that Revell released are even more so as they're all related to their 'snap together' pre-painted range that were mainly sold through official NASCAR merchandise outlets across the US. Right, enough backstory, this is the less well known of the 2003 Chevy Monte Carlos driven by Kevin Harvick for that season featuring the Californian Funk Metal band 'Sugar Ray' (no I hadn't heard of them either), there aren't too many photos but I found a few, even better is to watch the end of that seasons' Richmond night race and how Ricky Rudd clipped Harvick, putting him in the wall with just eight laps to go, Harvick was running second at the time, Rudd was in third. The post-race 'altercation' was great TV. Paint here is Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black straight from the rattle-can, when dry the larger areas were very carefully masked and then sprayed TS-21 Gold. Decals are by JWTBM, and date from 2004 - not sure if anyone reading this is connected with JWTBM, but if there is... you 'quality control' was fantastic, after twenty years the decals behaved perfectly. Four coats of Tamiya LP-09 lacquer clear sealed the decals and were left to fully cure for two weeks. Sanding and polishing-out took three days, and I'm VERY pleased with the final finish. So that's it, a toe back in the water of NASCAR modelling and I really enjoyed it. Already looking at a few of my old donor kits & decal options but got a couple of other projects I need to get finished first. Cheers from NZ, please feel free to comment, criticise or ask a question. Ian.

Hello fellows, Here, my current project, the Renault 4L, in 1:24 scale, by Heller: The mould was released in 2015. The first impression is quite good. I only noticed that the frontal grill is a compact piece... ...and that windows and doors are indeed the same clear part, as tipically in Heller models. That means that you have to carefully mask the doors when painting. And neither allows you to depict the windows open. Following the instructions, I started with the engine: Here, the engine is already installed in the chasis. For practical reasons, I removed the air filter. I painted and put the sats in place. This pic shows a little test, in oder to fit the wheels... After this, I started the body painting process, masking the clear parts, etc... I liked my 4L in yellow. There are a wide variariy of tones, starting from an ultra intense yellow, others with orange or cream tonalities, untilI a very palid... Here, one example of the real thing, with the yellow I liked the most: To achieve this tonality, I used the Vallejo 71.288 UK BSC 64 Port. Stone, which in my opinion fits very well: The idea is to show the vehicle in an accepatble state of conservation; so I'm thinking only in a light weathering Here, the dashboard already painted, and put in their place over the chasis: After putting the decals and the steering wheel, the dashborad is also completed: After installing all the windows, I put the body and the chasis together: All fits quite well. In this part, I added the steering column. In this pic, the radiator is also in their place, altogether with some decals: The next step was to install the battery, accesories, additional wires, etc. According to the instructions, there are two bars that connect from the dashboard with the engine bay. The long one connects with the gearshift lever. But the second one (the short) I don't know what function has. You can see both installed in the next pictures: Surpringly, after checking in the Internet, I did not find any picture of this second bar (the short one)... So, finally I decided to remove this bar. I used the hole for adding some wires: This is the engine bay, almost totally finished: So, that's all for the moment. I hope you like it! Cheers, and thank you for watching. Josep

First work-in-progress post here—hi all! After being tempted many many times and growing up with a real van on my street, I decided to take the plunge on this kit from Revell. It’s proving to be an interesting fun project, with the expected challenges on the front doors and fitting as mentioned by many others. Before starting the build I did quite a bit of research even to determine what model year this kit is supposed to be since it’s not mentioned in the box! 1962 was the conclusion so far but I’m still researching more to cross reference details, etc. One of the things I really love is spending time looking at photos of the real van, nerding over many details and deciding what modifications I can make to the kit, to have it closer to the real thing. As I started working on the front cabin, one the things I immediately wanted to change was the area below the seats. It’s completely flat on the kit and missing all the great metal work of the real van, despite the nice grooves on the plastic to reference the real metal moulding and the nice spare tire area behind the front seats. I wanted to add the raised area above the wheels also to have a nice edge for front doors as in the real van, rather than it being level had I assembled the kit as standard. I filled in some of the moulding grooves with putty below the front cabin now that they will be visible because I cut out the central area to add extra metal grooves and the storage/toolbox the real van has below the front seats. I know these might be silly details for some but what can I say, I’ll know they are there and it’s what gives me pleasure when assembling these kits I’m happy with how the extra details are looking so far, making the front cabin more real and interesting. I might modify the front seats with a custom made hinges mechanism so they can tilt forward like in the real van for access to the storage/toolbox area and spare tire. I’ll post updates as work progresses and I continue adding more details to the kit and modifying it… I’m not really happy with how the front doors in this kit go all the way up to the roof line but on the real van then don’t go that far up so that might be my next rabbit hole

Hi, Here are some WIP pictures from the etype I'm building at the moment. It is actually near completion but I thought I would put the WIP photos separate from when I upload the finished kit. A great kit, with a lot of parts and decals and it fits together really nice. I went for Ammo Mig polished metal and clear coated with Mr Clear glossy. Interior was painted in Mr Hobby Russet. Some of the potential problems I found are the chrome pieces which are actually a bit fragile, i broke the rear view mirror support piece just by handling it. I also broke one of the rear bumpers in half although it was superglued when i pulled it off because it didn't fit right. Only fit problem I really had was the dashboard, I had to sand down the pedal attachment which goes on the back of it so it could click into place. These are niggling problems however, overall goes together very well generally. Apologies if some of these pictures are not showing the right way, I think the image hosting is setting them all in one fixed ratio.

I'll admit right up front: The idea for this vignette is not mine. I got it from Night Shift, of YouTube fame. Thanks Night Shift! 🙂 In one of his videos he built a vignette showing an abandoned VW Beetle. It looked as such a fun build I just had to build something similar. The basis for my build is a Tamiyia 1966 VW Beetle 1300 kit. Well, without further ado - here is my version.

My workshop will be on the Ferrari 250 GTO. I am not sure which model I will choose yet: It would seem that the models of one car produced by different manufacturers will be similar to each other. It turns out that not really. I did a small comparison of the appearance of the F250GTO bodies made by Fujimi, Revell and Gunze. Below are some photos from this comparison: I leave the decision for later .....

Normally I am building models of aircraft, but I couldn't resist buying and building this kit for a change. My uncle owned a similar type of this typical tractor of the early 1960s, so it kind of reminded me a little bit of my younger days. The kit is constructed as an so called easy-click kit and theoretically you can put away the bottle of glue. Well, I recommend using some. Without painting, the model would definitely look like a toy. So I painted all parts, especially the rubber tyres and the chrome-plated parts forming the accessoryies of the engine cowling. I exclusively used Revell Aqua Colors, a mix of Smaragdgrün and Moosgrün with a little yellow for the body and Sand mixed with Alu for the above mentioned Gold-Chrome plated parts. For the other small parts different mixes of red, brown and other shades. This is not a tractor forgotten in the field and rusting and rotting away, but simply awell used one. The seat is already worn out and you can find a lot of traces from intensive use. Hope you like the short excursion to an agricultural subject. cheers, Norbert

I've had a couple of false starts with models I wanted to build, I hope this project will yield a couple of decent vehicles. I've had a couple of Revell Jaguar XK120s in my cupboard for a while, I bought two because I wanted to try building this kit two different ways. The vision: One car built as factory standard. This is based on a car I saw in an old magazine; light blue with a navy and grey interior, with rear-wheel spats. One car built as a bit of a tuned-up, example with a set of Dunlop alloys and no spats. This one will be Tamiya British Green with a tan interior. Here's a mock-up, the wheels and tyres came from K&R Replicas. It might take a bit of ingenuity to fix them to the axles. You can also see that the body needs a lot of cleaning up, those mould lines are just about the worst possible place. On the early XK the ventilation flaps in the front wings need filling in, as these were never fitted as standard (although I think some owners added them later). For the tuned up XK I want to replicate the look of a later car, where the sidelights were integrated with the front wings, rather than being separate, chrome parts. This is a nicely detailed kit, but the copyright information moulded into some parts shows that it is a Monogram moulding and it feels like it might be almost as challenging as the old Monogram Maserati 3500 kit I built last year.

Hello! Attached some photos of a fun project involving Revell's 1:24 VW Beetle, a figure from Master Box and scraps from other kits. Aside from wanting to try a few new techniques out, I was keen just to have some fun and not stress on every imperfection. Thanks for having a look, and all comments more than welcome. CF

Been almost a year since my last car build so dragged this one to the bench to re-invigorate any skills that I may have had before diving in to something more exotic / expensive... glad I did as it turns out. Made a bit of a hash of the deepening-out on the front window frame - went through the plastic at one point, also managed to stone-chip the paintwork on the roof when I dropped a tool onto it, and on final-assembly I snapped one of the front axle pins !!. Yep, definitely a six-out-of-ten build. That said, I like the blue (Tamiya X13), it looks very 'period' to my eye, and the car itself looks like it came off the production line yesterday... stunning looking vehicle IMHO. As ever thanks for taking the time to look and / or comment. All the best from New Zealand. Ian.

Good afternoon. Attached is the outcome of a long journey, my take on the fantastic Hawker Typhoon, in 1:24. This is my first build of this scale, stepping up from 1:48...and wow what a step up in commitment it was! I promised myself it would be an enjoyable OOB experience with some extras from Eduard, but none the less I got side tracked here and there with some mods. My take away? its its back to the safety of 1:48 for me...... Thanks for looking and as always, comments and feedback more than welcome. CF

Inspiration: jumps on you out of the blue from attic recoveries and lucky junk shop finds! I know I've recently spoilt myself rotten with a multitude of Eduard early war Spitfires, but I do have a weakspot for the odd nostalgia build - revisiting those kits built as a youngster when you find them up for grabs. I got the (boxed) 1/24th Spitfire MkIa at an auction a few years back before Airfix re-released them as part of their vintage classics range. I hadn't returned to model building at the time, but it was a silly cheap price as the decals are shot, but all the parts still sealed in the original bag. It was another "when I return to the hobby" purchase which has been sitting patiently in the wings ever since. I had previously built two examples. The first in the early 1980's is now long gone. The second built in 1988 when I was 16 survives and has been tucked away in various attics since the early 1990's. This weekend I got my hands on a mint 24th scale Spitfire Vb from a junk shop tucked away in the grounds of a small garden centre, just 15mins drive away from home. The box was still sealed, and for £35 I was quite happy. I was even allowed to open the box to check it was complete and not previously tampered with before handing the money over! So now my old surviving MkIa has been recovered and is now seeing daylight for the first time in many years. Considering it's been at the bottom of a box of built models it emerged remarkably complete: one prop blade snapped at the collar and the aerial mast broken off at the base (but still attached to the tail fin by a thread). Aside from a liberal coating of grime and paint/decal damage, the wings have lost their dihedral, and the rubber tyres have gone hard but are still in perfect shape. All the gun covers and engine cowling were fixed in place, but I'm sure I built, painted and installed the 303's and Merlin 🙃 Well I think she deserves a new lease of life. My aim will be to do a full strip down and refurb, and rebuild her in line with with my two newer Spits. She will again don her markings as LO-B "Bogus" from 602sqn, while the other MkIa will become Al Deere's KL-B "Kiwi". The Vb will of course take the guise of Jan Zumbach's gun toting Donald Duck RF-D. Hopefully I'll do these three ladies justice in the long run! Overall not too shabby for something that was brush painted with enamels and no aftermarket materials 33 years ago. The original Spitfire MkIa has had a bath to remove most of 30+ years of dust and grime. The engine cowling is part removed and the engine is complete underneath - the 303's in the wings are missing however! Going through one of my spares boxes I've found the main landing gear tyres from my first 24th scale Spitfire that I built in the early 80's. They are in surprisingly good condition, no wear or degradation. They may we'll end up being used on the rebuild if the current one's prove troublesome! I'm keeping fingers crossed that the Browning's will appear in a box somewhere too, but it won't be a heartbreaker if they've gone awol. Well she came apart without any real issues! 😊 A few things became apparent - the rudder pedals in the cockpit were missing, as were the 303's and ammo boxes in the wings. The pitot tube under the wing was also gone. After digging out my second spares box, I found the pedals, all the ammo boxes and 7 of the 8 Brownings.... plus one that's survived from the very first one I built in the early 80's (hence the 7 in gun metal and 1 in matt black). A bonus was finding 'fresh' main wheel hubs, again surviving from the first 24th Spitfire I built. Bizarrely, one thing that had survived has now vanished - the main radio mast! 😂 Still a good step forward. Now to plan the clean-up, paint stripping, and get studying the build instructions alongside some photo references👍 More photos and updates to come as the project progresses! Comments and suggestions always welcome 😎👍

Fokker Dr.1 Triplane 1:24 Meng (QS-003) One of the most recognisable aircraft of the Great War, the Fokker Dr.1 triplane achieved a reputation well beyond the small number actually built. It was in service for not much more than six months from late 1917, until early summer 1918. It needed an experienced pilot to get the best from it, as it was slow but highly manoeuvrable. The all red aircraft of Manfred von Richthofen is the most famous of the Dr.1’s but several other aces also flew them. It seems that Wingnut Wings may have been working on producing aircraft in 1:24 scale, as the appearance and layout of all the sprues are very much in their style. Even down to the clear parts being sprue ‘C’, and the engine sprue ‘E’ which was always what they did in their 1:32 kits. Even the box art is by Steve Anderson, who did all the Wingnut Wings box art . I don’t suppose we will find out for sure, but circumstantial evidence suggests that Wingnut Wings DNA runs through this kit. That said, this is not a scaled up version of the 1:32nd Meng Dr.1 kit. The sprues and breakdown of the parts is completely different, as befits a larger model. Lifting the lid reveals seven polythene bags containing individually wrapped sprues (double in the case of sprue ‘D’) , six of which are in Meng’s usual light grey plastic, and one in clear. An A5 sized instruction booklet, four multi lingual cards outlining a brief history, a sheet of decals, a small sheet of fabric, and a little box of etched brass completes the package. Unusually construction begins with the assembly of the four-point harness, which is composed of pre-cut fabric straps and etched brass buckles. This is a ‘first’ in being supplied in a mainstream kit as far as I know, and should look extremely effective draped over the pilots seat. I’ve used aftermarket fabric seat belts in the past, they do look better than their etched metal equivalents, and I’d say that in this large scale they are essential. Construction then moves on to the rest of the cockpit, which is fully fitted out with a tubular structure, floor, seat, ammo box, instruments, and control items. This all builds up into a box structure, which is then fitted between the fuselage halves. Again, it is telling that it uses Wingnut Wings location method of an open hole in each side of the cockpit ‘module’ that locates over a raised circle moulded in the fuselage side. The inner fuselage halves themselves feature the long triangular plywood fairing that runs down the inside of the fuselage, and is such a feature of the Dr.1 cockpit. All the parts are beautifully moulded with no flash and very fine detail. The wrinkled fabric effect on the ‘Bulkhead’ behind the seat is a very nice touch, as is the provision of a couple of flare pistols. The fuselage underside has a moulded strip of stitching to apply in the same way as on Wingnut Wings 1/32 Fokker D.VII kits Looking at the wealth of finely detailed parts on this sprue, it is apparent how well suited 1/24 scale is. Everything is large enough to have strength, yet fine enough to appear exactly in scale, something that the smaller scales can struggle with. Externally the forward fuselage has a choice of square or circular inspection panels, the colour profiles at the end of the instruction booklet show which ones are appropriate for the particular options. The cockpit/midwing fairing is a large single piece that fits over the mid wing and onto the fuselage. The twin LMG 08/15 Spandau machine guns sit atop this fairing, with the choice of either solid plastic barrels, or some stunning fretted brass cooling jackets. I don’t know how they have been done, but the cooling jackets are finely etched (or milled) brass tubes, ready to slide over the plastic body and barrels of the basic machine gun mouldings. They couldn’t be simpler and will surely make into an amazing centre point of the completed model. Fine detail on the ammunition rounds and belt feed into the sides of each Spandau will enhance it further. Again, like the fabric seat belts this is the first time I have seen these pre-fretted brass tubes supplied in a mainstream kit. The wings are all provided as upper and lower halves, with internal ribs and spars moulded in to add strength. This ensures that there won’t be any repeat of the incidents of the slight warp that was found on the solid moulded wings in some of the 1/32 kits. All three wings are assembled the same way, with a drawing in the instruction book showing to open up flashed over holes in the leading edge to fit the stacking pads. Check which version you are building and follow the instructions to open up the correct pair. Two ‘Axle wings’ are provided for the undercarriage the main difference being short and long chord, and again it is pointed out in the instructions which one goes with which version. Interestingly there are two complete pairs of main wheels on the sprue D’s. D8 and D9 are the ones used by all four variants in the kit. The slightly smaller diameter D14 and D15’s are appropriate to the prototype Fokker F.1 as flown by Werner Voss and Manfred von Richthofen. In addition the F1 ailerons are present on sprue D, so I expect Meng will release a kit of this at some point. It won’t be possible to create an F.1 from this boxing as it only has the straight edged tailplane appropriate to the Dr.1. The 9 cylinder Oberursel UR.II was an almost identical copy of the French Le Rhone 9J, and was the standard engine fitted to the DR.1 at the factory. Some were retro fitted with captured Clerget 9B engines so be careful if choosing aftermarket decals. Here in the kit we have a very nicely moulded Oberursel, made up of few parts, but with separate cylinder caps and valves. All that the modeller needs to add is fine ignition wires running out to each spark plug. Most Oberursel powered Dr.1’s were fitted with the Axial propeller, although a Heine can sometimes be seen in contemporary photographs. The choice is yours as both types are provided in the kit, along with two further props that are not needed. The clear parts consist of several items, of which only one windscreen and the inspection panel cover are used. Interestingly an early reflector gunsight is included but not marked for use, as it is in the 1:32 kit. Etched parts. These come in their own little box, packed in a sponge 'wallet' with a lift off lid. Also in the protective sponge are the two beautiful Spandau cooling jackets mentioned earlier. The brass fret has no connection points to the individual components, instead all is held in place by a thin film of plastic. I really like this as it means you don't have to cut each part from the brass sheet, and clean up the inevitable 'nubs' on the parts. The two barrel ends and sights are provided, but most of the parts are buckles and connectors for threading on to the fabric seat belts. Options, Four are provided, but if you leave off the ‘LO’ text from option A it will make Ltn Hans Kirschstein's Jasta 6 586/17.This was passed on to Udet in May 1918, when his usual 'LO' marking applied over the black and white fuselage stripes. A. 586/17 Ltn Ernst Udet, Jasta 4, 1918. B. 152/17, Manfred von Richthofen, JG 1, March 1918. C. 577/17, Rudolf Klimke, Jasta 27, May 1918. D. 213/17, Ltn Kempf, Jasta 2, February 1918. Decals. The decals appear to be Mengs own production. They are neatly printed with on a sheet close to A4 size, covering all the various German crosses (Eisenkruez and Balkenkreuz) needed to complete any of the four options. The carrier film is minimal around the crosses, and naturally a little more extensive around the ‘LO’, ‘KEMPF’, and ‘kennscht mi noch’ texts, and also the anchors. The finish is overall matt, and everything appears to be in good register. Conclusion. An unexpected and surprise release this one. It is a beautifully designed and moulded kit, and should build into a very impressive model. Hopefully there will be more releases on the way, as its appeal will be increased if it can be displayed with a Camel, Se5a, Albatros DV, or Fokker D.VII to the same scale. The whole package is of very high quality, and a completely new kit that has nothing in common with Meng's smaller 1:32 scale release of the same aircraft. If you like early aircraft but are afraid of rigging, then this one is an ideal starter as it only has four very simple rigging lines to apply, and they can be easily done with stretched sprue or wire. And there is no complicated strut work either! Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This will be my first car as all my previous efforts have been AFVs, tanks or military aircraft where I can disguise my poor modelling skills as “battle damage.” This is a bit of a special project for me and I have been putting it off for some time to practice my skills on other more basic models. My aim is to make a scale model of the 1989 Trabant Kombi that I own. The Trabant has had a terrible press over the years for being basic, badly designed and poorly built. I am biased, but I think the Trabant is a very well designed little car that suited its market when it came out in 1963. It had novel features like independent suspension and a transverse engine and gearbox before many western cars. The downside was that the design was produced without any significant changes until 1991 by which time it was way behind western cars. It is probably also the first recycled car being predominantly made out of recycled cotton waste mixed with resin and called “duraplast.” It loses out massively on environmental points being powered by a 2 stroke engine. The build quality is basic, but I’ve own far worse modern cars. My 1999 Ford KA was a baked bean tin with an engine and wheels and my wife’s 2013 Dacia Sandero appears to have been designed in total darkness and assembled in a wind tunnel... Anyway, this is the real vehicle: …and this is the kit: The box contents laid out before I had the chance to mess it up. It’s a really detailed model for its size and generally all the parts are quite crisply molded, but there is a lot of flash around some of the smaller and more delicate pieces. I also ended up with two bodies as one got damaged in the post so I was sent a replacement. The inner wings and bulkhead. The engine bay is really well detailed, but some of the wiring is molded onto the wings which I hope to replace. The other slightly annoying thing is that the bulkhead is completely wrong and is already causing me some headaches. The underside of my Trabant has been hand painted using Hammerite underbody seal. It was a horrible and messy job to do so I remember it well! I wanted to reproduce the texture on the model so I painted on some Humbrol liquid poly and then gave it a brush with a toothbrush. I thought that the wheels would be very easy to put together but holes in the rims had filled with flash. Each hole had to be drilled out. I also added tyre valves to each wheel with a bit of wire. They’re such an obvious and easy to add detail that I don’t know why they weren’t an original detail. Cheers now!

Here is the next model to cross my workbench. Or rather, here are the next models. One of the joys of returning to the hobby after a long absence is that I keep discovering cars I like that were produced in 1:24 kit form (which is my preferred scale). The Tamiya Fiat Abarth 695 "esse esse" was one such happy discovery last year and I should have known that there would also be a standard Fiat 500 kit out there; I found two of the Fiat kits for sale on eBay recently (you wait ages for a rare kit to turn up, etc. etc.). I knew the Abarth was complete, the Fiat was sold as complete but with some parts off the sprues, so my logic is that by building both kits together I can see what's missing (if anything, so far it does indeed seem to all be there). I love the Fiat 500 because it is so small yet well engineered and because it reminds me of holidays to Rome, where the classic 500 is still a common sight. Work has been underway for a couple of weeks as I'm priming and painting, particularly the bodywork, so here is the story so far: Obligatory box art photo. Unusually for me I'm sticking with the boxes for colour inspiration; on the Fiat I love the combination of blue bodywork with the red and white seats and I've found Fiat Capri blue, which I like even if it probably isn't 100% authentic. The Abarth is getting a coat of Ford Dove Grey, which is a light grey that doesn't seem a million miles away from the colour in the picture. This is the box for the Abarth, the differences between the two kits are in the black "B" sprue, the chrome sprues (I think), the tyres (wider) and the decals. The body is tiny. The good thing is that mould lines are very faint and easily sanded away. To cover its wide tyres the Abarth gets a set of wheel arch extensions. The instructions suggest attaching them after painting but it seemed more sensible to glue them on and spray them with the body as they are supposed to be one colour. This is the standard 500 after a coat of primer, checking for the fit of the engine cover and floor. Abarth at primer stage, the fit of the wheel arches isn't great (possibly my fault not the kit's), so a little filling is necessary. It's annoying that it's easier to see once primer is on, the black plastic tends to hide the gap next to the white plastic of the body. My solution was some automotive filler primer that came in a pen-type applicator with a fine nib; this was perfect for running a bead of filler around the join. First coat of paint on the Abarth. Annoyingly the can ran out so I'll have to buy some more. I'll give the body a rub down before applying the second coat; it is quite a tricky shape to sand, there's lots of raised edges to burn through if you're not careful. Looking a bit more purple under the lights, the standard 500 also has its first coat and needs rubbing down but I'll leave the paint a few days to harden first. As there's plenty of painted metal inside a real 500 I've painted the inside of the roof and pillars on both cars. Floor pan and rear bulkhead are common to both cars. The white area is where the part was held for priming, it won't be visible on the finished car as it is under the luggage compartment (which doesn't open). Note how Tamiya has different mounting holes for driver's and passenger's seats so you can't put the wrong seat in the wrong place, at least in theory). You can also see the spoon-shaped throttle pedal moulded into the floor. This is a bit disappointing but I doubt it will notice on the finished car. For the standard car I'll paint the floor Tamiya Nato black to represent the rubber floor mat. on the Abarth the floor will be body colour. Other side of the floor, plenty of crisp detail here. First part of the instructions is to assemble the twin-cylinder engine; here are the main engine parts painted flat aluminium. Fiat engine is on the left, the Abarth (on the right) has a bigger sump and different rocker cover. Painted engines next to one primed gearbox and one unprimed, the gearbox halves fit together so well it's practically a snap-fit. these parts are identical and interchangeable in kit form. You can also see the fan/dynamo drive pulley assembly; I thinned this slightly to reduce the thickness of the fan belt. Focus isn't great in this picture but you get the idea about the engines, standard on the left and Abarth on the right. The instructions suggest that the right-hand (as in this view) part of the standard engine should be in aluminium but all my research pictures have show the engine cowling painted black so that's what I've gone for. I'll add plug leads although it's annoying that there is no representation of the spark plugs or their holes in the moulding, it probably wasn't practical to incorporate that detail into the mould. The seats of the standard car are two-tone with white top panels and piping with the main part of the seat in red (my choice), tan or grey. To get the two-tone colour scheme I started painting the seats white; I'm going with gloss now and I'll tone it down with satin varnish later. Seats masked up, I then gave them another coat of white to seal the masking tape. Tomorrow I'll spray red primer followed by red paint. That's about it, but stay tuned for the next instalment.

This has been complete for a while, but I wanted to take some decent photos and decided to build a backdrop for future photographs as well (appropriately enough the Fujimi 1:24 garage). As a kit it's OK, it's pretty basic, there is no engine and the underside is a complete work of fiction. It's a bit of a gimmick that you can steer the front and rear wheels to simulate the four-wheel steering of the real car, I'd trade that for some accurately modelled suspension, especially as I'm not sure the wheels sit quite right relative to the arches. There were a few little issues with the interior (seats needed backs fabricating and the dashboard isn't a great fit). Also I should have attached the front bumper to the body before painting. I've got two more of these kits in the stash to replicate the other two Preludes I owned, so expect more in this thread at some point in the future. WIP thread here if anyone is interested:

I can't remember exactly when I bought this kit, but it could easily be fifteen to twenty years ago. Thanks to a messed up paint job it ended up being shoved into storage but I found it when sorting out my loft during lock down and decided it was high time for one last rescue attempt. Thanks to people on here for tips on stripping and repainting and for replacement decals. This is the thread covering the rebuild. I started it so long ago there are no photos of the early stage of the build. Anyway, I set up my "photo studio" to take some pretty pictures. A little bit of overspray from the interior and a little slip of the chrome pen. Headlamp eyebrows have flaked a bit, panel wash is a bit uneven. Slightly wonky ALPINE script Decals are a bit uneven and the wrong way around. For some reason that's all the photos I can upload at the moment but there are a few more to come.