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I can’t remember exactly when I bought or built this kit. The shop doesn’t exist anymore but I believe it was 1999 or 2000. The price looks to have been £16.99: only a couple of quid cheaper than when I bought one last year. I probably built it in a couple of weeks but, when I sprayed the body it went crazy. I just used car paint and the colour reacted really badly: it actually added texture to the plastic! I even clear coated it, in the hope it might improve the situation… It didn’t. I continued the build to almost completion but, before I put the glass in, I just chucked it back in the box and left it. I’m amazed I still have it, because we’ve moved house five times since then and I’ve lost every other model, bar one. Including an unstarted 1/12 Tamiya Honda NR750 Anyway, when I started 3D modelling and printing, and I decided to start selling wheel packs, I thought I’d use this R34 as one of my mules for shooting listing photos. Once I got into it, I realised it would never make a decent “showroom” model, so I got a replacement and made that. The irony being, I made that one so low I couldn’t swap the wheels out once it was finished and so couldn’t use it anyway! So, earlier last year,I started pulling the model to bits and damaged the reflector in the driver’s mirror. At that point, I started thinking about having a play at weathering… and here we are. Then, when I started the Range Rover and the Brian James trailer, an idea formed that this could be the payload. And then I thought of a backstory for the car… I’ve been chipping away at this for the last 12 month or so and here are some ‘finished’ shots. Anyway, I think that’s everything. Thanks for looking! Martin The WiP

Built for the current 80s Group Build, and probably my last GB of the year - I've got too many other projects to finish (and start!) and I just want to get some done. The City Turbo is a recent re-release from Tamiya and the Motocompo is a resin kit from ZoomOn. Both kits are painted with ProScale Porsche Frozen Berry, inspired by @Toftdale's builds of a few months back. Specifically some shots of the paint in progress where the car looks pink. The City has 3D modelled and printed suspension, wheels and tyres. The new suspension adds front disc and rear drum brakes and rear dampers that are missing from the original motorised kit, lowers it by 1mm (24mm 1:1) and adds 1º of negative camber all round. The wheels are 13x6.5 Work Equip 40s, up from the original 12x4.5, and the tyres are an 80s classic Yokohama A-008 in 185/55/13. Other additions are chrome badges and PE/decal reg plates from ZoomOn. The Motocompo is out of the box, except for the bike sized reg plate that is based on a plate for sale on eBay printed to decal paper and stuck to a bit of silver painted 0.2mm (?) styrene sheet. Here's the WiP And, finally, here are the photos! Some interior and underside shots The Motocompo A comparison shot with my last, even smaller GB entry And in their current home. I really need a better solution than this, but at least it keeps the dust off. Thanks for looking! Martin

This is one of those daft ideas that's been festering in the back of my mind since 1991, when I saw that Ronal had released a set of wheels that look like teddies. Obviously, at 14 inch with a 4x100 stud pattern, they were intended for little hatchbacks and the like, but I thought "if I was a millionaire, I'd get a set of these made for a Ferrari 348!". Well, I'm not a millionaire, so it's never happened... Until NOW!* Last weekend, you may have been unfortunate enough to stumble into the Spot of the day Evo IX thread and been spammed by much talk of said wheels. This reignited the idea and escalated into two possible builds, this being the cheaper and simpler of the two. Teddy image courtesy of Euroalloy Although these wheels are available in 1/24, they're 14 inch and I want 17 inch so I'll model some new ones. I'll still use the 14 inch centre and step up the diameter with the rim. For now, here are some sprue shots. Considering the low parts count, it actually looks quite detailed and even has some PE! The other thing I'm going to do is give it some lows and camber. Because Teddies! Thanks for looking! Sorry if it upsets you Martin *in 1/24 scale

This purchase started out as a way to use the spare tyres from my MX5 project and escalated into being part of a set (maybe a diorama... ) along with the Aoshima Brian James Trailers A4 Transporter and the mystery side project that won't be getting a WiP. I've split this and the trailer into separate threads because, from conversations I've had on here and reading @Anteater's WiP, there are going to be some 'challenges'. The tyres I modelled for the MX5 are about 32" and so I'm going to need a 2" lift kit to get clearance on the Rangey. As the OOB chassis seems to be the cause of most of the problems, I'm going to model a new one that hopefully fixes the issues and has separate suspension components, so I can offer it as a 'fix kit' with standard or lifted ride height. So I've started this kit by doing the absolutely most important thing... WHEELS! The OOB ones are pretty rudimentary and probably 15in (might be 16in, I can't remember), which won't cut it as the MX5 tyres are for 17in wheels. I was thinking of what would be a sensible aftermarket wheel for an early 70s 4x4 and decided the only way to go is steel 8 spokes. So I knocked one up. Because the original Rangey wheel has a very pronounced centre, I did a bit of research into series 1 hubs. From what I can see, they're the same as Land Rover ones, which makes sense. The 8 spokes are flat at the fastening point, so I modelled front and rear hub 'protrusions' that can be added as appropriate. I also did separate tyre valves, 'cos they're really hard to paint. I left the wheel nuts as part of the main wheel because it makes for a stronger component overall. I had a bit of a revelation when I painted the wheels, because I used a black base instead of white, which is what I generally throw under silver to make it 'brighter'. This is ProScale Paints Z-Tune Silver (I think) and using the black really helps with definition in the finished wheel by making the shadows darker. Makes sense, really. Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before. Here's a final photo of the new wheels and tyres against one of the OOB items. I will paint the wheel nuts and there will hopefully be all kinds of weathering going on by the end of this build. Thanks for looking! I'd probably give it a couple of months before coming back... although I might put the interior together... I need to do that so I can model the new chassis. It's not going to be a quick one, though. Cheers! Martin

Hi all I have been wanting to do a vehicle for ages so what better start than a replica of my mate's 57 Bus. Being called 57 there are differences to the later splits. Rear lights, rear tailgate. This one also has Airstream caravan windows, which might be functo make. I believe this might be sunnier and it is similar in layout to a Westphalia bus. I have had the wheels 3D printed for scale correctness. I am using the newer Revell kits forv this, the Westphalia SO42 turret top release for the interior and side windows and the Panel van kit for the roof. I plan on doing this for his 50th Birthday as a gift as he has helped me out with the Porsche and the Fastback and I want to give something back I started by removing the Belly pans as his bus doesn't have them , this meant I needed to corrugated floor so I cut the floor from the front and rear sections and then was able to turn it over. It was all a bit weak at this point so I had to be careful cutting the engine bay section out. Don't worry about the chassis rails as I will make new ones later. There is an oil cooler set up along one of the belly pans on the near side which I need to replicate Cab floor glued along with now upside down floor added , this is now a very strong assembly . Revell provide rounded tubs inside the front arches and these are not presentbon the real thing so they had to go. One down got the other to do . I have removed all of the mounting for the kit rear suspension and drive train ready for a Tamiya Beetle engine and lots of 3D ptinted engine parts plus some scratched bits . The 3D engine bits are lovely and I was helped out greatly getting hold of them by Bruan @rockpopandchips, who was brilliant in getting the online files printed and sent to me. So Brian thank you so much , I really appreciate you help. Thank you for looking in and j hope you don't mind an Aircraft modeller invading the vehicle section. Best wishes Chris

I bought this kit second hand during the first covid lockdown - as we have come to expect it was less than a month later that Tamiya announced they were re-releasing it for (fortunately not much) less than I paid and with additional photoetch. So this one is being built without the additional detail of a brand new kit, and the added disadvantage of 25 years old decals. The kit was virtually unstarted... I say virtually as two wheels have been removed from the sprue but that was it. Don't expect rapid progress with this one, I'm getting the traditional summer paint on now, but there are a couple of other builds to finish before I start gluing it in earnest. First job though was to get some gluing done - the lower part of the front end is a separate piece to the main body, and as far as I can tell the only thing I need to glue inside the two pieces down the line is the mesh that makes up the grille (although there doesn't seem to be any mesh in the box so I will have to take some left over from another kit). With the lower part glued solid, it was time to get some filler into the gap as this is a single piece of fibre glass on the real thing as far as I can tell. So with the gap solid, filled and sanded I had the body looking something like this. After that, it was a case of scribing out the panel gaps with a 0.4mm scriber, then on with a coat of Halfords Grey primer on the body and all the large bits which will end up satin black. Surprisingly I seem to have a done a good job at sanding down the mould lines as there aren't any immediately visible. Even more surprisingly, there are no sink marks on these parts other than a couple on the floorpan - I won't fill those as they won't really show when complete and you don't expect perfect floors anyway. It does look as though there is a very slight imperfection where I've filled the join between the two body parts, and the scriber has slipped on the roof so I will need to fill that, but overall for a first guide coat this is looking quite promising. I think the join just wants a light sand to get it fully smooth (I might have got away with it with a heavier coat as I think there's an element of the slightly rought texture of the filler coming into play here), while a very light skim and sand should sort out the roof. And that's it for my first post on this one, don't be surprised if it takes me a year to finish it though!

With the weather being so good last weekend I figured it was time to try to get some paint on plastic. Unfortunately I didn't quite get that far, but here's what did happen. The next kit due for painting is the Simil'R Ford Focus WRC kit from a little over a decade ago. Unfortunately they only had a brief time in business so the kit is hard to find. And I can't afford to mess things up as spares will be almost impossible to find. Good timing in a way with one having just been posted in the RFI section a week or so ago so that gives me some added inspiration. The reason I wanted this kit is that it's the nearest I know of to my current (fun) car: Unfortunately, with prices being £70+ even if you can find one I'd pretty much given up on getting one. Then in the midst of the first Covid lockdown, I found one for just under £40 on Amazon from a seller who had it listed as an alternative seller to one listed in German amd showing as out of stock. Obviously an omen and everything in the universe telling me to buy it - what else was I to do? Generally it looks pretty detailed, although if I can build it without one of the suspension springs flying off into either my eye or the jaws of the carpet monster it will be a miracle. But I will give it a go. This is the plastic which comes with the kit (maybe I should have taken it out of the bags before the photos). In addition, you also get the aforementioned springs and some photoetch for added detail and testing of patience: First thing to do was to try to get something ready to paint, and this is where I failed miserably. I figured the chassis was probably a good place to start. Turned out not to be the case as there was this bit where the ejector pin looks to have sliced though the plastic - I think this needs firming up a bit to ensure we don't have a weak point here. So out with the dissolved sprue and I have the hole filled in. I'll leave it for at least this week to firm up before sanding back to shape, but at least this should prove stronger than filler. There was also a bit of a pin mark on the other side, but that took much less filling. Now a question for anyone who has built this (and I accept there probably aren't many). There are these two bits circled in red which I'm unsure of. My first thought was they were additional sprue channels to avoid a short shot, but on closer inspection they appear quite well moulded and have a definite pin / nipple on them as if they are meant to fit in something. But they don't seem to be shown on the instructions - does anyone know if they are meant to be there or should they be removed? And that little bit is all for this one for now. Thanks for looking, and any advice on the circled bits.

Fun little figure that is eventually going to be part of a post apocalyptic diorama with a couple of other figures and a vehicle.

When it comes to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1991 winning Mazda 787B is quite iconic among racing enthusiasts. It gave Mazda its first overall victory at Le Mans, as well as the first for any Japanese manufacturer, a record that would hold until 2018, when it was practically gifted to Toyota for remaining in WEC. The 787B looked and sounded great, and has since lived on famous video games like Forza and Gran Turismo. The 787B was the culmination of Mazda's Group C / GTP program, which came to an end shortly after the FIA disallowed the rotary engine. Before the 787B, Mazda enjoyed some success with the 757 / 767 cars, building experience and reliability at Le Mans. During the 1988 race, the 757 would win the GTP class ahead of the 2 767s. The 767 would be upgrade for 1989, known as the 767B, being made faster and lighter. 2 767Bs and a 767 were entered for the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans, the only 3 entries in the GTP class. All 3 would finish, with the class winning #201 767B placing 7th overall. A 767B would again be entered for the 1990 Le Mans, alongside 2 new 787s with their more powerful R26B engines. The 767B would end up being more reliable however, winning the GTP class again in 1990. For a plastic Mazda 767, Hasegawa is the only game in town. This kit has been around in several boxings since 1990, and has been rated to be quite good. My copy was a Christmas gift, though not the version of the class winning entry. This version is the more colorful livery, with the Charge sponsorship on the 2nd place #202, looking much like the eventual 787B. The plastic was produced in orange and black, to help with painting. Because I'll be building the #201, which wore a white and blue livery instead, I'll be spending plenty of time to make sure my primers are able to cover up all the orange. For decals, I've ordered a set from Indycals, who offers decals for many sportscars. Great thing about Indycals, they offer what they call "Oops Protection". If the decals become damaged within 1 year of purchased, simply take a picture to show them, and they'll send you a replacement. Their decals are the sole reason I'm doing the #201, as I have horrible luck with Hasegawa decals, and replacing those will allow me to finally build this kit.

Well, I said I wasn't going to start a WiP yet, but then I've had some paint mixed, so... here we are... Introducing the 1/24 Scale Tamiya Testarossa I've talked about this project in the 'Spotted...' and 'Recent kits...' threads and so now I'll consolidate it into a WiP. So here's how it started... In the ludicrous Ronal Teddy discussion of a few weeks ago, the concept of a Ferrari Testarossa on Teddy drag wheels was born. My first thoughts were of 80s Pro Street cars and specifically the (actually 1990) B&M neon pink Camaro. This is the only photo of the car, at the time, I can find IN. THE. WORLD. If I hadn't sold all my old copies of Street Machine I could have got one from the article. This is my inspiration! The plan is to build a Pro Street Testarossa as it might have been built in the early 90s, if it had been sponsored in part by Ronal: the TEDDYROSSA! (Thanks to @Neddy for the name) I'm thinking supercharger on the flat 12 popping out of the engine cover with a scoop over the roofline, narrowed rear suspension (difficult with the engine in the way) with massive, treaded tyres (drag radials?) and narrow-ish fronts wrapped around a set of Teddies. I might leave the side vents open, a la Willy Koenig, and possibly have smooth, smoked front and rear grilles/light panels... We'll see... As I'm modelling some Teddies for the Ferrari 348tb, I've already started on the centre lock drag versions... And, finally... I emailed ProScale to ask if they could make a suitable pink for me - they offer a custom service at no extra cost. My requirement was for a pearl paint that was as close to the original solid colour as possible. Realising that, being a metallic pearl, it wasn't going to be as 'flouro' as the original. Paul at ProScale really came through with this beauty... It looks red in the photo but, having seen a video of the paint in motion, it looks like the highlights will be bright pink and transition to a red/pink in the shadows, which I think will look amazing! Once the paint arrives, I'll do some spoon tests on white and pink primer. After the spoon tests, this project will probably lie dormant for a while, whilst I clear some of the mounting WiPs I already have! Thanks for looking and, if everything I've written upsets you Martin

Presenting my entry to this group build: This is the recently re-issued kit from Tamiya that comes with a Motocompo folding scooter and middle aged man pretending to be a student. The sprue for the scooter isn't very well thought out and would involve seams and way too much masking for my liking (the car already requires a load for black trim), so I got the resin version from ZoomOn that is much more logically thought out. Also, I have the Aoshima Honda City Turbo II kit, so will use the spare Motocompo for that, when the time comes. The sprue shots... The car kit is quite basic, possibly originating from a motorised version looking at the rear axle area, and it has no hub or brake components at either end. 🤔 Now to the plan...! Obviously, I'm going to lower it and swap the wheels! I feel like this car need slamming on the floor with some aggressive camber and fat wheels/stretched tyres... BUT! Because this is the 80s, and that sort of nonsense doesn't exist yet, I'm going to refrain (and save that for the Turbo II ) and give it tasteful 35mm lowering springs with -1º of camber and a set of 1 inch wider, 15 inch (1in larger diameter) Work Equip 40s that were available at the time. In the process of creating the lowering/camber system, I'm planning to model the missing hubs and brakes and get rid of the metal axle and screws that hold the front wheels in favour of the current Tamiya wheel fastening system. Finally the colour scheme... and this is entirely inspired by @Toftdale's builds of a few months back. Specifically some shots of the paint in progress where the car looks pink. I thought the colour suited it so well, I'm going to paint this one, and the Motocompo, in Porsche Frozen Berry over pink primer from ProScale Paints. As you can see, the pink primer really 'pinks' it up a bit Anyway, that's it for now. I need to go and finish my Trabant for the 'Give Peace a Chance' GB. Thanks for looking! Martin

Hi, My first build post on this site and it can take months from start to completion (if not longer) as I get side tracked with other models, usually UFO / Space 1999 related however back to trucks for this one. Drove and managed for Blakes in the 90s so always seem to build trucks I have either driven or managed. This is slightly more ambitious than usual and involves Italeri and KFS parts so it will be a mongreal rather than a pedigree. All comments good,bad,indiffrent welcome as I am my own worst critic, or am I...

I think quite a few of you have come across this kit and modified it a bit or not started yet as I've seen quite a few references, but can't think of seeing an out of box build on here. For a basic pick-up, this one seems to have proved a popular kit as it keeps being reissued in various forms. I've just gone for the basic earlier version. For something which doesn't have an engine there seems to be quite a few pieces to the kit, and generally the moulding seems pretty well thought out in terms of attachment points and ejector pin locations (cab floor excepted). This is what you get for your money. At this stage I'm just trying to get some paint on while the summer weather is here, the build won't be starting until after the Focus (assuming I get that all painted and decalled before the weather turns - I'm slow like that!). The instructions start with the body, so first job is to clean it up. The mould lines seem to have generally been designed to accommodate those people who don't clean them up, so for the most part follow edges or trim pieces and have been fairly easy to clean up, just make sure if you're building one that you don't lose detail doing this. The worst ones are on the rear corners, but at least they proved easily sandable. This is how it was looking after scribing out the panel lines some more and cleaning up the mould lines. That does seem very shiny plastic doesn't it? Hopefully the primer grips better than it does on the spoons as I'd prefer not to be having to key it if I don't have to. However, the first thing to focus on was the bed which is made up of five flat pieces. Fortunately they've all fitted about perfectly so a good start. This is another part of the build which is needed right from the beginning, so this was my first task of the build. And today that bed got its primer. I'm really pleased with how it looks, a proper red oxide appearance. If I was doing a well worn example it would have been tempting to leave it like this, but as usual I'm not it it won't stay like this. Rubbish photo in one way as this is the bit of the bed you won't see, but that cutdown BBQ skewer to help with manhandling during painting is preventing it going the right way up. Still, it gives the idea. So that's my first report on this one. I've got a pretty good idea on where I want to go with it (fairly stock). The only question in my mind is whether to go with the stock steel wheels, or to put a set of gold Watanabes on it.

My attempt at Airfix's magnificent 1/24 Spitfire. If Tamiya's 1/32 Spits are 9.9/10 (no kit is perfect, right?), this one is 9.8/10 such is it's quality and the enjoyment of building it. The only slight issue I have is that although the cowlings will fit over the engine they don't stay in place - I tried to overcome this with magnets which was only partially successful, as is clear from the photos. Although, even Tamiya didn't quite manage this either so it is a minor gripe at most. If you have this in your stash, get it out and build it - it really doesn't deserve to be hidden away. Thanks for looking.

Morning folk's.although I've been here since 2013 it's not often I find myself here in WIP,I tend to lurk mainly in the GB section's for the most part.This kit for all it's faults has been on my to do list for years as I really have to consider the Hurricane as my favourite aircraft and that summer of 1940 as Churchill put it "our finest hour".I was born only twenty years after the event but with Dad having fought and Mam living through that War it was never far from conversation and as a kid Airfix models and war films were my bread and butter and set me off over the year's being fascinated by the Battle of Britain.So not a quick build for which I'm noted but as a Christmas present from my youngest it's time to make a start on her.

Hello all, Having just finished the last update today over on this thread of two years research and design work on 1/24 and 1/32 versions of the Westland Wasp helicopter: - I'm starting this new thread here to outline the 3d printing and contruction of the kit at 1/24th scale. The project includes options for both torpedo (Mk.44/46 versions, Mk.44 shown here): - and AS.12 missile version: With working blade folds on both: This thread wil be quiet for a bit whilst I put the next series of parts on to print, but eventually we should end up with something approximating this as a physical entity: Until the next instalment: Tony

Thought I'd start with this one for the 1980s GB. Comes with LED and sound unit, so it should be interesting. So I decided to make a start - filling some sink marks in the bonnet (there was one by the windscreen, where there is a peg underneath for the clear part, also some small ones by near the headlights. Also there is a separate piece for the exit on the bonnet vent, and there was a nasty seam. Similarly the infill pieces for the front bumper needed some filling - though I chose to use AK white filler there (I used sprue goo / melted styrene in Tamiya extra thin for the others), here the front bumper is just dry fitted. After an awful lot of sanding here's where I ended up. The headlights are designed to pop up, however when trying to build them as sub-assemblies for painting unfortunately the contact points for the hinge were a bit too small/close to the moving parts and they started to set, so I decided to fix them in place closed, that also meant I could glue on the front bumper. There are some light fittings to be added in the back of the lower bumper, hopefully I can still squeeze them in with everything glued up. I also added the wing mirrors, they are body colour so I figured it might be better to get a nice plastic/plastic bond before paint. Next is going to be paint - I'm going to try using AK Xtreme metal base black as a single primer / colour coat - it's high gloss and should hopefully mean just a single application.

After finishing the Metro 6R4 in this GB and having so much fun and interest from you all, I think I just have time to squeeze in another Group B icon in this version of the all conquering Quattro, I've chosen this kit out of my stash as its all one colour and no engine detail, so hopefully it will be finished in the 2 months remaining 😀 My main passion for builds are group B and F1, so this GB is right up my street 😀

Next build series is two exmaples of the Hasegawa Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 kit; one is the road car and the other is the 1991 Ivory Coast Rally vehicle driven to victory by Kenjiro Shinozuka and John Meadows. The road car kit is Hasegawa number 24001 (CD-1). I don't think this is Hasegawa's first 1/24th scale road car, but appears to be the first in the more modern series. When I say 'modern', the kit is very basic by recent Hasegawa standards. The engine bottom, front and rear diffs / gearboxes, drive shafts and all four prop shafts are molded in one big piece, for example. Plan is a two-tone paint job and simple period correct grey and black interior. The rally kit has the full photo-etch detail set common to Hasegawa rally kits of the time. Of course it also has the modifications for the Ivory Coast Rally, such as front bar and large spotlights. Despite being a Group A car this particular vehicle is right-hand drive; I had actually clipped off the RHD dash and put it back in the box before I read the instructions! Blue on the rear (can't be seen on box art) is paint and the big side decals will be fun around the door handle and side trim. No photos yet but I have made start on both bodies, which are now drying to the point that I am happy to mask for respective second colours. Fairly basic kits so painting the other pieces will not take too long, then just usual detail painting. Updates soon I hope. Grant.

My second GB entry - I'll try building this, hopefully it goes together well - I noticed it's not the only DeLorean time machine in the GB, seems they are pretty similar (this one has some folding mechanism for the wheels to be in 'flight' mode too. This is one of my oldest kits in the stash so I'm hoping the decals are still viable! Part count not too excessive and instructions seem clear enough - lets hope it goes well!

I'll put this here as a place marker for when I start, I'm starting another car in the Give peace a chance GB next week, so once I've started to get to grips with that one I'll be doing bits of this in between hopefully According to Scalemates the original new tool and boxing of the kit was in 1978 with number 722, however mine's a later boxing from a few years ago, but nothing apart from boxing looks to have changed I've used the pic from Scalemates site as my phone camera doesn't want to play with Flikr at the minute for some reason 🤔 I think it'll probably be alright tomorrow, but here's my starter for 10 so to speak I've heard it's a bit of a challenging kit in places, but hopefully it'll be a breeze compared the the Mini Art 1/35th lorry I've just finished Ian

Here's my second GB entry is this tiny (especially in 1/24th) Fiat/Giannini with a KMP transkit... I've already started but hopefully not crossed the 25% mark... The work so far has been to fit the even wider arches from the transkit (I had to sand down those on the shell a little first), add in the firewall, attach the 2 engine halves and gearbox halves together, glue the inner wheel parts to the outer rim tube and attach the new hub parts to the kit parts with the polycaps inside. Body inner and outer parts have had an initial primer coat but could do with another to hide the contrast in the green 3D printed resin colours and I need to add some filler around those arches. Oh and the rollcage has had a first primer coat too. Here are the rest of the transkit parts - thankfully they've included spares for lots of parts (wheel pins, the fragile looking engine/boot lid supports, etc. The transkit is a bunch of 3D printed parts, decals and a rather limited instruction pamphlet (double sided) and paint/decal diagram. Here's an image of the car with the arches on, pre-primer... Here's the rest of the Tamiya kit pieces... And the Tamiya instructions... This is an older boxing of the kit, it looks like Tamiya have re-released it (hence the yellowed plastic). Here's a link to a YouTube video of the cars in action:

With the 206 build hitting a problem with the decals I decided I'd try crack on with something else. All the parts seem to come neatly inside one big plastic bag, containing sub-bags... Instructions are usual modern Revell affair, lots of decal choices, 66, 67, 68, or 69... I maybe nearly 50 but I'm still childish so you can probably guess which variant I'll do! Interestingly the body is formed of 2 parts, luckily that does make painting easier (the rear part is red, the front section white and blue, though has a couple of small red bits to mask and paint. Also the windows come with pre-painted surrounds (I'm not sure I've ever seen that before) and there are some clear red parts for the tail lights. The lower shell is a fairly flat single piece for the underbody aero - the vertical strakes on the rear diffuser look a bit out of scale. Overall the kit seems nicely moulded (not much if any flash) though the detail does look rather soft. I decided to cut out the air intakes on the front, though I didn't do the neatest of jobs. I also drilled out the side exit exhausts ports. After a days work I had separated and build whatever sub-assemblies I could to aid painting and mounted lots of parts on temporary sprue handles to aid airbrushing. The wheels and tyres look pretty similar but there are separate front and rears (I think the rears are marginally wider) so the wheels I marked with sharpie and added some masking tape over the marks so I can later see which are which if I remove them from the sprue. Ready for primer. The instructions call for lots of mixes of black, grey and silver for the internal parts in various ratios. For now I'm going to prime the shell in white and everything else in black/dark grey (will just add the black to the airbrush without flushing it fully).

Finished this one a little while back. Solid kit for the price. As a small departure from how I normally build car models, this one does feature some slight weathering.

Alternatively titled: I came. I grew. I grew some more! Looking around my stash seeking inspiration as the recent Toyota Cafe Menu wip drew to a close, I realised I had the opportunity to chart the evolution of the Mini. In model form of course. So this thread will be the building of Hasegawa's Mini Cooper Sports-Pack (1998), Fujimi's Mini Cooper JCW and Hasegawa's Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4. Unfortunately I do not have any of Tamiya's models of the original / real Mini. I did build the Monte Carlo Rally model when I was a teenager, but that is long gone. I am not prepared to pay the going rates for these nowadays and I am hoping Tamiya's recent re-aquisition of the BMW licence might see some reissues! The boxes.... In my mind I picture the original Mini like a late teenager. Super energetic, lithe, agile, willing to take on any challenge. Athletic. My model is one of the many recent Hasegawa variants; in this case the Mini Cooper Sports-Pack. The first BMW generation Mini is my protagonist now into their mid-twenties. Still plays sport on the weekend when possible but starting their 'adulting', with career on the go and the need for a bit of.... sensible. This is Fujimi's Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Works Kit. Finally, the Mini Countryman ALL4. Our hero has hit full middle-age spread! Career, life partner, babies, fur babies, trips to the flat-pack furniture fecundity. But if you glance sideways in the mirror, you might just catch a glimpse of what once was... Ah, the nostalgia! This is a Hasegawa kit again, in "Ray Package" spec. I have no idea what the Ray Package was in real life, or if it even existed. In model form it appears to mean some decal stripes in two colour options and different mag wheels. I have clear thoughts on the first two models, while my initial thoughts on the Countryman were slightly confused by the recollection tonight of the decals in this particular variant. Not sure if I will use them or not, or how best to incorporate them if I do. The variation wheels I will definitely use.