Questions about car models

Bgrigg wrote:

Tamiya makes excellent F1 and Japanese domestic, but if you can find their European (some are OOP) kits, they are fantastic! I am building their Alpine A110 1600SC and it's a beauty, and I recently picked up the Lotus Super Seven and the Lotus Europa JPS Special. All are full kits with engines. Some are "curbside" with no motors, which doesn't offend me. I don't display my kits with the hood propped open.

I'm also building the Alpine, that has to be one of the nicest kits I've ever built. When I bought it the guy told me to be careful not to shake it on the way home or it might be built when I open it. He was joking but just barely. I've built mostly AMT & Revell and I like their kits, but if the Alpine is typical of Tamiya kits I can see why they are so popular.

 

For other nice kits, most of the AMT & Revell pickups are good. In particular the Revell '41 Chevy, '29 Ford, & '50 Ford, AMT's '53 Ford, '50 and '60 Chevy trucks and Lindberg's '34 Ford are great kits. One of the nice things with the American kits is they have a lot of options, 2 in 1, 3 in 1 and even 4 in 1 kits being fairly common.

Tamiya kits go together effortlessly.  They're a good choice for a fun, easy build.  Most of the kits are curbside (aka no opening hood or engine to really look at).  Here are some good kits that I've built from other manufacturers that are decent looking box stock kits -

Revell 69 Charger or Daytona Charger

AMT 67 Impala

Revell 69 GTO

Revell 69 Camaro

Good luck in your new venture!

Yes in the near future keep an eye out for a post on here by me, with a Toyota AE86 Trueno by Fujimi, I am building it straight out of the box.  I'm not even going to add a fancy exhaust tip like I want.  I'll be flocking the carpet, and MAYBE drilling out the exhaust tip in the kit, but other then that out of box.

All depends on what you like to build:

• Revell & AMT have a HUGE collection of American domestics, and some exotics. If you like 50s or muscle cars look no further. They are incredible values compared the prices of any of the imports. For the most part Revell beats AMT for quality, but AMT still has some gems in their collection.
• Tamiya makes excellent F1 and Japanese domestic, but if you can find their European (some are OOP) kits, they are fantastic! I am building their Alpine A110 1600SC and it's a beauty, and I recently picked up the Lotus Super Seven and the Lotus Europa JPS Special. All are full kits with engines. Some are "curbside" with no motors, which doesn't offend me. I don't display my kits with the hood propped open.
• Hasagawa makes some great kits as well, I have their Lambo Miura in the stash and it's nicely detailed. If you like off beat or rare cars, Hasegawa has some great ones, like the 1967 Toyota 2000GT or the 1969 Nissen Bluebird (Datsun 510).
• I have a couple of Trumpeter kits: 63 Chevy Nova and a 66 or 67 Buick Wildcat (I forget and it's buried in the stash), which are highly detailed, if a bit expensive.
• Fujimi also makes some nice kits.

And yes, you can easily build a car kit OOB without super detailing and have it turn out very presentable.

Well most of the Japanese kit manufacturers don't put engines in their auto kits.  The chassis are usually very well engraved and detailed but are generally monochromatic, so not much to do there.  Body/paint, and then some interior work is about the only places you can really add detailing.  Auto's look GREAT out of the box.  Especially the Jap manufacturers.  Domestic snap plus kits are the same way.  Even a full detail out of the box looks good.  Usually the only detailing to really make a kit look good is some spark plug wiring, and maybe heater hose and battery cables, and they look spectacular.  I build both detailed and out of the box.  Most of my Import kits are done out of the box while my domestic kits I add some basic wiring and plumbing under the hood.