Tamiya Xanavi Nismo GT-R R34

So I decided to go back and do another racing car kit, as I have several of them staring at me from the "to do" shelf.

I also have to admit that I really do love the Tamiya brand kits. They are well engineered and fit together with minimal fuss. Almost never any flash, and very little clean up.

Just a little careful painting, and you are left with a really outstanding looking model.

This one you have to paint half the car red, and the other silver. The decals really take care of the rest of the body.

I am getting better, though still could use a little practice with the transfers for the tire lettering.
They don't always seem to be perfectly straight or centered.

That's about all I have to report on this one. It was a breeze to assemble, and looks great straight from the box, with no real extras added.

Hotwheels and Kmart

So a couple of times each year, Mattel teams up with Kmart stores and does a special promotion.

If you buy 20 cars, and mail in the backer cards, you get a special collector's mail-in car.

Here are the first two from this year.  (the Heavy Chevy was a Kmart promotion, and the Purple Passion Woody was the same concept, but done at Toys R' Us.)

The come with really nice paint, and real rider tires. More of a collectible item, there is special attention paid to the details.

The other advantage to the K-Day as they are called, is that Mattel ships specially marked packages to each Kmart. There is a raffle, and the winners get to be the first to open their case and dig through them. You have five minutes to view the contents and choose 5 cars.

Here's the advantages..... It appears that each case (at our store, there were 16 cases) comes with a treasure hunt. In this round it was the Bad to the Blade car. I hadn't seen this one before, and was excited to pick one up.

 

It also said that there is one "super treasure hunt" at each store, though I wasn't lucky enough to find that one. There were a lot of collectors there, and the one who found it, kept really quiet about it.

 

So in addition to the treasure hunts in each box, there are also special paint jobs on 4 regular castings that can only be found at this event.

 

It was the 34' Ford three window in red, the 64 Lincoln Continental in a purple-ish color, the 69' Corvette in a green on green paint job, and a 2011 Dodge Charger R/T in white on Blue.
The case that I opened had two of each of these, and I am sure just about everybody there went home with one set. (though I did see one person grabbing as many of these as he could).

So those are the main advantages of going to one of these special collector events.....


But there's more....

Also hidden in the cases were some "first to market" cars. These are cars for next year, that have come out ahead of all the other cars.... I managed to find two...

The 72' Ranchero in a burnt reddish color, and a Chevrolet SS that looks really nice on Blue on Blue.
There was also a Plymouth Superbird/ Dodge Dayona that was red with white stripes, but I didn't manage to get one of these.

So those are the exclusives.... But I was excited to get two more of these....

The very wild 76 Greenwood Corvette! I have one already, but have plans for a custom with this one. It's wild wide body, fixed headlights, and lowered stance make it a custom already, but I'm thinking something a little different with the paint, and maybe wheels too.

So that's it from the Kmart store this morning. Now back to work on that project I hinted at that is almost ready to be revealed.

 



1979 Camaro Z-28

So as a "quick project" I had this Revell 1979 Z-28 kit that I have been looking at for a while, and decided to get back to something more "pedestrian".

Not that a Z-28 is boring, but compared to the Hurtz GT350, and the Porsche GT2, it just seems a little plain.

Being that this was going to be a quick build, the hood is glued shut, and no attempt was made at even building the engine.

I didn't really care for the custom, or drag race versions that were build options with this kit, so went with the street-stock version.

I wasn't sure how accurate the blue stripes over silver paint is, but I felt that it added enough visual interest to work.

The T-Top panels were painted on the inside with Tamiya "Smoke" to make them appear tinted.
The front grill and headlights were carefully painted, and I feel turned out quite well.

The rear tail lenses were also carefully painted, and may not be entirely correct for the amber lenses... but added with the rear license plate, they make the back end look nice and clean.

So this one has actually be done for a little while, and just got around to photographing it.

I actually almost have my next project, and have a few pictures from along the way, so here is a sneak peek at the next one.....