What’s in the Bag?

Hobby Design is a Chinese manufacturer with an extensive line of resin and metal photo-etch, window masks, and other up detailing add-ons for cars and motorcycles.

This review centers around Hobby Design’s set of PE parts for Revell’s Ferrari California. Included on the two seperately packaged and Mylar protected frets are detail parts for the engine bay, interior, and the car body itself. Some of the more intricate pieces include a 4-piece grill insert that replaces the as-molded center section of the grill. Only the outside portion of the Revell grill is used. Other exterior pieces, of course, include various Ferrari logos and scripts as well as the rear exhaust escutchions. Of note are the 3-piece windshield wiper arms and blade assemblies included in this set.

Chevy’s classic Corvette was first offered in a hard-top version in 1963, and that model-year’s radical shift in design style can still be seen in the generations of ‘Vettes which have since followed. The ’63 Sting Ray Coupe is Revell’s latest addition to its Snap-Tite Corvette collection, and this one surely does not disappoint young modeling hands. Camden (age 6) built this review sample in less than an hour during a visit to a local pediatric urgent care facility the night the kit arrived, and we can definitely say this was one of the best-behaved snap kits we’ve seen in a while.

The kit consists of 5 sprues of parts, the candy apple red body, the clear window insert, 4 vinyl tires, steel axles, a couple of self-tapping screws, and a sheet of peel-and-stick decals. Surface detail is both raised and recessed, as appropriate, and appears to lend itself well to those who actually wish to paint the finished product.

This is my first experience with Model Art publications. This issue is dated August 2011 and titled Model Art “Auto Modeling” No. 827, Vol. 24. Its main focus is on the spectacular race cars of the ’70’s Formula 1 series. The first few pages are an index of topics and noted cars of 1973-78 in succession. The first noted car is the ’73 Tyrrell Ford from that year’s championship, driven by Jackie Stewart. The kit supplied and meticulously reviewed is a Tameo Kits 1/43 white metal kit. It’s not a common scale for autos, as most are 1/24, 1/25, 1/20, or 1/12. This is the first offering I’ve ever seen in this scale for autos that is a complete white metal cast kit. The next 40 pages cover the same format of various kit offerings from Tamiya, Studio 27, Hasegawa, and E.Jan conversion kits. Each includes detailed pictures of kit components and steps in assembly. Pages 43-50 cover specs on the vehicles, including blueprint-type drawings.

As an armor builder I wanted to review this kit partly as a challenge to see how well I could build a car. Mainly I wanted to review this kit because I love Ferrari’s. The kit is molded mostly in white, with a sprue of chrome parts and some rubber tires. The decals are nicely done, but a few items required an aftermarket set to enhance the model. At first glance the kit looks very nice except for a few minor details that are an easy fix.

The Ferrari 458 comes in several colors, and I found pictures on the internet of one I liked that is white with black rims and an all black interior.

You begin by building the engine, which is cool, except for the fact that the majority of this work is hidden by the engine bay and cover. I painted the engine even though on my curbside edition you really won’t see much detail once the body is on.

The Ford Motor company unleashed the Mustang SVO (Special Vehicle Operations) in 1984, continuing the marque through 1986. The goal was to produce a sporty and fast Mustang while delivering relatively good gas mileage for the era. Powered by a 2.3 Litre 4 cylinder “Lima” engine originally found under the hood of Pintos, Ford put their money where their claims were. The little Lima was given its muscle (205 HP) with the help of an intercooled turbo-charger; other interesting goodies found on the SVO were a Hurst shifted close ratio 5-speed gear box, Koni designed and supplied suspension, Recaro seats and a bi-plane rear wing unique to the little Mustang that could and did.

The Kit: