VETTING THE 'VETTE: 1:25 SCALE CORVETTE ROADSTER FROM REVELL

THIS IS A REISSUE OF A 1:25 SCALE KIT that first appeared under the ProModeler name, a label used for a short time by Revell-Monogram in the USA.

CAR CULTURE: AMT TEAMS UP WITH LUCINDA LEWIS, AUTO PHOTOGRAPHER

LUCINDA ‘CINDY’ LEWIS is an American photographer, well known for her dramatic pictures of auto-Americana, especially cars pictured against classic roadside scenes.

IT’S A SMALL WORLD - THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MODEL KIT

TINY VIEW BY MAT IRVINE

You may have noticed some of Round 2’s AMT and MPC kit releases that also include a miniature version of the kit's own 'big box.' A new idea? Not exactly, as AMT/MPC’s previous owner, RC-2, had produced a range of small diecast cars in its Johnny Lightning ‘Classic Plastic’ series.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NASCAR

Today’s the day back in 1947 when NASCAR (North American Stock Car Auto Racing) was founded, its headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida. Since then NASCAR has become an American institution, second only to US Football on the TV ratings charts. Races are shown in more than 150 countries and 75 million fans purchase more than $3 billion USD (£1.84 billion GBP) sponsored products - from T-shirts to diecasts - every year.

And among those sponsored products are the NASCARs marketed by the Hornby-owned model racing outfit, Scalextric. These are all to 1:32 scale and these days many of them are miniature masterpieces in their own right. Long gone are the days when a Scalextric car was little more than a crude electric toy - now you can display them as beautiful models when you’re not trying to overtake on the straightaway.

Several NASCARs are available from Scalextric, but SMN’s choice is the handsome 2009 series Chevrolet Impala, shown above. It’s nicely detailed, with sponsor ads that look accurate, and are applied well. The wheels are true to prototype, and the air dam in front and spoiler at the rear both look good.

Not that there isn’t room for us model fans to improve things - a whiff of airbrush to add some weathering, some finishing work on those wheels and careful interior detailing would help to bring this mini-racer to life, as would roof antennas and airflow splitters.

The Chevrolet Impala is available direct from Scalextric here, or at a considerable discount from Amazon here. Note some mid-season marking changes here.

The pictures above show,top to bottom:
1 Chevrolet Corvette pace car leading the field at the Texas Motor Speedway, April 2009.
2 A classic NASCAR from 1970, Richard Petty’s Plymouth Road Runner Superbird, complete with amazing rooster tail.
3 Scalextric Chevrolet Impala, 2009.

Superbird picture courtesy ‘ckirkman’ at Flikr.

STILL SUPERB - THE MONOGRAM ULTIMATES

Palm-of-the-hand sized 1:43 is the most popular scale worldwide for diecast vehicles, and quite right too - for both display and storage, it’s ideal. Not too big, not too small, and with enough real estate for a good manufacturer to pack in the detail that’ll please most of us.

In the kit world it’s a different matter though, with the bigger 1:24/25/32 scales being far more popular than 1:43. There are some exceptions, including a selection offered by the French Heller company, but while these are OK enough, they're not the absolute state of the art for detail and presentation.

The prize for 1:43 detail really belongs to Monogram’s short-lived ‘Ultimates’ kits, produced in 1990-91. There were just two kits in the ‘range’, a Chevrolet Corvette and an AC Cobra. Nearly two decades on, an Ultimates kit still looks good, presented in a biggish box containing a fine combination of plastic, rubber, and photo-etched metal components, plus decal sheet. The shiny bits are neatly chromed, and the one-piece body free of flash or distortion, just as it should be. The box-top shows the kit’s quality off well - the photo is about twice life-size, yet looks very good indeed.

It’s a pity production lasted for such a short time, and that the range never expanded past these two desirable sports cars. Still, if you’d like to try one or both, Monogram Ultimates appear on eBay from time to time, and are not expensive. It could be worthwhile getting two of each - one to build, one to lay down for the future. We came up with these items here.

Here are some Heller kits to various scales, including a Lotus F1 racer to 1:43 scale here.

The pictures above show:
1 Boxes for both Ultimates kits.
2 Parts for the AC Cobra.
3 Assembled Ultimates Chevy Corvette.
4 A pair of Monogram Corvettes, to 1:43 and 1:8 scale.

Assembled Corvettes supplied by Mat Irvine.