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Maisto BMW Z8 in kit form. . .
Paint: 6
Exterior: 6
Interior: 7
Wheels/Brakes: 4
Engine & Undercarriage detail: 5
Competition: 3
Desirability: 3
Car only scores a 34 overall, but I would give it a higher score personally. Originally, I had mixed feelings when I bought this model, but I really like it.
I purchased this Model at Hobby Lobby on sale for $15 US. The box was in bad shape and upon inspection when I got it home, a couple of the parts bags had been opened, but the only things missing were a couple of screws. I want to stress that I DID NOT just assemble this kit out of the box. I added lots of detail painting and some spare decals. I did not add anything extra such as wiring, plumbing, or any scratch built parts. The exterior paint is very good. I could find no flaws in it except a couple of very small areas under hood that got missed. They are not very noticable.
The interior surprised me. Maisto usually puts alot of detail into their interior, but this one really has alot. Upon looking at the interior tub, I found that they had painted it with some sort of simulated carpet paint. They repeated this process for the trunk insert, and it looks pretty good. Much more character than flat black paint. There are seperate seat belt pieces that fit through a loop on the seat back. I chose to simulate the interior for a silver car, red/black because I felt it had alot more contrast than the solid black interior of the red cars.
The engine is three seperate pieces. Lower engine piece, upper engine piece and the air cleaner assembly. Under hood there is also a cowl insert just ahead of the windshield and a combination headlights-front cover-radiator piece. I detail painted all these pieces, painted the inner fender wells gloss red and added a few decals from the spares box.
The wheels are very nice. The only thing I did to them was give them a gloss clear coat. The brake rotors/calipers are all one piece, and they do not turn with the wheels. I detail painted the calipers, and gave the chrome discs a coat of semi-gloss clear to tone them down a bit.
The undercarriage consists of a single front piece to hold the wheel spindles, the rear piece to hold the rear wheels, and a two piece exhaust system. As on most Maisto's, all four wheels have working suspension. The rear suspension is one piece but it has alot of detail to it, and careful painting really brings it to life.
When I finished assembling the car, to my dismay I found that the hood would not close completely. No matter what I did, there was a 1/4 gap at the front. I traced this problem to the cowl insert ahead of the windshield. It is held in place by some of Maisto's notorious flexible rubber donuts, and it just couldn't snug the cowl insert down enough to give the hood clearance to close all the way. I had to partially disassemble the model and put two small brass nuts on the two tabs that hold the cowl insert in place so that the hood would close completely.
All in all, I really like this model, and I had the added pleasure of putting it together, which to me, is a bonus!!
Review added to the DX Model Review Database on 24-JULY-2005
Paint: 6
Exterior: 6
Interior: 7
Wheels/Brakes: 4
Engine & Undercarriage detail: 5
Competition: 3
Desirability: 3
Car only scores a 34 overall, but I would give it a higher score personally. Originally, I had mixed feelings when I bought this model, but I really like it.
I purchased this Model at Hobby Lobby on sale for $15 US. The box was in bad shape and upon inspection when I got it home, a couple of the parts bags had been opened, but the only things missing were a couple of screws. I want to stress that I DID NOT just assemble this kit out of the box. I added lots of detail painting and some spare decals. I did not add anything extra such as wiring, plumbing, or any scratch built parts. The exterior paint is very good. I could find no flaws in it except a couple of very small areas under hood that got missed. They are not very noticable.
The interior surprised me. Maisto usually puts alot of detail into their interior, but this one really has alot. Upon looking at the interior tub, I found that they had painted it with some sort of simulated carpet paint. They repeated this process for the trunk insert, and it looks pretty good. Much more character than flat black paint. There are seperate seat belt pieces that fit through a loop on the seat back. I chose to simulate the interior for a silver car, red/black because I felt it had alot more contrast than the solid black interior of the red cars.
The engine is three seperate pieces. Lower engine piece, upper engine piece and the air cleaner assembly. Under hood there is also a cowl insert just ahead of the windshield and a combination headlights-front cover-radiator piece. I detail painted all these pieces, painted the inner fender wells gloss red and added a few decals from the spares box.
The wheels are very nice. The only thing I did to them was give them a gloss clear coat. The brake rotors/calipers are all one piece, and they do not turn with the wheels. I detail painted the calipers, and gave the chrome discs a coat of semi-gloss clear to tone them down a bit.
The undercarriage consists of a single front piece to hold the wheel spindles, the rear piece to hold the rear wheels, and a two piece exhaust system. As on most Maisto's, all four wheels have working suspension. The rear suspension is one piece but it has alot of detail to it, and careful painting really brings it to life.
When I finished assembling the car, to my dismay I found that the hood would not close completely. No matter what I did, there was a 1/4 gap at the front. I traced this problem to the cowl insert ahead of the windshield. It is held in place by some of Maisto's notorious flexible rubber donuts, and it just couldn't snug the cowl insert down enough to give the hood clearance to close all the way. I had to partially disassemble the model and put two small brass nuts on the two tabs that hold the cowl insert in place so that the hood would close completely.
All in all, I really like this model, and I had the added pleasure of putting it together, which to me, is a bonus!!
Review added to the DX Model Review Database on 24-JULY-2005
