(Originally I was planning to post pics of this after I've posted pics of the TLV Nissan GT-Rs, but seeing as how I haven't even been able to take pics of them, I decided to say 'screw this' to my plan and just go ahead, for fear it's just going to create an even longer backlog of cars that I've yet to post on GTP. The backlog currently stands at 4 cars.
)
Remember my post from a looooooooooong time ago saying that I'm interested in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring R8 LMS by Tarmac Works?
You guys probably knew that I bought it afterwards, so here're the pics.
Contrary to what some of you think, I think that Tarmac did a pretty good job with the R8. I, for one, appreciate the fact that the antenna is pretty resistant to anything landing on it, as I've learned of it after my iPhone collapsed on it more than a few times.
Also, the engine bay is pretty detailed. Of course, by 'detailed' I don't mean the TLV level, but if you squint closely enough, you'll see that they have molded some wiring onto the plastic under the engine. Other commendable features on this model is that the roll cage and the engine bay are painted, unlike Kyosho's first-gen R8 LMS, and Tarmac Works' abundant use of metal transfers for the badges and emblems. (How they managed to use the wrong font for the 'V10' badges on the sides is something I'd like to know. If you're doing it, do it properly and in the right way, right?) One last thing worth mentioning is that it comes with a nice acrylic display case.
If any of you are interested in this though, be reminded that there is a big caveat: it's best to buy it in person and inspect the model if you can, instead of buying it online. Tarmac Works' quality control isn't all that great (at least not on par with the likes of Kyosho), so most of them come with minor flaws, such as some tampos being printed twice, which resulted in some of the words being not so clear. Tearing off of metal transfers is also a very common issue among these model cars. In fact, even the one I bought, which was chosen after a lot of cherry-picking, was not perfect, as I noticed that there are some black marks left on its right side body.
Despite all these shortcomings, I still like it, and consider it a very nice model car. I don't know why; maybe it's because of my affinity for endurance racers.
...And time for this abomination. I was trying to create a photo that features one side of both of the cars so as to illustrate their mutual origins. The concept was okay. The execution? Hmm, questionable. Maybe I should have just replaced the reflections of one of the cars with the other, but unfortunately my photoshop skills are nowhere near capable of that.
