Revell AG BMW i8

[Hemi Killer]

This is one of the reasons I would never buy a kit from Revell that is made by one of the Japanese mfg. The biggest disappointment for me have been the newer mustangs. I wanted to build them stock, but the wheels have always been horrible. They never look right, even on the 1/12 Shelby. The sidewalls always look too big, but there is no more room in the fenderwells to go without it looking weird.

It is much less of an issue for me on the muscle cars though, I don't notice it as much as I do on the more modern cars, and maybe the muscle cars aren't even out of scale.

[Marianitem]

As the undersized wheel feel is so regular on Revell kits... Have anybody measured the wheel arches? "MATTBACON" measured the wheels and tires and compared them to the 1:1 and they seem correct, but in the photo still they still look ugly small. Any chance comparing wheel arches scales?

[mattbacon]

The wheels are undersize -- ZZMX-5 aka Bob Downie set me straight on that. I made the same mistake Revell did, thinking that the visible diameter and the nominal diameter were the same. The Revell wheels need to be about 1.5mm larger than they are. I managed to locate a 1/24 R/C i8 with the "turbine" wheels on for less than the cost of an aftermarket wheelset posted from Japan (and there are pretty few 20" wheels anyway, certainly not any that look like the ones available for the i8). The R/C has stupid "rubber band" tyres on, though, so they'll have to be replaced. I might even get the kit ones to fit with a good soak in hot water beforehand!

bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

OK... the R/C model arrived today and was immediately parted out (well, parted from its wheels, mostly. Not sure WHAT to do with all the rest of it!).



First good news: the new wheels are definitely bigger than the kit parts, and certainly have a resemblance to the "turbine" style real things. I need to have a really close look, but I think with some careful painting (I have a vague feeling that the black and silver areas on the pre-painted parts are transposed compared to the new real ones) they'll be a lot better.




Kudos to you guys who can casually arrange a body and a pair of wheels to show us the stance you're going for... it took me blinkin' AGES to get these to stand in position looking vaguely as they should for long enough to take a snap...

The R/C wheel/tyre combo is one of those where there is locating rim sticking out all around the rim, not a smooth hub, so you're going to need to find some appropriate die-cast tyres that will sit over it. Oddly, I have two that are great, and two that needed some cutting to give them a slot around the inside. I have no idea where the matching pair to the two good ones are...

I think these look like they fill the wheel arches rather better, and I'm sure they can be fine-tuned to look even more like the prototypical wheel set...

bestest,
M.

[blubaja]

Glad you picked those up Matt. Do you have pics of the RC? It is just a one piece body with blacked out windows?