Revell AG BMW i8

New kit I just recently found. Would've preferred a rerelease of their e36 or a newer generation M3 but can't complain. If anyone has a kit can you please share the contents.

http://www.revell.de/produkte/modellbau/autos/moderne-autos/id/07008.html

This is a stunning-looking car, and if Revell have done a good job it'll be a "must have"

The level of details is great, according to their instruction sheet, but painting the blue accents could be difficult.
And: There's no more 2-piece rims, but rims in one piece! Maybe there's still hope for Revell.

Agreed that painting the blue accents will be a pain. Would have been nice if they had engineered those parts as separate.

I'm willing to bet the blue accents are decals. Sadly they chose what looks to me to be the ugliest factory wheels, and of course it's Revell so they look undersized. Overall the kit looks good.

Looking forward to this and the 918 Spyder.

Would've preferred a rerelease of their e36

Agreed! :lol:

I don't get why Revell has such a hard time making wheels and tires correctly. Their Mustangs and pretty much all the exotic cars just look weird.

There were some pics of it the Nurburg model show eariler this year (Sorry bad spelling)
Showed it is like Tamiya LFA, can be built as seperate body with a rolling chassis, includes all the detail of the drive train that would otherwise never been seen. I'll def be getting this!!! & the 918 with the undersized wheels!

OK... I have the kit in hand, and I've measured the wheels and tyres, so before we go off into yet another "Revell's wheels are undersized and they have tractor tyres" rap, these are the facts.

All wheels are the same diameter, 21mm. This translates to 19.9". The real rims are 20", and I'm not measuring to an accuracy of 0.02mm, I'm sure. So, the rims are the right diameter.

The front and rear tyres are different widths. The rear tyres are 9mm wide and 4mm high, which translates to 216/44, where the real ones are 215/45s. Again, close enough to satisfy me.

The front tyres are 8mm wide and also 4mm high, which translates to 192/50. The real things are 195/50s.

So, the Revell rears are 216/44 R19.9, while the real ones are 215/45 R20s
The Revell fronts are 192/50 R19.9s, while the real ones are 195/50 R20s

It's true that they've chosen to give us the narrow section wheelset rather than the wider "special equipment" ones, but the Revell wheels are pretty much bang on the money for the standard issue model.

...and yes, the blue accents are decals.

[I'll take some pictures of the contents tomorrow, but it needs setting up, since most of the sprues are black!]

bestest,
M.

OK... I have the kit in hand, and I've measured the wheels and tyres, so before we go off into yet another "Revell's wheels are undersized and they have tractor tyres" rap, these are the facts.

All wheels are the same diameter, 21mm. This translates to 19.9". The real rims are 20", and I'm not measuring to an accuracy of 0.02mm, I'm sure. So, the rims are the right diameter.

bestest,
M.

Sorry, they are not the right diameter, and this is so frustrating with Revell in general. The wheel diameter is measured where the bead of the tire meets the rim, there is a very visible bead retainer on every wheel, that Revell continues to completely ignore, so their wheels will always be undersized.

A 20" wheel in scale should be about 22.76mm. That would be 20", with a 3/4" lip, which increases diameter to 21.5", then divided by 24 and converted to mm.

One would think Revell would have figured that out in the dark ages. Or there's some evil person at Revell gladly skimming a fraction of a penny of plastic cost per model and thinking they are a star. So their bloody i8 looks like it has rental-car spec 18" 2 series wheels on it. Nice :rolleyes:

Fair enough -- I stand corrected. Given how accurately sized they are based on the same incorrect assumption as me, I'm sure they could get them right. I really doubt that it's penny-pinching, just duff gen. The Revell Germany product guys are always at SMW, so if no one else has caught up with them by then, I'll mention it (again)...

In the mean time, does anyone know of some aftermarket 20" wheels that look at all like this:

http://cmatthewbacon.smugmug.com/Family/general-and-family/i-nRKR9fg/0/O/turbines.jpg

?

bestest,
M.

If anyone wants to see a closer look and unboxing I uploaded it 2 days ago to my channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OWXFU1K62I

There is a 1/24 scale RC version of the concept. Has the 5 spoke looking wheels.
http://img.grouponcdn.com/deal/h5XqN7t7GWFJ87UjhJs1/rS-1000x548

They seem slight bigger. But still not accurate for the production model. But I think I'll aim for these. Or some other bigger diameter aftermarket wheel.

Here is a photo of one of the Revell builtups. Photo taken by Gerry Paquette who has shared this photo on several forums. The undersized wheels look sad under that otherwise excellent looking model. I wonder why in 2015 this is still an issue? Revell finally got rid of their odd "trap the brake disc between wheel halves" wheel/brake design, but we're still being treated to poverty-spec wheel diameters. C'mon Revell, this is totally unnecessary, totally easy to fix, and somewhat embarrassing.

http://media.fotki.com/1_p,rrtkgqqbgrrkbsrxdksdtwdfsd,vi/frfqrfkbxrbrdtgggsxftbqbksgs/1/10258/17860/MG_20150627_191833_zpsifnayq8v-vi.jpg

Never have been a big fan of Revell kits. But there are subject not available from any other
plastic kit makers. Wheels are a big annoyance, but at least body shapes are good in general.
Both i8 and 918 are on my wish list.

Somewhat related question - where do I get Revell kits from in North America (preferably Canada)
at best prices ?

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.

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?

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.

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!).

http://cmatthewbacon.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Car-Modelling/Models-gallery-35/i-5JPzPQ3/0/O/wheel-comparison-1.jpg

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.

http://cmatthewbacon.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Car-Modelling/Models-gallery-35/i-kJLFSdc/0/O/wheel-n-body-1.jpg
http://cmatthewbacon.smugmug.com/Hobbies/Car-Modelling/Models-gallery-35/i-BbWXDMG/0/O/wheel-in-rear-arch.jpg

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.

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