This is the early 60s-vintage Revell Jaguar E-Type. Despite the oh-so-American scale, this was a product of the Revell shop in Potters Bar, following on from some smaller scale cars that had also been tooled in the UK - in 1/32 and the Cadets in 1/48...
This is built almost entirely OOB - the point of the exercise is to show how well some vintage Classic British Kits respond to a bit of TLC in construction.
There are some challenges in getting it together - mostly building it in a way that allows you to eliminate the seams between upper body and chassis and around the nose of the bonnet, but generally the fit is very good, and the detail is impressive for a kit of this vintage. Some parts are a bit crude - notably the headlamp surrounds. The only additions are some fake fingernails to form the "sugar scoop" channels for the headlights, where otherwise there is a big hole behind the glass, and a "stalk" for the scratchbuilt mirror, rather than fitting the chunky chrome part to the dash. I left off the wing mirrors because they spoilt the lines (as do many 1:1 cars), and went for a bonnet-top number plate, because I think they are cool!
Paint is a homebrew from Zero Mica Silver and Blu Scozia to represent the original Opalescent Silver Blue, and the upholstery is mostly Citadel and Vallejo dark blues...
It's not a state of the art kit, for sure, but I think it scrubs up pretty well. Why isn't there a Tamiya E-Type, though? Its arguably the most iconic car EVER, and sold a lot in Japan!
Oh, and I couldn't resist this:
...cars looked better in the '60s, didn't they? One day, my dream garage will contain all of the above ;-P
bestest,
M.