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junkmunki

Box art or not to box art

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Just a random thread here, but i am a big fan of restoring vintage models to box art colours etc, but having just got hold of an original Lamborghini LP500 that has been painted yellow, i thought id look and see what the original colour should have been. The box art shows a blue car, the manual syas it should be red and in Tamiya's own museum, theirs is painted yellow.

Is this the only time the manual says to paint the body a fifferent colour to the box art?

It maybe that i just have too much time on my hands....:unsure:

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I have the same predicament and asked the forum for advice. I came to the decision that ts15 is the way to go but I still haven’t had the guts to paint it yet

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Tamiya’s museum is not a good example to follow, as quite a few of the cars on display in the cabinets there are not setup or painted as per manual. I notice because I too am a big fan of following the book, to get the right look. 

I will also mention that box art is a “fantasy illustration”, not reality. So while it is a factor in determining “official”, its not the only one - and I personally hate the idea of slavishly following box art to the point of (for example) using third-party parts to achieve the SRB metal bumper. The later bumper is box art on the Rough Rider too anyway. And following the metal bumper logic could also mean doing all kinds of silly stuff to the kits (using non-kit parts) just to match the illustrations...

That ain’t for me...

So my approach is I use the primary catalogue photo as another true “official” example. I spent far more time looking at the old catalogues than I did at the box art, as a kid. The catalogue photos represented for me (in most cases), the perfect per-manual build that I used to daydream about. That’s not to say they were always perfect either. In some, there are early prototype photos of cars with totally different colours...

So to come up with a reasonable compromise between box, catalogue and manual, here is my personal rule for deciding...

“Build and paint based on (1) the manual. But also use the earliest (2) catalogue photo in which the car has the same colour and decals as (3) the box art image.”

The Lambo is an interesting one because manual and box art totally disagree. What colour is it shown in the catalogues? Can that third point of reference be used to “break the tie” in this case? :) 

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5 hours ago, Hibernaculum said:

The Lambo is an interesting one because manual and box art totally disagree. What colour is it shown in the catalogues? Can that third point of reference be used to “break the tie” in this case? :) 

Is rear wing chromed (=CS) or not? 

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Because most of the manuals sugest a paint which is the same as the box art colour, I wondered how many other kits say to paint it a different colour. Also, in reference to the Lambo, there is only one Wolf racing decal in the original set, but the box art shows two, one on each front wing making it impossible to copy the box art.

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3 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Is rear wing chromed (=CS) or not? 

The rear wing on the CS is chrome, but the standard LP500 is painted body colour. Also, there are two colours of wheels, the standard used plain silver colour, while the CS used gold.

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10 hours ago, junkmunki said:

The rear wing on the CS is chrome, but the standard LP500 is painted body colour. Also, there are two colours of wheels, the standard used plain silver colour, while the CS used gold.

thought the CS used foam/Duplo tyres on silver/grey plastic wheels?

yeah have seen silver/grey telephone dial wheels for radial tyres, dunno about the kit but have seen them as boxed spare tyres BiTD. Same wheels moulded in bronze/gold plastic were repop'd about 20yrs ago

the LP500 shell was repop'd in both all white plastic as well as black plastic with a chromed wing. 

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On 5/4/2019 at 9:40 AM, Bromley said:

Paint it white.:D

Ala Cannon Ball run!

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A lot of the old Tamiya static kits, if it wasn't a race car with a specific livery, would have a list in the manual of the colors the actual car was available in, and the corresponding TS colors to match. The box art would be one of those, or sometimes two; the side panels of the box often showed one of the other colors.

I'm surprised that the Lambo kit didn't have something similar, considering that it's basically a static model body on an RC chassis. For me, for a kit like that, making sure that it's painted in an actual color that the real car would have been available would be my goal, regardless of what the box top shows.

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19 hours ago, WillyChang said:

thought the CS used foam/Duplo tyres on silver/grey plastic wheels?

yeah have seen silver/grey telephone dial wheels for radial tyres, dunno about the kit but have seen them as boxed spare tyres BiTD. Same wheels moulded in bronze/gold plastic were repop'd about 20yrs ago

the LP500 shell was repop'd in both all white plastic as well as black plastic with a chromed wing. 

You are right about the wheels, the CS has the diplo front tyres, and foam rubber rears on silver non Lambo style wheels. I have a NOS set of the gold coloured rims, but didnt know whether they were an option, or part of CS kit.

DSC_5208.JPG

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On 6 May 2019 at 11:39 PM, markbt73 said:

A lot of the old Tamiya static kits, if it wasn't a race car with a specific livery, would have a list in the manual of the colors the actual car was available in, and the corresponding TS colors to match. The box art would be one of those, or sometimes two; the side panels of the box often showed one of the other colors.

I'm surprised that the Lambo kit didn't have something similar, considering that it's basically a static model body on an RC chassis. For me, for a kit like that, making sure that it's painted in an actual color that the real car would have been available would be my goal, regardless of what the box top shows.

think the TS paints only came out in early 80s? Same with the X paints.

Prior to T having their own paint range the instructions only suggested a colour name afaik. The Lambo is pre 80s 

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On 7 May 2019 at 12:02 AM, junkmunki said:

You are right about the wheels, the CS has the diplo front tyres, and foam rubber rears on silver non Lambo style wheels. I have a NOS set of the gold coloured rims, but didnt know whether they were an option, or part of CS kit.

DSC_5208.JPG

No those gold wheels tyre set in a polybag of 4 is a Japanese Show Special release reissued about 20 yrs ago :) 

original tyre & wheel spareparts from the 70s were in card boxes with proper boxart, sold in pairs of Front or Rear. 

Lambo wheels got treaded tyres; Porsche wheels had treaded or slick rubber options. 

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