The Special One with The Special One

I'm sure most have picked their first Tamiya for this competition. I couldn't really choose anything else. It all began in 1990, a few months before my birthday. I was at a friend's house who was into RC buggies when another friend came round. He'd bought his RC with him but this one was a truck - the King Cab. I liked the buggies but I'd always preferred pick up trucks so this was something else. I pestered my parents for weeks but they said it was too expensive. Finally they relented and agreed I could have one. We drove to Cheshire Models in Macclesfield to pick it up, along with the prerequisite Acoms AP-227 (Mk.V) and pots of PC paint.

At the time I though I'd done a great job, but looking back at a photo revealed the harsh truth - I'd brush painted the body with the blue bits being too light due to buying the wrong paint, the joins between the colours looked terrible and the sticker application was sub-par to say the least. Mechanical construction wasn't much better. Something fell off every time I ran it, which lead to many trips back to the shop for spares. The batteries lasted about 5 minutes and frequent crashes were not kind to that fragile shell. I sold the truck a few years later to fund a new bike and moved on.

They say you can't revisit the past and fix the mistakes you made. What you can do though, if presented with the opportunity, is to repeat an experience having gained greater skill and expertise in the intervening years. For the King Cab I did just this. I acquired a new in box, sealed example which I intended to remain forever so. A snapshot of the small window between the young version of myself owning a kit in the same state, and making a complete hash of it shortly after. A frozen moment in time preserved for as long as I desired. With this time capsule safely stowed the next step was to build one.

I began to collect parts, but a partially built kit became available on eBay so without hesitation it was purchased. The first few steps of the build done, but the body untouched. With patience, experience and knowledge now on my side I was able to construct and paint this kit to a standard I could be proud of. Admiring the finished truck I felt in a way that I had righted a past wrong, and apologised to myself for my youthful mistreatment of a work of art. Fresh memories of careful masking and spraying supplanted those of sloppy brushing. Rotating each screw head in the same direction caused the recollection of them rattling loose to recede. Knowing those beautiful tyre spikes would never wear down somehow made good the skids, slides and burnouts of mis-spent RC youth.

The new King Cab became a muse, a cherished photography subject helping me learn and recreate the much admired catalogue and guide book shots of the 80s and 90s. Replicating the light, composition and set up of these iconic shots has made me a better photographer and despite never being ran, starring in these nostalgic images somehow gave the truck purpose above its intended use.

All this makes the 58081 Nissan King Cab my Special One.