Guillaume is a bit of a car nut - so when he saw Revell’s new I8 hybrid on their new
releases he had to try the kit out for himself. See what he thought about the
kit and how it looked when he made it up in today’s build review…
Build review:
BMW i8
1:24th scale
item number 07008
individual parts 131
How often is it that a truly revolutionizing concept car
goes into production and is an instant success? This is what happened with what
might be the sports car of the future: the BMW i8.
The Munich based automobile designer understood many years
ago that future cars needed to be a lot greener and safer. This new kind of
mobility resulted in BMW i. A few years ago the first two cars of the new
concept were introduced: the all-electric BMW i3, a perfect car for who drives
in the city and the BMW i8, a very impressive sports car with 2 engines: one
normal combustion engine and one electrical. Together, this gives a 354 HP car
that consumes only 2,7 l for every 100 km!
Rightfully proud of the German automobile constructor,
Revell released a kit in 1/24 of the BMW i8. Our car-enthusiast Guillaume built
it for TMN! But before Guillaume begins the construction of this wonderful new
Revell kit, here are a few more photos of the real thing, courtesy of BMW.
Over to Guillaume:
When I first opened the box of this new Revell BMW i8, I
noticed that it was filled with beautifully detailed parts: the bodywork, the
two engines, all the interior parts and a sprue with chromed plastic parts.
The box contains also the instructions with around 80 steps
– which is quite a lot for a car model – and a remarkably large sheet with
truly nice printed decals. A very nice touch are the many different licence
plates from different countries.
Let’s have a look at the parts. The main component is nicely
cast in hard and glossy plastic.
All the structural
parts of the kit seem to be engineered very well.
The internal parts with the seats, door panels, ... are all
a good representation of the real car.
A close-up of the
instrument panel.
This kit contains lots of transparent parts, that are very
clear and thin, just the way you like it for a car model.
Construction of the kit starts with the body work. I checked
for moulding lines and sanded them down. Some parts, like the very typical side
spoilers at the far end of the car are glued on, just like all the other parts
that will be in the same colour at the end. With this done (and sanded smooth),
a coat of primer was sprayed on.
With a car model like this BMW i8, you have to make sure
that everything is as good as you can. You can’t afford to do it “just okay”,
it has to be perfect or you will be able to see the slightest inaccuracy on the
finished model.
Once the primer is dry, the body work is sanded and
polished, ready for the final colour. I picked a black gloss finish for the
car, with the typical BMW blue accents for the i8.
Looks nice but wow, every little piece of dust can be seen
on this glossy paint! I used Zero Paint which is great for car models and can
be used, straight from the jar. For the blue accents, Revell proposes decals,
but I thought it would look better painted. For this, I used Tamiya X14. With
that down, I got on a generous couple of coats of Tamiya X22 varnish. For the
transparent parts, Revell Contacta Clear is used.
By now, it was time
to get working on the interior parts of the car. Here too, you can pick
different colours. I picked white, metal and black. The fit of the parts is
really amazing. Well done Revell! The seats look very comfy ...
and fit perfectly
into the interior.
Revell designed both engines quite nicely. It’s just a pity
that nothing of both of them can be seen in the end. It would have been a good
idea to provide separate engine covers.
Next step is to
install the interior.
The decals are really
nice and are easy to place. Top notch!
The wheels can be done quickly. It just takes 3 steps: 1.
paint them gloss black, 2. Take away what needs to be metal with some Tamiya
Lacquer Thinner. And 3. Install the tires. Fit to the car is as everything else
with this kit: really good.
And as if this car isn’t spectacular enough, the doors open
upwards. So, that’s the way I finished the kit.
This was the first time i built a car by Revell and I have
to say: I was very impressed by this kit. The quality and fit are very good,
the decals are outstanding and that’s not mentioning the very reasonable price.
It is a kit with a lot of possibilities, but whichever you pick, the
construction is really easy. This is a kit that can be recommended to any
modeller!
So, this was fun! And that’s what it’s all about, right?
Guillaume Friart
Thanks to Revell
for sending us a kit so I could build it.
Revell model kits are available from all good toy
and model retailers. For details visit www.revell.de/en , @RevellGermany or facebook.com/revell