assembly begins, opening the hood of the Capri.

In the absence of Airfix in this market place, the scale model kits I have lined up for these builds are:

• Italeri's 1/24 scale Audi Quattro Rally from the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally - I would have loved to have laid my hands on the Tamiya version of this which I actually remember building (badly) back in the 1980s, but until it is re-released, they are like hen's teeth. 
• Tamiya's 1/24 scale Renault 5 Turbo Rally - no, not for the car, but for the figures! Why Tamiya stopped producing these as a separate it is beyond me as no other maker seems to provide figures with their cars!
• Beemax's 1/24 scale Audi Sports Quattro S1 (E2) from the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally - this looks amazing!
• Tamiya's 1/24 scale Rally Mechanics Set - once again Tamiya excels on their figures. 

My plan is to have both models featured in separate dioramas, the more basic Italeri kit in a 1981 Monte Carlo Rally in motion action scene and the detailed Beemax Sports Quattro S1 with mechanics at work.

I found this kit in a second hand shop and I should really have popped ope the box as not only had it already been started with some very suspect painting, but the decals look to be well past their best before date! I'm not even going to look at those paints 😂

The steering rack uses the old school heated knife rivet method of securing it in place which brought back many childhood memories of being let loose with a candle! Miraculously the ropy decals did actually slide off the backing paper able it have a very grainy surface.

I did later learn that I could carefully scrape the surface of the decal to smooth the surface of the decal and produce a very suspect looking powder! The risk, however, was that I found that if I scraped too heavily, understandably, I wore through the printed decal 🙄

On the subject of decals, I was very curious as to what the white squares on the sides and bonnet of the Mitsubishi were all about. A quick piece of research showed that the image which should have filled these spaces had been censored as part of UK tobacco advertising restrictions as they should have had the Marlboro logo! 

I'm now wondering if I'm going to be able to print my own, as unlike Italeri with their Rothmans work around, Airfix did not seem to want to produce this decal in any number of pieces. I fear the lack of good decals here is going to be the biggest challenge with this build and getting a finish anywhere near as nice as that archive picture! 

Having completed my Group B Rally Cars of the 1980’s, that is until Belkits release their 1:24 Ford RS200 Group B Lombard RAC Rally 1986 model kit, may be sometime this year (?), and  keen to stay with this genre of classic WRC cars, next on the bench is the Ford Escort Mk.2 RS 1800. 

The Ford Escort Mk.2 launched in 1975 used the reliable mechanical components as the Mk 1 but adopted a new design based on a squared-style look to appeal to the aesthetic and stylistic tastes of the 1970s. I have fond memories my cousin driving me around in his Mk.2 with original fury dice and Blondie played at full volume on his after market stereo player! 

A dedicated model, the RS 1800, was also introduced to enable it to compete, successfully, in World Rally Championship. This is did, as from its launch in 1975 through to 1979 the Ford Escort RS 1800 won five consecutive years of the Lombard RAC Rally the UK’s round of WRC. In July 2025 a 1976 Ford Escort RS 1800 made history in selling for £278,848, around 100 times its price when new! 

Fortunately this Italeri kit cost me 100 time less than the original price and will take up less space in the garage! Itlaeri provide decals with the kit for Ari Vatanen & David Richards’ RS 1800 which  finished second in the 1981 RAC Rally behind the debut appearance of the Audi Quattro driven by our old friends (in a scale modelling sense) Hannu Mikkola & Arne Hertz.

What is interesting about this kit is that as with the MG Metro 6R4 from the 1986 RAC Rally, which I built as part of my Group B project, both were sponsored by Rothmans. By 1986 tobacco advertising laws in the UK forbade motorsport carrying brand names on their cars and so the MG 6R4 just had the words “RACING” in place of the brand name. This is how the box art of this RS 1800 kit also depicts the car while competing in the 1981 RAC Rally, even though this would have been before the ban came into force. Open the box, however, and - as I was discussing with @J-346856 earlier - Italeri have been very clever in getting around any ban by printing the advertising decal into two pieces: "MANS" and "ROTH"! ... I believe we've seen something similar related to banned WW2 national tail emblems.

So, on with the build 😊

History and Achievements Production: 25 examples were built to meet Group 5 homologation regulations. Major Victory: Its most notable success remains the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring, won by the Giunti/Vaccarella/Andretti crew. Evolution: From the end of 1970, it evolved into the 512 M (Modificata), lighter and more powerful (610-620 hp), to try to counter Porsche's dominance.

Assembly of the Heller model of the long-tail Ferrari 512S of the Filipinetti team, Le Mans 1970, drivers Herbert Müller - Mike Parkes. Rear hood modification: Renaissance 1/24 scale. January 26th: Installation of the suspension links on the rear bulkhead; the links were remade from 1mm copper wire. Engine preparation and installation on the suspension.

For my model, I am using Belkits's 1:24 scale MG Metro 6R4 1986 Lombard RAC Rallye kit. This will be in the colours of the Rothmans (Racing) sponsored car which was driven by Jimmy McRae & Ian Grindrod to 8th place on that last outing of the Group B super cars. 

I am loving what I see on opening this box and if the instruction book is anything to go by, this should be some kit.

In the box we have the following:
5x white plastic runners
1x silvered plastic runner
1x clear plastic runner
1x bag of rubber parts
1x bag of red ribbons (?)
1x box with the body shell
2x sets of PE
2x sheets of decals, 1x paper and 1x 3D
1x Windscreen mask

Phew! that's awesome.

One disappointment is that the bonnet and boot lids are moulded to the body so can not be displayed open. This does, however, mean that the fit is going to be perfect. I think I'll be build this to display as a vehicle ready for the off, mechanics departed and drivers having their last briefing. 
 

This is the Heller Car Trailer so I think it’s probably OK to post under Cars. 

I like the way that it obviously having been reported that part numbers were wrong in the instructions, Heller have provided a separate correction. 

I also see that there are a series of trailers to build and collect, but let’s see how this one builds first.

I’ve only had a short spell at the bench this evening, but so far so good 😊 

Heller's 1/24 TE-20 tractor. The funky farmer decided the original grey was just dullsville man and broke out the pink...

TTFN

Steve  

Nice looking box art although don’t be confused by the ‘2 in 1’ bit at the bottom of the box, it isn’t like Hellers Little Grey Fergie set (50326) with two models inside, there is only the one this time. It refers to the fact you can build both RHD and LHD versions of this Gallic pocket rocket.

Inside the tissue paper lined box - no plastic wrapping for the most part, (good for the environment, not quite so good for catching any parts that drop off the frames) you will find 4 main frames with the various parts on them, the difference between this and the old kit is night and day, the engine itself is very well detailed and Heller have even moulded in seat belts for the front and rear passengers.

The body shell is also very nicely moulded too although the large moulding gate will need care to remove without damaging the window frame.

The underside of the bonnet also has a lot of detail.

as do the dashboard(s)

The clear frame is the only one in a bag, a wise choice to have it bagged to stop them being scratched. Otherwise they look nice with no distortion.

The rubber tyres.

Some people dislike rubber tyres but I quite like them. There is an also thinner spare tyre too which is a nice touch.

It’s interesting to note that this kit now has poly caps, having built a couple of Heller vehicles, getting the wheels onto the delicate pegs can be a challenging experience. Hopefully this will improve matters. 

when I preordered my kit, the starter version with paint and glue was the same price so mine came with 4 small pots of paint, a brush and some glue. 

The decal sheet looks very nice, I like the addition of the heated rear window.

Hopefully they’ll go down well, I have had a bit of an issue with Heller decals before, sometimes they’re a bit on the thick side.

A decent selection of reg plates too!

Instructions are here if you’re interested, I think a link to a pdf is easier than photographing each page individually:

https://heller.fr/cdn/shop/files/1000827050_MA_Building_Instructions.pdf?v=4706558101186050573
 

Overall, a promising looking kit, well worth the wait based on these early impressions!

This is the 2023 tooled kit. My view of this kit will appear here.

I bought this kit in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, not realising it was started, a few sub-assemblies were done, but no paintwork.

I'm going to have to paint the engine as the block looks like it should be black after all.