Aston Martin DB5...

[Burger]

...James Bond edition...

My wife bought me the first edition today so it looks like I'll be building one over the next 85 weeks...

James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 - Build up 1:8 Aston Martin DB5 Replica

The initial blurb is quite promising and if the quality is as good as the Orery and Earth, moon and sun orbiter I built over the last couple of years, it should be a very detailed model.

Anyone else?

 

[Gucci]

Yep, my wife did the same thing. Just found the first edition laying on the table. I never even saw the ad on the TV. So, after calculating the near £600 price of building over 85 weeks, I decided I'd go for it - especially since the finished article is 2 ft long! An impressive beast. Also, looking at complete 1:8 models online, they tend to sit around £2,500 - £3,000 mark!

 

[LTD]

Have a quick total of the costings.

Nearly £600 !!!

 

[Gucci]

Yes, but over 1.5 years! And you end up with a pretty impressive looking object. And by happy coincidence, I've started taking my own lunch to work saving me about the price of the DB5 subscription

 

[LTD]

True.

Big question is if you will actually be able to get all the bits or will the magazine suddenly stop appearing ?

 

[219]

I seem to remember that happened to people who were building a model of Titanic from a similar publication - the magazine stopped not long before the model was complete , leaving a lot of angry customers .

 

[MOCAŠ]

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I have to say that I would be very disappointed with the quality of that model if I'd paid £100 for it, let alone £500 (allowing for the cost of the magazines). Anyone paying over £2000 for the must surely be deluded? A model of that size deserves far better detailing and build quality.

 

[Burger]

You always take a risk with these things but thanks to such magazines I now have a beautiful brass orery and a very impressive brass earth, moon and sun orbiter. Both finely detailed, beautiful and interesting, working ornaments. If the detail of this Aston Martin is as good as the initial blurb suggests, then it will be a very finely detailed model when complete. Yes, it's £600 all in, but that's spread over one and half years. Hopefully enough people will take it up to ensure the publication stays in business.

Regards,

 

[Burger]

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I have to say that I would be very disappointed with the quality of that model if I'd paid £100 for it, let alone £500 (allowing for the cost of the magazines). Anyone paying over £2000 for the must surely be deluded? A model of that size deserves far better detailing and build quality.

How do you know what the build quality is? No one's built one yet - well, apart from the publishers. As with all such models, you can take it as it is and just assemble the parts, or you can take time and care over it, making sure everything fits and works as it should, in which case you should end up with a finely detailed model. I'll take the chance

Regards,

 

[EDZ649]

The chrome finish on the bumpers looks a bit suspect, check out the slideshow....

 

[MOCAŠ]

How do you know what the build quality is? No one's built one yet - well, apart from the publishers. As with all such models, you can take it as it is and just assemble the parts, or you can take time and care over it, making sure everything fits and works as it should, in which case you should end up with a finely detailed model. I'll take the chance

Regards,

The window surrounds are always a giveaway. A model at this scale gives them a real opportunuty to get these things right, and if they had I would easily consider it worthy of four figures if I were in the market for one, but when they get such details wrong, I would question the value of the model at any price. However, I accept that there is some pleasure to be had in constructing it to a high standard.

 

[Burger]

I accept to a real fanatic the window surrounds and such would be important and I find it curious that they have them wrong. Can you explain in what way they are wrong? I'm particularly curious because the initial blurb with issue one explains how the model was reviewed by Aston Martin and certain details changed - such as they initially designed the model with DB4 headlamp units, but now thanks to Aston Martin it has the correct ones. They gave 4 or 5 examples of details AM had them change so I'm surprised they'd miss the window surrounds.

Having said all that, you're right, I will get enormous pleasure from building the thing and fetching it out at dinner parties afterwards

Regards,

 

[MOCAŠ]

Can you explain in what way they are wrong?

Best way I can put it is to show the model and the real car* together.

It's most evident in the rear window surrounds, so heavy-handed in the model yet hardly there on the original car. To a lesser extent, the same can be said of the windscreen surround - the delicacy has been lost.

There are numerous other problems - the wheels are poorly detailed, the tyres simply don't look realistic, the door handles are mounted too high.

I could go on, but you get the picture. By no means is it awful, but it could have been so much better. At, say, £50-£80 I could forgive such errors but, given the choice, I would choose a better-detailed model on a smaller scale for the same price.

*NB: the profile shot of the real car is taken from the accompanying magazine; it is not the Bond car (hence the different mirrors) but the points above remain valid.

 

[wobbly]

The doors aren't even the correct shape.

Sorry but its not getting £600 of my money.

 

[Gucci]

Ahhh, but you see, the model is quite different when you look closely. The original doesn't have rotating number plates or a pop-up bullet proof shield.

 

[Sp!ke]

85 weeks?

I could be dead by then.

The wife would kill me having the damned thing cluttering up the house for so long.

 

[grober]

Have to agree sorry. My first impression from the TV advert was- clumsy -a bit too TONKA toy - as Mocas says the lines are simply not fine enough. Its a bit too "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" in todays CGI special effects world.

 

[Burger]

85 weeks?

I could be dead by then.

The wife would kill me having the damned thing cluttering up the house for so long.

I'll be buying the matching garage for mine

 

[Stempies]

You will have to subscribe to receive all the editions, i'd imagine the main shell will be the last issue!!

Better off buying a Pocher 1/8th kit, available for about £500 on ebay!!
Something like this would be nice, although it may go for more!!
POCHER MERCEDES 540K CABRIO SPECIAL 1936 on eBay (end time 23-Jan-11 15:44:23 GMT)

 

[Mike Walker]

Whatever happened to Airfix - my Lancaster bomber looked just like the real thing IMHO!