Tamiya Calsonic Nissan Skyline "Godzilla" R32 Gr.A 1/24 | Model Kit Index

Background, Pros, Cons and Verdict:

As this is the same kit, from the same shop in the same style yellowing box- everything I could write here is the same as the build I did of the Castrol R32 Skyline. This kit was about 25% completed, and I had to strip off it's old decals before repainting.

Build notes:

Completed in about 5 weeks, concurrently with 3 other R32s.In the engine bay there's a lot of extra detail including the strengthening struts, wiring, air boxes and such. Some of the engine bay parts were missing from this secondhand kit and I had to scratchbuild - the missing parts were for the road-car engine anyhow so I fabricated a lot. Luckily the Calsonic engine is photograhed a lot so there's plenty of reference material unlike the other Gr.A Skylines - I guess as the Calsonic "Godzilla" is such a famous livery. Much of what you can see under the bonnet is not in the kit box, not least of which are the extra strengthening bars. Most everything to the left and right of the main engine block is scratch built, as are the exhaust pipes coming out the right side of the engine. Other extra details include interior wiring, seatbelts, fuse box and other details in the interior and PE bonnet pins. The decals are all-new, by random chance I bought a set of this kit's decals back in 2007 and 13 years later, put them to use.

The Calsonic Skyline was the 4th to be completed in a concurrent build of 4 R32 Skylines during March/April 2020. The others being the Aoshima Jecs, the Tamiya Castrol and the "R32 on the lifts" diorama. I was quite tired of the R32 and this multi-build by this point and completing the Calsonic one felt like a bit of a slog towards the end, particularly with all the scratchbuilding. There's certainly some time efficiency to be had building 4 almost-identical cars at the same time, but I'd not do it again.