Tuesday, December 15

Guillaume models BMW's super hybrid - Revell’s 1/24 BMW i8

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