Add realism to your die-cast with paint and foil

Maisto Jaguar XK8 1:24 #31936

Dean Milano, best known for his excellent plastic model car building, added some details to the Maisto 1:24 Jaguar XK8. At the front he used Bare Metal Foil on the grille divider, fog lamps and on the headlight reflectors under the clear lens. On the sides he painted the marker lights in realistic amber and red colors and added some black to the wheel center caps that make the “leaping cat” emblem more visible. The rear shows a custom-made license plate label, white painted back-up lights and Bare Metal Foil on the exhaust pipe tips. Inside, Dean painted the brown on the steering wheel and gear shift and used Bare Metal Foil and black paint on the rear view mirror.

Dean’s detail work shows that with paint and foil available from your local hobby shop (plus some computer skills to make a license plate label) you can add more realism to your Maisto models. Be sure to take a look at Dean’s model car museum website at www.toys-n-cars.com — he’s got a lot of  fun stuff there.

Unfortunately, Maisto discontinued this XK8 from the line a few years ago but it should still be available on the secondary market. The item number was 31936.

Marvel Double Track set with Loop

Maisto Marvel 12086 double track set

Here’s the Marvel Iron Man 2 Dual Loop Challenge from Maisto. With two loops, a mechanical release device for fair starts and a pair of cool 1:64 die-casts it’s a lot of fun. The cars will be the Armored in Mark VI deco and the Slayer in Whip Lash deco. A plastic barrel at the end of each lane provides some smash-up action. It should be at stores in a few months.

Spider-Man Loop Track Set

Maisto Marvel 12085 track set

Here’s an action-packed Spider-Man track set that should be in stores in a couple of months. Clamp the upper end of the track to a table or chair back then release the 1:64 Spider-Man car. It zooms down, loops and launches through a special Marvel card then lands and keeps on going!

Fifty5′s 1985 Toyota pickup

Maisto 25016 1985 Toyota

Here are three pre-production samples of the 1985 Toyota. They should be in stores in a couple of months. As the Fifty5′s name implies, they are 1:55 scale.

Iron Man 2 – Tour Bus

Actual samples of the new Iron Man 2 movie products are rolling in now. Take a look at the new Tour Bus, coming soon!

New Raptor R/C Video from Ford

Wow – check out the new video of our 1/14 Ford Raptor SVT Radio Control. This one was created by The Ford Collection themselves. Nicely done, we must say. And check out the soundtrack – damn, those boys in Detroit can BrInG iT – Crank it UP!!!!!!!

Roush 427R Mustang coming in 1:18 scale

Maisto 1:18 31669

Here’s the tooling model for our forthcoming 2010 Ford Mustang Roush 427R convertible, number 31669, in the Maisto Special Edition line. Before production we’ll be revising the light bar shape and adding billet-style front upper and lower grilles.

You can see photos of the actual car at the Roush site.