And now for something slightly different. An entirely sealed body, resin 1/18 (please forgive the slightly dodgy pictures, but they were taken a long time ago in less than perfect conditions).
Brought up on a steady diet of bread and die cast, dabbling in cars made of resin was a bit of a departure for me. This particular model is made by Spark and is the first time I've seen a 1/18 scale RUF, so naturally I had to have it!
First impressions are really positive. Not having any opening panels and being made in resin really allows for a level of realism seldom seen in metal models. The shut lines are all picture perfect and the details of the car are amazing, the underside is equally impressive, even if the engine is a bit of a let down. It looks like the good people at Spark have decided to give the car an impression of bespoke craftsmanship by brush-painting the engine, which I think actually cheapens the overall impression of the car. Having said that, the underside itself is extremely well detailed and quite nice.
Like I said, being used to die cast 1/18 models this is a bit weird for me, mainly because it feels extremely light and worryingly fragile. The wheels barely turn and the front ones don't steer, it's not that big a deal, but I can understand why some people would be put off spending money on a model you can't open up or 'stage' with its wheels steering in a direction for nice pictures and so forth. Despite that I think that resin is probably the way forward for models with realistic external details. If I have to be honest I'll only poke around an engine bay and interior when I first buy a model and then just be happy looking at it amongst all the other ones and Spark really delivers when it comes to a good looking external appearance (I've since augmented the resin collection with other Spark products, specifically a Martini 911SC safari car, a 935 'Moby Dick', a 3.0RS and a 3.0RSR in Jaegermeister colours)...