Background:

The 180SX is one of my top 20 Japanese sports cars, and Fujimi's kit of the Type-X version is the best/only option currently in production. Fortunatly it's a good one. Purple seems to suit a lot of Nissan sports cars, and there are (as yet) no other purple cars on my shelf.

Pros:

The body is incredibly cleanly moulded, with no seam lines, no flash or anything to clean up. The rest of the kit is reasonably simple but plenty good enough, and it all fits together perfectly. The moulded-in Type-X bodykit makes the car look better than the base model (Tamiya's out-of-production kit is the base model). Choice of LHD and RHD dashboards.

Cons:

No engine. The suspension is a little simplified. There are inexplicably two windscreens in the kit, one on the main sprue which is a little foggy, the other crystal clear. Perhaps an engineering/moulding problem with the former? The boxed wheels are not especially great and the tyres on them are not as low-profile as the box art would have you believe.

Verdict:

In this case I think the photos speak for the kit as a whole. It looks like a 180SX, builds easily and can give a great result without wrangling the kit. I've not built Tamiya's kit but I think this Fujimi one is comparable in the quality of the end result.

Build notes:

Built over 3 weeks in April/May 2022. Extras to the kit are: Aoshima Wedssport SA70 wheels, texture on the parcel shelf, an intercooler and mounting, and a Nissan emblem on the front of the bonnet. The car is painted in Hycote rattle-can Rover Amaranth purple, clearcoated with Mr Hobby Premium gloss.

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