Andy, Thanks for this news update. Honestly, with this new concept by Tamiya of including the car body molded in approximately the correct color, and a gloss clearcoat of sorts, is great for the casual builder who at best just uses a rattle can to paint with. But for the hobbyist IMHO, it's going in the completely wrong direction. Simply put, nothing is free. Assuming that the color molded plastic doesn't have any of those dreaded swirl marks which will ruin the complete effect. What's more, the added clearcoat isn't a free process, so the cost of the kit goes up or worse, they cut corners some place else to keep the MSRP the same. Additionally, the current state of molding car body shells causes at best small seams along the leading edges where one mold meets the next mold. We sand them out, then polish prior to the painting process. With this type of molded body you just can't do that without ruining the pre-applied finish. If indeed, Tamiya continues with this process in other kits, they've lost me as a customer. That's how unhappy I am with their decision. Joel

I'm sure that this is just aimed at kids and entry level modelers. I've seen similar kits from Fujimi and Aoshima with metallic body finishes that basically just required assembling. I can't see Tamiya doing this on a larger scale. Cheers, D

D, Most likely you're right. Joel