The passenger side ejector seat works when the gear shift (hidden red button and all) is pressed. I did it just once, hit myself in the face with the flying seat, then spent the rest of the day trying to get the seat latches back down. I will not be activating this special feature again.
The grey leather and floor mats look good though.
The tracking device is hidden behind a sliding cover, just as shown in Goldfinger.
The driver side door has a drop down panel with a telephone - pretty cool for 1964! The phone was not used in the film but did exist on the real car, and is here on the model. There's also the pull out drawer under the seat full of weapons - not used in Goldfinger.
The horn works with a press of the center of the steering wheel, just like you'd expect. The slight downside with that is that the range of the steering is constricted by the wires in the steering column. You have to be careful about that. No big deal really.
The tire slashers used by Bond in Goldfinger are on all four wheels. This model only has them on the rear wheels due to the practical difficulty of putting this feature on the front wheels, which steer. I have read that the real car had the same issue and that this was one of the few special features that did not actually work as shown on screen.
The rear lights tilt down. The film car had oil slick and smoke devices here.
Of course there's the iconic revolving license plates, front and back... Love that.
Pushers extend from the bumpers, both front and rear.
The bullet shield pops up fine, but it's a bit funky to get it latched back down.
The headlights and taillights work, activated with a button on the dash. The break lights come on when the brake pedal is pressed, and the car makes a surprisingly convincing engine sound that revs up when the accelerator is pressed. The floor pedals are pretty hard to reach but so it goes.
I'm pretty pleased with how the engine turned out, although there is a lot more detail that could be in there at this scale.
Here's a can of soda with the DB5 for scale. It's still hard to convey in photos just how big this thing is. It definitely makes a statement.
I have a few observations remarks about this model...
Firstly, I'm glad I built it. This was a pandemic trapped-at-home idea. I had seen early pre-orders for this model, for the US, during the early days of everything being closed. The kit had been offered in Europe many, many years ago but apparently Eaglemoss was expanding their shipping to North America, and with it a new edition of their DB5.
On almost a whim, I pre-ordered a month or so before it was to start shipping. It took two or three months after the original promised date before the first issue and parts arrived. I had been getting worried as to whether I'd ever see it. Eaglemoss has a mixed reputation.
I liked the idea of not getting it all at once. I thought stretching out the project seemed fitting to our new semi-lock-down lifestyle. I also knew these models are typically not difficult to assemble. I was in the mood for an easy project that didn't take a lot of thought and effort. This fit the bill.
The result is very impressive at first viewing. It is a beautiful, and massive, representation of this iconic car, perhaps the most famous car in film. You just can't go wrong with the well finished paint on the all metal body. That quality of paint is exactly something I could not do.
As a kit though it does suffer the shortcomings that seem to be typical of large scale car models. The detail level is a mixed bag. If the designers of these sorts of things where not apparently so determined to avoid any sort of paint and glue, and traditional molded plastic, the resulting model could be indistinguishable from the real thing in photos. Basically, at 1:8 scale I don't think any detail is too small to include. Much smaller
Wingnut Wings kits, for example, are significantly more detailed.
It is possible to greatly extend the detail and improve the look. I painted almost everything aside from the body. This helps a lot. And the grey interior looks good and it true to the film car. A person with more information and knowledge that myself could really get detailed at this scale. But also, at this scale, there ought to be a little more to it "out of the box" in my opinion.
Although all the gadgets technically work, some of them are really awkward and will see little, or no, use in the display, which is perfectly fine in my opinion. It's not a toy. The lighting behind the dash could be a lot better. I should have tried it out at an early phase of assembly and improved it. The instruments are too dim and the trackers is too bright and has light leaks. Overhead lights when the doors open would not have been a difficult addition.
The model is very expensive, lets face it. Of course the cost is spread out over as much as two years. And they sent a poster, a mini diecast DB5, two excellent books, a very good display case, and other extras. The magazine included with all but the last shipment is also quite good, loaded with 007 history, inside stories on the films, actor profiles and that sort of thing. So the value is there. I also cut the cost significantly by opting for the pre-order and accepting more rapid shipments at a discount, which they offered 2 or 3 times during the subscription.
Back to the kit itself, it was mostly easy to assemble. I didn't have any trouble with the quality of the parts. Nothing was broken. It all fit. The huge exception though were those last steps with the body. There are people who have gotten all the way to those last steps and had to call the project a failure. That's how bad it is. Getting those big pieces mated together is stunningly difficult.
Many have written about very poor paint color matching on the body components. I guess they fixed that at some point, or maybe I just got lucky. Mine looks good as far as I can tell.
The instructions provided with each shipment, in the magazine, are almost completely worthless. They are misleading, incomplete, and frequently just plain wrong. This project would have been monumentally more difficult without
this incredible site:
I can not express enough how helpful that site was.
For those that might be interested in building this Aston Martin DB5, I am not sure I'd recommend it. At least not unless you are someone that can deal with, and fix/improve, some of the disappointments and deal with making things fit when they simply do not. The body was a monster challenge. There are a couple other steps that wouldn't call "easy", but nothing at all like the body fit. For those interested in getting a taste of typical large scale cars, but maybe aren't up for headaches, check out
Agora Models. Their
Shelby Cobra in an excellent model.
See all the posts for this project here:
