Making of the NO TIME TO DIE Aston Martin DB5

Ardent Bond fans will remember our Christmas video teasing possibly the most exciting news from Agora Models yet – the addition of James Bond vehicles to our rapidly growing collection. If you missed the video, it is still available to watch here:

At that time, our mission was to create the most accurately detailed and functionally correct 1:8 scale replicas possible of the vehicles that appear in the Bond movies.

The first one, of course, just had to be 'the most famous car in the world', the Aston Martin DB5. A perfect marriage of two British icons that has endured, the DB5 is described by Daniel Craig as:

“Not just a car, but a character in each of the movies they appear in… Every time I get behind the wheel, I smile and have to pinch myself. I am so grateful to them for allowing me to play in their sandpit. I hope they haven’t minded the odd one I broke”.

The compelling charm of Daniel Craig’s Bond, coupled with the iconic status of the DB5, made the choice for our first model easy. It had to be the DB5 from No Time To Die. But, if we make 'the most famous car in the world' notorious for its biggest action sequence since its 1964 debut, we’d have to have working gadgets. Would that even be possible?

With the full support of EON Productions, the Ian Fleming Foundation, and Aston Martin, our first step to creating a model of the world’s most famous car was to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum, LA, where we laser scanned a range of vehicles that featured on our wish list for the Bond Collection.

This was followed by a trip to the Bond in Motion exhibition at the National Motor Museum in the UK, which featured nine iconic vehicles, gadgets and costumes from No Time To Die. Among them was Bond’s Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5, complete with machine guns, scratched bodywork and bullet marks from the opening action sequence. No Time To Die begins with Bond and Madeleine Swann in the DB5 driving into Italy. SPECTRE is soon on Bond’s tail and the car is caught up in a classic Bond chase scene in the narrow streets of ancient Matera.

The biggest challenge for Agora technicians was reproducing the miniguns. On first inspection with our expert at the British National Motor Museum, the response was almost catastrophic. We were informed it simply couldn’t be done at this scale. The headlight electronics wouldn’t fit in the same small space as a motor required for the spinning machine gun barrels.

However, determined to push scale-modeling into a new era of technological advancement and accuracy, we’re very pleased the say, the engineers and technicians have achieved our dream of working headlights with retractable, spinning, miniguns. Below you can see some of our CAD images.

Find out more about our model here...

These CAD Images have been used to create approximately 500 parts (excluding screws) that will form a kit from which an identical replica model of the DB5 can be built at 1:8 scale. The pre-painted parts, expertly applied by our paint technicians using a combination of electrostatic painting and hand painting, guarantee a finished model that anyone capable of wielding a screw driver can enjoy the pleasure of building.