The Ukrainian company ICM is known for aircraft and military offerings, but it has ventured into the 1/24 scale automotive segment with a family of Ford Model Ts. This release of the Sportster is the same as the first except it includes two figures. Its 111 parts are molded in gray and clear styrene; you won’t use 14. No decals are included.
The six-page instruction booklet features: a short history of the Model T, suggested color chart, an illustrated parts index, and 55 assembly steps. These steps are exploded views featuring quite a few subassembly drawings. I recommend building all the subassemblies first. This will make the final assembly go quicker. A four-view color plate is on the last page.
Before starting on this kit be aware that the steering linkages and small parts are close to scale, making them difficult to handle and prone to breakage. I broke the front wishbone in two places removing it from the tree. For handling the small parts, I like to put a little piece of tape on my tweezers to keep from losing them to the carpet monster.
The build starts with the nicely detailed four-cylinder engine, and proceeds from there, including front and rear axles. The springs are molded with both axles, which eliminates alignment issues. The side frame rails are molded to the one-piece fender assembly and provide a solid platform to mount these subassemblies to.
The floor (Part C11), was slightly warped in my kit. You’re meant to build a subassembly on it with the seats, gas tank, and toolbox. I was concerned that this would make the floor too rigid to correct the warp when gluing it to the fender assembly. I elected to attach only the floor to the fenders before proceding. If you do this the engine won’t go in later so make sure it’s mounted first.
At this point I went back to the instructions and installed the axles and the steering components. Pay attention to the instructions to get the steering linkages properly lined up and connected.
Assembly of the major components on the topside is straight forward. The cowl, seats, gas tank, and toolbox mount easily. The two-piece hood has a separate hinge strip (Part B9). This hinge is meant to mount between the radiator and cowl, then you glue the side panels to it. I wanted a solid one-piece hood, so I glued all three pieces together off the model. This resulted in a weak join, which I reinforced on the inside with a styrene strip.
The steering column assembly was very involved consisting of eight pieces. The headlamps, side lamps and taillamp all had clear lenses. The appropriate brass components were painted with Alclad II Brass. Period-correct white vinyl tires mount on one-piece spoke wheels. Other than the brass, the Sportster was painted with Tamiya acrylics.
As I said earlier, this release includes two figures. A female driver and male passenger. It appears that the man is showing the lady how to drive. These are multi-piece, unpainted figures. The passenger assembles easily. The driver needs to be holding the steering wheel plus have her feet on the pedals. When I mounted her arms, I ended up with gaps that I filled with putty. I don’t claim to be a figure painter, but I finished these with Warhammer and Vallejo acrylics.
This is a great kit with a lot of character but not for the faint of heart. It needs a builder experience with detailed kits. Thanks to ICM for its full Model T family.