There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in Japanese model companies releasing 1/20 scale plastic Formula 1 race car kits. The surprise is that it is not Tamiya doing them, but Hasegawa and Fujimi.
One of the latest is Hasegawa's kit of the 1976 Ferrari 312T2 - specifically, the car that won the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix with Niki Lauda driving.
The kit includes 191 parts, most of which are molded flawlessly in red, white, black, gray and clear plastic.
At first, I was a little disappointed that the body panels were molded in red. I thought that this would cause an issue when I painted the white portions of it.
After testing on some of the sprue from the kit, I determined that Tamiya white primer, followed by their TS-26 Pure White, covered the red plastic with no bleed-through at all. The decals were printed by Cartograf, and include markings for Lauda's and teammate Clay Reggazoni's car and helmets. Unfortunately, there is no helmet in the kit. The decals are opaque, and cover the red very well.
If I were to build another one of these kits, I would put the number shields on before the red-and-green stripes, to prevent the hard edges that are on my model. I found Tamiya TS-49 Bright Red to be a good match to the red on the decals.
The engine and chassis is one of the best that I have seen in a 1/20 scale F1 kit. The parts - especially the engine and suspension - have a scale fidelity that is second to none.
The suspension features brake discs that rotate within the separate calipers. The trademark Ferrari raw fiberglass brake ducts are molded in two pieces each in clear plastic.
Although it was not hard to hide the seam, I did have some trouble finding a paint color to make them look acceptable.
I started with clear yellow and clear orange, as suggested in the directions. Then I fogged on some white and pearl clear. I wouldn't say that they match the real thing perfectly, but I do think they look okay.
The whole chassis and engine assembly just looks "right" when assembled. A few wires and hoses would make this model a standout on the display table.
All of the parts fit in the kit fit remarkably well. The only really tricky part to assemble was the rear wing. The mounting surfaces between the wing elements and the endplates are rather small, so extreme care must be used when gluing the together.
It should be noted that even though they are not shown, or mentioned in the directions, there is a sheet of Goodyear logo transfers for the tires in the box.
Aside from the trickiness of the rear wing, I had no problems at all putting this kit together. When it's completed, everything just looks right - especially when compared to photos of the restored car that was at Road America this summer.
This kit would be an excellent choice to build for the box-stock class at your local contest, or to be gone "all out" on for a national show. This kit is that nice.
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