McLaren is one of the longest-standing teams in Formula One (F1) racing and one of the most successful, with 183 Grand Prix wins and eight Constructors’ Championships. McLaren was a dominant force in the mid-80s with the introduction of the MP4/2 and later MP4/4. The MP4/2c propelled Alain Prost to his second Drivers’ Championship in the 1986 season with four wins, narrowly beating Williams’ driver Nigel Mansell.
Italeri has released another kit in its large-scale series, although this Italeri 1/12 scale McLaren MP4/2c plastic model kit is not a new tool. Originally a Protar kit, this model hasn’t seen the light of day in decades. Keeping that in mind, the tooling is perhaps a bit crude by today’s standards, but it seems to have held up fairly well. Yes, there is a hefty amount of clean-up and test-fitting throughout the build, but nothing that basic modeling skills can’t handle.
Construction starts with chassis subassemblies. By design, the suspension and steering should work, but making that actually happen is unlikely with all the fragile parts; I broke a pin on one of the front suspension rockers just by test-fitting. Once you’ve de-seamed the parts and completed all your test-fitting, you’ll find they go together pretty well. The brake discs on my kit were riddled with sink marks, but since they won’t be all that visible anyway, I didn’t fix them.
With the subassemblies finished, I deviated slightly from the instructions by completing the main chassis monocoque. Be sure to remove the molded-in texture from the driver’s seat before applying the carbon-fiber decals. The ribbon material for the seat belts was a little stiff and didn’t lay naturally, so I glued it in place. Also, I cut a buckle off the latch portion of the photo-etched metal (PE) fret (Part 7) because the belts wouldn’t lay correctly. There are extra buckle parts provided. I found later that there is a ridge on top of the lower tub (Part 301D) that interferes with the fit of the radiators. I sanded it flush to the sides, and that adequately fixed the problem.
You’ll find the engine breakdown pretty standard, with left and right halves and additional parts for the front cover, intake, rocker covers, and upper transaxle. Again, be sure to test-fit before committing to glue. Different sizes of vinyl tubing are provided for spark-plug wires and other engine compartment plumbing. The large tubing was stiff and retained its shape, so I replaced it with some more pliable stuff that I had in my parts box. PE parts supply the “TAG” script on the rocker covers that really dress the engine up. After installing the engine and adding the turbo blow-off valves, be sure to check that they won’t interfere with the body sides. I had to alter the mounting of the right side BOV to clear the side panel.
I cleaned up the body panels and gave them a couple of coats of white paint. There is a light panel line on the body where the mask should line up for the red. I’m not sure if I messed up or if the lines on the kit don’t match up from the sides to the top, but I had an error of about 1/16 inch. The color called out for the red is unclear: The instructions call for Tamiya Bright Red (TS-49) but have the name listed as Fluorescent (which should be TS-36). TS-49 matched the red in the number decal, so I used that. The Cartograf decals worked flawlessly, as one would expect. There are also decals for the non-tobacco version if you prefer.
It’s important to remember that this Italeri 1/12 scale McLaren MP4/2c plastic model kit is an old tool, so don’t expect to be able to throw it together in a couple of hours. It’s going to take some time to get everything right. But, with that, it’s certainly great to see it available again after all these years! And it can be built into a great-looking replica of one of the great cars from F1. If you really want to go all out on detail, there is an excellent article on detailing available in PDF format from
Modeler Site for a small fee. I would have to reserve this kit for experienced modelers because of the clean-up required.