Background:

I unexpectedly found this kit in a secondhand model kit shop, not even knowing such a kit existed. As I prefer my cars to all remain in one scale, that closes off anything 1/20 and finding this legendary car in 1/24 seemed worth a punt on £10.

Kit review:

Pros:

Compared to the flimsy and fragile Hasegawa open-wheel car I built earlier in 2025, this kit is incredibly strong and sturdy. No doubt as it's intended to be motorised and therefore at least partially designed to be a toy. The shape is good and the mouldings pretty decent if a little thick in the wings etc. Despite their intial appearance the tyres sand off into something that looks credible as F1 rubber. No fitment problems whatsover.

Cons:

"Designed to be motorised". Something to take the edge off any kit. The kit as supplied has no cockpit, just a cover with a partially moulded driver to cover where the batteries normally go. The suspension is somewhat simplified, the back end of the car/gearbox/etc is very simplified. The unavoidable contruction method of the sidepods leaves a panel line where none exists in reality.The downside of the sturdiness - many parts are moulded as one. The entire rear wing is a good example - moulded as one piece and so creating a lot of fiddly masking. Same with the front wing which is all part of the body moulding. The decals are poor quality and inaccurate. Tobacco logos are included but the Marlboro logo is not quite correct for one of several examples. In my instance also the decals were far to old and cracked even with the addition of liquid decal film. Finally - the MP4/4 has a windscreen of sorts but the kit has no clear parts, the windscreen being moulded in white plastic.

Verdict:

The end result looks like an MP4/4 and is sturdy enough to be handled with confidence. It would be too harsh to criticise it too much given it's semi-toy like motorised nature so my final thought would be - knowing there are other Gunze 1/24 F1 kits like this, I would certainly buy and build some of the others if I find them, specifically the Lotus 99T, 100T and the Williams FW11. It is an enjoyable build experience aside from all the masking.

Build notes:

Completed on Christmas Eve 2025 after about a month of building. Changes to the kit: Changed nearly all of the decals, from multiple sources including some newly drawn and custom printed. Tyre decals are Hasegawa. Added a cockpit with a cut-down seat from a Lancia Stratos, a steering wheel from the parts box, PE seat belts and buckles, a fire extinguisher and plasticard for everything else. Added some detail to the suspension and the front wings. Made a new windscreen from transparent plastic. Added aerials. I'm very happy with the outcome.

Dual Build:

Making two very different cars from the same manufacturer in the same livery as each other was an interesting dual-build, and it makes photography more interesting too. There are a number of pics here with the MP4/4 as the lead car, and vice versa in the set of F1 GT photos.

 

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