Background:

For my 150th build I thought I'd try something new - an open wheel racing car. The Leyton House livery does have a nostalgic feeling for me, from their time in F1. This F3000 car looks similar.

Kit review:

Pros:

The decals are very clean, sharp and apply easily. There is an engine. Once sanded of their seamline, the tyres are a nice realistic looking rubber.

Cons:

A laundry list of things that could be better. Anything that has two halves needs filler and sanding. Parts of the engine don't mate up quite as they should and for quite a few assemblies, parts need adjustments to fit. The engine cover does not sit perfectly on the body. The "windscreen" isn't moulded but has to be crudely cut from a supplied square of transparent plastic. The suspension parts are fiddly, fragile and frustrating and all that's made worse by the fact that the instructions for what rod goes where could be a lot clearer. The instructions are unclear or inaccurate in quite a few areas - both assembly and painting. Unhelpful mounting of some suspension parts to sprues means it's easy to break them when removing. The engine unit is nicely detailed but there are some other big things under the engine cover that are not in the kit - the big pieces of pipework being the most obvious. There's quite a bit of cleanup to be done on the mouldings. Many of the parts could do with more positive mounting points. I've used this word about Hasegawa of this era before: It's a scruffy kit.

Verdict:

I think the balance of Pros V Cons says a lot here: Super mediocre. Don't pay a lot if you're going to buy it. It can however(almost frustratingly) build into something that looks good - but unlike some kits it's far from effortless to get it there.

Build notes:

Built in just over 3 weeks in April/May 2025. I've added some seatbelts and a lot of engine details. Painted with Tamiya TS-41 Coral Blue, the recommended colour for their Leyton House F1 car. Building it partly reminded me of building an aircraft and some might say an open wheel race car is a kind of upside down aircraft. Anyway it's not an especially fun assembly experience and though it won't stop me building other open-wheel racers (I have 4 more in the stash at the time of writing), it will almost certainly stop me buying any more of them.

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