Background:

My 2nd rally car in a row after the Impreza. This time a Celica ST185.  Despite being the car in which Carlos Sainz won the championship, the somewhat haphazard 1992 Repsol-Marlboro livery seems a lot less well remembered than the subsequent (and lot more coherent) Castrol livery. Big red blobs are not part of Marlboro's brand identity or Repsol's. I don't see many photos of this kit built on the internet so the unusual-ness appealed to me.

Pros:

Nicely detailed, and the decals go on very easily which is great considering some of the awkward shapes in use. There's enough tyre decals to do the kit twice, which is useful in case of mistakes/problems although they're very easy to apply. PE parts are included for seatbelts and bonnet pins. The tyres look very good once the seam line is removed.

Cons:

The ride height needs correcting - sharing the same suspension with the road car kit and the safari kit means none of them are right. The interior is lacking details and the area around the fuel tank and behind the seats isn't detailed enough. The fire extinguisher is a pathetic size. The rollcage is fiddly to assemble with tiny contact points and the seats foul the rollcage when all is assembled. There are a number of things that need to be corrected because this kit shares many parts with the road going kit. No decals are supplied for the Marlboro logos or the Gitanes Blondes logos.

Verdict:

Pretty good but not great. It's a good starting point for an interesting build if you add more and make changes. The decals have the potential to be fiddly.

Build notes:

Opened up the bonnet grille and fitted mesh and a Tamiya Corolla WRC "engine". Fitted Tamiya Corolla fans behind front mesh and changed steering wheel to one from the same Corolla kit, it looked more like the real one. Added extra detailing on the interior - hoses, pipes, cables and a battery and tyre spanner, plus carbon fibre down the transmission tunnel and carbon fibre on the door cards. Created more "open" roof vents. Painted with Tamiya Pure white, clearcoated with Mr Hobby Premium Top Coat and with Marlboro decals sourced from Modelworks.

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