Background:

I bought this kit on holiday in South Korea in 2011 and it stayed in my stash for 12 years becasue the complexity of the decals put me off. It's by a few years the oldest kit in the stash so I finally decided to tackle it as one of my planned "5 challenge builds" in 2023.

Kit review:

Pros:

It all fits together very well and as usual for Tamiya is crisply moulded with plenty of detail. Very nice soft rubber tyres. Great interior and underbody details.

Cons:

The idea of using decals for all the red, orange and green is at best, optimistic. As some of the logos are printed in with the colour, this makes choosing the option of painting these ares even more difficult - 100% separate logos would have been preferable so either approach could be taken more easily. The same goes for the blue sawtooth edges. Also the black decals destroyed themselves on the whole, although that's more age related and anything else, I presume. No engine, as usual for most of Tamiya's race cars.

Verdict:

In terms of building, great. In terms of painting and decalling - it's about as difficult and complicated as kits get and an exhausting build for the sheer number of hours that have to be put into it. Nonetheless, once that time has been put it, it does look very good and very striking sitting there on the shelf. It is a fantastic livery created with no regard for the poor modeller recreating it 29 years after the car won the championship.

Build notes:

Built over the course of 7 weeks in June-August 2023. All of the red, green and orange ares are masked and painted, the complex curves and louvres around the bumpers made this a better option than using the supplied decals. The number of the car has been changed due to the number 14 decals shredding themselves as they came off the backing sheet. A driver figure (also Tamiya) has been added, and the bonnet pins are photo-etch, not the supplied decals. A few other black decals have been changed due the originals shredding. The Honda logo on the grille is a 3rd party item, the Tamiya decal fell apart.

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