Background:

When I'd read that Tamiya were releasing this kit, I knew I'd buy one and build it within a reasonable time after getting it rather than let it take permanent residence in the stash. In this instance, about 7 months later. Despite it's debatable Marmite looks, it's undeniably an interesting car and an interesting model kit - Not only is it 21st century Tamiya at their best, the construction is unlike anything else I'd built and I'd fancied a change. 

Pros:

Incredibly well moulded, enough detail to satisfy most, and it comes with a full engine too. Many things that are often moulded as one part are divided into multiple parts here to make a lot of easy colour customisation possible - especially in the interior. Again to make colour customisation easier, the centre lock wheels nuts and brake calipers are also separate parts and the brake discs do rotate inside them. It's a trickily shaped car to turn into a model kit and Tamiya have nailed it. It either all fits perfectly together or it very nearly does.

Cons:

The engineering of the kit done to avoid the need to glue the transparent parts directly seems more trouble than it's worth, and if anything only made things more difficult with a worse result. The front of the doors does not align perfect with the back of the wings, and I've seen other builds with this problem too, albeit less than mine. A few parts of the instructions are better done in a different order, attaching A1 and A10 in step 15 would be better done before or at the same time as B27 is attached in step 12, would be the one that first comes to mind. The painting instructions are quite boring with the entire interior being only different types of black. Some of the instructions I felt could explain or show better how to attach things. The exterior is hard to polish as it has many thin bits that could snap. The tyres have no sidewall markings which is unusual, and for a British car it's a bit fristrating there's only aLeft Hand Drive option

Verdict:

This is an amazing kit with great engineering and loads of detail. Whilst it's not as complex as it first appears, it's still complex. Certainly it's not beginner kit, but a great challenging and satisfying build for a more experienced modeller. Don't let it's first impressions put you off. The car does look pretty cool in certain colour schemes.

Build notes:

The only additions to the build are the seatbelts made from masking tape, the PE seat belt buckle and the seat belt retainers. The body is Tamiya Mica Silver TS-76 and the McLaren papaya orange parts are Tamiya Bright Orange overcoated with Mr Hobby Yellow-Orange. There's about eight areas on the model I'd consider to be less than perfect including one small gluey-fingermark on the passenger door (arrgh) and the alignments of the dorrs to the wings (double arrgh) but overall I am very happy with the result and it'll be at the front of the cabinet for a long time. It was a good way to reach what is my 101st completed build. Started on the last day of August 2021 and completed on the first day of October 2021. A month overall, but it felt like a long and sometimes tiring build. 75 WIP photos compared to the usual 40 or so.

---