Kit: Lotus Indy Turbine car
Scale: 1/25
Kit Number: 6025
Manufacturer: AMT/MPC
Price: $15.00
Media: Injected Plastic
Decals : one version, #70
Accuracy: I don't know
Overall: see review
Comments: I never got a chance to see a turbine car run at Indy, but I have always liked racing cars, so when AMT re-released MPC's Lotus turbine car, I bought two and immediately started building one. It has been a while since I built an MPC kit and I can now see why. This kit was not only `flash city', but the overall fit is not good. One nice thing is hollow "tubeless" tires, but they are Goodyears and not the Firestones that were run on the car.
Many of the parts are plated. As is now typical, the plating is terrible and flakes off rather easily. I soaked all the plated parts in oven cleaner to remove the plating and painted them various shades of Metallizer. The outer body was painted a nice Ferrari red. My copy had short-shots on the front suspension pieces that I repaired with spare bits. The brakes were too big for the wheels and got in the way of the suspension attachment points which necessitated carving on the brakes.
This car is also four wheel drive which gave the added hassle of transfer case, two extra drive shafts and two front half-shafts, none of which fit properly. After getting the car relatively square, I then attempted to put on the body panels. The nose is too wide and needed filed down. The top part of the body containing the windscreen is too shallow to properly fit over the cockpit and engine. Even a bit of carving away was not good enough to get a snug fit.
It is now under a plastic display case and while it looks ok, a close inspection will readily point out its faults. Oh yes, the decals also suck big time as they are thick, glossy and do not adhere well. To add insult to injury, the large and small STP logos have no white surround. This is a major screw-up for AMT to let this go unnoticed and is a true pain in the ass to correct as an oval is a bitch to duplicate on white decal paper.
Would I build another? Not only no, but F*** NO. Only the included push tractor went together well. I have one other to keep as a collector's item. I now wonder if I will have a major lapse in sense and try to tackle the Indy Eagle re-release. This kit recommended for the very skilled and the insane.