Ford GT

Published on
March 15, 2019
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$54.00
Product / Stock #
24346
Company: Tamiya - Website: Visit Site
Box Art

The new Ford GT is a stunning supercar that competes favorably with the best of the breed at a price that the competition hasn’t seen in in a decade. Tamiya, not wishing to be left out of the fray has produced a similarly gorgeous replica of the car in scale for the advanced builder.

There are a lot of things to love about the kit and some things that could be improved, but in the end; if you want a great looking model of this superb car this the best example on the market.

Construction begins with the rear and forward body panels and you’ll quickly discover that you can’t use tube glue or the parts will not fit together. Thin liquid cement or thin superglue are needed due to the tight tolerances of the pieces and miniscule glue points. Reminiscent of the over-engineered 60’s kit that saw us trying to keep the front end together with a one-millimeter dot on the end of a tie rod, these joins require concentration and sparing use of adhesives.

The instructions would have you place the glass vents and headlight covers in the body panels after that but if you want to paint the body you’ll have to wait until later. It’s here you realize that a few pieces of photoetch screen would have been cheaper and more realistic than decal covered plastic glass parts.

You can finish construction of all the entire body panels and prep and paint it as usual. There are some obligatory parting lines, and a few sink marks to fill at the top of the aft section. I used some Tamiya fine white primer at peril and followed that with some splendid Gravity Colors Liquid Blue using a few drops of thinner through an airbrush. Thick aerosol paint is also a non-starter for parts with these tolerances. After the body is dry you can add all the vent pieces and headlight covers.

The headlight sub-assemblies are models in themselves and I found it expedient to cut the bottom part in half in order to ensure that the assembly would fit under the headlight covers.

The extended gluing tabs that are used to install the glass pieces and headlight assemblies are fantastic. Tamiya provides masks to paint the window surrounds but for the same money they could have pre-painted those parts for a superb finish. Another great idea is the mirror face metal transfer that are the best looking one’s on the market.

For the most of the suspension the details are pretty robust except for the wheel knuckles. The attachment points are very small and require superglue for needed strength. I added a bit of epoxy glue over the joins for structural integrity there.

Lower body panels are attached to the lower pan but probably could have been part of it and detailed adequately for a stronger structure.

The front suspension gets added to the forward portion of the lower pan which relies on a glue join to keep it together instead of being one piece.

The dashboard and interior are a superbly detailed highlight of this kit but they are enclosed with full side windows. You might want to consider cutting the main windows of one or both of them apart to show off that spectacular interior

The kit comes with a nicely detailed top half of the engine because it is viewable through the glass engine cover.

The wheels are outstanding but I found the chrome to be a bit garish and sprayed it with some dull coat to tone it down. Here is another example of unnecessary complexity. The wheel’s center caps are separate pieces which intrinsically invite the possibility of losing one of the tiny parts or getting glue squeezed out to ruin the appearance. The thing is, it is entirely covered by the GT decal later so you don’t even see the center cap!

Overall, the decals are exceptional. The only issue I had with them is that the stripe decals are highly susceptible to water spotting. Don’t let and droplets sit on them and you should be fine.

The body and chassis are a tight fit. I found it expedient to add a little superglue to the microscopic contact points at the base to keep it together.

In the end, with careful consideration to the tolerances and acquiescing to that requirement, this turns out to be a stellar example of the Ford supercar.

Thanks to Tamiya USA for the sample kit and the IPMS for letting me review it!

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