Straight out of 1984, look out Zuul, it’s the Ghostbusters ECTO 1! Well actually it’s the 1/25 snap assembly kit from Round 2 Models but it’s just as cool as the full size version. The kit consists of 54 Plastic parts, 4 screws, 2 metal axles, decals and stickers, and finally a simple 4 step illustrated manual. The detail is good enough and the chrome parts look great.

Grace and I made the decision in the beginning to tackle this without the use of any special tools. This meant sprue cutters, scissors, paint brushes, and acrylic paints. All things we guessed the average young modeler probably has access to. Oh, and don’t forget to cover moms kitchen table.

There were no assembly issues with this kit. It went together easily. A few spots did require a bit of glue to keep them in place or provide a bit of assurance that it would stay put. A small screwdriver is needed to assemble the chassis to the body. The rear bumper did require some muscle from dad to get it seated fully. Other than that it went together as expected.

Painting turned out to be a bit of a chore. Why? Well it seems someone got a bit zealous and assembled almost the entire kit without breaking out a paint brush. That meant a lot of painting around things. The light bars were done with a thinned coat of standard acrylics. The interior got a blast or two from a spray can of cheap Gloss Black spray paint like most of us have out in the garage. She got a bit creative with the colors on the roof rack full of ghost fighting equipment because she thought it looked boring. It looks good and most of all Grace is happy with it. We did not paint the body but let’s talk about that after the decals.

The kit includes a choice between stick on marking or water slide decals. Grace first tried the stickers but found the first one hard to position correctly. She then decided to use the decals and had no problems. They went on easily with no ripping or tearing.

Instead of painting the main body color of white we used a method Grace has used in the past, coating the entire model in Future floor polish. Top to bottom, bottom to top the entire model was brushed with Future. It is an acceptable look and easy for a young builder to execute so why not?

This is an easy building kit that looks great! Assembly and painting of this kit took 3 to 4 hours over the course of a few days. Just about perfect for daughter and dad to spend some time together in between the other things life throws at us.

A big thanks to Round 2 Models for supplying this kit and to IPMS/USA for allowing us to review it. It was great fun for dad as well as daughter.