Porsche is one of the premiere names in racing and sports cars in the world. This limited edition model of the Trust Racing Team’s Porsche 962C comes from Hasegawa and is a faithful reproduction of the real thing.

The kit contains 40 white plastic pieces on six runners, one white plastic car body, 12 clear pieces, four black axle retainers, and four rubber tires. There are several extra clear plastic and white plastic parts intended to create versions of the Porsche 962 that are different from the subject of this kit.

I highly recommend painting all of the kit’s parts prior to beginning any assembly. The only exception would be the parts used to build the airfoil on the back of the car, and that is due to a fit issue with the airfoil parts. Also recommended is to leave off the small exterior parts (windshield wiper, rear view mirrors, etc.) for last, to avoid breakage.

Assembly is rapid if all the parts are pre-painted. Fit on most parts is excellent, and the trimmed parts practically fall into place. However, I did not do the assembly strictly in the sequence shown in the instructions. As an example, I left step 2 for next to last.

One glaring omission in step 4 is that no seatbelts provided. Hasegawa could have easily provided a pattern on the instruction sheet for seatbelts, as they did for two body “corners”. The instrument panel really pops to life when painted correctly. There is a decal provided for the speedometer, and I would recommend several coats of Pledge Floor Care (PFC) to represent the glass over the speedometer. The decal must be perfectly centered, as it is slightly too big for the instrument panel.

Step 7 shows the installation of both the headlights and what I call the “body corners”. The instructions state to make these two additional pieces from 1mm plastic stock, however, I found that .030” plastic stock is more realistic. Hasegawa deletes one of the headlights and replaces the ensuing hole with plastic stock, which is what I did. Looking back, I most likely would have completely replaced the assembly with plastic stock. Another minor item is the orange turn signals inside the headlamp covers – I used the plastic parts from the trees, but I would suggest creating them from raw clear plastic stock instead.

Be careful in step 9 – triple check that you are drilling out the correct holes for the spoiler supports. The outer sets are the ones that need to be drilled for the spoiler used.

Speaking of the spoiler, it is the one component on this kit where the fit is horrendous, with several gaps and the bottom piece (part C20) not fitting correctly – I used a lot of putty on my example.

I assembled my wheels and tires after step 9. There is a problem with the retaining plug not holding the tire assemblies (and brakes) to the model’s axles. What I did to fix this problem was to glue the tire and brakes assemblies (through the retainers) to the car. This means that the tires won’t turn, but it ensures that you don’t lose a retainer or brake disk if a tire falls off.

Decals are quite colorful for this kit. They are thin and lay down quite flat. The many decals (typical for a race car) cover almost all of the car. Once they are clear coated (I used PFC) the trim film disappears. There are some extra decals, mainly some of the color striped ones that can be used to touch-up those stripes on the car.

Overall, this is an excellent kit and I would recommend it as a good kit to introduce someone to the art of building car models.

A big thank you goes out to Hobbico for providing this kit for review.