Received my ALMS 2007 winner kit today..so here's my initial observations.
They nearly ruined the kit with the rims...(1) they are at least one scale inch too small in diameter(20mm)...(2) the spoke design is a bit off....the Tecnomodel rims look ten times better..(3) the tires in the kit have sidewalls which are too flat and accentuate the inaccurate rim size.
I have found some Tamiya slicks which help the situation a lot and may end the end, after the car is assembled, make the rims look acceptable although I may wrap a thin layer of styrene around the rim to increase the diameter a bit. How much luck would I have wrapping styrene around metal??? Casting them in resin first would probably be better but more work.
As for the rest of the kit it's based on the Fujimi 430 which is a good thing. They kept it simple in every area...I'm sure some modelers will want to grind out the resin partial engine bay and do a full detail.
The body looks fabulous in shape and proportion but the panel lines are weird...they look like some sort of rolling gear like tool was used to cut in the panel lines because there are tiny gear like teeth marks in every panel line. The lines are fine enough and probably once primed and painted the tiny teeth pattern will be filled in smooth. Some of the panel lines need some cleaning out too.
The body, dash and chassis are resin...just about other part is made of white metal.
The photo etch sheet is nice, plenty of parts but not so many you'd go insane installing. The weak point of the p/e to me is the replicated mesh which is nice in that it was done in the relief method resulting in a 2D woven look...the problem is it's a bit too course....definitely more course than Tamiya's nylon mesh.
That's it for now. If anyone else receives their kit please post here your opinions.
