So back in 2002 a game came out called Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2. It featured all the greatest cars of the 80's, 90's, and first couple of years of the 2000's and was my introduction to the world of exotic cars. Their design and lore blew my mind and amazed me that some of my favorite Hot Wheels cars were actually real cars. The ultimate auto on that game was the venerable McLaren F1 (and McLaren F1 LM). I remember just how awstruck I was driving that car around the track trying to achieve the highest speed possible. It was, and still is, my favorite car of all time. In my oppinion it is the greatest pure-car ever built. I was already a devoted model builder at that time but I built exclusively military subjects but I wanted to build this car. Bad news was I couldn't find a kit anywhere, so my desire stayed in limbo. It became my #1 bucket list kit. Fast forward 16 years, it's 2018. What do I discover on Amazon? A 1/24 Mclaren F1 kit. I was super excited and much to my surprise I got it from my inlaws for Christmas. I started on it right away, working weekends and some evenings. The kit had some quirks but in the end I'm very happy with the results; 16 years in the making.
Suspesnion goes together well enough, although you can't see any of it because of the way the car is designed. There was an overabundance of semi-gloss black in the kit but, because the kit was primarily in Japanese, they didn't tell you that. I had to use a translator app to figure out what paint code 92 was.
In the process of finding out what paint code 92 was I discovered this little note in Japanese that said something about "this is where the rear-view mirror windows should be on the real car". Frustrated that they hadn't put an opening there in the kit I pulled out my knives, saw, and files and made my own windows (seen here on either side of the air intake pipes).
The kit came with masks for the windows which worked out very well.
My wife got me a Hobby Lobby gift card for my birthday and part of it was used for this magnificent, silver spray paint. It is self leveling but isn't overly glossy.
Windows and headlights are in and body details painted. The kit came with the doors as an open or closed option and I went with open, to show off those glorious gull-wings.
Like I said, very happy with the results. It holds a prominent spot on my office shelves and I look at it almost every day. 16 year wait was totally worth it.
