|
I picked up an old Bburago 1/24 kit of what is billed as a Mustang Indy car. According to the description, it's either an '80 or an '81 Mustang built in Atlanta in conjunction with McLaren and powered by a 260 hp 2.3L Turbo 4cyl engine. Well, it looked cool so I figured I'd do a little research and damned if I can find the car Bburago used to model this. Not that there aren't any McLaren Mustang Indy cars of that time, it's just that none of them have the same hood, roof intake or are even done in that color. But... it does look cool so I decided to build it OOB just for the grins.
This is vintage Bburago. Every panel operates but the content is so poor, you have ask yourself why they bothered. The paint was atrocious, so I had to violate my OOB dictum and repainted it with matching automotive lacquer. The interior is actually nicely molded but totally stock. The boxart of the prototype model shows a roll cage and there's none included. The vaunted 2.3 turbo is modeled like a false front in a western movie. Look under the air cleaner and you'll find they omitted the turbocharger. They also omitted a few things like a firewall, but, what the heck, it's not like it's a real car anyway. Although there's BBS logos on the car, the wheels provided are vintage Bburago generics as are the tires which should be Firestones. Dave and the gang at R&D Unique gave me a list of plastic kits I can kitbash a set from. If anyone is interested, I'll pass on the info. Oh yeah, the molded in exhaust is about the scale diameter of a garden hose so I drilled it out and replaced it with a more macho-sized polished aluminum one.
The lenses are nicely done and I lined them with BMF so they look quite convincing. The rear hatch opens and the seats fold forward and cutsey stuff like that. So it's not that you can't have a good time varooming it around the kitchen floor anyway. The decals are old and almost immune to Solvaset. You'd better seal them with a clear finish like Future or you'll wonder what happened to the decals five minutes after you apply them. Fortunately the contours of the car are angular and there's no compound curves that have to be followed.
I guess the bottom line is that there really aren't any 1/24 Mustangs of that era around, so even though it's probably a phantom car, it does fill a gap in the Mustang line.... sort of.
(04/03/2004)
|
