PM K1586 1:43 Lola B2K/40 Nissan

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Background

This is the car that was driven by Canadians S. Maxwell, J. Graham and G. Wilkins. They raced this car in the 2000 LeMans and won their class. Scott Maxwell is the son of George Maxwell who founded a local store called Mini Grid that sells 1:43 kits. Scott runs the store now but you will still see George and his wife working at the store.

The Kit

The casting was fairly nice. The wheels are inserts into turned aluminum rims. There is a fret of photo etched parts for parts of the undertray and the rear wing. There is also vac formed parts for the headlight covers. The vac formed parts fit with no problems. Nice inserts are included for the headlights. The actual car was displayed at the store MiniGrid one day and the kit is fairly accurate with some little details missing.

I am surprised that the wheels have just inserts and there is no brake details that is obvious on the real car. I feel like PM cheaped out here so I turned some brake disc and I got some Tameo brake calipers to add the detail.

The second disappointment with this kit is the decal sheet. With the quality I have seen in other kits I must say these are terrible. Some of the smaller logos are out of register and they don't look sharp. I know someone who has a set that he says are worthless. The decals did sit down nicely with some setting solution. Logos look accurate when checking references.

The rear lights are decals. They sure make the model look toylike. If you want it to look more real I would cut of the kit rear lights and replace them with some clear part painted with some clear paint.

Conclusion

I purchased the kit since it depicts a car that won it's class at LeMans and it was done by Canadians. If you are thinking about purchasing the kit make sure you check the decals first. You will also have to settle for the wheels in the kit unless you want to do some scratchbuilding. The casting is nice and the cockpit detail is good but the terrible decals make the model appear like a toy. Overall I am disappointed as PM has produced some excellent models but this looks like they had an existing Lola model in their lineup and rushed out a crappy decal sheet.

More photos added Dec 27 2010

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