Four Small Wheels 04/2001 - reviews, page 2

reviews, page 2

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Provence Moulage

New 1:43rd resinl kits

PM2632	Porsche GT1/97 Daytona 2001 #0/01	£27.45
PM2633	Renault 4CV Paris 12hrs 1950 #53	£27.45
PM2634	Lancia LC1 Barchetta Mugello 1982 Martini	£27.45
PM2635	Porsche 908/02 Le Mans 1970 Solar	£31.00
PM2636	Chevrolet Corvette C5R 1st Daytona 2001	£27.45
PM2636B	Chev' Corvette C5R Daytona 2001 #3 - Earnhardt	£27.45
PM2637	Toleman TG185 Monaco 1985 Benetton	£31.00
PM2639	Porsche 550 Spyder #130 Little Bastard-James Dean	£27.45
PM2640	Chevy Lumina Nascar Champ 1994 Earnhardt	£31.00
PM2008	Porsche 956 Nurburgring 1984 Senna - reissue	£27.45

PM are managing to cover more than 50 years of motorsport with this year's releases whilst including several morbid - but historic - subjects! First up are the spectacular chrome yellow Corvettes of 2001 Daytona winners O'Connel, Freon, Kneifel and Fellows and the 4th placed men Earnhardt, Earnhardt Jr and Collins. This was the last race completed by Dale Earnhardt and is therefor of - rather sad - historical significance. Also from the 2001 Daytona race are the silver Porsche GT1s entered by Bytzek Motorsport, both of which failed to finish. Earnhardt's 1994 NASCAR title winning car is basically a re-issue of the Starter kit but with new decals and instruction sheet. When we reviewed this kit originally in 1/95 we commented that it was a good model but lacked detail such as a roll cage, this is still true and is also true of the Corvettes and Porsche above! All new however is the white Benetton sponsored Toleman of Teo Fabi. Another interesting F1 gap filler which failed to finish at Monaco having qualified a lowly 20th. The kit is in PM's usual excellent resin with p/e suspension and wing endplates. The 'flags of the world' design looks daunting at first but the decals are in sensible sized panels and should pose no problems. Next up we have another reissue - this time an older PM kit - the New Man Porsche 962 driven by Pescarolo, Johansson and one A.Senna, they finished 8th in the Nurburgring 1000kms. The body of this will need two tone painting in black and yellow with the white dividing stripe supplied as a decal. The Lancia LC1 must qualify as one of the most attractive vehicles to have worn the classic Martini livery. It's modelled here in sprint race form with no headlights. These cars won several races with Patrese narrowly losing the driver's championship to Jacky Ickx in a Porsche in the last race of the season. With careful reference it should be possible to build one of many versions other than the Mugello cars listed. Whichever you choose should look stunning. The Solar Productions Porsche 908 has been modelled many times before including a version by Starter. This appears to be a slightly modified reissue of that Starter model and looks very good indeed. For those unfamiliar with this car, it is the midnight blue 908 spider used to film the onboard sequences in the Steve McQueen film 'Le Mans' and has a large camera housing on the front.

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Carlo Brianza

Abc/Brianza - New 1:43rd kits and hand built models

BRK43129	Fiat Dedica Stola Kit
BRK43132	Alfa Romeo Bella Bertone 1999 Kit
BRK43137	Alfa Romeo 6c 2500 Estate Kit
BRK43138	Ferrari F100 Fioravanti Roadster Kit
ABC132	Alfa Romeo Bella Bertone 1999 Built	£125.50
ABC138	Ferrari F100 Fioravanti Roadster Built	£126.50

The kits here are reasonably well cast in resin with a combination of metal and p/e detailing parts. The p/e is some of the finest you will see but the resin mouldings will require some clean up especially of the panel lines and ABC seem to have captured the shapes of these difficult and varied subjects very well. The built models are fairly well finished though they do not have the same finesse of a BBR for example. The Fioravanti is the better of the two though the paint is a little heavy, while the paint on the Bella is mush better but the panel lines beneath could have been cleaned up better before spraying. The colour shots we found of the Bella show it in a dark silver but the model is finished in an attractive pale metallic lilac colour. The four kits are illustrated alongside - the hand-built models we�ll picture within our colourpages.

Carbone

Carbone - 1:43rd resin kits and hand built models

CAR4316	Ferrari 250GT Spider Comp. 57 #0663GT Kit	£36.10
CAR4316M	Ferrari 250GT Spider Comp. 57 #0663GT Built	£111.25
CAR4317MR	Ferrari P5 Pininfarina 1968 Red Built	£111.25
CAR4317MW	Ferrari P5 Pininfarina 1968 Pearl White Built	£111.25

The 250GT Spider Competizione modelled here is the second prototype built by PininFarina and sold to Belgian racing driver Leon Dernier. The passenger side of the cockpit has a solid tonneau cover and the driver has a wrap around perspex windscreen and streamlined head fairing. The kit is well cast with crisp panel lines in the resin body, plated metal parts for exhausts, bumpers etc, good clear vacforms and a small amount of p/e for grilles, badges and other small trim. The handbuilt has rather heavy paint but is otherwise superb with very carefully applied detail.The paint on the P5 showcar is much better and overall there is little to find fault with - but we managed! The spare wheel is very visible under the rear window and in the pictures we found of the real thing there is a strap holding the spare down - this is missing on the model. Otherwise superb. Photos of the hand builts are in our colour pages.

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