Simil'r Ford Focus. Ken Block style

[lanesteele240]

This is a in progress kit review of the Similar Ford Focus. This kit so far is junk. Pitfalls around evey corner. At the price point it is offered at, the kit should be much better. The designers should buy a Tamiya kit, study it, then design a kit like it. This kit is for moddler with better than average building skills

First the pro's

New kit for people that dont get the 1932 ford focus thing.

PE kits avaliable from studio27

Cartograph decal sheet

Door can be open or closed

Window mask

PE parts included in kit

Cons

Kit cost 75 bucks.

Tons of flash, ejector pin marks and tooling marks on parts.

Poor location on sprue to part connections. They put the connection in the most visual and thinnest area of the part.

Very little detail and that detail is covered by the cars skid plates.

Poor parts fit.

Doors must be open or closed. They are not hinged.

What could be done to make it better.

Nix the open/closed door thing and open the hood. It is a fricken race car. show the engine bay. Could have reduced the parts covered by the skid plates, hide ejector pins and put sprue to part connections in hidden spot.

[lanesteele240]

Can you spot the small ejector pin marks. There are only 16 of them on the bottom of the car.

A little putty to dispatch them pesky marks

[Hippie]

thanks for posting this,

been wondering about these kit, doesn't look to great honestly, but you got to remember the company's about the size of studio 27 or MFH, and this kits way better then the curb side's they ask 250 for, any ways I'm sure you'll do a great build!!

[lanesteele240]

Kit decal from cartograph will be used where needed but the ken block deals from coloado will cover the outside of the car. I have a set of rally numbers to change the colorado sheets #55 to blocks normal 43.

Seats with decal belts

Door panels covered with carbon fiber sheet a from KA models. It took 6 gallons on decal soften solution to get the carbon to lay in all the nooks and crannies. Some touch up is needed an a coat of floor wax will finish them off

[lanesteele240]

Front and rear skid plates had huge location holes to fit with the male tabs under the car. I nixed them and the male tabs. Clovered the holes with putty. after i paint them with aluminum metalizer, i will put some small PE nut heads to give the look that they are bolted on. Some scratches will be added to weather the plates also.

I scuffed up the skid plates alittle and hit them with testors metalizer paint. Buffed and sprayed top coat per directions on the metalizer

Edited August 21, 2012 by lanesteele240

[iderek]

looking good so far!! keep us updated~

[lanesteele240]

Did not get a chance to photo the door fit. That was because they did not. I had to hack and wack the car and the doors to get them on.

Edited August 20, 2012 by lanesteele240

[Intmd8r]

I can't wait to see more on this build! I was hoping someone would do this build. Keep up the good work!

[lanesteele240]

This kit comes with some goofy European jackstands. I chose to have the kit sitting on rubber. I had to putty over the four bugga holes that the stans fit in. The bugga holes were over 1/8 inch and in full view near the rocker panels. Also had to re apply putty on the fenders to make them look better. Some gap issues there.

[Colin Russell]

The kit has potential though,it would be easy enough to convert it into an R.S.

You are doing a good job on the car.

[lanesteele240]

This is the front linkage block broke in a rally race.

Tried to copy it by fake anodizing my links by first metalizing the part with stainless buff and then tamiya clear blue over top. I snagged an extra decal that was on the sheet not used to give some detail.

[lanesteele240]

Stole a decal from a sheet of ho scalle train stuff to go on the extinguisher.

[doggie427]

Loving it ! Keep up the great work.

[lanesteele240]

The more i work on this kit the more i like it. When i made my first thoughts of the kit, i let other stuff i heard sway me . Still a lot of work filling in holes an pin marks though. As of now i have about 15-20 hours in the kit

[lanesteele240]

I have been hording this guy for a long time. Cant think of a better use for him than to mak him into block

[lanesteele240]

Cant wait to put the decals on this ride. I got to wait three more stinking weeks for the paint to cure

[wraith]

way cool!

[vwdave92]

nice work. Where did you order the decal sheet from ?

[martinfan5]

Three weeks?

[timc]

I'll be following this. I have a couple of questions.

1. Could this be done using the Tamiya Focus rally kit?

2. Where to get the Ken Block decals and the set you have to change the numbers?

Thanks and keep up the excellent work.

[lanesteele240]

I lucked out and got the kit and both sets of colorado decals in the same ebay auction. ($75) Coloradodecals.com still show this and another set of block decals on their site but it is in portuquese.

How long do you guys wait to decal after paint. I dont want to mess the finish up. The decals are going to be high stress enough

[lanesteele240]

Also. A member of this very fourm built a tamiya 90 something focus with these decals. Do a search for ford focus rally car in the under glass section. He did a great job

[timc]

Thanks for the info. I might try to build one from thee revell tuner series kit if I can find one and the decals.

[slammedi'am]

Nice!...Not to high jack your thread but I did one similar with the earlier Focus rally kit...I used the same decals as you...Got them off Ebay...Some of them didnt get put on cause wouldnt work with this body style of Focus

[timc]

Forget the revell kit, I'm lookin for a Tamiya kit now.I found the decals on ebay.