Mini Arrives

Well, the MRRC Morris Mini Minor arrived yesterday and I am so happy with it.

This kit was originally issued by Airfix in the early sixties, while this MRRC (Model Road Racing Cars) reissue came in the early 80s.

As far as I can tell the only parts replaced are the windows (they look modern and certainly not like the ones in the original Airfix Minis I've seen) and the headlights.  Luckily the windows are unscratched and clear (although thick), and I can replace the headlights (which are chrome plated) with clear lenses I bought in Japan.

The model gives you the option to build any of three Mini variants: the Morris Mini Minor, the Austin 7, and the Mini Cooper.  You get three optional radiator grilles and two badges for the bonnet.  

There is one puzzling aspect of this model - it's moulded in ABS plastic and not normal injection moulded styrene like nearly every other model kit.  Assembly could be done with something stupidly strong like Microweld, but I'll be using good old Superglue.  I'll treat it like a resin kit, which I'm used to working with.

Compared to an Arii kit of the same scale it seems old and antiquated, but it's accurate and has enough detail to allow me to build a nice model from it.

The MRRC packaging... unlike the Airfix release there are no illustrations on the header.  Pity.

This is the bodyshell.  It comes with the windows already snapped into place.  Luckily they can be snapped out again and permanently fixed once the model is painted.

Here are the other parts of the kit.  Cleanly moulded and lacking flash on nearly every part.

 Without the flash this photo shows the car in it's true colour.  The original release by Airfix was bright red, while this one is a darker shade.