Tl;dr – take me to the pictures!
I’m a big fan of Martini liveries on racing cars. Porsche and Brabham established the iconic livery stripes in the 1970s, and Lancia took up the mantle in the 1980s. Ford in the WRC had them briefly in the late 1990s and most recently Williams ran them for five years in F1. The Hasegawa Lancia 037 Rally kit is my first completed Martini-liveried kit. It’s part of a larger project where I’m aiming to have a mini collection of kits in the Martini stripes.
But as well as the livery, the Lancia 037 is one of my favourite rally cars of all. The angular, aggressive design just IS Group B rally cars for me. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t enjoy the later hatchbacks like the Peugeot 205 and the Delta S4 so much.
Hasegawa have done a few versions of the 037 Rally with different decal options and parts. The version I have built is the car raced to victory by Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer in the 1983 Monte Carlo Rally.
Reviewing the Lancia 037 kit
Overall, Hasegawa’s Lancia 037 is a fun build, yet it does lack a little detail in places, particularly the engine bay. Studying reference photos it is clear there’s quite a bit missing, aside from the normal wires and plumbing. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but a bit more detail would’ve been appreciated. The engine is on full display due to the Lancia’s large rear window. For my kit, I added a few extra items – photo-etch seatbelts and some wiring around the engine. I contemplated making a proper effort at bringing the engine up to scratch, but I’d already spent too long on the kit. I wanted it finished!
One aspect that I was especially pleased with was how the windows came out. I used Microscale’s Micro Kristal Klear for the first time to fix the windows in place, and it was excellent. It dries clear and leaves none of the marks that plastic glue or superglue might leave behind. I was able to get a very good finish on all of them. As the majority of my kits are F1 cars, I don’t have a huge amount of experience with windows. The key to the good result here was the Kristal Klear and me taking my time.
The all-important Martini decals
The other factor that often comes into play with Martini liveries is the decals. For the Hasegawa Lancia 037 Rally the decal sheet is quite straightforward. Each Martini stripe is just two sections – one for the bonnet section and one for the remainder of the car. The surfaces are not too complex, so there weren’t too many issues getting the decals to sit nicely. The only areas to pay particular attention to are the front of the bonnet around the lights, where the bonnet meets the A-pillar, and around the fuel caps.
I’ve got a few other cars in progress with Martini liveries for this project – keep a look-out for posts about those. The decals on those kits are going to be far more testing than the Lancia’s were here!
Conclusions
The Martini livery and subject meant I always knew I’d enjoy building this kit. Despite a lack of detail in the engine bay, the Hasegawa Lancia 037 Rally is a high quality plastic kit of an iconic car. For the serious builder who wants a truly accurate representation, there are other options out there – the Model Factory Hiro versions in 1:12 and 1:24 scales for instance. However, both of those MFH kits are expensive and more challenging to build. For me, the simplicity and accessibility of the plastic Hasegawa kit was more than enough to satisfy my desire to have an 037 in my collection.
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