Today features a brief build diary and finished photos from a kit I built a few years ago – the Hasegawa Larrousse LC90 in 1:24 scale. Aguri Suzuki drove an LC90 to third place in the 1990 F1 Japanese GP. It was the first podium for a Japanese driver and Aguri’s best result in his interesting F1 career.
The kit was very enjoyable to build, and it had been one I was looking forward to doing for three reasons. Partly because of the nice colour scheme, but also the car’s interesting history as outlined above, and finally because it’s a pretty rare F1 kit that isn’t often built. I threw myself into it and had a great time putting it together.
Encountering some problems
The kit decals, while usable, were not in great condition. Furthermore, the sheet omits some key yellow areas on the front and rear wings and the yellow areas on the wheels. I decided to spray the yellow areas of the car to get around this, but ordered a replacement decal set from Shunko anyway.
Initial fitting of parts confirmed that the engine cover did not meet the chassis tub very well. While acceptable, there is a clear gap which is unavoidable unless I display the car without the engine cover. The airbox and radiator ducts make the problem even worse, so I left these parts out of the build. In addition, at the time I built the kit, I struggled with my inexperience in filling gaps. I made an attempt to fill some areas where parts met such as the front of the sidepods but looking back this could have been done better.
Painting and decals
I sprayed the yellow onto the car first, normal Tamiya TS16 out of the can, over a white base. Once dry, I masked the yellow and sprayed the car in Tamiya TS51, again out of the can. This metallic blue is very likely the incorrect shade, but it’s difficult to tell what exactly the colour was, and I was (and still am!) happy with the result. TS8 was sprayed onto the engine cover for the red section, meaning all the car’s main colours were painted.
The decals were applied without any problems, the only disappointment was the thickness of the Hasegawa green decals. I chose to use the original green pieces which appeared to be lighter and the correct shade for the car. The Shunko green sections looked too dark. Unfortunately the Hasegawa green decals proved to be too thin and the red and yellow showed through slightly on the engine cover. A minor issue though, to be fair. The rest of the decals went on very well, with most of them coming from the Shunko sheet.
Added details
I chose to only minimally paint the engine and gearbox because of the restricted view. To help with detail though, I added wire engine supports as seen in photos of the car. These wire sections are not included in the kit, so I fashioned some using 0.4 mm metal wire. Similar wire detailing was provided for the rear wing supports too.
Prior to final assembly, I added seat belts and sprayed a few coats of TS13 clear on the bodywork. The black beam wing snapped when assembling the rear wing, but after a repair, it all came together okay. I added a kill switch to the engine cover using 0.2 mm wire painted red.
Conclusions
I took my final display photos against a backdrop of part of a BP promotional poster from the period. The Larrousse LC90 featuring alongside the Lotus and Leyton House teams which BP also supported.
Overall, I’m pleased with my results on this kit when I consider how inexperienced I was in certain areas. I was able to try out masking, filling and detailing, and on a rarely seen subject. The Hasegawa 1:24 kits are great, even if fitting and quality don’t quite match up to Tamiya levels sometimes. Nonetheless, I’m delighted to have the LC90 complete, and after I completed the Benetton B190 too, the two accompany each other nicely. I have a strong urge to do the Zakspeed 891 soon – another rare kit and of Aguri Suzuki too! It’s one of a number of other Hasegawa 1:24 F1 kits of the period I have. I’d best get to work!
This build diary was originally published in stages on f1m.com in 2014.
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