1997 Mclaren F1 GTR

[Rich Chernosky]

Still looking to finish projects started long ago. This one was sprayed in December of 2017. Color is Mr Color 109 Character Yellow. This paint  comes very close to  to the original shade of orange used by the early Mclaren team. The car represents the pre-season testing version of the race car. A wonderful kit loaded with lots of detail and a fun build. More details in the picture captions. Thanks for looking and comments welcome.

Chassis and body ready to be mated. Body snapped quite easily over the front and rear tabs.

Lots of detail of the 6litre v-12 engine used in this car. Carbon fibre decals were included in the kit but not mentioned on the instructions. Everything fit quite nicely. 

Interior was well detailed as well and probably could have used more.  The Mclaren is a 3 seater and the middle position is where the driver sits.

Finished car on its wheels. The Character Yellow sprayed on nicely but it is a semi-gloss so Tamiya TS-13 clear was used. 

Rear end has some nice detail.   Wing went on nicely and all the exhaust pieces met up well.

Really like the stance of this kit. It all says "racecar".  Body panels all come off and the door' despite their complexity fit well and snapped in place.

 

Edited April 16 by Rich Chernosky

[bbowser]

Well done.  Looks like a pretty complex kit.  That color is wild!

[Rich Chernosky]

1 hour ago, bbowser said:

Well done.  Looks like a pretty complex kit.  That color is wild!

Bruce..that kit WAS pretty complex but most of it fit well so it was a joy to do. Thanks

 

[PappyD340]

Great looking McLaren!

[Pierre Rivard]

Beautiful build Rich, as all your builds are. Looks like Aoshima has successfully cast a lot of crisp details into this sculpted body and your papaya orange color makes all these details very visible. It is the proper color for a McLaren. Well done sir!

[Mike 1017]

KOOL

[Jim B]

Beautiful McLaren. Very well done. 

[Dave B]

That looks like a really nice kit and an excellent OOB build.

Nice to see you doing some sports cars again!!

Dave B

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[Rich Chernosky]

On 4/16/2025 at 7:31 PM, PappyD340 said:

Great looking McLaren!

Thanks Larry

 

23 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Beautiful build Rich, as all your builds are. Looks like Aoshima has successfully cast a lot of crisp details into this sculpted body and your papaya orange color makes all these details very visible. It is the proper color for a McLaren. Well done sir!

Thank you most kindly Pierre. Interesting story.  Manufacturers will often name a color in order to sell their product. In the case of Mclaren orange,  a renown motorsports journalist and photographer was having breakfast and noted that the color of the Mclarens resembled a fruit he was having .  At first the Mclaren team rejected the idea that the color of their cars was named after a fruit. But the power of the press was not to be denied and eventually the team had to call their color papaya.  The name stuck. This information comes straight from the source by the way. 

 

22 hours ago, Mike 1017 said:

KOOL

A compliment fer sure.  Thanks

 

15 hours ago, Jim B said:

Beautiful McLaren. Very well done.Thanks Jim

 

9 hours ago, Dave B said:

That looks like a really nice kit and an excellent OOB build.

Nice to see you doing some sports cars again!!

Dave B

Not to worry Dave, the majority of my stash is sports and racing cars so you will see a lot more. Thank you for the praise. 

 

2 hours ago, ChrisR said:

Very nice!

Thanks

 

[Jim N]

Great build Rich.  Looks really spectacular.

[Funkychiken]

Such an iconic car.

In terms of appearance, it'd fit tifht in today, its a timeless design.

Youve done it justice, fantastic build, i do want both the long tail and shirt tail versions,  but they are pricey kits!

[slusher]

Beautifully done sir!

[Nacho Z]

Love those McLarens!  Nice job as usual, Rich.  You’ve been knocking them out of the park!