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A very old kit of a very old car: the 1956 Airfix kit
of the 1904 Darracq. This is the only kit in this serie in a 1/25 scale as Dean Milano has pointed out. It's the original 1956 first issue which I didn't know at the time I bought it. I forgot to take some pictures of the unassembled kit itself, but I was lucky to find some nice pictures on the web (picture courtesy of Mat Irvine). |
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As Mat Irvine wrote, it was probably one of the very
first 'Star Cars' - cars that have had 'starring roles' in
movies and TV series. In this case the Darracq starred in the
classic 1953 British movie 'Genevieve'. A film set in the
famous annual London-to-Brighton Veteran Car Run. The connection to the movie is pointed out in a line of text on the back of the header (picture courtesy of Mat Irvine). |
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The kit is fairly simple with only 34 parts. I left
most of the parts unchanged, but made some changes to the lamps like
adding real lenses and handles made from 0.5mm brass wire. The kit
had no plated parts and as I don't like the look of brass paint I
decided to have some parts gold plated by Chrome Tech USA. And they
did a nice job on those parts. The firewall was painted brown and covered with a clear wood grain decal. The two spare wheels received three leather straps and the whole car was painted in the color scheme of the original 'Genevieve' Darracq who starred in the movie. It doesn't show very well on the pictures, but the seats are a much darker red. I also added the original license plate, the Genevieve name on the engine hood and a very small Darracq emblem on the radiator. And here is the result: |
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