Ford GT40 Mk.II ’66

Meng, 1/12 scale

Reviewed by Jason Woollett

The Ford GT40 racing car has made a comeback on the movie screen with the recently released movie Ford v Ferrari, starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon, which dramatizes the true story behind one of the most famous car races of all time: the 1966 edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

In the 1966 race, three teams racing the GT 40Mk.II (Denny Hulme and Ken Miles Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren, and Dick Hutcherson and Ronnie Bucknum) dominated the race, taking Ferrari by surprise and beating them to finish 1-2-3 in the standings. The Ford GT40 continued to win the race for the next three years.

I was very excited when I heard about Meng releasing this kit in 1:12 scale and of course the likely comparisons with the other 1:12 scale kit of the GT40 made by Trumpeter, now re-released by Magnifier.

The Meng kit comes in a large box with the artwork showing the car Ken Miles drove in the race.

You get a colour 61 page booklet that breaks down the build into 50 steps.

Looking inside the large box reveals 17 sprues in different colours and 13 larger body parts, clear parts as well as various springs, screws, pins and metal rods.

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Thumbnail panels:

Vinyl and a screwdriver are also included. Parts N & P which include the seats , brake ducts and engine piping are made from a soft vinyl.

There are two decal sheets that are printed by Meng and seem to have good register and a nice glossy finish. They include options for either the 1st (black No.2 car) or 2nd ( blue No.1 car) place getters from the 1966 Le Mans race.

The other sheet provide tyre and dash decals.

Pre-cut window masks are included, as well as fabric for the seat belts and a small photo etch sheet.

Paint colour references show Meng(AK) and Gunze Acrysion paints.

From studying the instructions, Meng have incorporated some interesting features in this kit.

The suspension is workable, with the front wheels steerable and connected to the steering wheel.

The doors have been designed with a clever spring-loaded latch mechanism that ensures that when the door is closed it stays in position until you apply the smallest outward pressure to open it.

Meng has reproduced the look of the cloth seats by using flexible rubber parts with moulded creases and fold marks on the fabric is very convincingly done and those metal eyelets are cleverly handled using plastic inserts so you can paint them separately and then simply push them in from the back to form the rivets in the seats.

A spare wheel is also included, which Trumpeter’s version doesn’t offer.

In conclusion, I think that Meng has done a wonderful job in representing this in large scale, and like their  Kawasaki Ninja H2R bike, I hope they continue to bring out kits in these impressive scales.

Thanks to Meng Model for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2020 by Jason Woollett
Images Copyright © 2020 by Brett Green
Page Created 7 June, 2021
Last updated 7 June, 2021

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