Tamiya's 1/20
McLaren Mercedes MP4/13

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

The year 1998 saw some changes to the F1 Grand Prix race cars. The most visible change was the use of grooved tires, but the other big change was a narrowing of the body width to only 1800mm. With the 1998 season, the McLaren Mercedes team surprised everyone with the MP4/13. At the Australian GP the two MP4/13s showed exceptional performance and easily put them out in front. The McLaren Mercedes design team achieved that balance between aerodynamics, suspension and engine that propelled driver Mika Hakkinen to eight victories and David Coulthard to one. McLaren was also awarded the Constructor's Title for the first time in seven years for this outstanding performer. For excellent information on this car, and team McLaren in general, visit the McLaren website at http://www.mclaren.co.uk/.

The Kit

The Tamiya kit of the MP4/13 is simply beautiful. Molded in silver and black plastic, this kit has all the right changes for the 1998 season, although the only real visible one is the grooved tires, provided in a soft rubber. The kit instructions are very well laid out, but you'll probably want to have a cross-reference for Tamiya paint numbers, as painting is called out throughout the instructions with just the Tamiya numbers.

The V-10 Mercedes engine is very well done and with the removable body it will be visible. Routing the exhausts through the rear suspension will take a little fiddling, but it should fit pretty well. This is definitely a kit that you'll be painting in assemblies, so be sure to test fit everything to make sure you don't mess up already painted surfaces.

The interior is spartan, just like the real thing, and Tamiya has provided you with both steering wheel types for the two choices of cars in the decal sheet. The driver's harness is provided as a decal, and while it looks all right, it probably would be better to replace it with something that has a bit more depth to it. The front steering mechanism is designed to be free moving, so you can either not glue it and be able to position the wheels however you want, or just pick a position and keep them that way. Speaking of the wheels, they have the proper grooves that were introduced in the 1998 season. The Bridgestone brand and Potenza name are provided as decals of a sort that are a bit different to apply but really work well. Make sure you follow the instructions closely, though, as it is a bit different.

The striking scheme of the 1998 MP4/13 is provided in the form of a lot of decals, which may or may not work for you. The car was painted in a silver gradation and the decals provide this as a dithered pattern. The more adventurous might want to give a try at airbrushing this gradation instead, and Tamiya has taken that into consideration as well, as none of the gradation decals have any of the sponsor markings on them. Either route you go, this will be a difficult body to get looking right.

The decal choices are for the #7 and #8 cars, but only for the British Grand Prix. You could also make the cars as they appeared in the French Grand Prix by leaving off some markings, but for the majority of the 1998 season, the MP4/13 carried the West name on the sides and on the rear wing. For the French Grand Prix these were painted out and for the British Grand Prix they had the logo seen in the kit. This kind of limits you to where you can put the model if you were inclined to do a diorama. Doing up the West logo shouldn't be too hard to do, though, so if you're up to it you can model the MP4/13 at any of its races.

Conclusion

The Tamiya kit of the MP4/13 is outstanding and does a great tribute to the McLaren Mercedes team. With the MP4/14 having only a few differences from the MP4/13, hopefully Tamiya will release the 1999 season McLaren Mercedes racecar as well. If you're a fan of F1 racing, this is definitely a kit you'll want to add to your collection.