1/24 Joey Logano 2023 NASCAR Ford Mustang Race Car (Darlington) (Ltd Prod)

This is my 1st Salvino's kit and I was both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised. First the pleasant: the detail of this kit is fantastic - it really gives you an insight into this NexGen car NASCAR has come up with. The parts are molded well and there is no flash to worry about. It is molded in 5 colors (red body parts, white frame pieces, black interior parts, silver frame pieces, and the clear windows and aero pieces in the back. With the exception of having to paint the front section of the body blue to get the correct paint job, you could easily build this kit without painting and end up with a good-looking car. Now for the not-so-pleasant: The impressive detail of the frame makes it difficult to assemble. The frame is basically built in 3 sections (rear, interior cage, and the front end) and each section fits together well by themselves. But trying to get them attached to each other on top of the aero body lower tub is a major exercise - you will not get it done without the use of CA glue and modifying the holes in the tub that the frame slips into - and at that you have got to double and triple check the frame assembly's fit into the body when you made the mods or it might not fit. The clear plastic windows are on the large side and don't fit into the body's grooves without whittling them down a bit. The decals are Power Slide decals and are as good as any decal you will find - but there are a TON of them. The white section in the middle of the body's paint job are decals (I elected to just paint the red, white, and blue sections as it was easier than fighting the decals into position and get them settled to the body contours. That still leaves what must be 100+ decals that have to be applied over the body and windows. Some are a breeze to get into place, others have to be manipulated and treated with Micro-Sol multiple times to get them to adhere and conform to body details. And I have to mention that the instructions could be MUCH better than they are. They aren't bad, but the pictures can leave a lot of part placement to the imagination, so you'll be test-fitting parts a LOT. Also, make sure you read the little notes on those instructions before trying to assemble things - they do include some very necessary secrets. With all this said, would I recommend this kit - ABSOLUTELY - to someone who has been building kits for some time; this is not something a beginner should even try. I'm glad I built it and I still have the Keslowski Castrol car to build in the future - I'm hoping this experience will make that build go better.