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  1:24 Testors Kits Civic  
 
 
 
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© francis gan (2003, 2004)

Testors has a few Honda models in its 1:24 Super Tuners Silver Series of metal body kits.  The model reviewed here is the black Honda Civic Si Coupe with yellow/red flames.

The box is a windowed box that displays just the painted and decorated metal body with attached doors, hood and trunk.  The box is red metal plate look. The kit has over 30 detailed parts. The parts come in various sealed recyclable bags (great for reducing the inter-part scratching that may otherwise occur on the chromed, painted or clear plastic parts). The smaller parts bags are then sealed in a larger plastic bag.  The instructions (in english and french) are illustrated in 16 steps. Assembly requires a phillips head screwdriver (not included).

The casting has some interesting details including the antenna cover above the left door's A-pillar. The paintwork is average with a few noticeable blemishes - white primer visible (pinhead size) above the right door. The Yellow and red flames have minor blemishes and "overspray".

The parts had some good details - silver front strut tie bar, red valve cover with silver spark plug cover and oil cap, silver air box and various other reservoir covers in silver. The clear rear and rear side windows have painted borders.

The interior has a gearshift knob that clear had a front and back - the slot it goes into was shaped to ensure that it was assembled correctly. The handbrake is set up to be in up position.  It looks like the cockpit was designed for both LHD and RHD even though this kit came with a dash for a LHD car. The front seats are painted red (though one of them had a chip in the red paint) and snap in place easily. The dashboard had 3 indentations molded for the gauges even though the dashboard decal was one piece - if someone had the patience, they could have cut out the three gauges individually before applying them to the dashboard indentations.

Installing the front dash was a bit tricky as you had to hold the piece in place through the doors while installing the passenger compartment (that needed to slide between the rear window and the trunk hinges). The tires were directional and don't always come assembled in the correct direction on the wheels.

Assembly was pretty straightforward, as is typical with these types of metal kits.  Although it indicates glue is required, the part snapped in quite snugly without the use of glue, except for the shift knob, handbrake and rear corner lights. However, there was one error in the instructions - Step 1 shows the grille upside down. 

 
     

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