Aoshima 1/24 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4
By Tommy VanNess
The Lamborghini Aventador is amazing looking and it has incredible performance. Sleek and low to the ground, this Italian work of art packs a 700hp V12 under the hood. I love the history of Lamborghini. Ferruccio Lamborghini was a tractor maker in Italy after the World War Two.
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His company was very successful, which allowed him to buy expensive cars. One of cars he purchased was the infamous Ferrari 250GT. Lamborghini had many clutch problems with his Ferraris and he eventually went to see Enzo Ferrari himself. Ferrari basically told him that "The problem is with the driver, not the car. You stick to building tractors." This was both insulting and motivational to Ferruccio Lamborghini, and he went to work building a V-12 powered car and founding a small auto factory. The first car was the Lamborghini 350GT and the rest is history. Thankfully, history has turned out the way it did, and we now have the Lamborghini Aventador.
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The Kit
In the modelling world, Aoshima is one of the best. They are expensive, but you really get what you pay for in terms of quality, fitment and accuracy. Aoshima has done a marvelous job with this kit. You have the option to open the doors as well as display the engine with the rear lid up. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. The instructions are very detailed. Most of the assembly pieces have detail of their own, which are covered in the instructions.
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The paint guide is a little tough to follow, as there is a code that you need to decipher. It is laid out at the beginning of the instructions, but it helps to write down the color codes and then post them up in your work area to refer to, if you are like me, and paint at various steps during the build process.
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There are a lot of steps to this build, 47 in total to be exact. The kit has over 130 pieces, so the build will take longer than most. You get a great looking model, Thanks to the parts count and detail. Construction starts with the brakes and wheels, unlike most kits that begin with engine assembly.
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The brakes, wheels and tires have excellent detail. The Aventador has carbon ceramic drilled rotors. You can add more detail to the brakes by using a small drill bit in your pin-vise and drilling out the holes, or by using a toothpick and dab a tiny bit of paint into each hole like I did. Most Aventadors you will see have gloss black wheels, so I painted mine the same. The wheels and tires are poseable.
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The body of the kit comes heavily reinforced by Aoshima (see pics in the First Look article). It is easy to mar or tweak the body panels, so be careful when removing them from the sprues. Also, when the reinforcing plastic is removed, the body becomes extremely fragile and the A-pillar and the bottom of the body can bend easily. As you continue assembly you have to glue more pieces to the body, which will help strengthen it.
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But, just be cautious when handling it. The only issue I had with the body is that the rear deck lid was slightly warped and wouldn't sit right when closed. So, a little warming with hot water and some patient bending of the plastic got it to fit right.
I wanted to make an Aventador SV to display, but no one makes an injection molded kit of it. The closest thing I could find was a transkit from C1 Models, which I purchased. However, I did shy away from it during the build. I have had some bad luck with resin parts before, and I read that Aoshima had released a Aventador SV. I decided to go with a Tamiya TS-29 Semi-gloss black for the body. The car needed 2 paint jobs actually. I began to polish the roof after priming and painting. When doing so, it revealed a little too much shine for my liking. So, I roughed up the paint a bit and I resprayed it. I decided to leave the paint as it was, without polishing it. I was lucky enough to put down a good coat of primer, which yielded smooth paint coats. So, I left it alone. The car has the look I want, which is almost a full matte finish. If you look closely you can see a little texture, but I was okay with that.
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Conclusion
Building this kit was a wonderful experience. I can't say anything bad about it. The only thing I was unhappy with wasthe passenger side windshield wiper: it sticks up off the windshield a little bit. This is easily corrected and I will fix it the next chance I get. But really, this was such a great kit. The detail was amazing. Every piece fit the way it was supposed to. Nothing looked out of place in the end. It looks awesome on display with my other models. That's it, it is just a great kit. Many thanks to Aoshima for putting in the research and engineering on this kit, it has paid off and builders will enjoy putting this together. I want to thank Aoshima for providing the kit. Happy modeling!
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