Introduction

The following is the introduction provided by ICM;
The Packard Twelve passenger car was designed during the early 1930’s. It became the top model in the Packard Companies range. This car had a V12 engine with 175hp. The series 14 cars were produced from 1936; some of the cars with a 144inch wheelbase (series 1408) had 7 seats and a closed limousine bodies. Packard cars were famous for their reliability and comfort.

Contents

The product is packed in a cardboard tray with a car lid. Inside the box you will find;

• An instruction booklet
• 4 tan sprues
• 1 clear sprue
• A decal sheet

Review

Instructions
The instructions are printed on a light weight semi-gloss paper. The instructions start with a short introduction in Russian and English; this is followed by a painting guide, but only supplies colours by name and by Model Master. There is then a list of cautions to exercise during construction, this is followed by a sprue layout guide. The construction of the model is then shown in 21 stages using black and white line drawings. The instructions finish with a single paint scheme for the model.

Packaging
One thing that ICM do that I don’t like is packing all of the sprues in a single re-sealable plastic bag; in the case of this model it has resulted in some parts being broken from the sprues, 2 pieces in this case one of which I have not been able to identify as yet.

Engine, Transmission and Chassis
The engine as with all of the ICM kits I have checked to date has excellent detail and this engine is no different. The engine in this model will have the ability to look fantastic with the addition of some wiring as ICM really does look to have made a great effort. The only downside of the engine is I believe the radiator due to a complete lack of detail which is unusual forICM. The chassis is a multi-part affair which allows for a very well detailed chassis, however take care to ensure that the chassis is assembled squarely or you will encounter problems later. The cross section which fits in the centre of the chassis should I believe make it easier to keep it square. The tyres are made using 5 slices in this model, which I believe was started by DML; it does however allow very accurate tread patterns to be replicated. Looking at these parts leads me to believe that when the parts all come together it should look very good and accurate.

Interior
The interior of the vehicle should look quite good due to ICM providing door cards, nice seat detail and decals for the dashboard. One thing that would have further improved the seats would be if they were not so perfect, but that depends on your personal wants and needs. There is a downside which is that the door cards and doors are not designed to allow you to show the doors open; that is a pity as the detail provided really should be allowed to show if desired.

Exterior
The exterior of the vehicle to my eye almost begs to be turned into a hot-rod; the lines and curves look great and really will drag the eye of any viewers around your finished model. A big downside to my mind is that the main body joins along the centre of the roof line, which will require a lot of work I suspect to hide the join completely. The front grill is another area that should look good on the completed model. The detail on the engine access panels is very nice and could be made a highlight of the finished model. ICM has not provided the parts to allow the engine panels to be shown open which is a real shame as they put so much effort into areas of the model and then fail to provide the modeller with the ability to show it off. ICM has done a great job on the exterior and put in a lot of effort to provide a realistic finish.

Conclusion

Another very promising car model from ICM, there are a few issues such as the flow lines in the plastic, which does not appear to have caused any issues with this offering. The join down the centre line of the body must be the worst place to put a join. On the plus side I am not aware of this car being available in this scale from anywhere else, and it does have very nice lines and a great engine. This model also cries out for some of the scratch builders on here to go to town.

Reference

Classic Cars.Com Live links