McLaren Senna, Tamiya 24355
The Senna is McLaren’s street-legal track focused creation. Even in the world of exotics the McLaren Senna stands out as a driver-focused, no compromise design. 789 HP, 590 lb-ft torque from a 4-liter twin-turbocharged V8. Active aerodynamics. All packaged in a 1198 kilogram carbon fiber MonoCage chassis. 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 209 mph.
The kit design follows the same no comprise philosophy as the 1-1 car. I kept imagining friendly competition among the designers to put in more detail, then hand it off to the tooling designers with a “Let’s see you hold the tolerances on this part” challenge. Parts fit is excellent throughout. At several points in the build I thought I had found a problem only to find the correct orientation and have the parts slip into place perfectly. Needless to say, this was a fun project.
The amazing detail comes with complexity. The body alone is 111 pieces. That is not including any interior, just the exterior. For comparison, most auto kits I have built have less than 50 pieces in the body. The design makes it possible to reproduce the complex paint scheme. All the colored parts are painted separately before assembly. I can’t imagine how you would mask the design. Certainly not with my limited skills.
I’ve included some chassis and interior images in the photo gallery. There is lots of beautiful detail that is hidden once the body is in place.
Fantastic result, Ken!
An awesome model!
Fantastic job
Looks great, Ken, orange is definitely the right colour for it.
That color was used in McLaren's promotion materials and on the cars loaned to journalists for review. For the model I decanted and mixed Tamiya TS-85 Bright Mica Red and TS-16 Yellow.
That's an impressive build, Ken @kenk
Your skills are clearly not limited.
Turned out really well. I've been very impressed with the Tamiya automobile models, even the older ones.
Yes, Ken @kenk. Your Sienna looks absolutely perfect. A real beauty!
Excellent work! 111 pieces! You've simply got to appreciate Tamiya's engineering, and your results bolster how nicely that engineering works in the builders' favor.
Great result, Ken. I was really surprised to see one of those on the street in Decatur, Alabama a couple of years ago.