Let's review Fujimi's 1/24 Dome Zero RL 1979

"Nice ol' kit!"

About 10 years ago, I bought a Fujimi Dome Zero RL from a Yahoo auction. I could only assume it was a re-release in the 80s, well, at least according to the data shown on Scalemate and the crappy box I received. The decal inside was printed by Fujimi, and with no doubt, it was no longer usable due to yellowing. I have been on and off searching for a box with a working decal set over the years, and one finally came to me last month. Coming with a solid Cartograf-printed decal, this post-2002 re-release has a collage-like box art of actual car photos and a list of specifications of the car's performance.

I do want to comment on the layout of this box art; it seems too busy for me. If I were the designer, I would definitely remove the three small pictures and list the specifications in white, shadowed letters right on the pictures. 

On the side of the box, you get the metallic, shining Cartograf sticker, indicating the top-quality decal inside that lasts forever!

The old version has a slightly bigger box and a completely different box art. I am honestly a much bigger fan of Tamiya box arts or the box arts of other old Fujimi kits, like the original 330 P4.

Nothing really changed much in this kit except that beautiful piece of decal that is protected in a plastic bag. The major sponsor is the Japanese musical instrument manufacturer, Roland. 

YES!!

The body of the car is moulded into 2 pieces. In the later stage of construction, the rear piece will be attached to the front one through a tiny folding mechanism. That mechanism is glued on the inside of the front body, so the rear body can't be taken away once the construction is complete. Instead, it can be lifted up to show the beauty of that classic DFV engine. In addition, the front open vents, nice!

Gotta love the little DOME 童夢 emblem detail. However, these two kanji are supposed to be silver, and it can be very difficult to colour them due to their small size. Nope, the emblem is not covered in the decal.

Sprue A contains mostly cockpit parts and the two front wheels.

All the rivet and cable details look clean and sharp. Lots of masking work here!

The second half of sprue A. You'll find more details here. The single seat has a pretty convincing texture to it.

Honestly, I prefer decals + Micro Kristal Klear or clear nail varnish in this situation. 

The chassis you can find on Sprue B has a huge battery case. I believe this was used to power the front and rear light bulbs, as indicated on the side of the old box. There was also another version of this that had an even bigger battery case for a motorized version (probably the original version, as motorized models were very popular back then). Here is a reference picture I found on Hobby Search:

Note the very different chassis.

Here's a closer look at the chassis.

Despite being a 45-year-old model, I appreciate all the details that can be found here and there. At this point, I doubt whether the accuracy here is important. I am just happy that these details exist. 

The chrome-plated Sprue C look fine to my standard because they are not ultra-shining; rather, they are covered in a dull layer of subtle silver finish. Even so, it must be washed off due to all the gates and ejector pin marks.

I did keep the two rear wheels before removing the chrome finish. They look pretty realistic, and the gates will be hidden in tire rubber. 

The brake discs have good details on them, although the ejector pin marks are brutal.

Sprue D is all about the engine work. Fujimi converted this famous engine into a 1/24 replica. Let's not talk about how accurate this is...well, at least I would say the shape of the cam covers looks a bit off. The engine itself is fairly detailed, and by adding wires and cables here and there, you can easily reproduce one of the greatest F1 engines (if not the greatest one). 

I am very familiar with Tamiya's 1/12 DFVs, and seeing it in a 1/24 is a bit weird. At least, the embossed FORD letters are very sharp. The plug caps here look hilarious. 

The equally famous Hewland gearbox. This one is a TL2-200 5-speed.

Let's not forget about the clear sprue. The cool-looking cockpit roof is moulded together with the windows, so some easy masking work is needed. From the box art, you can see that this roof can be lifted, but the kit did not reproduce this mechanism. Other parts here are pretty standard.

It's funny to me that they have Goodyear on one sidewall of the tire and Dunlop on the other side. There is no mould line on the surface of the tires; don't be fooled, they are at the end of the surface of the tire where the sidewall begins. 

Fujimi also once released a version of the Dome Zero RL for the car that raced at the 1980 and 1981 Le Mans. I found this little image from Hobby Link Japan:

It was a collaboration with Studio27 (decals) and also two trans kits from Baracca. Here's a picture of the actual trans kit I found on the Baracca website; it is for the 1981 Amada version:

So, if you are interested in reproducing either of these two versions, you must buy the kit from Fujimi (which has the exact same content from the old 1979 version + two new decals from Studio27) and either two trans kits to make the accurate car. Interesting, no?

Hooray! And that's all you get from this fairly old kit. Not too bad, I would say! An extremely cool car despite a disenchanting racing record. I will forever be a fan of cars that exemplify the spirit of Le Mans - Never give up, 1995 Nissan GT-R Le Mans - like this Dome Zero RL and the many, many more cars that were either lucky enough to finish/win at Le Mans or unlucky enough to be marked as DNF/DNS. The sanding work has already started with all the parts, so hopefully, I will be able to airbrush this one soon!

Photo Credit: Petrolicious