Iritani Shadow DN5 1/20 scale

In April 2007 IRITANI for the first time released a second issue of one of their kits, the Shadow DN5. This is one of the kits I was trying to get when I started building resin kits about 10 years ago but never managed. The Shadow team was founded by Don Nicolson whose initials form the basis for the car names. Shadow first entered cars in the North American Can-Am series and in 1973 started competing in Formula one with an own designed car. The IRITANI kit represents the car raced in 1975 driven by Tom Pryce and Jean-Pierre Jarrier. The DN5 promised a lot with 2 pole positions in the first 2 races by Jarrier but failed to deliver through out the season.

The kit comes in the usual IRITANI quality. The engine, gear box and rear suspension (besides the tow links) are made from plastic taken over from a 1970’s kit of a “famous Japanese maker”. The main body, driver seat, front and rear wings are made from resin. The front suspension parts are white metal as well as the front wheel centers. The front wheel rims are machined parts. Further more the kit provides rear dampers and coils, radiator faces, exhaust end pipes and the dashboard as metal parts. The wing end plates are photo etched as well as the seat belt “hard ware”; for the belts a sheet of self adhesive fabric is included. All parts come nicely packed in separate plastic bags. The instruction manual is clearly structured and easy to understand with text in both Portuguese and English. For painting proposals / advices Tamiya color codes are used and a list of required paints is provided at the end of the building instructions.

Remarkable from my point of view are the following details: the front wing elements are already equipped with metal pins so that they can easily be fixed to the nose after corresponding holes have been drilled. The windscreen is provided as a vacuum formed part and you get 2 of those parts so in case something goes wrong you have a second chance. The decal sheet contains all necessary stickers for the ’75 season for both drivers Jarrier and Pryce and for all decals a “white” base decal is provided so that there will be no “shine through” problem for the white and coloured decals on the black base.

So my summary of this short kit review is: as usual IRITANI provides good value for money; all parts are well designed and unlike other South American kit manufacturers the parts are of good quality and fit. The resin parts are “bubble free” and all metal and resin parts only need minor finishing. The Ford Cosworth engine and (Hewland) gear box are provided as plastic parts of the well known Tamiya quality and are therefore easy to handle. Based on my own experience all IRITANI kits are “easy to build” compared to other resin / “garage” kits and I would recommend them especially for modelers who would like to start with resin kits (after having gained first modeling experience with standard plastic kits). For all more experienced modelers this kit provides an excellent base for further detailing.

Thanks to Luiz Iritani for the sample review