Academy 1/43 Ford Shelby GT 500 "Super Snake" - Unboxing

It's not really an unboxing, because I washed the parts many months ago, but for the purpose of this blog, let's pretend it's the first time we open the box.

I was aching for a new quick project, on which progress would be quick ("Quick" should be interpreted rather loosely) and picked Academy's 1/43 Ford Shelby GT 500 "Super Snake" (#15517) from my stash.

I'm not going to start building model cars now, but I bought this model last year because I am in love with the actual car. If I ever win the lottery, this would most likely be the car I'd buy. Well, after settling my mortgage with the bank, putting at least half of my winnings away for "later", throwing a huge party, go on a superlong vacation, etc. 

Two black and two red sprues contain the majority of the parts. Details appear very nice, all parts are flash-free and ejector-pins are located in places that won't be visible once assembled.

There are 4 vinyl tires with decent threading and 2 chrome sprues for the rims and breaks. One clear sprue for the windshield and the lights. The rear and front windshield are in one piece, which will be a major help when assembling.

Decals are provided with black stripes and a few markings. An extra bag contains 2 screws, to close the body, and 2 axles for the wheels.

Assembly looks ridiculously easy. There are many locator pins and matching holes, leaving no doubt as to where what goes.
The coloured sprues, large locator pins and the screws make this an excellent model to just put together in a couple of minutes, with only a few parts that will require minimal glue.

The building instructions is a six-page booklet, all in Chinese (I assume). All I could decipher was something about "small parts", but I'm not sure whether not to swallow them or cook them with rice. Just do what feels logical, it looks supersimple.

As for the colour : I didn't like the harsh red. If I were to buy it, it would be black with white stripes, but for this model that would render the decals for the skirts and other details useless, so that's not really an option. I googled several colour schemes, fell in love with the lightblue version, but settled for white with a blue stripe.