McLaren F1-GTR short tail by MFH

[lovegt40]

wonderful livery

[lezdep]

Another 5 hours spent on CF decals. All I've done is finish sides and internals of cockpit and worked on external surface of the roof.
Gaps will not be visible when body panels are attached in place. So much effort and work is needed for those CF decals. Hope it will
make some difference in the end.

[lezdep]

Lack of updates in this WIP did not indicate abandonment of this project. Big step forward was taken 3 weeks ago when I put
clear coat over body panels and all parts where CF decals were applied. I've been waiting for clear to dry and also distracted by
work on Aoshima's long tail F1-GTR kit. At present all the parts of chassis for this kit are pretty much ready for assembly and I've
started it last night. Not much to show, just attached rear firewall heat shield and rear fender panels. As assembly steps could be
relatively small now, hopefully I will be able to spend more nights working on this model.

Here are couple of photos to show that project is alive and well.

[lezdep]

Going forward with assemblies on front section of the model. Assembled and installed pedals. Assembled and installed items
inside front crash structure. Attached fluid reservoirs to front firewall and attached front firewall to chassis. Installed
steering column, gearshift cover and blank cover on the opposite side.

[gtziaf]

Wow!!!

[lezdep]

A bit more progress. Worked on front suspension. Front section was permanently attached beforehand.
I'm moving very slowly because each gluing operation takes 10 to 30 min. With all the pre-fitting testing
and epoxy setting time, I cannot move any faster, unfortunately.

[lezdep]

Another relatively small update. Pretty much completed front suspension and worked on engine, gearbox and rear suspension.
Even though all those engine accessories will be hidden when engine is in place, it's nice to work on them and to know those details are present.

[lezdep]

Spent about 3 hours last night working on some PE items. Attached heat shields to engine,
assembled brake rotors and front radiators. I guess brake rotors have different colour on real car,
but imho they look great as it, without paint. I'm going to leave them this way.

[lezdep]

Some progress over the weekend. Not a big update in terms of advancing this build,
but quite a few photos to show. First I've assembled rear shocks, gearbox holding
brackets and cross bar. As I've feared there are some alignment issues. I could probably
force it into place by gluing gearbox to engine and screwing brackets to engine bay walls.
but there will forever be a tension there. I plan to detach shocks, reduce their length a bit
and re-attach back. Next worked a bit on cockpit - installed electronic boxes and main
console, added decals and main display parts to dashboard, applied CF decals to the back
of driver seat. Beside that only decal work on wheels and brakes. Also installed air valves
onto rims. Everything except for CF decals came in the kit.

[stratos75]

I'm watching with great interest. Will you add some details to the brake calipers? For example fixings for pads or pipes for brake fluid?

[lezdep]

No, I have no plans to add anymore details than there is in the box. This is pretty much strictly OOB build. I'm a farsighted person with
aging eyes. 1/24 is too small for me. By comparing size of calipers to how big toothpick's tip is, you can see how small those calipers are.
Applying decals was already a challenge for me. Had to use maximum magnification available in my visor. 1/12 is different story. If there
is 1/12 MFH kit released one day in the future, I would add as much detail as I could to it. If there is no such kit, I plan to continue
with my own project of conversion from 1/12 road car die-cast into 1995 LeMans winning F1-GTR.

[stevenoble]

Colour scheme and your execution of it is superb, looks fantastic so far. Can't wait to see it in clear coat stages..

[lezdep]

Originally Posted by stevenoble

Colour scheme and your execution of it is superb, looks fantastic so far. Can't wait to see it in clear coat stages..

Everything was actually clear coated back in May. I just didn't make any photos, because it does not look much
different from photos of parts with decals on. Body panels are actually waiting for semi-gloss black to be applied to
internal surfaces. That requires extensive masking, which is not my preferred task and I keep delaying it.

[sportracer02]

great job so far, nice carbon decalling !!

[lezdep]

Removed major block over the weekend. Masked off and painted semi-gloss black all internal surfaces on body
panels. 5 hours spent on complex masking seem like a lot of wasted time to me. But it had to be done. Actual
painting took may be 15 min and then another 30 or so to remove masking. Fortunately there wasn't much bleed
through to remove. I've used Tamiya fine polishing compound and cotton swabs to remove it. Over all result is
better then I've expected. But most important is that I can go ahead and complete most of the assemblies for
this model. Also cleared coated wheels and seat. Only some PE bits are left to paint, before I have it all ready
for final push.

Here are masked parts with semi-gloss black already applied.


Here are parts ready to go. I can't show both side of parts at the same time, so I put some of them outer face
out, some inner face out.