1/20 Renault RE30B - Tamiya

[1968charger]

Began work on the 1/20 Tamiya Renault RE30B Turbo after many years away from the hobby. I need to give credit and thanks to HuskerF1 and his current WIP of the RE30B. I have acquired a few 1/20 Tamiya kits over the years but never started one.

My wife thinks I’m crazy because I have a stack of models that are collecting dust in the closet and she has threatened more than once to put them on the next garage sale!

After discovering HuskerF1’s WIP on this forum I was inspired to get out my RE30B kits (I have 2) and Studio 27 Grade Up Parts and start building.



Any resemblance, real or otherwise, to HuskerF1’s RE30B build is purely intentional. Hopefully, I can contribute some additional tips and techniques that worked for me on my RE30B build. I welcome all comments, tips, or constructive criticism.

And now, on to the build…

I started with the lower chassis (C48) and opened up the area where the front shocks (part C53, I’ll be replacing with scratch built) and the front upper arms (D3) mount to. I also opened up the front bulkhead and the bottom where the front uprights (D5) attach.



After hogging out some plastic, I filled in with Evergreen sheet and strip styrene. I also added a piece that sits just in front of the seat. I plan to add a foot well where the drivers feet and legs would go.





After setting that aside to dry I decided to start on a replacement seat. The kit part really is inadequate when you look at photos of the real thing. My first attempt to build a prototype from paper card stock didn't turn out too good. My measurements and angles were off and the seat did not fit well.

After much thought I decided to place painters tape in the cockpit and mark reference points for the angles and measurements...



I then transferred the tape to paper card stock and drew in the seat...



I then scanned the drawing to my computer and used Paint.Net (a free and powerful drawing app) to make my drawing of the seat. Paint.Net allows you to make reverse images so I only needed to draw on side of the seat...



After printing out the seat I cut it out and glued it up...



Test fitting went well and I think I'm ready to cut the seat out of sheet styrene. That will come in a later post.





I feel pretty good about my progress and its feels great to shake off the rust! More to follow...

[F1-Fan]

Nice start!

Thanks for the tips (on-line software and seat).

I will follow your w.i.p. since I have this kit in my "to do list".

Regards,

F1-fan

[Archibaldi]

Nice to see an old school powered with modern tech
Will definitely watch the build !