tamiya mp4/4 mfh conversion

been building this on and off for a while now.

hopefully i am at the stage where i think it should be safe to share what i have done so far,hopefully this build will go in the right direction and turn out where i will be happy with the finished kit.
http://i59.tinypic.com/35lbxhk.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/25qyn9e.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/21eyjgo.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/25zq8fk.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/mk885u.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/j5lfu9.jpg
http://i61.tinypic.com/f0b81c.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/9km39z.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/34smlpu.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/290yijb.jpg

its a nice kit but its my first multimedia kit so i am taking it easy,i have made 1 or 2 mistakes already.theres plenty of koles to drill out and there was 2 parts that were broke when i recieved the kit,i had to replace them with original kit parts and the conversion kits white metal part (sort of a frankenstein part)

i used hiro carbon fibre decal for the monocoque,its not 100% same as original car,i just tried to make a compromise on a limited budget with limited skills.

i only just painted the marlboro red on the main body today,its still got to be wire wooled to get rid of raised edges from masking and then clear and decals,i have a set of tabu tobacco markings but i dont seem to have the white marlboro markings for the monocoque.

hope you like.

:)

http://i60.tinypic.com/34smlpu.jpg


It looks like you removed the exhaust sections molded into the floor? If you did, it would be incorrect - those pieces were actually part of the undertray which was molded to go around the exhaust on the real car. I will see if I can find a clear photo for you.

Other than that question, bodywork and engine looks fantastic.

Mfh instructions calls out that they should removed,until I marry the engine and the monocoque to the undertray I cant realy fit the exhaust system together to see how the ends are fitting to the kit.

I will look round net to see what you pointed out.

looking at the hiro exhaust parts it seems they are tapered which I think is why the part had to be removed,iirc the kit part there is vertical so the diagonal exhaust wont sit flush,perhaps an easy fix with a snip and file but I went with the instruction leaflet.
:)

I have photos in the MFH Joe Honda books which show it nicely but I don't have a working scanner right now. The exhaust tips are tapered to match the floor at the ends but the floor has a shroud which extends over them - the way the kit is molded is out of scale which adds to the confusion/challenge over what is correct. On my MP4/5B I am in the process of modifying the same area to be correct for size.

I managed to see a pic which kinda shows something at that end,I saw a lot of heat shielding there so I need to put foil in this area.I know that the tamiya part is straight as I have a spare undertray.

in the pics I saw,its like a length of pipe that is very burnt and kinda brown with lots of heat shield around the area.I might be able to get suitable sized aluminium or styrene tube to insert the exhaust into and weather it,I understand it needs to be filed and shaped to sit correctly in this area as its tapered?
:)

Looks great so far, nice masking on the bodywork..

Real nice work

http://i59.tinypic.com/2us7hjd.jpg
http://i58.tinypic.com/mmrfio.jpg

body just needs a clear coat.its just an mp4/4 because to depict a particular car I cant.this configuration is wrong,it should have the chimneys (or whatever they are called for cooling) and the honda logo is not placed correct,a silly docile mistake I made,I put them first then the marlboro logo when I should have done it the other way round.