Tamiya 1/20 Leyton House CG901B
Howdy all,
Time to give this beautiful blue machine a third attempt…
As you can see from the pic below I’ve tried a couple of times before (looong ago), with various levels of success or lack thereof. At least I’ve got a bunch of spares that will, and have already, come in handy!
I plan on doing a few little “extra’s” to this kit. I’ll be using Bare Metal Foil for the first time, as well as some Carbon Fiber decals also. I’ll also be chopping up suspension springs and scratch building something a bit better than what the kit offers. I’m not sure about engine plumbing and wiring yet, as reference pics are hard to come by, and this is a skill I’ve yet to learn.
Anyway, on with some pics.
Previous attempts…
I’ll also be using aftermarket decals from Museum Collection. These also come with somewhat dodgy looking seatbelt “ribbons”, and some photoetch belt parts. I’m not happy with these, so will be buying another aftermarket seatbelt set.
I’m of two minds about Museum Collection… the first set of these decals I had came with HUGE holes in the decals! Apparently this was within acceptable standards for MC, so they wouldn’t replace them… WTF! The online store I dealt with did replace them however… with a set that the ink has run on! Again… WTF! Other MC decals I’ve bought however have been fine, so I dunno. Just the luck of the draw I suppose. Still, if I can avoid MC in the future I defintely will.
Now to get the building started… and there are some problems to fix right off the bat. You’ll notice on the following picture where the nose doesn’t fit correctly onto the cockpit section. Dodgy, and easy to see in person, but fixable with some stuffing around.
The most effective way to fix this I believe is to glue the two halves of the cockpit together first, then glue the nose on , and sand it all flush – this presents more challenges…
The suspension arm in the following pic is virtually impossible to insert when the cockpit is glued together…
So… we have to chop it up!
Simply cut away the small “sticky-outty-bits” you see in the yellow circles, and it’s problem solved! The piece can be put in place when the cockpit is glued, and this doesn’t appear to cause any structural problems. I’ve had the luxury of testing this on two previous kits remember, so I’m confident in this fix so far.
There’s only one other suspension piece that needs cutting, which you can see in the following pic. I recommend that once the cockpit and nose is glued, painted and polished, that you THEN put this suspesion piece in place and use some super glue to glue it back together. Otherwise you’ll have a hell of a time (or it may be impossible) if you’ve put the seat in and glued it all to the floorpan.
Before the nose goes on though, I had to make the bottom of the cockpit thinner so there was a better fit to the nose. I managed this by wedging a piece of 240grit sandpaper in as you can see in the following pic, and sanding away, test fitting the nose at regular intervals. Note, for those who may try this, that one side needs sanding more than the other – pay attention to this, and note the side my sandpaper is sanding in the pic!
And finally the nose goes on… a coat of Tamiya Coral Blue… some polishing and rubbing back…
For those of you not yet converted to sanding your F1 tires, this is what you’re missing out on. I used 240 and 400grit sandpaper to sand this section for simple demonstration of how much better it can look. You may also want to mount the tire on a drill and spin it round on some sandpaper – it’s a lot quicker this way, and more fun!
Next it was time to finish the floorpan. A quick coat of black first up, and then tearing my hair out trying to paint the silver heat shield sections. In the end I gave up and ordered some Bare Metal Foil (matte aluminium). I used Tamiya masking tape to cover the exact area on the floorpan I wanted to have covered with the BMF. I then took the tape off the floorplan and put it onto the BMF sheet.
Once this was done I cut neatly around the masking tape template I’d made, and CAREFULLY peeled it from the BMF. (PRACTISE THIS FIRST!!!) Luckily I had the luxury of practising on one of the old Leyton House floorpans I’d started yonks ago. Ultimately though, the BMF lifts off the part easily if you stuff it up, but the main trick is not tearing the BMF while handling, and laying it down without creases in it.
And the finished floorpan…
Hope you’re all enjoying it so far. Comments always welcome.
Next I’ll be tackling the green areas on the rear wing, nose and cowl, and will have my first attempts at laying down some CF decals.
Cheers all,
Mark