Hi all,
After completing the Williams FW14B I took a break and have recently started the the Tamiya McLaren MP4/6. I've gone for the Thunder Valley detail up kit, but apart from that it will be a pretty standard OOB build.
I purchased the formula perfect manual for reference photos and also spent some time looking at Bill Attridge's McLaren and some of the other excellent builds on this site.
Started work on the electrics box.
Carefully cut off the electrical connects from the Tamiya item.
Folded up the metal pieces for the Thunder Valley box. Glued together. primed and painted a mix of grey and matt black Vallejo air. Then lightly sanded back to expose the metal lines on the sides.
Used brass rod for the box legs.
Painted the thunder valley connectors holders in gold and glued into place, then re-attached the tamiya connectors, also gold.
Ends painted matt black then shrink tube added.
Thin strip of masking tape painted black then wrapped around as the box holder.
Result:
Rear brake ducts.
Sanded off the raised area which the drive shaft fits into
Thinned & smoothed out the ducts as they were a bit thick & bumpy
Vallejo primer >Vallejo gloss black, humbrol gloss.
Tamiya polish, then glued in the metal thunder valley parts.
Result:
Next the cockpit & seat.
Removed the seat belt harnesses and drilled out the bolt holes. Painted then added scale motorsports CF decals.
Seat is painted grey + added matt blacked masking tape for the padding.
Sides of cockpit were drilled out for bolts, then covered in CF decal and then clear yellow.
Used the metal TV gear shifter and metal TV seat belt pieces. Used the Tamiya seat belt material.
Still quite a bit to do on the CF’ing the sides and fixing in the left hand switches.
Started work on the monocoque.
This is a really simple piece, but I wanted to add the cabling which is on the real car but largely absent from the Tamiya kit.
Drilled out the holes to feed the cable tie downs into. Also drilled holes to place the rivets around suspension arms, and sanded down and drilled out all the holes for the bolts on top of the fuel tank.
Sanded off the triangle raised pieces on the rear of the monocoque. Cut off the plastic antenna holder on the left front side.
Glued the cable tie downs into place.
Primed in Vallejo.
The back heat shield section was masked and painted in clear orange.
Then for the rest gradually built up layers in a mix of gun metal, matt black and a tiny touch of clear orange.
This has to be done carefully to allow the texture of the monocoque to show through.
Then added CF decal to the front element.
Once dried added the all the bolts and the screw heads in, started adding the cables in, painted and added the red kill switch holder. Added the TV triangle metal parts on the back. Added the holder and bolts in to attach to the engine.
Then started adding the gold electrical connectors, using the TV holders and top studio pieces.
Then added the cabling. This part is tricky and takes a while.
Then added the breather line and shell + FIA decals.
How it is starting to look, dry fitted with cockpit and seat mostly completed.
That is all for now.
KC