Eighties Contest Entry: Toleman TG184 (Senna - Monaco GP - 1984)

[Sennake]

Now that I've finally finished my Caterham Super Seven JPE, it is time to make up my mind about which model I will enter into the eighties contest.

Looking at my nickname, it is obvious that a Senna car would be my favorite subject. The only question is : which one? I chose not to build the more obvious subjects like the McLarens, but to build the first formule 1 car he ever raced in, the Toleman TG184. This is the Monaco GP car, in which Senna hunted down the leader, Prost, in the pouring rain only to be stopped by the red flag just when he was to overtake Prost, finishing in second place.

The 1/20 kit is a pretty new production by Model Factory Hiro, and it's certainly not a cheap one. But it looks like it will make a fabulous build and to my knowledge it is the only 1/20 kit of this car. So I'll try to make the best of it.

Ok, here we go.

Last year, I was in Goodwood Festival of Speed, and one of the main themes was "Senna's cars". I made reference pics of all his cars, so I have a lot of good pics of the Toleman as well. This is the car I'm talking about, in case you don't know how it looks IRL, because I'm aware of the fact that 1984 is a long time ago and most of our young modelers weren't even born yet...



The kit box protected the kit parts very well on its trip from Japan to Belgium and looks like this :



The building instructions are very clear and in color, although they look a bit short to me : I prefer step-by-step instructions with less information on each step, but they'll have to do.





Next we take a look at the main parts : the chassis and the body. Cast in resin, which looks very sharp and crisp, with almost no flash or sinkmarks. On first sight that is.



Also a resin cast part : the driver. I didn't make up my mind yet about putting the driver figure in the car or not. The helmet and racesuit decals look awsome, but on the other hand the safety belts are not cast with the figure so I'll have to attach the separately built belts to the figure and I'm not sure if that will look realistic enough. They have to fit very tight in any case...



And these are my favorite parts : the beautifully cast rims. In fact, they are the best rims I have ever encountered in any kit I have ever built or even bought. I'm aware of the fact that they will be painted in black of course, which will take away the great shine, buy still, the shape will be there and I think it looks awsome!



The tires are the exact ones used in the Monaco GP (raintires). When the kit arrived, there were already rain tires included, but obviously they didn't match the Monaco GP, since a few days later I got a letter in the mailbox sent by Model Factory Hiro, to apologize for delivering the wrong tires, and a bag with these tires was included. Great service! And I have a spare set of 1/20 rain tires



The largest bag was the one with metal parts. I put them in a plastic box to protect them a bit better. I only took out a few parts to give you an idea. You will undoubtly see them pass all in this thread as I will make some progress.



There was also a smaller bag with metal parts. At first I didn't understand why they would pack some parts separately while the main parts were in a large bag, but then I saw it : this small bag is the one that makes the distinction between the Toleman in general and the Monaco GP Toleman. They used other kinds of wings in the other GP's, so this configuration is unique...



I was expecting some photoetch parts, but still I was impressed by the large amount they put in the kit! Although I must say that I won't need all of them, for the same reason as what I told you before. The photoetch parts are used in any version, but some of them won't be needed for the Monaco version.



A smaller bag contains small parts such as drive shafts, exhausts, and so on. All beautifully turned aluminium parts.



Another small bag contains the material for the seat belts, some windscreen material, some electric wire, and some springs and screws.



Last but not least, the decal sheets. They are not very clearly visible because I don't want to take away the protection sheets yet. In any case, they look very nice and even the carbon weave decals are included. I'm impressed!



That's it for now. When I will have something to show you once I started building, you may expect more pics.

See ya'll!

[mickbench]

Cool subject. I like period F1 cars, shall be following this build as I've got a MFH kit that needs building. They do cost a lot of money, but I was lucky and someone gave me my MFH kit..!!

Resin in your kit looks VERY clean. I'm sure someone with your skills will make this look a stunning build.

Keep us posted.

[RallyRaider]

Wow, this will be something to behold! Good luck with all that resin, PE and white metal. Welcome to the eighties contest Guy.

The little Toleman team went on to be quite sucessful didn't it?

[godfather23]

I said it before, but I´ll repeat myself: This will be one awesome contest. Most of the great modelers of the board are in or willing to enter. and we will have a big variety of subjects. Yours adds variety and I´m sure one great result. Have lots of fun with this kit.

[Sennake]

A first update.

After sorting all the pieces I put them in a plastic box with small compartiments.

And after sanding down the baseplate and the body a first time I do a first dry-fit of the most important body parts.

That looks like this :




I notice the rollbar, of which only a small part sticks out of the cowling, and which doesn't run further down than the visible part, because the cowling is a solid cast piece of resin. By the way, that kinda puts this model in the "curbside category" I reckon... Anyway, I absolutely have to fix that problem to enhance the realism of the model.

First I drill away a part of the resin body. Since it's impossible to drill out everything without damaging the outside of the cowling, I chose to sacrifice the front part in order to reach all the corners. I'll make a new front part of plasticard later on.

So after the first drilling it looks like this :



That's a start, but it's not nearly enough : I need to drill out the opening more so I can fit the rollbar in it, and also the cowling walls have to be thin enough. Because even with the rollbar in place you'll still be able to see them. Furthermore, the engine stopping device is attached to the inside of the cowling, so that opening needs to be drilled out from the right cowling wall.

After the rough drilling has been done it looks like this :



Now I can start the finer work. I scrape away more material with a scalpel and a flat file. Once the opening looks ok I need to close down the top slot again because it has become way to wide due to the drilling. I achieve this with a piece of plasticard and some superglue :



Next I saw away the new slot with a small circular saw (is that even an existing word?):



Then I cut away the rest with a scalpel again and finally I sand the slot until it has the correct dimensions again. I also close down the front part of the cowling with another piece of plasticard and some superglue.

That looks like this :



But now I encounter a big problem. Although the opening is large enough to put the complete rollbar in, it's not nearly big enough to mount it from above. In real live they put the cowling over the rollbar of course, and not the other way around... This means I need to design my rollbar so it can be mounted in separate pieces. After some thinking I come up with this idea : I fabricate the main supports in hollow aluminium tubes, and the top arch gets two small taps that fit in the hollow tubes. Inside the cowling I drill out two holes, large enough to fix the main supports in and the third, smaller support will be superglued to the arch.

The separate pieces look like this :



And the cowling looks like this once the main supports are in place :



Finally I can fix the arch with the smaller support to the main supports (all in dry-fit of course). This is the result :





Believe me or not, but this operation took me all evening yesterday. I even didn't have time anymore to post the pictures, therefore I'm doing that now...

This model is gonna cost me heaps of time and energy, I can feel that, but I wanna get it absolutely perfect, or at least as close as I can get...

[Decs0105]

Originally Posted by Sennake

This model is gonna cost me heaps of time and energy, I can feel that, but I wanna get it absolutely perfect, or at least as close as I can get...

That's exactly the same with my MP 4/6..

It looks really great so far!! But it's a shame that these beautiful rims will be painted black...

[robrex]

Great subject! I just watched a video of the race yesterday... Senna was ripped off. He would have easily passed Prost in the next few laps.
Anyway, this will be a thread to follow. I can't wait to see more updates!

[Sennake]

A second update.

During the dryfitting I noticed that the right side-pod didn't show a perfect fit.



So we superglue a piece of plasticard ...



... and sand away the excessary material until it fits.



Next the sidepod is sanded until it had the exact same dimensions as the resin bottom. After which it is polished.



The front opening has to be fitting and straith as well.



Finally I dryfit the photo-etch part. Although it doesn't look too bad, I prefer it to be see-through instead of showing a blind wall behind it...





So we take our drill and we start drilling out the side-pod.



The rough work looks like this :



After filing and sanding down the opening, taking care of leaving a small lip to be able to attach the photo-etch part, it looks like this :



And with the photo-etch part in its place you can now see through the cooling fins (maybe it's not very visible in the pictures). I think this is important since there will be details to see behind it.



The same procedure is carried out to the left side. After that, we take a look at the rear. It's clear that the metal side-pods are way to thick and also the left side-pod is a little small, so it doesn't fit either.



So once again we take some pieces of plasticard, to glue to the side-pod as well as to the monocoque :



And after cutting all the pieces to the right size, and sanding them down, I thouroughly clean and degrease the parts. Next I do a new dryfit. This looks pretty well. Enough for today...





At this pictures you can see the pieces of plasticard and also the thinned down rear, being a lot more realistic.

[builder77]

WOW
Great work so far.
Look forward to more progress.

Chris

[Veyron]

Looks like it would have been easier to just make the whole kit from scratch.

[Murray Kish]

Beautiful work. Gonna learn a few good lessons on this one!!

Thanks for all the extra pics/effort!

Murray

[mickbench]

Great work..!! Wow..!! Skill or what.. I'm building a F1 car at the moment, and I'm fretting about P/E parts and a few holes from a Pin vise. You are almost building from nothing..!!

Keep this up, it's sure to be a great model..

[Decs0105]

This looks great. A lot of work but it's way more realistic!

[marci-blitz]

Originally Posted by Sennake

Looking at my nickname, it is obvious that a Senna car would be my favorite subject. The only question is : which one? I chose not to build the more obvious subjects like the McLarens, but to build the first formule 1 car he ever raced in, the Toleman TG184. This is the Monaco GP car, in which Senna hunted down the leader, Prost, in the pouring rain only to be stopped by the red flag just when he was to overtake Prost, finishing in second place.

Senna got lucky that they raised the red flag!

Stefan Bellof was about to get him with his Tyrell.... Don't forget, Bellof started from the last position into the race.

But what an excellent built, I love it!

All the best, Marc

[Sennake]

Originally Posted by marci-blitz

Senna got lucky that they raised the red flag!

Stefan Bellof was about to get him with his Tyrell.... Don't forget, Bellof started from the last position into the race.

But what an excellent built, I love it!

All the best, Marc

Also don't forget : Tyrrell was disqualified for the complete season afterwards...