WIP Tamiya Brabham BT46 1/20

[Jamme]

Hello to everybody,
Another new WIP for me .................and for you to look at..........
Iwanted for a long time to build a F1, so here is the begining......
First a little KR for those (are there some here....????) that don't know the kit........

















As you can see it is the "Clear" Version.
It will be painted.
I want to thank Joao from F1M for the great pictures of the 1/1 car he sended me.

Wip will follow......

Cheers,

Jamme

[Jamme]

So here is the beginning.....
As this (the original one at least) is old, it hasn't the quality of the newer Tamiya releases.
It suffers also from some inacuracies...
As I got good shotes from the real car I decided to detail it a little bit.
Upper body comes in one piece.


I decided to cut off the nose.
Examining the front wings, I founded the first mistake.
The winglets are much to "heavy" and too big....
Here is before......


And after sanding. The new winglet will be made later with a fine strip of Plasticard, ao maybe photoetched....


As I said earlier, I want to detail the car a little.
I began by gluing a strip of plasticard at the back of the body, near where the rollbar will come.
I also put a strip of plasticard to close the place between the external body and the monocoque. I also made a rectangular hole as tubes and wires have to go trough it. I also removed, by sanding, the different tubes that where molded on the monocoque by Tamiya. They will be remaded later, with Detailmaster stuff.
I also remade the low front suspension arm passage, as this was much too large....
Here are some pictures......












That's all for tonight.
Hope you like it.
Enjoy looking (and posting....of course.....!)
Feel free to make comments, critics, and if you have questions........don't hesitate.

Cheers,

Jamme

[hogs29]

Very cool project. I'll be watching this one closely for sure, and I really like the attention to detail you've given it, even at this early stage.

[robrex]

Excellent, another 1/20 Tamiya kit to follow! I'll also be looking forward to the progress. Is it going to be Niki's car?

[Jamme]

Originally Posted by robrex

Excellent, another 1/20 Tamiya kit to follow! I'll also be looking forward to the progress. Is it going to be Niki's car?

Hello, thanks for looking.
Yes It will be N. Lauda's car.

Cheers,

Jamme

[DerXL]

Wow. This is going to be great.

I'll have the spy-cam ready. Because I have this kit in my to-do pile.
This looks like the "mother of all BT46 builds", so I'm going to watch this closely !!!

The start looks very promising and thorough.
I am very interested in the reference images you've got. If you don't mind sharing them, please let me know.

Regards,

[Chinamalc]

Jamme,
Good to see this as a WIP, I have not seen anyone do this before in detail. I have one started and my tub looks almost the same as yours!! The detail pics you now have should help a lot. I have a question, how will you paint the silver inside the area of the tub you have blanked off? (Photo 4 to 7 in post two). Looking forward to more updates!

I did the following for my model after spending a long time staring at all the photos I have of this car, hope you find it useful. If you find any mistakes please let me know! (I think the close up photos were taken at Longbeach)

BT46 Changes race by race

1978 BT46A
Kyalami. Car numbers 1 Lauda and 2 Watson. White body stripes, top of rear wing white, small NACA ducts in front wing end plates, both round and triangular Alfa badge on nose, BRABHAM ALFA ROMEO on side skirt. Polished rear rims, front rims with black disk attached. Additional flexi tube ducts to rear brakes from above rear edge of rear deck. Reflective patch on underside of rear wing support tube to protect from exhaust heat.
Longbeach. White colour replaced with dark blue, twin sky blue stripes on body sides, front wing behind radiator red with dark blue gurney flap, round Alfa badge on nose single vent in headrest fairing ALFA ROMEO on side skirt PARMALAT added to front wing.
Monte Carlo. Twin white pin stripes added in front and behind ALFA ROMEO script along bottom of tub. Two extra vents either side of drivers head in fairing
Zolder. Extra stripe added between lower tub pin stripes in front and behind ALFA ROMEO script. Both round and triangular Alfa badge on nose of both cars in different pictures.
Jarama. Triangular Alfa badge on front of No 2 Watsons car. (Currently no pic of Lauda’s car available). Fibreglass rear brake ducts replaced with flexi tube plumbed to plate that supports rear horizontal radiator. Tjis was experimented with earlier in the season but air taken from edge of rear deck.
Anderstorp. BT46B (fancar) raced.
Paul Ricard. Black rear rims triangular Alfa badge on nose used from now on.
Brands Hatch and Hockenheim. No visible changes
Zeltweg. Practice two cars with radiators on side of tub, not raced. Front of tub undertray square at front, (previously angled back about 45 degrees).
Zandvoort. No visible changes
Monza. Light blue stripe on tub side becomes one solid stripe with pin stripes. Small white ‘tube’ vent on RH nose near end of blue stripes on No 1 Laudas car (maybe only in practice).
Watkins Glen. No visible changes
Montreal. Nelson Piquet joins team, car Numbered 66, gurney flaps on front wing.

1979 BT46C
Buenos Aires. Piquet No 6. No visible changes.

Malc.

[OrangeR]

Great Jamme!
It will surely be interesting to follow how you tackle an F1.
I'll wait impatiently for updates.