1/20 MFH/E-Jan Red Bull RB4

[ejsmith]

Well the kit's been out for a while now and I'm quite surprised there hasn't been a wip started already so thought I'd post mine. My first MFH, I'm super excited! I'm a big DC fan so I bought this as soon as it was announced. I've been working on it for a few weeks now (wanted to get some progress before posting a wip) but I'm quite a slow builder as I want to get this as near to perfect as I can. So I've test fitted all of the parts, drilled all of the holes, scribed the panel lines and then cleaned up the resin before priming. I did have one small problem though, I chipped part of the resin where it meets the shark fin. A little milliput solved that though. Something else I've noticed is the gearbox/wing mount aren't square. Not sure how best to tackle this but that's some way off at the moment anyway. So I'm just waiting for the primer to harden and then I'll get the airbrush out on Monday and do the blue. Here are some pictures, enjoy! Oh, this will be the Hungarian GP version by the way. I was there and got some good shots

[pawlie]

Should be good-more pics please!

[Captain Mark]

Nice - keep us posted!

[ejsmith]

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. First of all I had to build the F2007 for the window at work and then I've been ill since and not had time to build. However I'm now fully recovered and the build is back on track I'm pleased to say! So here's a smallish update. I've spent a lot of time puttying and sanding to remove the gap between the two find on the sidepods and the body. I should really have done this before I stuck the photo etch on but I'll know for the STR3 now The sanding was quite tricky because of this but also because it's quite a hard surface to reach so it took a lot of time. Just a little more sanding and then primer on top and the job will be complete






Having seen a couple of completed builds of this I've noticed that the gap between the photoetched piece shown below and the resin is rather noticeable so I decided to putty over this and sand it flush




Whilst I was busy filling gaps I also decided to smooth the join between the white metal piece in front of the cockpit and the body. I used cyano for this. Did the same for the mirrors




And here's a picture of what it looks like at the moment. A little more work tonight and I should hopefully be ready to paint the blue tomorrow but no guarantees. Thanks for looking!

[builder77]

Excellent putty work.
After looking at your build I realized I didnt get the mirrors on min yet.
What metal piece in the front of the cockpit are you talking about?
Chris

[ejsmith]

Thanks! The white metal piece is the little hump. I've got no idea what its purpose is or what to call it, it's just a bump It's in the fourth picture.

I've just sprayed the first coat of blue using zero paints. I'll have some pictures up later

[ejsmith]

Here's the first shot of the blue. It needs a few more coats and then a clear coat before it's finished but I think it's looking good so far. It looks quite dark on its own but this is the actual colour of the Red Bulls (and Toro Rossos - it's the same paint! ) and it will also look better when the decals are on. I'm going to finish priming the other parts which need to be blue before doing more coats to avoid cleaning the airbrush more than necessary Thanks for looking!

[suprageex]

Very nice, i'm more a fan of Torro Rosso, tho. (Seb. Vettel)
The "bump" you're reffering to is a camera
Once more: very,very nice!

[Captain Mark]

Holy cow that fin off the chimney stack "thingo" is so thin, it's just asking to get snapped off... be careful! hehe
I've snapped off my share of resin pieces by mistake... and it's not fun.

That blue is so dark, it almost looks black. I'm sure in person it's better though, as it can often be hard to capture the true colours in photos.

Keep up the great work, and keep the pictures coming!

[ejsmith]

Sorry for such a long break between updates but first we had Christmas and then I lost the card reader for my camera. D'oh!

So I've finished spraying all of the blue now. That includes wings etc as well. I've also lacquered the body and begun to apply a few decals. The blue looks really nice now it's got some lacquer on. The metallic blue really shines, it looks fab. The airbox/engine cover in the last photo is probably the best match to the actually colour, I just have a rubbish camera
In the mean time I've also started some CF work. The front wing endplates are finished. Once the 3 elements on the front wing are done I'll assemble the whole thing and then lacquer it. I used MFH plain weave on the FWEPs and but the direction is wrong (should be at 45 degrees, not paralell but oh well). I will be using SMS for the rest of the model probably. Here are the pics:

[TRBJ]

nice!!!!

[ejsmith]

I did the nose decals today. No major problems really, just a bit of microsol. There are 3 decals for the nose and each are attached to the stripes. I did the sides first and then the top. For the top I made a small cut on the decal so it would go around the small piece in front of the cockpit. The decal sheet comes with a small square of yellow for paint matching but I will be using this to continue the yellow under the nose. This is the best picture I found but as you can see, the yellow extends on the underside of the nose as well. Comments welcome

[builder77]

Great to see the update.
Very nice job on the decals and nice pictures.
Looking forward to more!
Chris

[Captain Mark]

The yellow is a decal... now that makes things easier!
This is always the best part, keep the updates rolling mate.

[stevenoble]

Very good progress, look forward to more.....