1/20 MFH McLaren M7A - 1968 Belgian GP

[edi956]

After having experienced the BRM engine, for 1968 McLaren bought five Ford Cosworth DFV and a new car was designed by Robin Herd (who left the team to join Cosworth Engineering) and completed by Gordon Coppuck.

The aluminium-skinned monocoque tub was shaped over three bulkheads, the structure being an open-topped 'bath-tub' with glass fibre body panelling above the driver's legs and round the cockpit.

The bulkheads were complex 20-gauge steel fabricated box-sections, one sited right at the front to carry the front suspension and steering; the internal centre bulkhead provided anchorage for the front suspension trailing links and the rear bulkhead behind the seat carried the fully-stressed DFV engine and provided pick-ups for the rear suspension radius arms.

Outboard coil-springs with co-axial Koni dampers were used front and rear.
The gearbox was the five-speed Hewland DG.

The M7A's brakes were unusual for a British F1 car in being by Lockheed instead of the almost universal Girling set-up. They had produced a new 10 1/2in diameter ventilated disc and caliper. At that time ventilated discs were unusual in F1.

McLaren cast four-spoke 15inch magnesium wheels were used.
Water cooling was by a large Serck radiator outrigged ahead of the front bulkhead, hot radiator air being exhausted upwards through glass-fibre ducts formed into the very shapely nose body section.
Oil-cooling was by radiator stayed above the gearbox, the cylindrical dry sump oil tannk being slung alongside it.
Water pipes ran externally either side of the tub.

During the 1968 season different experiments were done:
1) Lancia-Ferrari like panniers at Jarama;


2) a right-side only long-range tank and first rear wing at Rouen (like those used at the Canadian and US GPs);



3) short nose at Monaco;


4) engine-cover, different rear wings and front flaps at Spa



Other changes will be explained during the WIP.
Most of the history was taken from "McLaren - The Grand Prix, Can-Am and Indy Cars" by Doug Nye.

For the version of the model my choice is the M7A chassis 3, which McLaren drove to the victory at Spa (Ver.B - K234).
This was the first victory in a GP for McLaren driving a car with his own name.
Before, the same year, Bruce won the Race of Champion too, but it was a Non Championship Race.


THE KIT
For me the best Hiro so far.
Perhaps some pieces are in excess and a couple of very very little mistakes, but this time MFH did all what there was to do.

These are the main body parts:


As usual I begin with their fitting-test:



Then it's time to rivetting (0.4mm Microscale + 0.5mm ScaleHarware):




Finally a mounted again the main body, masking were needed:

[edi956]

After Zero Paints painting, decalling and clear coating, here the main body:


Now, we can remove the masks:



The red arrows show that the chassis was also painted with orange ZP, as they are used at the time:


Here the red arrows show where was used Gunze Super Metallic Plate Silver:



Finally, the other parts of the chassis were added:






The red arrows show the 0.7 mm ScaleHardware Hex-Bolt.

[Aesthetic]

In on this one. I liked your BRM's very much, so I am looking forward to your progress on this kit!

[edi956]

Many thanks to Aesthetic.

Back to the wip: THE COCKPIT.

Take a look at these pics of the time:


The first is the car under construction, the second is the car at one of the first GPs.

Now a look at the same car at the following GPs (first 2 pics is France, last pic is Canada) and note how different is the dashboard:




The tachometer was put on the left, whereas the two little manometers on the right and far on the right; moreover appeared some switches and a red lever on the left.

Therefore the dashboard of the kit, being like the first pics, is right for the previous GPs but is wrong for the other GPs.

The dashboard of the kit is a simple p/e piece; even painted black as by instructions it will remain too flat.
As you can see in the previous pics it had an "anti-reflex" surface.
Therefore I changed that of the kit; before I make a copy with a TAM tape (the dashboard is under it):

Then I cut a piece of plasticard with the same shape of the dashboard of the kit; over it I glued a piece of 80 abrasive paper with the same shape; then I make holes for tachometer/manometers, for steering and for rivets; finally I paint matt black:


Then I add all the "clocks", already with decals and Micro Kristal Klear:


Over the "clocks" I add some "O-ring" by MFH:


The key on the right will be used in the following step.
As you can see in the first pic of this post, on the left of the chassis there is a 5 holes series: they are used to insert that kind of key to keep in place the wires:



Then I add the identificative plaque (A) and I changed the brown of the gear lever, adding a white circle on the top as the actual car (B):


The plaque was a decal, but I prefere to attach it over a 0.2 lead foil, which I glued on the dashboard.


Finally I add the fifth "keys" I had forgotten before (red arrow) :

[edi956]

COOLING TUBES
On the left side of the car runs a cooling tube:

The one on the right side is smaller and shorter and runs under the bodywork.

I decided to remake those of the kit, instead of polishing, sanding, and so on:


So I cut away the clamps, and after enlarging the holes, I insterted the new one (red arrows):



After having painted semigloss black the clamps, I glued the tubes on the body:



Not finished yet, because, as you can see in this pic of Bruce at the Nederland GP, there was another band over the black clamp, keep in place with two rivets:


So it has to be done.
From a 0.2 mm lead foil I cut a stripe which I moulded on each tube:


Then I put the new lead clamps on the previous one; I made two 0.35 holes on each one and I inserted two 0.4 rivets by ScaleHardware:

[Aesthetic]

You are making very nice progress on this one! I also noticed you have a thread on F1M.com, so I will be following it there from now on ;-).

Looking forward to the next update!

[Greg23]

This is looking good.

[edi956]

Many thanks for compliments.

Let's go to the FRONT SUSPENSION.

Few to say: mounted OOB a part of the calipers (treated in a new post with their wiring) and the colours of the dampers:






The red arrows show where I painted matt aluminium, while disks were sanded without painting.
Hubes were painted with Matt Black + Gun Metal; suspension arms semigloss black.
The lower part of the dampers was painted semigloss red and washed with smoke; instructions say to paint black but, as you can see in this pic took at Reims, they were red, both rear and front:


Here the roll-bar was added:



Then the front radiator was fixed, after sanding and washing with a very diluited mat black:



Here the connections between cooling tubes and front radiators:


Finally the body part which cover the front bulkhead:



The front is finished, a part of the brakes wiring which I treated in a new post, as sayd before.

[edi956]

Thanks to John-w the pedals question has been resolved, since he sent me this beautiful cutaway of the M7A of the first GPs:


Hiro's made a mistake: so, in one of the following posts I'll change the position.


Let's go back to the WIP.

THE SUSPENSIONS

Here a couple of pics to show you front and rear suspension.
Take a look to dampers:



The last one was just taken at the 1968 Belgian GP.

Hiro's instructions say to paint the dampers flat black...but they were red.
Moreover, they forget the little rounded tool at the base...so it has to be done.

The most similar I could find in my "bank of pieces" were the Perfect Parts electric connectors; after having cut away both ends:



Then I glued the new piece on the lower part of the damper:


After painting satin red and washed with Gunze Grey Smoke (like the rest of the damper), I put in place the whole rear suspension:


The same has been done on the already mounted front dampers...but I forgot to make a pictures!

[edi956]

Here are the missing pics of the front suspension:

[edi956]

THE ENGINE

These are the pieces of the engine, which Hiro made with little differencies as usual:


I mounted most of the engine OOB, but there are some pieces I'd like to show you since, in my opinion, some were not necessary and other could be done in a different way.

For example these pieces...


would be done together with the cam-covers (as usual):

while the other you can see in this pic will be covered by the cam-cover and nobody could see anymore...so I didn't use them.

These are the cylinders and the injectors:


I re-made the tube of the injectors with a 0.8 Hobby Design stainless steel tube:


Then I enlarged the inside of them:


Finally I cut the head (in the middle of the pic); on the left the discarted tube:


This is the final result:



The new tubes were painted Matt Aluminium, the nuts Semigloss Black, while the rest of the injector Gunmetal.

Here is the piece where cylinders will be glued:



The right end was done with 3 p/e parts + a spring which I re-made.
This is the final result after painting with Gunmetal:

[edi956]

Before going on with the engine, I finally changed the pedals.

First I sanded what is not necessary:


Then I re-made the pedals:



After having glued the cylinders in place, I made the wirings for the injectors.
Here a pic of the time (Bruce at the 1968 Nederland GP):


As you can see the yellow wires were covered by black wires, so I did the same after having sanded the yellow wires:





Then I added the wires for the spark-plugs:







Now the engine is ready to be fitted to the main body.
Before I enlarged the holes of the plaques:


Then I glued the engine to the body but...surprise:



The plaques of both sides were too short and did not arrive to the holes on the chassis where they could be fitted with a rivet.

So I re-made the plaques of the right lenght:

[edi956]

PIPING
Not too difficult, but a hard work to understand where the wires go to or come from.
A very great help by Gabriele (Gablet) who is always ready when I call him: he is my "personal engineering" :mrgreen:

Here the Hiro's instructions which aren't wrong but too much over-simplified:



I'd like to underline I'm building the B Version - 1968 Spa - Bruce McLaren.
So might be that some piping/wiring could be different from the other versions.

Here the Bruce's car at 1968 Spa:


In this post I treat all the tubes you can see in this pic a part of the "X" tube which will be fitted when will arrive from Hiro the water tank which wasn't into the kit box.

The oil circuit was as follows: warm oil from Engine (OUT) to Radiator Left (RL)


then from Radiator Right (RR) to the Oil Tank (OT)


finally, from OT to the Engine again (IN) (NOT IN THE KIT)


The Oil Tank (OT) was connected to the Oil Reservoir Tank (ORT):

The connector of tubes 1 and 2 has to be built, since it is "double": so I glued a little one to the biggest connector.
Tube "2" went to the front of the engine.
Tube "1" went free on the right side of the gearbox (NOT IN THE KIT)


Finally, this is an "internal oil circuit" which Hewland introduced at the end of 60s (NOT IN THE KIT:

[edi956]

Here the Hiro's instructions for the water tank (M34) and its connections (first pic) + all the devices which later will became the Lucas unit between the two trumpets lines (second pic), which were placed on a plaque on the roll-over bar until the Belgian GP:



Here the pic of the original car at the 1968 Belgian GP where I put some number to make an easy understanding:


Over the water tank (M34-instructions) there is a little hole and I wondered why; but looking at the real car I saw that there was a blue connector (1): so it has to be made.

Comparing the Lucas devices of the real car with those of the kit, you can see that the last are a little semplified.

First step: the piece M128+M91 has to be connected to the distribitor with a black wire.
Moreover, there are two little wires which connect the M91 to itself (2).
Finally, there is a band with two bolts to keep it in place (3):



The pieces M129 and M130 are a little different from the real car (4): so I cut a little piece of the rear of M129 and I made two 0.30 holes; moreover a sanded away the top of M130 where I added another little piece from which started 4 very little black wires + a black wire which keeps in place the M130.
Finally, number 5 of the real car doesn't exist in the kit: so I made it from a little piece of white metal + a band to keep it in place.

Here the final resutl with the same numbers which I put in the pic of the real car:


Some pics of the final result with no number:

[edi956]

Finally, together with the 3 versions of the M19, arrived the missing pieces, so I could try to finish this kit...even if my mind is already on the M19!!! :mrgreen:


Here the water tank M47 just arrived and after its mounting:



It had two connections (red arrows):


The clear yellow tube went to the rear "free":



The other clear tube arrived from the number 1 which I mentioned in the previous post:



In this pic of the real car al 1968 Spa, take a look at the rear axles:


This are the axles of the kit:


It means that those in my kit (Ver.B) were wrong: so I asked to Mrs.Hiro if she could send me those of the Ver.C.
She was so nice and the different axles arrived yesterday (on the right of the pic):


After sanding and polishing them, I made a wash with oil colour:


Finally, after a coat with Gunze Grey Smoke, they were mounted: