Eighties Contest Entry: 1988 McLaren MP4/4 (and Introduction)

[jaykay640]

Billy

Yes i made the fire button myself:-) I turned it from aluminium ( you can see the part to the top right in Picture No9 of this update ). I drilled a 0,8mm wide and about equal depth hole and then cut it down from the outside. The wall is a bit thicker than 0,1mm. Then i airbrushed it with a thin misty layer of Revell clear red. That on top of the alu makes for a nice anodized red look :-)
The "button" inside is from 0,4mm red styrene ( sprue over candle ), polished with micromesh in the motor tool and glued in place with clear enamel paint.

Thanks for the comments everybody!!

Jaykay

[Decs0105]

Originally Posted by robrex

I realised I had finished reading this update and was just staring at the screen ......then a drop of dribble ran down my chin and snapped me out of it! Incredible work!

Same happened to me...


Jaykay that is just unbelievable!!! Everyone who built an 1/20 car knows that all these details aren't possible in that scale, so admit it you building an 1:1 car...opcorn:

I am afraid this update showed me that I have to go back to the workbench and rework my MP 4/6 cockpit...

[BLU CIVIC]

A Lot Of Detail

[mikemechanic]

Wow, another stunning update. Thanks for sharing. Some really great ideas in this thread.

Mike

[klutz_100]

Absolutely incredible work. Truly.

I'd love to know more about this dry tranfer process you mention If I understood correctly, you make these yourself?

But my favourite quote from your whole post is this:

Originally Posted by jaykay640

There are less grooves than on the original and they are deeper than they should be in scale….but that’s a compromise I had to make:-)

I'm still trying to figure out how you can call that degree of detail a compromise!

[bas309gti16v]

Speechless.....
well..not totally...you do add all the details i always think of adding, but i simply dont have the idea's, experience and knowledge to do so.

Great work!

Bas

[SeanyG]

Jaykay,

as I have just mentioned on 'Saint's' MP4-6 thread its good to see two of the best threads on here back alive and kicking again. Fabulous engineering and detail work, far too much to list here in terms of what looks good - but this is just going to be the best MP4-4 yet. I forget that this is actually 1/20 when looking at the pictures.

great stuff and good to see you working one this one again!

[ketje]

this is awsome

Why can't I do it like that

[f1wc]

You just need lots of equipment, tools, materials, experience and skills!

BTW excellent progress!

[CeeElle]

i dunno what to say. i found myself reading the post, staring at the pictures and thinking, "there's no way." my brain just couldn't quite grasp what it was seeing.

the stitching of the steering wheel is a brilliant stroke.

[frpax]

Anything lately, jaykay?

[keefr22]

It's the first time I've come across this thread - & I'm lost for words!!

That is just absolutely OUTSTANDING!!

I've only ever built one F1 car, but have recently wanted to try a 'detailed' build, so I bought the Top Studio set for the Ferrari F1-2000. Having seen your work, I think anything built from that set will look like a very average diecast!!!

Can't wait to see the next installment!

Keith

[jaykay640]

Hi guys

It’s been some time again since the last update and to be honest I wasn’t planning on a new one yet….but you asked :-)
It looks like getting to the stage I wanted to show next will take some more time so I decided to give you a preview of what I’m working on right now.
That is of course the suspension parts…still. I’m slowly but surely carrying on with them and for now here’s a shot of the front left A-arms and upright dry fitted to the chassis.





Getting everything aligned nicely again is tricky after cutting the Tamiya parts up and while I was doing that it struck me…….of course I need dummy wheels to set the suspension up! :-)
Dummy wheels…..?? Yep!

Those so called wheels are used for setting the real cars up and also to move them around during travelling ( they are of course less wide than the rubbers ). I had these following pictures from the Net already but finally found their origin in the “Technical Appraisal“ book I mentioned.








Since I don’t have any other pictures I’m showing these here…. ( may the god of copyrights forgive me :-)
There are a few more in the book and that’s all I had for reference but I had to do them.
I have an OOP set of white metal dummy wheels by Modeler’s but they were not right. They are more like the ones used by Ferrari at the time ( made from Aluminium ).
It took me some time to figure out the right sizes. Front and rear dummy wheels are different because the track width of the suspension is different due to the different wheels/tyres. The thin rings the car is ultimately sitting on are then sitting at the same width front and rear ( I hope that description is understandable…. ).

First I turned the main discs from green Renshape again and milled out the six holes using the dividing head.





Since my mill is not very big and stable I got problems with the milling head making too big holes at the corners due to the head vibrating too much ( A different milling head might have helped as well but that’s what I had :-)
So I had to fill the corners with polyester putty and carefully sand the corners to the correct shape. That worked fine.

On the front wheel I managed to almost get rid of the effect as you can see here. This one was a bit more complicated to turn though due to its shape.





On both wheels I then added the strengthening gills with superglue, filled some corners with putty and sanded them clean. Here you can see them finished but unpainted.





If you have been wondering by now….yes I only made one of each because I was going to cast them from the beginning :-)
In the next picture you already see the “masters” ( primered and sanded once more ) in the foreground and two of the cast wheels behind them.





I think I complained in one of the previous updates about how the resin surfaces are really difficult to “read” in their yellowish look. The solution turned out to be some black resin colour. The amount you use influences the final colour and the result can be fully black.
Like that it’s easier to see pin holes and other imperfections……of which I got more than I liked ( I need to get some vacuum device for casting….:-).
I’m now finishing up the best four I made and then I’ll paint them black. In the end they can of course be mounted and swapped with the real wheels on the model.
For now this is it again!


P.S…….klutz 100 asked about some further description of the dry transfer process.
Well there’s not really more to say than what I wrote in the last update. Just one thing….it’s not a “home made” process. I just did the data ( vector based “Freehand” ) and a supplier did the rest. It’s not cheap but I was lucky to get those little parts for free….

You can check it here: http://www.color-transfer-service.de/index.htm
Hope that helps!


Cheers

Jaykay

[gionc]

I'm searching words but I haven't yet, I'm just opcorn: and learning a lot: thanks a lot for sharing, ever new contribution is a pearl. Still speachless.

[keefr22]

Excellent work again!

Could I ask where you get the rennshape from?

Thanks

Keith