1/20 RENAULT RE30B - Tamiya

[HuskerF1]

Hey!

First WIP here, my purpose for this year is to start and actually finish a model, lol.
I've chosen the Renault RE30B for two main reasons.

1. My dad is a huge Renault Fan, this one is for him.
2. This is a perfect model for me because I want to try many different new techniques.
Given the aluminium tub, turbo engine and ground effects floor it is far away from the recent all-carbon cars.
Should be fun!

I still haven't decided on which decals I'll be using, any input on that would be greatly appreciated.

So, here's the box:


This will be the third time I build this model, but it's a rebuild of the second build. It was better than the first, but not good enough.
Here's the first RE30B I built and 3rd model I ever built... some 25 years ago more or less. What's left of it anyway:



Brush painted, no sanding of mold lines/sink marks.. a real beauty! lol.
I'm really glad I kept it though. It's providing a really good visual reference for comparisson during the building process. Once this one is done, I plan to display them together with a little plaque in front of each one with the building years among other info.

I started focusing on the tub. When done, it won't be painted at all. I'll be using a very thin aluminium sheet to cover the hell out of it. IMO nothing beats real metal and also, I can't get Alcad paints here but even if I could, I think I'd be doing it this way anyway.

All parts have been swimming in brake fluid for a while now, but some paints still won't come off. Doesn't matter though, lamost everything will be sanded away.
Floor, cooling and exhaust system:

Marked with red, stuff that will be cut/sanded away. The cooling system will be replaced entirely, and only around 20% of the exhaust system will remain but will be modified as well.


TUB

Again, marked with red -> cut/sand away.
Blue -> Will be filled.


Anti-Roll front protection is a separate piece:


So it'll be gone along with other molded-in parts:


Upper and lower front suspension come in one piece each, that makes the floor and suspension itself inacurate so here's what I've done in an effort to make it more true to life:






And filled with plastic card:








Next up was dealing with the footwell area. in the Tamiya model it's non-existant. You're supposed to glue top and bottom pieces of the tub and that's it.
To begin with, I created new pieces where the front shocks will be housed and built the footwell around them. Unlike the new cars, this is all angled, hardly any cirved surfaces so I made multiple pieces to get the correct shape.






All these new pieces sit flush with the top part of the tub. Once coverd with the alu sheet, should look somewhat like this:



The overall shape of the footwell now seems to be close to real one, so I'm happy!

The top part of the tub has also been modified to better represent the real thing.
The kit has a sort of panel line crossing the lenght of the gas tank:


In reality this section is not flat with a line, but two pieces forming an angle and hold toghether with rivets. More plastic card and lots of sanding later:








I've opended the front part of the tub and will sand the molded pieces pieces marked with red once both top and bottom parts are glued toghether because this section is too thin and I don't want to break it while sanding. Also note how the section around the cockpit isn't flat anymore compared to the bottom piece. This was because of heavy sanding on the gas tank area. No problem though, will correct it with epoxy putty after gluing both parts together:




Finally, here's what the OOB parts looks like. (Poorly built of course):


And the new one:


Next up, the scratch built seat.

Cheers and Happy 2012!

[GordiniBlue]

Nice start good to see some classic F1 and Renaults in particular always liked re30,s and it looks like you are gonna do it justice
keep up the good work

[HuskerF1]

Thanks!

---

Thanks for the comments!

Been working on scratch building a seat because the one provided in the kit is nowhere near accurate.
My first thought was to modify it, but the more I studied the Ref pics, it became clear that it was going to be easier just to make the whole thing.

Some pics of the real one:








So the first thing was to copy the inside of the tub. Once finished, it would just slide in and not move. The fire extinguisher is located between the gas tank and the back of the seat, but I'm not sure if I'll be making it. Right now, the plan is to have the seat fixed to the tub.








From there, it was just a matter of adding pieces of plastic, epoxy putty and sanding.




Finally, shaping the area for the waist belts and a first coat of primer. Second coat and final color will be added much later since I'll still be handling it a lot and don't want to mess the finish.


Comparisson> Original vs. Scratch.


Dry fit:






Apart from it not being even close to the correct shape, notice how shallow the original seat is:


Thanks for watching, until next time!

[ewestra]

Excellent work on that seat, it looks good.

Eric

[Dr.AK]

Love how that seat came out. Amazing to see the effect the correct seat has in the direct comparison!

I'll be following this.

[HuskerF1]

Hi! Thanks for the kind comments. Still going at it

This update deals with the front suspension. To build it, the kit provides 3 pieces: Upper wishbone in one piece for left and right, lower wishbones, also one piece for both sides and a metal rod for steering. Since I haven't quite finished the left side and steering system, I haven't counted yet, but will easily be over 50 pieces once done. Crazy...

First, an aluminium piece where the shocks are contained and most of the suspension is attached to. This has to fit flush with the modified plastic tub showed the previous post, first cutting and folding a piece of paper, then scan to make a vector (illustrator) version so everything is square and aligned:





Cut, fold, file/sand. Not difficult but quite time-consuming. But it's done...


Now, for these new techniques I talked about in the first post, I present to you, "The poor man's Lathe" lol!


I've been working with different diameter solder since it's much softer than aluminium but in these small sizes, the final pieces are strong enough so they don't bend. First thing I worked on were the shocks. Here's one of the rear ones, minus the spring of course. I'll make the 4 springs later but I still haven't come through a picture showing the color of the front ones, if anyone has one, please post it here or PM me. Thanks! The rear springs appear either red or black in my ref pics, still undecided....

This is like 20 times or more the original size. IRL they look good, trust me.


Next, in the same way I made the steering system. No pics of the RE30B one so I based it on the Tamiya 1/12 RE20 parts. I bet they are for all intents and purposes, the same:






I just finished dry fitting the left front suspension.
Separated upper and lower wishbones. The lower one is done minus paint, the upper one still needs some mods (wider, fill and drill the outside section, right now you can still see the typical Tamiya C type attachment.
The small tub-to-suspension arm attachments (dunno name, hehe) and triangles, etc above the steering column were made from the metal pieces found on old 3 1/2 diskettes. I have a bunch of those and the metal is so thin it's very easy to work with them. Lots of time invested, but I like how this is looking.
Nothing is painted yet, so here's where the build progress is at present:

Reference










No comparison pics today, but will take a couple once the left suspension is done and maybe one with everything disassembled.

Thanks for watching, and if someone has a pic of the front shocks I mentioned above, PLEASE let me know.

[John18d]

HuskerF1 - you're really going insane - looks like you've been affected by the same thing as jaykay - just not as badly. I am amazed at what some of you guys do on this forum and all I can do is basically OOB - John

[HuskerF1]

haha

I would never put myself in the same category as Jaykay, not even close But I must admit that his builds have inspired me to do new and different things with simple plastic kits.

I've found this approach to be really fun and challenging but most of all, rewarding. Now, I have no idea how this will turn out but I'm really enjoying it.

[DerXL]

Fantastic scratch building so far.
Looks really realistic.

I'm not a fan of these early Renault F1 cars, but I'm going to follow this build very closely. Might pick up a trick or two!

[HuskerF1]

Thanks Axel!

Small update.

Front suspension was done...or so I thought!
Once all the components were finished, I dry fitted them again and while comparing the suspension with reference pics I noticed the front uprights didn't look right. So back to square one on those, I took pics and will post them in the next update but I'm almost certain the new ones will look much better and closer to the real thing.

I really don't like re-doing things so when I decided the uprights were not good enough I had to put the suspension aside for a little while and work on something else - Gearbox lever -

The real thing:


In a previous post I showed I had cut a hole in the tub to fit these new parts, time to actually make those parts.
Took me 3 attempts and it was much like a very small origami...too many folds hehe. Once again using metal from 3 1/2 diskettes.


The gear lever and casing have been given an oil wash to bring out a bit the details:


Dry fitted. The hole is a bit larger on purpose to adjust fitting, once the tub is covered with aluminium there will be no noticeable gaps.






Thanks for watching!

[DerXL]

Amazing.
I think you're completely nuts - in a good way !!

[nugundam93]

wow. what a build!

[puffyrs]

Great build, I like this.

[ianc911]

Brilliant!

ianc

[kurtl]

Hello,
wow great job
lg
kurt