Honda RA300, Model Factory Hiro 1/20

[MarcoSaupe]

Hi, I'll do another MFH WIP...

after Eagle and BRM, I'll build the next of the 67 MFH kits. There is an interesting fact about the RA300 for fans of statistics: in all the races the car was entered it led only one lap, well half of a lap, but it was the very last lap of it's debut, so John Surtees won the Italian GP at Monza.

It's a typical MFH kit; it will take a while, I'm currently not as fast at building as usual, but I made a quick dry fit for a first impression.



Today I polished engine parts and applied a washing; again you can see the inside of the cylinders... untile I glue the covers on.

[MarcoSaupe]

I just noticed, that while the instructions tell me to paint the engine "steel", on pics of the real car it looks more like brass... D'OH... well, so I have to use the washing as pre shading and spray a light layer of colour on top of it

[MarcoSaupe]

Engine painted. The Frame was a bit tricky to glue together; it will be painted in the colour of the body.

[indy1977tx]

I have enjoyed the other builds so I cannot wait to watch this one come together. Fell in love with '67 after playing GPL and just admiring what these guys had to do with death on the line at all times.

Jordan

[MarcoSaupe]

I told you progress will not be that fast this time, so I only managed to do a little bit of the wiring so far and I also applied another washing to the painted engine.

[MarcoSaupe]

I like it if F1 or MotoGP races are in Asia; I can record it in the night, watch it before noon and work on the wiring alongside.

[Vric]

Look really nice.

Love those MFH kit!

[indy1977tx]

With the washes on the engine, the clean wires kind of stick out. I image they would be covered in greasy fingerprints as I think this was before everyone kept their cars pristine at all times. Just a thought.

Jordan

[MarcoSaupe]

You are right, but then I thought, that the body of the car will be shiny and polished, so maybe the washing made the engine a bit too dirty...

I wasn't lazy so I painted frame and chassis... the bodywork as well, but the clear is not dry, yet, so no photo. Now I have to look which red parts of the nose I paint and which I do with decals.



Little Appetizer:
RA300 Video

[MarcoSaupe]

I added a few parts on the frame (you can see only one here, though), and then screwed the engine on the frame. One of the advantages with metal parts is, that you can bend it that half mm that is sometimes needed to make it fit

[drunken monkey]

not the most successful vintage Honda F1 car but surely the best looking, especially with those crazy exhausts from the middle of the V and the inlet between the cams.

[MarcoSaupe]

The cowling is painted and has one coat of clear as base for the decals. I painted the tip of the nose and the inlet red - I'll use decals for stripe and red sun, but with using the paint I won't have the trouble of applying a decal on the inside and make it fit with the outside.
The most difficult task will now be applying the red sun decal, because it will have to be split into 4 parts - both sides, the cover in the middle and the rear end of the nose. But I can't glue the bodypanels on yet and the parts need to be held together as there is a bit stress when dry fitting... parts fit is not optimal.
Well at least thy included 2 decals...

[MarcoSaupe]

The decals don't really want to go around the tip of the nose, so I started painting - first step was to mask the red sun.

I also added the roll bar and dry fitted part of the front suspension.

[MarcoSaupe]

Stripes painted. On the photo the ring around the nose looks a tiny bit askew, but I measured, it is ok, so either it's the perspective or the part itself is askew.

[MarcoSaupe]

I added the decals and then sprayed some coats of Zero Paints Pre-Thinned clear. In the corner you can see the dashboard, each instrument is a separate part - I polished the rim, put the decal in the middle, and added a drop of future.