1:43 McLaren How-to/Progress

[lotus_man]

Hi all,

in response to interest in them, and in the hope I can inspire some of you to try building one, I'm starting this thread to cover the building of a white-metal 1:43 scale formula one car. If you have any questions or comment, please let me know.

The car in question is made in Italy by Tameo, and is quite a simple model, so I think is a good place to start. It will build to replicate the car of eithe Ayrton Senna or Michael Andretti as raced in the European GP at Donnington in '93. I'm going to build it as Senna's car (chassis MP4/6-3) which one the race.

The first stage with a white-metal kit is to clean up the body. The picture below show it as it comes out of the box.



The surface is slightly pitted and oxidised. All this has to be smoothed out before we go any where, or the primer won't stick, and the paint surface won't gloss up. Refering to the instructions we also have to use a .6mm drill and pin-vise to open all the suspension pickups on the body. These are molded as slight indentations in the shell. I will also use a scalpel and file set to clean up any mold lines.

The photo below shows the body after all of the holes have been opened up, and the body wet sanded with 600, the 800 and finally 12 grit wet'n'dry. The surface is now shinnier and much smoother.



At this point you need to wash the body in hot water and detergent, and when it's dry degrease it with laquer thinners. From this point on I won't touch the metal with bare hands to avoid getting grease on it. Next up is primer. Cellulose will work, but doesn't stick to white-metal that well... I use an etching primer designed for model railways (they use white-metal a lot in their work). I have also cleaned up and pepared the chasis at this point so I can prime both in one hit. Two coats go on, and then have 48 hours drying time.

One coat of primer:


Two hours later, after the second coat


Keep watching, next up are the wheels and tyres.

[freakray]

An interesting build to follow, for both the subject and the process.

Thanks for sharing.

[willimo]

I'll be watching this like a hawk. Thanks!

[BRM]

Great progress thread. I've wondered about what was required to build those metal kits.

[RallyRaider]

Cool car and even cooler rundown. Looking forward to future episodes!

If I was starting this hobby afresh I'd go the 1/43 route, there are so many cars available. As it is I have too many larger scale kits to build.

[lotus_man]

The reason I got into 1:43 was the range of subjects available, especially Le Mans and F1 cars. I found them by accident at Le Mans in '96, there was a guy under the tribunes selling the little blue boxes (PM kits), and I had to try one. After twenty years of building plastics they came as a shock, but after a couple of failed attempts I got into the swing of it and discover GPM who stock the kits in the UK. From then on I've built mostly 1:43, but I hear you about having to much of a back log!!!

[lotus_man]

Not a very exciting update today, but I didn't have much time to work today. Just enough time to get some work in on the wheels.

The picture below shows the component parts of one of the wheels, and consists of the rim, machined from metal, a set of photo-etched anodized spokes and a tyre. This kit offers the choice of a treeded rain tyre or a slick... I'm going to use the rain tyres on mine. The bigger tyre is a Tamiya rear slick of the same period, to give you an idea of relative sizes. I'm always amazed how much bigger they are!



Assembly is very straight forward, simply trim the spokes from the fret, then clean them up with a file. It is vital that they are clean and round as they have to be glues into a small recess on the rear of the rim. If they aren't cleaned up they wont fit!

Next I prime them with a fast flashing (<30 minutes) cellulose primer. They won't be handled as much as the body work, so I don't bother with etching-primer. Once that has dried a satin black cellulose top coat is applied, and an hour later the tyre is press fitted to give a complete unit, all four of which are photographed below.



The only tricky part to this is to ensure that if you are using treaded tyres you get the treads the correct way round on each wheel, as they are very assymetrical. The instructions will call it out, but I still forget on occassions!

Well, that's all for today. Next time I'll decal and finish the wheels, and hopefully start building the photo-etched suspension, brakes, hubs and ducting, time allowing

[RallyRaider]

I'm excited. Take it the big tyre is 1/20th? Imagine the difference to a 1/12th!

[jgmodelcars]

this is cool! im glad you are showing how to do this! thankyou it makes me want to build one! keep up the good work!

[Veyron]

Watching this one.

[willimo]

Originally Posted by RallyRaider

I'm excited. Take it the big tyre is 1/20th? Imagine the difference to a 1/12th!

You could put them next to each other and say the driver went and got an R/C to play with in the pit! How cool would that be?

And yes, keep it comin'. I'm curious to see how you fold and attach all the fine photoetch when it comes time.

[lotus_man]

OK, with the clear on the tyres drying ready for decals later today, I'll turn my attention to the fron suspension assembly. The photo below shows the etched frets I'll be using for this. All of the suspension arms are etched and anodized black, while the brass frets contain the brake disks (two parts per disk) and brak cooling ducts.



Assembly starts with the ducts - two flat etched parts sqndwiched together with a turned brass collar. In the photo of the completed unit below they are to the inside of the unit. The disks build easily, simply sandwich the two rotor halves together, ensuring the grooves line up to reresent the venting of the real units, and use the hub to line them up. No problems (as long as you have good eye sight!). Don't add the calipers yet, we'll do that after painting.

Now cut the suspension arms from the etched fret... each unit is one piece. BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO REMOVE THE ENDS OF THE ARMS. Everyone messes this up first time, you get into a habit of cleaning up every part you are going to use! In this case the extra material will locate in the pickup points we drilled earlier, so it's pretty impartant. Two bends and the arms are done. The bends themselves are made by folding the metal around a pair of smooth jawed jewlers pliers. Ribbed ones would damage the metal. It bends very easily, but don't over do it or you'll snap the metal. Slow and easy does it. Glue the disk to the outside and the duct to the inside, they will align with each other very easily. Now walk off an have a coffee while the glue sets up. You should have two units not unlike those below.



Next I like to fit them to the body (with no glue at this stage) just to ensure they are OK, everything lines up and the pickup points are drilled out OK. They look pretty good I think, so I'll shoot them with some grey primer, and then some satin black laquer to finish. This car ran carbon disks, so I'll mix up some very dark gunmetal grey and then flat coat it to give the effect. You'll get to see this when I come back to the wheel to finish up the hubs and caliper later on this week.



Right, I'm off to decal the tyres, and polish out the paint on my Lotus 79. More tomorow all being well.

[willster127]

Love the how to on this one, I have about 4 of these things on the go at the moment! A Sauber, the Brabham Fan Car, Villeneuves Mclaren M23 and my latest one is the Ferrari 312T3 superkit of Villeneuves 1st win, the range of kits from Tameo is fantastic, something to suit everyone.

Keep up the good work Lotus Man, looking great so far, Makes me want to get on with mine again!!

[willimo]

Yeep, you may have just scared me away from doing one of these!

[mech0t0]

Great work! I wish I have the skills to build one of these 1/43 kit..... Please keep us posted!