WIP MFH Williams FW16 Brazil GP

[willster127]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted one of these!!!! work has been crazy lately but I have been MAKING time to get to the bench.

I've been a Senna fan for as long as I can remember and once I saw this kit I had to have one. My wife got me this for christmas from Macs Modeling in Arizona ( a TOP dealer by the way!) and since then I have just been checking it out and researching the project, following a quick build of a Honda NSX I decided that I had to build this kit, so, here goes, I've been at it for about a week now.

The kit is the Model Factory Hiro Williams FW16 driven by Senna at the Brazilian GP in 1994, There are 3 options available and to me this was the only one to build, I simply couldn't bring myself to build the San marino car and with Senna being Brazilian and all this was the one. This is one of the most amazing kit's I've ever seen and although this will be a long project I know that it will be thoroughly enjoyable, the kit looks like it will build great OOB but the one on MFH's website is fully wired and detailed and this is how this one will be. Anyway, onto the progress..........

I started off by building the engine, the castings fit together pretty well but it took around 10 iterations to get to this, there was always something that wasn't square so I kept removing parts and going in a cycle until I had something square that sits level in all directions.


Next up was the trans, only 3 pieces and relatively painless, this view shows the engine oil tank and a small electronic box test fitted to the top of the trans.


Here is a shot of the engine and trans mated up, the gap is due to the bottom of the trans not being flat due to a curvature of the floor tray


The resin monocoque is a work of art and I wanted to see how it fit to the floor tray, pretty well as it happens, however, the same can not be said for the radiator ducts, the one on the left is OOB and the one on the right is after about 3 hours of filing and sanding to get it to fit against the side of the tub.


Heres a mock up of the tub, engine and trans. The mounting hole in the back of the tub for the engine is about 1mm too high so I need to modify this next.


I also test fitted the LH rear suspension and it fits great OOB.


All in all I am having a great time so far, I can see that 90% of this kit will be fully assembled by the time I start painting so be patient with me and I'll keep you all posted as I progress. Sorry for the long post, I'll try and update soon!!

[Jamme]

Yes,
Ayrton's car, finally.
As I appreciated Ayrton very much, I'm happy you started this thread.
I had the FW16 from Club M (the full detail version, with engine) and the kit wasn't bad for is age.......!
But as I see from your MFH kit, there is not much to think that I will order one.!
Wiating for your next UP!

Jamme

[Captain Mark]

For resin and white metal those parts look amazingly crisp - MFH are doing some great work these days. It also looks like you're off to a nice start, keep us posted!

[SeaBee]

Will be following this one closely! You're off to a good start there!

[Decs0105]

Awesome project! I will follow this one closely. I bought the MFH re-release in january and the kit is really amazing. I could post some pictures of all the parts if you don't mind (and if somebody is interested )?

[willster127]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Saint, yes, it would be great if you could post pictures of the parts, I never even gave it a thought before I had blazed into it so that would be great. Thanks, next update soon!

[Decs0105]

Originally Posted by willster127

Saint, yes, it would be great if you could post pictures of the parts, I never even gave it a thought before I had blazed into it so that would be great.

Ok here we go, that's the nice box the kit arrives in!

click for high-res

click for high-res

the resin parts look as good as normal plastic parts...

click for high-res

click for high-res

the undertray and cowling are white metal parts

click for high-res

click for high-res

more white metal parts

click cor high-res

click for high-res

click for high-res

and now the interesting parts, the turned rims look sensational aswell as the other turned parts! And the rest are seatbelts material, wires and so on...

click for high-res

click for high-res

click for high-res opcorn:

click for high-res

click for high-res
the rims look a bit rough on the edges but that can only be seen with the macro mode

And the last pic, the body parts test fitted. As willster said they fit pretty nice right out off the box.

click for high-res

[willster127]

Saint, thanks for the rundown of the kit parts, this is somethiing I'll have to remember to do next time I start a build.

Thanks again.

[Gavkiwi]

Wow, very nice Kit, how much was it????

I will be watching this with great interest.

[gionc]

OMG: those machined rotors are pure art!
Good start BTW.

[Shunter]

That looks very good. The fit looks perfect from the pics. Will look forward to seeing your progress.

[Stubeck]

I think its about $250 for the kit.

[Decs0105]

Originally Posted by Stubeck

I think its about $250 for the kit.

That's a bit too much, I paid 170$ for mine!

[DVST8R]

I have the San Marino version of this kit, as has been said, it looks to be a remarkable kit, though I haven't taken it out of the box yet.

[Stubeck]

Where did you get yours for $170? Just curious, trying to find a better deal since I'm considering getting this.