Jakko’s Tyrrell P34, Tamiya 1/20

[Allen Dewire]

Great to see you jumping in the GB, Jakko. Interesting kit and it should be fun with the etch. The best part is, it has blue plastic too!!!...

Prost
Allen

[papa 695]

Just pulled up my seat Jakko. Looking forward to the build.

[Lee Drennen]

They seem to be getting rather expensive, even the Revell reboxes.

Yes they are I stocked up on them when Revell re-boxed them I think I have 5 Revell 1 Matchbox.

[Guest]

And we’re off!

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Basic shapes of the engine and gearbox/differential built. Confusingly, the instructions indicate both X-/XF- and LP-series paints, and though I know the colours of many of the former just by the code, I know none of the LP ones. It gets more confusing when most of the engine block is supposed to be painted LP-38 but one part in XF-16. I know that last one is Flat Aluminum, which I expected the whole block to be, so I was rather surprised to find that LP-38 is … Flat Aluminum Not to worry, I just stuck them together and will paint all of it in one go when the glue is dry.

I’m not too enamoured by the metallic plastic. As usual with that, it’s hard to tell when you’ve cleaned up mould seams except by feeling if they’re still there or not. The kit is also showing its age in that the edges where parts go together are not necessarily nice and square anymore, requiring me to file them for better fit. Also oddly for a kit moulded in different colours of plastic already, many of the parts on the metallic-coloured sprue must be painted black.

[Jim R]

Odd they've done the colour call out like that.
I can certainly understand that the mould edges will be worn but metallic parts needing to be painted black is strange. Maybe simply filling the sprue?

[Guest]

That’s what I’m thinking too: rather than make one or both of the black sprues bigger and the moulds for them more expensive, they chose to enlarge the metallic-coloured sprue because I’m guessing that was cheaper. That you need to paint the odd part black, fine, but the whole exhaust system is on that sprue and the instructions tell you to paint it LP-5, semi-gloss black. Again, odd, because other parts are called out to be painted X-18, which is also semi-gloss black. I kind of doubt these are different shades of black, as perhaps LP-38 and XF-18 are …? (BTW, I ended up painting the whole engine block from an ancient tin of Humbrol 27001, Metal-Cote Aluminium.)

[Guest]

On the front wing, you have to cut off a few bits that apparently weren’t on the 1976 Japanese GP version. The plastic is quite hard, and after carving most of it off, I filed down what remained. That left a rough finish, so I got out my Meng glass file:

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Filed off with only a diamond file on the left (of the photo — so the right of the car ) but on the other side, I then used the glass file over that rough texture. I did much the same for the sprue attachment points, as well as the sightly flared-out edges along much of the hull that also seem to point at the mould’s age.

[Tworrs]

Great subject and an even better start.

[Guest]

Then I guess this video will make your day :smiling3:

Seen that many times but it's always a joy to watch again, thanks!

[Guest]

Great, I have a sprue that wasn’t moulded completely:

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There should be four Nos. 25, but I see only three plus a little stub. As these are the front axles, they’re kind of important, I guess, so I’d better make a replacement.

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These are all of the brakes before painting. As you can see, I fashioned a fourth axle: the kit parts are 2 mm diameter, and I happened to have 2 mm plastic rod handy. On the inside is a bolt head, so out came the punch-and-die set to make that too.

After painting and fitting the photoetched brake disc surfaces:

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Note that the camera app on my iPad is the cause of the overblown highlights — IRL I painted the parts black and drybrushed them with Revell Anthracite, not with light grey as it looks here I also glued the air intakes for cooling the rear brakes on, largely so I can tell the left and right brakes apart easily, because the only other way is to look at the direction of the lines in the etched parts.

And the engine, after a wash with thinned Tamiya Smoke and drybrushing with a light metallic colour, as well as glueing on the cylinder heads:

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This photo suffers from the same highlight problem caused by the camera app. Also, Tamiya for some reason supplies etched parts for the metal ends of the cylinder heads, but these are to be glued on top of the plastic parts which you’re supposed to paint silver … No idea what the point here is, but in hindsight it would have been a lot simpler to just leave them off.

As for overall experiences, I can report that to a mainly armour modeller, race cars are odd. Building this one reminds me of aircraft kits, but more so. You have to paint just about everything before putting it together, with the main mental effort going into working out what you can glue together before painting, rather than the normal armour way of working: figuring out what you shouldn’t glue before painting

[Mr Bowcat]

Looks like you are off to a good start Jakko, good recovery on the damaged part.

[Mark1]

Nice progress

[Stefee]

Jakko said;

You have to paint just about everything before putting it together, with the main mental effort going into working out what you can glue together before painting, rather than the normal armour way of working: figuring out what you shouldn’t glue before painting.

You have very succinctly summarised a car/truck build.

Great progress on your build and well fashioned missing part.

[Guest]

good recovery on the damaged part.

Luckily I don’t want the wheels to rotate, else it would have been rather more tricky. I didn’t need to fabricate the flange on the kit axles, which serves to trap them between the brake disc and the inner part so they can go in without glueing, but I glued the kit axles in place anyway so I could just use a piece of plastic rod glued to both kit parts.

You have very succinctly summarised a car/truck build.

I must say I don’t really like it, though It’s like aircraft cockpits: I feel like I’m spending a lot of effort without getting anywhere. But all these bits need so many different colours and/or are so intertwined with each other that trying to paint it all after assembly is going to be futile. I guess I’ll feel different once those painted bits start going together into something that looks like a racing car, of course

[Andy T]

I feel like I’m spending a lot of effort without getting anywhere.
:smiling3:

I felt that way when I did my first ever truck in the recent GB. Lots of time painting this & that, but it was forever just a bunch of parts.

The final assembly shocked me though, like a parachutists ground rush - all of a sudden it was finished!