discussion Jakko’s Tyrrell P34, Tamiya 1/20

[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:

View attachment 510490

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:

View attachment 510542

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.

View attachment 510543

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:

View attachment 510544

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:

View attachment 510545

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!

 

[Guest]

That’s what I’m expecting to happen here too, yep

 

[Guest]

Making slow progress … First the exhaust pipes, which are the most off-putting part of this kit.

View attachment 511047

The engine, gearbox with rear suspension, and the struts at the back that also include the black rear exhaust pipes are separate here, but I needed the clamp to keep them together. The pipes are glued into the manifold (part A20) but not to the engine block, and the manifold is still loose from the black exhaust pipe behind it.

The instructions tell you to glue the exhaust pipes to the engine before even starting on the gearbox, but there is no way in hell you can get everything lined up that way. The manifold, in which the four pipes come together, will never end up in the correct place that way, so I built the rest first in order to have two fixed points. Even then, I had to leave off the fourth pipe (part A12) until the glue set on the other three, else it would push everything out of alignment and off the engine. After letting the glue dry, I also fitted the fourth pipe, which took three or four attempts even then to get it all lined up reasonably well. Once that is also dry, I can do the other side, remove them from the engine, and paint it all black.

The main parts for the body:

View attachment 511048

There appears to also have been a motorised version of this kit: the floor plate has a compartment for an AA battery, with a lid that needs to be glued in place here, and a slot in the floor next to it that’s probably for a switch. Also some holes in the vertical rear plate that are probably for wires to pass through.

Assembled without glue:

View attachment 511049

The cowling is two parts, left and right, and needed a good deal of filing and sanding to get rid of the seam.

The big rear wing has an odd feature:

View attachment 511050

It has two slots in its underside that need to be filled with seven etched parts each. The slots are for when you’re building marking option B, where the wing doesn’t have the huge side panels for option A, and sits on some struts instead. The plastic parts of the wing also required a lot of filing and sanding to get rid of the seams between the two parts, BTW. The etched parts don’t fit flush, but I’m not sure if they’re meant to. If they are, it would have been much simpler to just putty the slots shut, but I guess Tamiya has an aversion to telling people to use putty or something.

And the front suspensions are also finally done:

View attachment 511051

All this going back and forth between building and painting keeps putting me off, though

 

[Stefee]

Looking very good, the flitting between glueing and painting is a common pastime when building civilian vehicles. I personally enjoy doing different tasks on different days but can understand your annoyance.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Nice updates Jakko glad you got some mojo.

 

[scottie3158]

Jakko,
Looking good.

 

[Guest]

the flitting between glueing and painting is a common pastime when building civilian vehicles. I personally enjoy doing different tasks on different days but can understand your annoyance.

It feels so unnatural And like I mentioned before, as if you’re not getting anywhere. Sure, building AFVs you also end up painting bits before the build is complete every now and again, but it seems like that’s all I’m doing here. It also irks me because of the lack of economy I see in it — I always try to paint everything that needs to be the same colour at once as much as possible, as it’s less wasteful of paint and effort. That’s just not possible here, of course.

glad you got some mojo.

Mostly, that’s just due to not letting myself start on the BARV before this one (and the IDF M247) is done

 

[Guest]

Oh nice! Glad you're continuing with this, love the suspension that's very good!

 

[Guest]

It’s somewhat complex, but not as much as it looks from the photo. It’s basically the brakes from a previous photo, with an upper and a lower part that have the suspension arms on, and a few extra bits for the levers and rods and things. Still, I hope I managed to align the axles correctly, as their fit was a bit loose.

 

[Mr Bowcat]

Suspension parts look good Jakko.

 

[Ian M]

It's a very different ball game Jakko. None of this stick it together and throw some green paint over it. (or dark Yellow). :tears-of-joy:
I tend to clean, prepare and mount all that I can on sticks and clips so I can paint as much as I can in one hit. Assembling as much as I can as well before throwing the paint at it.
I am sure you will make a great job of it.